Mikail, who searches, researches, walks and walks new routes all over the country, promises us a completely different nature from the unique plateaus of the Eastern Black Sea to the favourite Lycian road of the south, from the majestic canyons of Kastamonu to the Longoz forests of Thrace!
– Originally from Artvin Şavşat
– Licenced mountaineering athlete
– He participated in activities in many mountains of Turkey, especially in Kaçkar Mountain (Rize/Artvin), he worked as a guide
– TURSAB Nature and Adventure Tourism Specialised Presidency and
– He is the chairman of the Culture Routes Association
– Provides special consultancy in the promotion of our country and workshops for the development of local tourism
– Created and continues to create many ecotourism/trekking programmes that are still popular today
– Don’t be surprised if you can see it on Iz Tv and TRT Young!
– In 2015 he founded BAŞKA ROTA TOURISM
See Anatolia, which he started to explore with great excitement, through his eyes!
Founder – Professional Tour Guide
In 1983, he left Izmir, where he was born and raised, and travelled to Istanbul for law school. He lived in Istanbul as a student and lawyer for 16 years. She realised that living as a lawyer in Istanbul did not make her happy. Leaving both behind, she founded Başka Rota with her husband Mikail.
She worked meticulously in every aspect of Başka Rota. She designed many “other routes”. She participated in many tours as an assistant guide. When the unique history, culture and nature of Anatolia was added to her passion for travelling, she decided that the right profession for her was tourist guiding. Thereupon, she completed her master’s degree in Tourist Guidance at Eskişehir Osmangazi University and became a professional tourist guide in 2020.
Her special interests are the traditional handicrafts of Anatolia and museums.
Selcen, who has been working in Aphrodisias excavations for 5 years, took the university exam again in 2020 and graduated from the Department of Ancient Greek Language and Literature at Akdeniz University, which was her first choice, as the first in the faculty.
Working as a guide in all culture and nature tours of Başka Rota, Selcen continues to read, research and learn with an endless desire to learn.
Professional Tour Guide – Archaeologist
Serra was born in Izmir in 1982 to an English mother and a Turkish father. As a child she travelled to England by car with her family every summer, which brought on her passion for seeing the world.
She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degree in classical archeology at Ege University in Izmir and worked as a student archaeologist at Antandros near Troy for seven years. She has travelled to many countries around the globe and speaks Turkish, English, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese and is currently learning Greek. Besides archaeology and travelling, she loves hiking, cycling, swimming, sailing, snowboarding, and lying in a hammock.
Serra has been working as a professional tour guide since 2007, and specialises in archaeology and hiking tours. Since 2017 she has been working as the Assistant Director of the Aphrodisias Excavations in Southwestern Turkey and is close to completing her doctoral degree at Oxford University as an Ertegun scholar.
Ozan Yıldırım, born in Istanbul in 1984, studied at Galatasaray High School. Then, he graduated from Kocaeli University with a double major in visual communication design and archeology departments. He graduated from the Archeology department with first place. In 2019, he completed the tourism guidance department at Kocaeli University. Simultaneously, he completed his master’s degree in the Department of Architectural History at Istanbul Technical University. He is currently doing his doctorate in the Department of Architectural History at Istanbul Technical University.
Ozan has a lot of experience in both archeology and tourism. Between 2010 and 2011, he gave training to children between the ages of 10 and 12 in events organized by the Association of Archaeologists in primary schools to raise cultural awareness. He worked on Kocaeli, Osmaniye and Larisa (Buruncuk) surface surveys, as well as Istanbul Marmaray, Metro and Eurasia Tunnel projects, and Sagalassos and Aphrodisias excavations. He is currently the deputy head of the Aphrodisias excavation. In addition, he worked as a tour operator and operations manager, as well as a guide, in various leading travel agencies of ecotourism. In addition to participating in various symposiums as a speaker, he also continues his academic publications. He organizes tours that combine nature walks with archaeology. He prepares and guides our Arkeotrek tours, of which he is the father.
He was born in Ankara in 1983. He served as the regional manager of the sports and entertainment festivals held with the participation of universities in many cities of Turkey.
After completing his university education in Ankara, he worked in corporate companies in the fields of investment and business development in Istanbul for nearly 10 years. Alper, who has experience in tourism and organization fields since his university life, also works as a part-time DJ. Else is responsible for business development and organization in the Rota family.
He loves nature and animals very much. Alper, a former licensed athlete, has been living a life intertwined with sports since his childhood and has been doing hiking, fitness and kitesurfing. At the same time, he has been interested in performing arts since his school years and continues his education. His love of nature and sports led him to cross paths with Başka Rota.
Professional Tour Guide – Archaeologist
He graduated from Ankara Atatürk High School and Istanbul University, Department of Archeology and Art History, Prehistoric Archeology. He completed his master’s degree in Restoration at the same University. In Germany, he won the professional vocational training scholarship given by the Carl Duisberg Society and worked in restoration centers in the cities of Mainz, Munich, Stuttgart and Saarbrücken. He received management training in Cologne. He participated in numerous excavations as an archaeologist and restorer with local and foreign teams. Some of these are; Çayönü, Kırklareli, Karatepe-Aslantaş, Assos, Miletus and Aphrodisias Ancient City. The German Archaeological Institutes participated in three seasons of excavations near Samarkand in Uzbekistan with the Eurasia Group. He carried out official duties such as bringing the Hattusa Sphinx from the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany to the country, being a ministerial delegate to ICCROM 2011 in Rome, and ICCROM Jordan Mosaic Workshop. His greatest pleasure was to explore everywhere he worked and went. Archeology and Restoration took him around, now he shares his experiences as a former traveler and new professional tour guide with those who love to travel.
Expert biologist
He was born in Eskişehir in 1984. He completed his primary and secondary education in Eskişehir and studied Biology at Kafkas University, Faculty of Science and Letters. Later, he completed his master’s degree in the same department and received the title of expert biologist.
In 2008, he started working as project coordinator at Kuzey Doğa Association. He became the science coordinator of the association in 2010. Çoban continued his wildlife adventure, which started with birds, by tracking and capturing bears, wolves and lynxes, and still continues to work in the same position.
Professional Tour Guide
Altay graduated from Ankara Hacettepe University in 2006 and started working as a professional tourist guide in 2009. He served as a group leader in activities including canyoning, canoeing, trekking and mountain biking, and later focused on cultural guidance.
It organizes tours to every region of Turkey with its wide customer profile. Altay also participated in the Conquest Coast Expedition in 2007 and managed to go from Hatay to Istanbul by canoe. He has trekked in every corner of Turkey and is one of the creators of the Carian Path Project. He also reveals his love for nature and nature sports in his photographs published in many books and magazines. Altay is also a member of the Royal Geographical Society.
Osman, born in Malatya on 18.08.1975, has been living a life intertwined with nature sports since 1995. It has taken its development to the highest levels in mountaineering, rock climbing, skiing, rafting, canyoning and trekking.
It continues its work on search and rescue under the umbrella of AKUT Search and Rescue Association, of which it became a member in 2001. We will be together with Osman, who is also a Nature Sports instructor, in mountain tours, nature walks and sports training 🙂
Süleyman Çoban was born in Şanlıurfa in 1980, is a historian. In addition to teaching, he is also involved in watching movies and shooting short films. He searches for himself through his readings in culture, art and various fields.
Our guide Süleyman Çoban, who acts with the understanding that it cannot be found by searching, but those who find it, is the one who seeks it, is currently a regional tourist guide (Southeastern Anatolia region/Mesopotamia) professionally. He will agree with İsmet Özel who says that if all the roads that come before a person are walkable, that person is now lost. İsmet is right; But if you say people are still walking, remember; The right path is not the path most people follow. I seem to hear your objection, you seem to be asking, are the roads in vain? Roads are for walking, Ismet, walking to arrive. If we adapt the ancient saying, you cannot be reached by walking, but those who arrive are those who walk. While we talk about the road, we will not forget to talk about the passenger. In the meantime, we will remember Khalil Gibran. The serious thing is not that the road is empty of passengers; The real trouble is that the traveler is corrupt.
Why do we care and talk about the road? As a new member of the Başka Rota family, whose coming together is the result of a conscious choice, our motto is “There is no single way, another route is possible…” while visiting new cities and ruins in Mesopotamia tours, we will also be able to have a sound mind, a good heart, and pleasure with the privilege of Başka Rota. It is to live well.
He was born in Izmir in 1977. He graduated from Bolu Göynük High School. He is also a student of Atatürk University Occupational Safety Specialist and Anadolu University Open Education Faculty Business Administration student. Since he was the child of a military father, he traveled almost every corner of Turkey and returned to his birthplace, Izmir, at the age of 18.
His enthusiasm for traveling never ended. In 2006, he took the first step to professionalize his love for nature by becoming a member of a mountaineering club. He met his wife at the Bafa event where he was a tour guide in April 2011. He believes that his son Mirza Demir, born at the end of 2014, is a lucky child with a mountaineer father and caver mother, and he hopes that he will follow their path in the future.
He completed the Turkish Mountaineering Federation training, which he took a break for many years after he started. He participated in many climbs in Aladağlar, Western Taurus Mountains, Erciyes and Uludağ. In his spare time, he is interested in rock climbing, which is his hobby. He is also a diver with a CMAS 3 star badge. He worked as a search and rescue officer in a private company. He received Offroad and Snowmobile training. However, since he could not manage to stay away from Izmir, which he fell in love with, he found himself in the mountains again.
He guides the trails in Izmir and its surroundings. It wants to share the indescribably beautiful routes with nature lovers under the body of Başka Rota and to discover the undiscovered corners of the magnificent geography of the Aegean Region with you.
He has been a professional guide for nearly 20 years. He has been working in the tourism industry for 25 years. He worked under contract with many agencies. He currently operates an agency as a tour manager for Central Europe. It is a licensed guide covering all of Turkey.
After graduating from the Department of History and Theology in America, he graduated from the Department of Opera and Voice at Istanbul University. He is currently completing his education at the Department of History at Anadolu University Open Education Faculty. He has been a guide in many continents such as America, Europe and the Far East. He created his own followers with his memorable style of narrating the daily life of the period in a rhetorical language. Tours are very colorful with Mahmut, who enjoys playing guitar and singing 🙂
He was born in 1979 in the city of Orumieh (in Western Iran). He completed his higher education in the field of economics. He has been guiding nature, photography and culture tours since 2001. He continues his guiding activities for local and foreign travelers on trips to all over the Iranian geography.
He continues with great love the nature sports he started when he was 15 years old. He climbed mountains such as Damavend Mountain (5671 meters), the highest mountain in Iran, Sahand Mountain, Sabalan Mountain (4811 meters), as well as Kaçkar Mountains and Ağrı Mountains in Turkey.
Besides his guidance, he is also interested in amateur photography, theater and music.
He can speak Azerbaijani, Persian and Turkish languages.
Professional Tour Guide
She was born in Izmir in 1977. In 1997, she lived in London to learn languages and travel. Between 1998-2001 and 2012-2015, she worked in units of travel agencies providing global services to foreign guests. In 2002, she completed the special training and courses of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and qualified as a professional tourist guide.
“Children and Museum”, “GAP Region Guidance”, “Istanbul Culture and Art Guidance”, “Istanbul Jewish Heritage”, “Istanbul Bird Watching”, “Kariye” organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Istanbul Chamber of Guides between 2004 and 2013 Museum”, “Topkapı Palace with İlber Ortaylı”, “Hagia Sophia Museum with Haluk Dursun”, “Turkish Islamic Arts Museum” and “Syria Guidance” specialization training programs and trips. She lived in Istanbul for 15 years and guided mainly American travelers on 21-day tour programs. In 2015, she went on a backpacking trip to Greece and the Balkans, including her grandmother and grandfather’s hometowns, Sarajevo and Plovdiv; In 2016, she completed a travel agency’s Black Sea Education Trip and settled in Izmir, and started guiding Turkish travelers on both routes. Övünç, who started her academic education as a full-time student at Ege University Department of Art History in the fall of 2016, now lives on her family’s organic farming farm in Kavacık Village, Izmir, and shows Başka Rota guests around the “pickle-filled” towns and villages of the Aegean and the Balkans.
Mountain and Nature Tours Leader
Born in Ankara in 1976, Mustafa Kalaycı completed his primary education at Mehmet Akif Ersoy primary school, his secondary and high school education at Ankara Private Tevfik Fikret High School, and graduated from Hacettepe University French Translation and Interpreting Department in 2001.
The athlete, who started nature sports at Hacettepe Mountaineering and Nature Sports Club (Hüddosk) in 1995, completed his education in 1995-1996 and actively turned to mountaineering. He served on all boards within Hüddosk and served as a leader and trainer in the activities organized.
Mustafa Kalaycı, who has reached the top of more than 500 mountains in Turkey and abroad, is also a mountain guide. He has been working as a mountain guide in Turkey since 1997, especially on the Aladağlar, Kaçkar Mountains, Mount Ararat, Beydağları, Dedegöl Mountains and Lycia road. Abroad, it is still in the Andes and Patagonia regions of Chile and Argentina in South America, Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya in Kenya and Tanzania in Africa, the Alps in Switzerland and France in Europe, and the Himalayas in Nepal and Tibet in Asia. He actively works as a mountain, hiking and safari guide.
The athlete, who works as a rock climbing guide in the Geyikbayırı and Olympos regions, took an active part in the opening of rock climbing routes in Geyikbayırı, Olympos, Karakaya, Aladağlar and Isparta region. The athlete, who works as a consultant in United Nations Rural Development projects, is a writer for Atlas magazine.
The mountaineer, who has accomplished many first ascents, first winter ascents, and first Turkish ascents in the mentioned regions, has climbed Aconcagua, the highest peak of the South American continent (6965 m.), 3 times, and Kilimanjaro, the highest peak of the African continent, 7 times (5895 m.). .), climbed the highest peak of France, Mont-Blanc (4810 m.).
Mustafa Kalaycı also realized the project called “Fenerbahçe flag at the world summits” together with Tunç Fındık within the scope of the 100th anniversary celebrations of Fenerbahçe Sports Club . Within the scope of the project, the team; Mount Ararat (5137 m), Aconcagua Peak in Argentina (6965 m), Somoni Peak in Tajikistan (7495 m), Mont Blanc Peak in France (4810 m), Kilimanjaro Peak in Tanzania (5895 m). and the highest peak of the Asian continent and the world, Everest (8850 m.).
Mustafa Kalaycı, who is currently working as a professional mountain, hiking and rock climbing guide, is a member of Akdeniz University nature sports club and Akut Search and Rescue Association. He teaches nature sports and mountaineering at Koç University and lives in Geyikbayırı, Antalya.
Professional Tour Guide – Archaeologist
Yunus, who graduated from Akdeniz University, Department of Classical Archeology in 2005, has been working as a professional guide since 2003. Combining his vast archeology knowledge with his passion for guiding, Yunus has guided visitors from many countries around the world.
After his tours on the Lycian Way, he formed the idea of creating a long-distance walking route in the Caria region and realized it. He lives in Nevşehir with his wife Bilsen, who works as an academician in the Archeology Department of Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş University, and their children Uluç Ege and Bade.
- He made a two-part travel-documentary program on the Lycian road for TRT.
- His new interest is Hittite.
- He guides Study tours for students of the Department of Art History and Archeology from different countries of the world.
He became interested in mountaineering and nature with his brother at the age of 8. He was born in 1989 in Urmia, Iran.
With 22 years of experience, he is a licensed athlete of Iran’s mountaineering federation and also a very good history expert. From the north to the south and from the east to the west of Iran, it guides tourists with nature walks, classical routes, cultural and historical programs.
A native Azeri speaker, he speaks English, Turkish and Persian professionally.
He has been the manager of the mountaineering group called Yakamoz for the last 5 years.
Sağlar completed his master’s degree as a civil engineer.
She was born in Antakya in 1975. She started her Archeology education at Akdeniz University in 1994. She received her doctorate degree at Selçuk University, Department of Underwater Archeology. Archaeologists in cities such as Limyra, Andriake, Bonda Tepe, Patara, Tlos, Ksanthos, Letoon, Phaselis, Side and Lyrboton Kome in the Ancient Lycia and Pamphylia regions within the borders of Antalya today; She worked as an underwater archaeologist in the cities of Urla-Limantepe and Erythtrai in ancient Ionia. The studies she carried out during this period were published as articles in national and international journals.
Since 2006, in addition to archaeological excavations and surface surveys, she has also been working as a Professional Tourist Guide throughout Turkey.
In order to promote Turkey in international fairs, it published the Archaeological City Guides (Limyra, Perge, Olympos, Sagalassos) within the scope of the ‘Cultural Heritage of Turkey’ project of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism .
Since she is interested in Ancient Roads and Routes as well as Anatolian Cultural History, she has carried out the project of creating a cultural route of an ancient road from the Roman Period called Via Sebaste , a part of which is preserved in Antalya , and is now working on new cultural routes.
He was born in Köyceğiz in 1981.
He completed his primary and secondary education in Antalya. He graduated from Ege University Bioengineering Department in 2006.
His love of travel and nature, which started during his university years, led him to a completely different field other than engineering.
Along with the projects he worked on and prepared for the promotion and protection of Turkey’s biological and cultural diversity, he has also worked as a writer and editor in many nationally published magazines such as Atlas, Yeşil Atlas, Buğday, Tempo and Magma.
With the “Lost Tales” Project he carried out in 2008, he traveled around the Kaz Mountains and the entire Taurus Mountains and compiled Yoruk tales. Ince, who produced and hosted the “It’s Not Too Late Yet” documentary series about Turkey’s wildlife at TRT Documentary, also prepared documentaries and promotional films about Antalya’s endemic species with his friends. He published the book “Doğadabuan”, a Guide to Beginning Nature Observation, which is a first in Turkey.
Currently, he gives nature education for different age groups in schools to explain Turkey’s biocultural values. In these activities, students feel nature by using their five senses and get to know living things and the geography they live in.
Hüseyin Çağlar İnce, who currently lives in Antalya, has undertaken a mission for sustainable tourism with the projects he produces together with the leading organizations of the sector in order to raise nature awareness in tourism. The “nature guide” books specially prepared for each facility were printed in 4 different languages and over 50 thousand copies, and were given as gifts by the hotels to the tourists coming to our country. İnce, who has received many awards for his work, writes columns in tourism magazines and prepares books, documentaries and social media content on biocultural values.
Professional Tour Guide