gallipoli battlefield

A truly spectacular site. My utmost respect to my Turkish ancestors, protecting their lands from the foreigners. Being able to visit Gallipoli at this young age makes me very fortunate. There are hectares of land that need to be explored to see exactly the magnitude of the war. Truly magnificent despite the deadly outcomes. This war has now formed strong bonds between Turkey & NZ/AUS.

As an American, we don't know too much about the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915. I'd seen a few documentaries, and read some literature about this pivotal war, but visiting the battle sites, and reading the cemetery markers was a very sobering and moving experience! My husband and I rented a car from Avis (in Canakkale city centrum), and took the ferry to Eceabat to start a self-driving tour. I knew almost nothing about the drive, and what kind of terrain we would face, but to my surprise and utter amazement, almost all the sites and monuments were well preserved, and respectfully maintained. Perhaps it was the cold and rainy weather that lent a haunting atmosphere to the sites, but it was something I will never forget!

The battlefields and cemeteries are chillingly impressive and are worth spending time on. I toured here and Troy with Kenan Celik, who is a renowned local guide, but was quite disappointed, despite it being quite expensive. I'm not sure if this is because he had expected more than a solo group, or because I did not have time to do a full day tour of each, but I found him rather monosyllabic and I would have struggled to learn much if I'd not read LA Carlyon's superb Gallipoli before arriving. It is a "must read" to give an idea of the territory and campaign.

We deliberately chose to visit the battlefields out of season and when the weather was cooler and so missed the hordes of people and children on school trips. The main sites are well signposted and each of them has an overview in English and Turkish for those like us who didn't take a guide. Very moving and even kept my 17 year old son off of his tablet for a few hours.

I currently live in Izmir and I have been here 4 times, being a Kiwi all our visitors are either Kiwi or Ozzy so it is a must to visit this most sacred place, I always overnight in Canakkale and spend the next day visiting all the memorials, I would definitely recommend going to the visitors centre and definitely make sure you see the movie it is excellent, so very well made, do not leave without seeing it, warning some tours do not include this in their tour.

Very interesting to visit the multiple memorials on the Gallipoli penisula. I would definitely recommend you do so by car or with a tour as the area is quite large and there is no easy way to get around.

In the year of the centenary of the start of WW1, we wanted to see the ANZAC battlefields for ourselves. It is extraordinarily moving to do so. We drove (self-drive, rented from Budget) from the airport at Istanbul, breaking the 4.5 hour journey by staying a night at Silivri on the way down and in Tekirdag on the way back. We paid for a tour guide (excellent value - we used Crowded House, based in Eceabat - we can't praise them highly enough). Allow at least two full days to explore; three or four would be better and would enable time to cross the Dardenelles by ferry to Canakkale.

Anzac Cove is a beautiful quiet, serene beach. The area is easy to navigate and well sign posted. If you want to avoid the crowds and the heat of day it is not too hard to drive yourself from Istanbul. A very moving and worthwhile experience.

My second visit to this most special of places was a little different to the 3 days camped under a tree on Anzac cove in 1989....On this occasion we hired a private bus so my brother and 75 year old father could pay our respects over 3 days.I would STRONGLY recommend not to join a day tour. You miss the whole point and become a canned tourist - it is not a stadium or theme park visit - It is sacred ground for Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, England and France. I would recommend at least 2 FULL days and overnight in Cannakale. Anything less is not paying the due respect the fallen and this special place deserves.

The visit was very moving as my Great Uncle landed at dawn on 25 April1915. It is a place I have always wanted to visit. I was surprised at how small the Anzac Cove area actually is. When you think about what happened in this small area it is actually hard to imagine how it must have looked at the time.

Having relatives that fought in both World Wars, this tribute to the ANZAC tradition is a must see. Shows both sides of the battle in glowing colours

We recently visited Gallipoli and it was one of the best days we have had. We learnt a lot about how to do the trip easily, more cheaply than the bus trips offered and ensured we experienced the true meaning of this most sacred site.Here are my tips for the day if you are based in Istanbul.Hopefully you would have already had a day or two in fabulous Istanbul and become familiar with the public transport system - trams and trains specifically. What puts people off hiring a car for a Gallipoli day trip is the Istanbul traffic. The solutions are:-Start the day early I would recommend 5-6am. Tram and train out to the airport and pick up a Hire car for the day there. As soon as you exit the airport you come to an expressway and you are on your way. Its still about 3.5 hours to drive but the roads are really good ( lots of police on some days) and the traffic reasonably light.When driving if you do get lost and ask for directions ask for ANZAC Cove rather than Gallipol as they pronouce it differently (Gebolli) and this is a township about 40 mins away from the site.Because you will be arriving mid- late morning you will not be sure if you are in the right place, the site is a large one spread out with an upper level Lone PIne, the Nek etc and the lower level which is Anzac Cove and the beaches. Without the busloads of people you will find the site almost deserted and there is an unbelievable peace to the place. When facing the cove, to the left there is a nice beach you can swim in and picnic if you are sufficiently organised.You will most likely be finished exploring the site before the first bus even arrives. When you return home its simply back to the airport drop off the car and head home. We were back by 6pm and felt we had had a brilliant day.

Went there as part of the tour that I was on. I'm not a big fan of battlefields, but the views were fantastic.

There's a lot of ground to cover and it's not that easy to see where to go unless you have a guide or a good map. We had planned to walk the Anzac walk but we're glad we got a driver in the end. He stopped at each spot where we asked and we got out and looked around then on we went. We got I. And out a lot! If you don't know much about Gallipoli ( my husband's a buff and was our guide) the. A guide would probably be useful. DO NOT visit Gallipoli as a day trip from Istanbul if you can avoid it. It's way too long a day with a five hour drive each way. Stay in either Eveabat or Canakkle overnight and you can then see anything you ,ay have missed day one.

As an Australian, we had to go to Gallipoli. I've read Carlyon and it was fascinating to see just how small this theater of war was. We went with a small tour group of about 10 and had a great guide.I expected to be pretty emotional, but in fact, the day and the place were so superbly beautiful, that all I could think was 'stupid, stupid men'. Sorry boys, but fighter jets were flying overhead while we were there...Syria?Iraq?