Çamlikoy was managed as an A-type picnic ground before it became a nature park in July 2011, then at 50.17 hectares; a presidential decision of 1 November 2024 raised it to 88.54.
Forest and dune make up the ground, with streams forming its northern and southern boundaries and the sea on its east. It is at Kasatura in the Bahçeköy quarter of the Saray district of Tekirdağ, about 130 kilometres from İstanbul, and the capacity recorded is large: 25,000 visitors and 5,000 vehicles.
Coming from İstanbul there are two ways in. One is the D020, the old Edirne road; the other is to leave the O2 motorway, the road everyone calls the TEM, at the Çerkezköy exit and pick up the D020 through Saray.
The wood is a broadleaf one, and it has three storeys to it. Sessile oak, Hungarian oak, hornbeam, common ash, oriental plane, wych elm and alder dominate the natural vegetation, with field maple rare in the canopy. Below them, as small trees and shrubs, grow wild apple, wild pear, blackthorn, hawthorn and cornelian cherry, together with bramble, dog rose, bay, butcher's broom and ferns; the ground layer holds rock roses, clovers and other legumes, Lolium meadow grasses, and some water plants along the stream edges. The mammals recorded are fox, weasel, pine marten, badger, wolf, jackal, squirrel, hare, hedgehog, roe deer and wild boar; the birds include mallard, quail, woodcock, turtle dove, cormorant, stork, sparrowhawk, eagle owl, woodpecker, nightingale, blackbird, chaffinch, goldfinch, rock partridge and magpie. Because the park has both sea and streams the fish fall into two lists: red mullet, horse mackerel, turbot, grey mullet, tub gurnard, bonito and ray at sea, and trout, carp and freshwater mullet in the streams.
For recreation the park has toilets, a country restaurant, a buffet, arbours, shopping units, showers, changing cabins, a basketball court and drinking fountains. The administration attaches a warning to all of it that is worth reading as practical advice: because this is a natural area, lightning strikes, falling trees and branches, landslides, ground made slippery in and after wet weather, insect stings and harm from wild animals are among the risks, and visitors are told they enter and use the facilities knowing those risks and taking responsibility for them.
- Designated
- 11.07.2011
When to go
- Climate
- Across Tekirdağ as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 4.9 °C in January to 23.9 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in December (79 mm) and lightest in August (15 mm). Long-term means for 1940-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
