Warm weather is here and so is the need to go to the beach, and weekends can’t go to waste, we have to treasure them us if they were the last sunny weekend of our lives. Two places: Şile (Shile) and Ağva (Aava) not far from Istanbul that would give us plenty of chances for the beach season.

You can get to both places through public transport, but since it was only a one-day getaway we decided to rent a car (138TL, 40€ approximately). 72km later (around an hour and a half) we arrived at Şile: fine, white sand in the Black Sea and behind the beach forest, mountains, and small villages.

Şile has a small restored castle (judge it yourself).

After laying on the beach there is nothing like eating fresh fish in one of the restaurants at the harbour.

And looking for a less windy place we drove to Ağva. There are two ways from Şile, by the coast (35km) or through the forest (40km). Although the coastal side is not all directly around the coast you go through some small villages where you can appreciate some coves from the distance. The road through the forest is beautiful, leafy but very curvy.

White sand beach, Ağva also has a river and a pond right at the beach, where also small tourist boats cruise from the river to the pond and back.

Although it has a wonderful sunny day the wind was the topic of the day, so we would have to go back and nest time with our own pictures, we’ll keep you informed.

You can see all our pictures and videos of Turkey in the Gallery and other places around the country in our Turkey section