Çerkezköy

Çerkezköy is a city in Eastern Thrace.

Çerkezköy Halal Travel Guide

Çerkezköy started its life as a village for the Karachay-Cherkessia|Circassian refugees from Caucasia in the 19th century (hence the name Çerkez-köy, which literally means "Circassian village"); prior to that and the area was known as Türbedere ("tomb rivulet"), due to the tomb of an ascetic dervish of the Bektashi Order, who lived his years near a local stream. The town was fully burnt down by the Bulgarian army in 1913, during the Balkan Wars, which may explain the absence of any historic monuments. The population of today's Çerkezköy, numbering about 100,000, is a mix of typical Thracian local residents who are mostly descendants of the Balkans|Balkan emigrants who settled in the area in the late 1800s/early 1900s and much more recent immigrants from Central Anatolia|central and Eastern Anatolia|eastern Türkiye.

Çerkezköy today is a rapidly growing city of drab apartment blocks, surrounded by a diverse range of industries. You will have a hard time for finding a reason to spend time more than absolutely necessary in this place.

In local slang, Çerkezköy is simply known as Çerkez, though without giving much thought to its original meaning.

Travel as a Muslim to Çerkezköy

Buy a Flight ticket to and from Çerkezköy

Tekirdağ Çorlu Airport (IATA Code: TEQ), near Çorlu, is 35 kilometers south of the town, but it receives very few commercial flights, so your best option is probably Istanbul Atatürk Airport (IATA Code: IST), about 100 kilometers to the east.

Muslim Friendly Rail Holidays in Çerkezköy

Çerkezköy's GPS 41.2794,28.0103 train station, which lies around 2 kilometers east of the downtown, welcomes three trains from Istanbul's Sirkeci station daily: A morning train departing 8:30AM which continues to Uzunköprü on the Greek border, another one leaving Sirkeci at 3:50PM and continuing to Kapıkule on the Bulgarian border via Corlu|Çorlu and Edirne while the third train has its terminus in Çerkezköy and departs 6PM. A train trip from Istanbul takes a little more than 2 hours.

From Europe and the daily Bosphorus Express overnight service departs Bucharest's Gara de North station at 12:13PM. It also calls in Sofia at 6:55PM where a carriage from Belgrade (departure time 7:50AM in the morning the same day) is attached. The train arrives in Çerkezköy during the early morning hours the next day on its way to Istanbul.

Also, a once-weekly motorail train by EuroTurk Express now connects Bonn in Germany with Çerkezköy. It's a convenient way of bypassing the narrow highways in the Balkans. The train departs from Bonn-Beuel station every Saturday at noon, arriving two nights later during the afternoon. Rates start at €139 for passengers, cars at €279.

By bus and shuttle van

Çerkezköy is connected to Istanbul by hourly buses, which takes around an hour.

An extensive network of shuttle vanes and dolmuş minibüses connect Çerkezköy with surrounding towns and cities of Tekirdağ (1h 25min, 9 TL) and Corlu|Çorlu to south, and Saray and Vize to north.

The local GPS 41.2820,27.9990 bus station, where the above buses and shuttle vanes come and go, is just south of the town centre.

By car

A motorway, branching off the main O-3/E80 (toll road), connect the city with Istanbul (roughly 100 kilometers) and Edirne and ends almost at the downtown. Another well surfaced highway up to motorway standards connect with Corlu|Çorlu to south and a narrower but still well surfaced one with Saray in the north.

Halal Restaurants in Çerkezköy

Where to stay in Çerkezköy

Telecommunications in Çerkezköy

Area code of Çerkezköy is (+90) 282.

News & References Çerkezköy

Explore more Halal friendly Destinations from Çerkezköy

Saray — a smaller nearby town, but with much more of a local flavour. Also serves as a hub for the beautiful forests of the Istranca Mountains, as well as beaches and historic towns on the Black Sea coast.