Ilhan Varlik

Ilhan is a licensed outdoor and cultural tour guide who has led many tours both inside and outside of Turkey. He started his working life as a Counter-Intelligence Officer at the Turkish General Staff in the mid 90’s before spending more than 10 years as an Operations Manager for a high-end retailing company, working in both Egypt and Turkey. He has also lived and worked in Belgium, Syria, the US and Yemen.

Over the years Ilhan has gained extensive hiking, biking and cultural guiding experience right across Turkey. Since 2019 he has been one of the esteemed lecturers and guides who teach trainee guides on their learning trips across the country. When not leading tours, Ilhan runs a farm with 300 walnut trees near Çanakkale (opposite the Gallipoli peninsula) and is the Founder of the Troy Cultural Route, a 120km hiking and cycling route that aims to bring social and economic development to the region’s villages while preserving their cultural identity and heritage. We feel very lucky to have Ilhan in our roster of guides - he has accompanied a wide number of our expert archaeologists on many of our tours in Turkey.

"Ilhan was a terrific guide in all respects, professional, helpful, informative, kind, and joyous. Ilhan was excellent and kept us all informed and on course each and every day. We were welcomed and comfortable on the gulet, and he helped everyone and made sure things ran smoothly. He is very engaging and shared much of his incredible knowledge of Turkiye with the group. He seems very much to enjoy his work and engaging with people, and he excels as a guide. He did a terrific job all around!" Susan Noerdlinger

"Ilhan was truly outstanding and very caring." Asifa Kanji

"Ilhan was very caring and helpful. Ilhan's contributions to the success of the trip were often behind the scenes and might be taken for granted, but I know he was making things go smoothly. When my companion and I needed medical help he was superb in helping us get it, advocating for us, translating, etc. We were very grateful." Peyton Helm

"The crew and the local Turkish guide, Ilhan, made it a comfortable and fun trip with delicious meals, frequent swims and great service." Maggie Pax

"Ilhan was absolutely wonderful. Very charming and kind. Super helpful. Great company. Good fun. Articulate and knowledgeable. When he spoke on something e.g. early Christianity in Turkey, he was extremely interesting and captivating. Historically wise, he was clearly so knowledgeable on so many aspects. 100% a tip top amazing man! It was a wonderful trip, beautifully organised from start to finish and enhanced by our expert and our wonderful local guide. It will be with me for a very long time. Thank you Peter Sommer." Christine Turnbull