The fayton ride
A horse-drawn carriage takes you round the entire shore with no effort, the right choice with children and grandparents.
Acar54 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · fatihset — CC BY 3.0 · fatihset — CC BY 3.0 · İrem Erdin — CC BY-SA 4.0
A landslide once slid across a mountain valley at 1,328 m, and behind the rubble a sheet of clear water collected that is nowhere deeper than eighteen metres. That is Lake Abant: the most famous lake between Istanbul and Ankara, and the closest thing in Turkey to the green postcard a Gulf traveller carries in the mind before arriving. The water covers only about 125 hectares; the fir, pine, beech and oak forest that closes around it is what makes the picture. The lake and 1,262 hectares around it have been protected since 1988 and became Turkey's 48th national park in June 2022. The lake lies in Mudurnu district, about 34 km southwest of Bolu, roughly 40-45 minutes by car or taxi from town; many visitors drive straight in from Istanbul or Ankara on the motorway, about three hours from either. At the gate you pay a per-vehicle national-park fee (180 TL per car on the current tariff, or 60 TL per person if you walk in), and no booking exists. Everything revolves around the 7 km ring road that follows the shore: walk it, hire a bicycle, or take one of the horse-drawn 'fayton' carriages waiting at the entrance, the sensible choice with small children and grandparents because the whole circuit passes with no effort. The road is paved and nearly flat, so a pushchair copes fine; saddle horses stand along the shore, picnic tables are scattered under the trees, and the lakeside fish restaurants serve grilled trout; the lake's own Abant trout is an endemic subspecies found nowhere else. Honesty demands one caveat: the shoreline is more commercial than a national park ought to be. Large hotels (Abant Palace and Büyük Abant among them) sit directly on the water, the Mudurnu road cuts through the park, and on weekends and public holidays a queue of cars builds at the gate while Istanbul and Ankara families take every table. Come on a weekday, and cross to the side opposite the hotels, where the real forest paths begin. Its finest seasons are ones Gulf visitors rarely see: October, when the beech turns gold and red, and January-February, when snow buries the forest and the lake freezes from the shore inward, so a fayton ride over snow becomes something you will not forget, provided your car carries snow chains. In August the lake is a genuine refuge from the coastal heat; the altitude keeps the day mild and the evening cool enough for a light jacket even in high summer.
A horse-drawn carriage takes you round the entire shore with no effort, the right choice with children and grandparents.
An endemic subspecies found in this lake alone; grilled trout is the dish of the shoreline restaurants over the water.
October turns the beech gold, and winter freezes the lake from the shore and buries the forest in snow.
Abant Gölü Millî Parkı, Mudurnu, Bolu
Gölcük is smaller, closer to town (about 13 km), quieter and more of a forest experience; Abant is bigger and more famous, with the carriages, horses and restaurants. With children or on a first visit choose Abant; if you have seen it before or want real silence, Gölcük is enough. Either fits in half a day.
Yes: the altitude makes it far cooler than the coast or Istanbul. But avoid Saturdays, Sundays and Turkish public holidays, when the car queue at the gate and packed tables spoil the outing. Go on a weekday, before ten in the morning, and the shore is yours.
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