Welcome

Welcome on the Sultans Trail 

A European Cultural Route

corona-information

The Sultans Trail is a long-distance hiking and cycling trail from Vienna to Istanbul, with a length of 2500 km. It takes an average person 15 weeks to complete the entire Sultans Trail. Cyclists need around 4 weeks to do so.

Nature, History and Culture

The trail runs through amazing nature and idyllic old villages with Ottoman, Habsburg, Byzantine, Roman and Communist heritage, from archaeological sites, old monasteries to brutalist architecture. As many civilizations had their influence you will be surprised with this rich mishmash of cultures.

When you are interested in nature, history and culture you will love this old route to Istanbul. 
The different trade routes, wars and rules have all left their traces, this route is full of memories of the ancient past that you can find in the most unlikely places.

East meets West

Contrary to its past, then a path of conquest, the Sultans Trail nowadays is a path of peace, a meeting place for people of different faiths, cultures and backgrounds. That’s why we choose consciously to let this Sultans Trail, a European Cultural Route, run back from Vienna to Istanbul, from conquest to “collaboration in diversity”.

Together with the help of many ever so kind people, councils, and of course OpenStreetMap, we established a respectable hiking trail through eight countries: Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.

Volunteers

The Sultans Trail project always welcomes people who want to join or volunteer. You can contact us here or by email to info@sultanstrail.com

Media

  • You can view pictures we made along the way and the videos of events we organized to get the Trail marked with GR-codes and stickers we have developed to mark the Sultans Trail.
  • In de spring of 2020 the BBC showed three wonderful episodes on BBC2. For those who missed it here are the trailers. For the full broadcasts, it is only possible to see it with a BBC subscription. We thank all employees of CCTV and BBC for the magnificent” Pilgrimage: Road to Istanbul

Work in progress

In the meantime, there are many people working on:

Recently we had three wonderful episodes on BBC2, for those who missed it here are the trailers. For the full broadcasts, it is only possible to see it with a BBC subscription. We thank all employees of CCTV and BBC for the “magnificent” Pilgrimage: Road to Istanbul