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Comment by jballanc | Hacker News Reader

Wait...you've named your startup "Caravanserai" and you don't have any destinations on the actual historical Silk Road? For shame!

Turkey is an amazing place to work and live, there's an incredibly vibrant hacker community, and the people are some of the most welcoming in the world (especially if you're a visitor). Istanbul rents on the European side can run pretty high, but on the Asian side (and with the way the exchange rate is going these days), I think you'd be remiss to leave it out.

If not Istanbul, Ankara has a bunch of universities and rents are considerably cheaper. Bodrum, too, has relatively low rents and absolutely amazing natural beauty. Ok, enough ranting...

Seriously cool concept, though. I look forward to seeing where you take it!

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Haha, true dat.

We looked at Istanbul, but it was prohibitively expensive, at least for our Beta batch where we reserve certain safety buffer for things that could go wrong and in the neighborhoods we looked at.

Coastal towns like Bodrum could be a nice choice, any areas in Istanbul we should reconsider?

Other places to check: Üskudar, Kadiköy, Maltepe, and Kartal...pretty much anywhere along Bağdat street will still have a lively atmosphere, good access to transportation, and lower rents. The Asian side is actually growing faster than the European side, so while Beyoğlu is still the focus of social life in Istanbul, Bağdat Cadessi is pretty active. Also, Sabiha Gökçen Airport (on the Asian side) has a growing number of very cheap connections to destinations in the area.

Thanks! Very much so.

Alanya is a beautiful coastal city in Turkey with reasonable prices. http://www.hello-alanya.com/ Sarajevo in Bosnia is inexpensive and programmer friendly. http://www.sarajevotimes.com/hub387-launches-first-regional-...

Consider Çeşme. It is near Izmir and cheap, especially in the winter it would be a heaven for a nomad. High temperatures than normal winter conditions. Un crowded and peaceful.

I'm going to be visiting Istanbul in a few months. Are you living there now? Do any of the hacker communities you mentioned have websites?

I'm currently in Ankara, but you can reach out to the guys at http://webbox.io and they can point you in the right direction. If you work with JS, check out the http://www.meetup.com/jstanbul/ community as well.

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