My first visit to Eceabat was in 2007, when I happened to find myself in Canakkale by coincidence, and decided to take a ferry across the Dardanelles to have a quick look at the town of Eceabat, the closest town to the battlefields of the Gallipoli Campaign. As I was in a hurry, the first visit to Eceabat lasted less than an hour, and the only impression I had of this smal seaside town is a cluster of houses centred around some kind of a small square that doubles as the town's carpark, surrounded by narrow streets and a few shops and restaurants.
During the next few years, my visit to Eceabat was limited to some brief stopovers around its harbour while on the bus from Istanbul to Izmir. It was not until the winter of 2009 that I finally had the chance to stay in this town and get to know this place better.
Being the town closest to the battlefields of the Gallipoli Campaign means that during the tourist season between April to September, Eceabat is a popular place with backpackers from Australia and New Zealand on their way to visit the Gallipoli battlefields. There are several hotels, backpackers' places and pensions offering accommodations in various price categories. These hotels and backpackers can also help to arrange for you to join a half-day tour of the Galipoli battlefields, as well as other personalised tours of the Gallipoli Peninsula.
The first time I stayed overnight in Eceabat was in February of 2009, and the weather was atrocious: cold and wet with non-stop heavy downpour, as a result of which I did not take any photos of the town. The only thing I did in the town apart from the day-trip to the Gallipoli Battlefields was to hide in the nice little tea house next to Eceabat's harbour and drank hot Turkish tea non-stop. The next time I stayed overnight at Eceabat was in the summer of 2011, and this time round the weather was much better. Sunny blue sky with a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius, it makes this otherwise unattractive little town so much more interesting.
In addition to visiting the WWI battlefields, Eceabat is also the ideal base if one intends to visit the Aegean island of Gokceada. After narrowly missing out on visiting Gokceada on two different occassions due to time conflicts and weather problems, I finally made it on the third attempt. Mini-buses to the harbour of Kabatepe, located on the western side of the Galipoli Penisula, leave from the parking lot next to the nice traditional teahouse near the entrance to the car ferry. The bus departure time for Kabatepe is arranged according to the ferry departure times from Kabatepe to Gokceada. If you wake up early and catch the first mini-bus to Kabatepe, it is possible to catch the first ferry to Gokceada and visit some of the key places of interest on the island on a day-trip basis.
Being a key transit point for long-distance traffics from Istanbul to Canakkale, Eceabat is not a very attractive place at the very first sight, but it is actually a very laid-back place with a nice view of the Dardanelles. The locals are also very friendly in spite of the annual influx of backpackers and tourists from Australia, New Zealand and other British Commonwealth countries. The main attraction of Eceabat is the town's main tea house, located in a restored traditional Aegean-style Greek building right next to the entrance to the harbour, where locals and passengers waiting for the car ferry to Canakkale mingle to have a glass of tea throughout the day. This nice tea house is open all year round, from morning till late at night. In the summer months, customers can sit outside under the trees while sipping their tea and munching on the snacks, which are available from inside the tea house. Sometimes this place is still full of people as late as midnight, as in the summer, the days are long at Eceabat, and one of the favourite pasttimes of the local residents after dinner in the evening is to sit outside this tea house and look at the busy ferry traffics on the Dardanelles, as well as at the long queue of buses and cars building up in front of the roads at the small roundabout around the harbour area. Each time a car ferry pulls into the harbour, drivers scramble to get back to their cars and foot passengers rushing to the front of the harbour gate, and the whole place once more sprung back into life. And that is how life in Eceabat is essentially about.
Accommodation in Eceabat: in recent years many new hotels offering comfortable en-suite rooms have sprung up both around Eceabat's harbour and the main square, as well as along the road and the shorefronts leading up to Kilitbahir. As someone who prefers views over price, during my most recent visit to Eceabat, I stayed at the Aqua Boss Hotel, a family-run hotel converted from a former olive oil factory about 200m away from Eceabat harbour. It has en-suite rooms with balcony which offers spectacular views of the Dardanelles. In the evenings, you can sit on the balcony and enjoy the sea breeze and the marvellous views of the straits, counting the ships that sail by and cheer on the sound of music that come from the downstairs lobby bar.
Copyrights@2012. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
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