Safranbolu Places to Visit

Safranbolu, is one of the most beautiful routes to go from Istanbul for the weekend. for Safranbolu, which is on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list. Things to do in Safranbolu You will find the list in this article. I am not limited to places to visit in Safranbolu, Safranbolu history, where is Safranbolu, what Safranbolu is famous for, accommodation in Safranbolu, Safranbolu meals all the information you need like Safranbolu travel guide is waiting for you in this article! Happy reading.

Before you start writing Safranbolu travel video Be sure to watch too.

Safranbolu History

Safranbolu's history dates back to BC. It dates back to the 3000's. Throughout history, it has hosted many civilizations such as Rome, Seljuk and Ottoman. The city became an important accommodation point on the Istanbul - Sinop caravan route during the Ottoman period, and thus developed a lot in trade. The famous Safranbolu houses were also built during the Ottoman period. Ottoman court notables also had important works built in Safranbolu.

The important turning point in Safranbolu's history was the construction of the railway. The city maintained its importance until the Sinop train line was built. Karabük was a part of Safranbolu at that time. When an iron and steel business was established in Karabük and Karabük became economically stronger, it became a larger and more important center than Safranbolu over time, and Safranbolu was connected to Karabük.

Safranbolu was included in the UNESCO World Heritage protection list in 1994. Over 1200 protected artifacts adorn the city.

Where is Safranbolu and How to Go to Safranbolu?

Safranbolu is located between the Küre Mountains and the Black Sea, only 9 km from Karabük. It is 390 km from Istanbul and 228 km from Ankara.

If you are coming to Safranbolu from the Istanbul side, you will follow the Istanbul-Ankara highway and exit from Gerede towards Karabuk. The same recipe is valid for the arrival from Ankara direction.

Places to Visit in Safranbolu

UNESCO World Heritage Site in the list Things to do in Safranbolu the list is quite long. For this reason, I divided the list into two as places to visit in the city center and places to visit by car.

Places to Visit on Foot in Safranbolu

All the places to see in Safrabolu old city center are within walking distance. However, I would like to remind you that the city has ups and downs. And be you, do not wear shoes with thin soles, since the roads are paved, the thin sole will make you very difficult when walking.

houses of Safranbolu

The hallmark of Safranbolu are the houses built in the Ottoman period, the ground floor of which is made of stone and the upper floors of wood, placed without interrupting each other's light. Safranbolu is one of the rare cities that has managed to enter the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list with its houses. I recommend walking around the streets of Safranbolu and seeing the houses first from the outside, and then seeing the mansions that are open to visitors from the inside.

There are very elegant details in the interior decorations of Safranbolu houses. When viewed from the outside, the most striking are the deer antlers hung on the roofs. There are two reasons for hanging antlers; the first is to protect the house and household from the evil eye, and the second is to show the talent of the hunter in the house. The bigger the horn, the more skilled the hunter was considered.

Yemeniciler Bazaar and Arasta Square

When you go down to the city center of Safranbolu, the bazaar behind the mosque is the Yemeniciler bazaar. Today, there are many cafes in it. You can also find souvenirs, clothes made of Kastamonu weaving, leather works.

Former Government House (City Museum)

If you look at Safranbolu from Hıdırlık Hill, you will see a yellow building on the hill right in front of you. This used to be the Government House. It is now used as the Urban History Museum. The hill on which the museum is located is called the "fortress". It looks like a castle due to its location. If you want to go on foot, let me remind you that a steep slope awaits you.

On the hill where the museum is located, there is an open-air museum with the Tayfun Talipoğlu Museum, Clock Tower and miniatures of other clock towers in Turkey.

Mansion with Pool

There are many mansions in Safranbolu that you can drink coffee, run as a restaurant or visit as a museum. One of them is Asmazlar Mansion with Pool. When you think of a pool, don't think of a pool in the garden, this mansion has a huge pool in the living room, serving as a restaurant. You can stop by for coffee and see the beauty of the mansion.

Cinci Inn – Caravanserai

Hüseyin Efendi, who served as Kazasker during the reign of Sultan Ibrahim I, was nicknamed Cinci Hoca. Cinci Hodja invested in Safranbolu by having an inn and a bath built. For this reason, the name of the inn and the bath is also referred to as Cinci.

You can enter the courtyard of the Cinci Han, drink tea/coffee, and tour inside. The entrance fee is 1 TL. There was also live music in the courtyard when we went, but that music could be heard even from Hıdırlık Hill, and it was not enjoyable music at all. I wish they didn't do that music thing.

Cinci Hamam

If you want to enjoy a hammam when you come to Safranbolu, Cinci Hamam is waiting for you. If you want to go to the hamam, which has separate sections for men and women, you can find the contact information below:

Cinci Hamam Contact Information

• Address: In the Old Bazaar, Cesme Neighborhood Safranbolu / Karabuk
• Phone: ( 0370 ) 712 21 03
• MOBILE PHONE: 0536 599 37 32

Köprülü Mehmet Pasha Mosque and Sundial

Köprülü Mehmet Ali Pasha had mosques and madrasas built in Safranbolu, and there is a sundial in the garden of the mosque he had built. The clock is not a very special clock, it was made to follow the prayer times. The mosque built by the Grand Vizier is a magnificent mosque that can be seen from almost everywhere in Safranbolu.

Blacksmiths' Bazaar

The most beautiful part of Safranbolu bazaar may be the Blacksmiths' Bazaar. The clicks coming from every shop herald that the copper inside turns into a coffee pot and sometimes a frying pan. If you look down the green wire fences you see in the photo below in the blacksmiths' bazaar, you will see a stream coming out of the city.

It is said that the bottom of Safranbolu is full of streams and tunnels, and it is even possible to go down to those tunnels with special permission.

District Governors Travel House

Kaymakamlar Gezi Evi, located on the Hıdırlık Hill road, is one of the houses that you can visit as a typical Safranbolu mansion. District Governors Museum House – Gezi House is open to visitors between 09.00-17.30 in winter and 09:00 – 19:00 in summer.

You can drink saffron tea in its garden, it will be even more enjoyable in summer.

Hidirlik Hill Observation Deck

Hıdırlık Hill is the most beautiful place where you can see the typical view of Safranbolu. There is a mausoleum and a prayer place on the hill. It is possible to reach the hill in 10 minutes by taking a steep exit from the bazaar. The exit path is stony and especially the descent requires some attention, it is important to be careful and to go out with appropriate shoes.

Değirmenbaşı Water Mill

Değirmenbaşı Water Mill is a place you can reach when you walk 800 meters down from Safrabolu Old Bazaar. The view here is as beautiful as Hıdırlık Hill.

Places to Visit by Car in Safranbolu

When you come to Safranbolu, there are many beautiful places that you can reach by car. Be sure to see the places to visit in Safranbolu by car.

Yuruk Village

One of the places you must see when you come to Safranbolu is Yörük Village. Located 11 km from Safranbolu, the village draws attention with its mansions. The people of the village were successful in pastry and these skills reached the palace during the Ottoman period. The people of the village working in the palace, on the other hand, started to build mansions in their villages with the wealth they had acquired there. However, mansions are the kind that would cost a fortune if you wanted to build them even today, and one wonders what kind of wealth it had at that time.

Historical village close to Safranbolu: Yoruk Village travel guide Check out my post too.

Yörük Village; It deserves much more attention with its village coffee house, mansions open to visitors, laundry, Cemil İpekçi Street, wooden mosque, houses with jaw-dropping details.

Yknit village travel video You will also be interested.

Baglar District

Bağlar Neighborhood is the section where vineyard houses are located a few kilometers above Safranbolu, where they live for the cool of the summer. Here, too, many mansions await you with their large gardens and vineyards. You will also see an old mill on the way from Bağlar Mahallesi to Bulak Cave.

Bulak (Mencilis) Cave

Bulak cave is located 8 km from Safranbolu center. The 6,5 km part of the 2,5 km long cave has been mapped. It is a cave worth seeing with its ponds, stalactites and stalagmites. Bulak Cave entrance fee is 5TL.

Tokatlı Canyon

Tokatlı Canyon is a canyon that starts from the place where the İncekaya Aqueduct is located, 8 km from Safranbolu, and ends at the Safranbolu Old City Center if you plan to walk. Canyon has the status of National Park, you need to pay 3 TL for entrance.

They made wooden stairs to descend into the canyon, which is in harmony with nature and facilitates the descent. Climbing these stairs on the way out is a bit tiring, but it's worth it for the view.

Even if you do not walk to the city center after descending into the canyon, you can take a walk along the creek and drink your tea or coffee. If you ask if there is a need to go down to the canyon, I think there is definitely, it is impossible to understand its beauty without going down.

Incekaya Aqueduct

The İncekaya Aqueduct, located at the beginning of the Tokatlı Canyon, was built to carry water to the city center. The aqueduct, which is thought to have been built in the 1700s, is 116 meters long and 60 meters high.

The water carried to the city from here was distributed to the city with a spirit level located in the garden of Asmazlar Mansion.

Crystal Terrace

A glass Crystal Terrace, which was built to activate the nature tourism in Safranbolu and to be able to see Tokatlı Canyon from above. The piece that stretches out like a blue tongue in the photo below is that terrace. I have to admit, I found this terrace very unnecessary.

You pay 5,5 TL to go to Kristal Terrace. You pass through the cafeteria and reach the glass terrace. When you get to the top of the terrace, the canyon will be under your feet, so to speak. But the glass is so deformed that you can hardly see the bottom. With its gigantic cafeteria at the entrance, this straightening made the canyon ugly.

Tokatlı Canyon entrance is located 200 meters after the Crystal Terrace, you can quickly continue towards it.

When you arrive at the Crystal Terrace, the first parking lot is paid, 5 TL for the car. If you pass the terrace entrance and proceed 50 meters, there is another parking lot there, it is free. It is also closer to the canyon entrance.

Upside Down Mansion

Photo taken from Tepetaklakkonak.com.

Tokatlı Canyon, İncekaya aqueduct and Crystal Terrace are all in the same area. Since a lot of visitors come here, the entrepreneurs who want to make use of this crowd, have made something called Tepataklak Konak. If it looked like Bari Safranbolu houses, but it doesn't look like it. This is an upside down house, there was a similar one in Batumi. Since the furniture is placed on the ceiling in this mansion, you can take lots of Instagram photos as if you are standing upside down while visiting the house. I did not enter.

Hadrianapolis Ancient City

Hadrianapolis Ancient City is located in Eskipazar district of Karabuk. Hadriana is one of the ancient cities with its mosaics, three churches and city ruins.

Konari Lake

There are 13 lakes 3 km from Safranbolu. These lakes are called Konari Lakes. These lakes; Great Lake, Blue Lake and Bottomless Lake. It has become more popular than others due to the legend of the bottomless lake.

That's the story, two lovers who love each other committed suicide by jumping into the lake because they couldn't get together. Since their bodies could not be found, it started to be known as Dipsiz Lake among the people.

There is a facility by the lake, if you want to go and see it.

Weekend Safranbolu Trip Cost

The cost per person of our Safranbolu trip with a rental car for two days and accommodation for one night was 410 TL. This cost is the cost with February 2019 figures. If we look at the cost items;

• We don't drive in Istanbul, so we rented a car for the weekend. We benefited from Bugdet's discount campaign for Vodafone Reds. We paid 243 TL for automatic and diesel car rental. If you go by your own vehicle or by bus, do not count this number.
• The distance between Istanbul and Safranbolu is 390 kilometers. With the round trip and sightseeing around Safranbolu, our total fuel cost was 224 TL. The vehicle was diesel.
• We stayed in a hotel called Sarı Konak. It was one of the restored mansions, and we caught a campaign here and paid 2 TL for 84 people including breakfast.
• We paid a total of 10,5 TL per person for the places we paid the entrance fee, such as the crystal terrace, the canyon, and the mansion in Yörük Village.
• The rest of our spending was for food. We paid 124 TL per person including Saturday morning breakfast, lunch and dinner and Sunday lunch.

What Is Safranbolu Famous For? What to buy in Safranbolu?

If you ask what Safranbolu is famous for, what to buy from Safranbolu, what gift should we bring to a friend on the way back we went to Safranbolu, there are many options.

• Turkish delight: Of course, Turkish delight is in the first place. Every time I go to Safranbolu, I come across a new kind of Turkish delight. There are many varieties such as pomegranate, blueberry, coffee, saffron.
• Halvah: You can also buy halva from SafranTat Turkish delight. The taste of the halva I tasted is still in my mouth.
• Safran: You can buy a very valuable spice from Safranbolu, adding flavor to your meals such as rice, dessert, and you can also make tea.
• Copper works: You can stop by the Blacksmiths' Bazaar and find many alternative souvenirs, from copper coffee pots to egg pans to pitchers.

Where to Stay in Safranbolu? Accommodation in Safranbolu

Safranbolu houses are restored and opened to tourism. Many old Safranbolu houses are operated as hotels under the name of mansions. If you want to stay in Safranbolu, you can find one of these mansions that suits your budget from different price options.

On my first visit to Safranbolu, I stayed at Kardelen Konakları upon the recommendation of a friend. On our last visit, we stayed in Sarı Konak with my wife.

What to Eat in Safranbolu?

Safranbolu is famous for its various dishes as well as for its houses. What to eat and where to eat in Safranbolu? I have prepared a detailed food and beverage guide in my article, take a look at it.

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