Vision

Leaving southern Europe behind and wandering towards Asia… Changing continents as you bear witness to succeeding, wilder landscapes, where great empires and civilizations have spread traces which demonstrate their cultural, artistic and architectural skills… This is the theme of the Via Eurasia, a transborder cultural route linking Europe through the Balkans to Asia Minor, today’s Turkey.

All the many organisations involved in the creation of this route, which will measure about 6000km crossing 8 coutries from Canterbury, UK to Demre, Turkey, share a similar vision. They are inspired by ancient roads and their users, and the spirit of exchange – of ideas, cultures, experiences, goods. They regard the old eco-tourism mantra ‘take only photos, leave only footprints’ as the loss of an opportunity. Slow travel on ancient roadways suggests another mantra: ‘take a treasured experience, leave a happy memory’. In other words, travellers on the Via Eurasia can marvel at and share in the cultures they walk through, while leaving locals with happy impressions of travellers from distant lands.