Ankara - Post Report Question and Answers
What do you wish you had known about this particular city/country before moving there?
If you don’t speak Turkish try to learn at least some of it. I think people who have the worst experience here are those who find the language barrier isolating. - Nov 2023
I would have talked to more people about the school(s). Other than that, it is very easy to live here. - Jan 2023
Plan on lots of road trips! - Nov 2021
We heard a lot of people grumble about Ankara being boring and not like Istanbul, while that may be true to a degree we’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much we’ve enjoyed it here. As for packing choices, we would have probably left our bicycles and gas grill in storage and packed an artificial Christmas tree. - Sep 2020
There are few international flights from the West that directly service Ankara. A couple of exceptions are Munich (Lufthansa), Amman (Pegasus), and Doha (Qatar Air). It seemed you almost always need to transit Istanbul to catch flights out of Turkey. While flights between Ankara and Istanbul occur at least hourly, this tends to add hours to your itinerary. It remains to be seen how Turkey opening a new airport this fall, to combine the two current airports into this one platform, will impact international air travel. - Oct 2018
That Turks are incredibly nationalist, and I have had some negative interactions. There seem to be mixed feelings even among the more outward-facing locals. I also found Ankara to have bad air pollution. - Oct 2018
That it would be so hard to save money. Not that that would have changed my mind to come here. - Sep 2018
I thought I was thinking ahead by buying the car from predecessor. It took the same amount of time to get access to my car that was already here in comparison to another person that arrived and had their car shipped to post. I also wish I had known that I would be forced to open a local bank account in order to claim my VAT reimbursement and that I would have to open a military star card in order to get tax free gas. - Jul 2018
Nothing, I wish I'd come sooner. - Sep 2017
Don't listen to what anyone says. Ankara is better than Istanbul. - Jun 2017
Learn Turkish. - Jun 2016
to travel more - Aug 2015
More about the history of the country and its current political environment. - Apr 2015
More Turkish. - Jun 2014
Employment opportunities are far less than in Germany. - Apr 2014
Nothing. I felt well informed. Oh, the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is not so great and full of tourist and hackers. One trip is enough. - Mar 2014
How low morale was at the Embassy and how poor the employment situation is. - Mar 2014
