About Halil Şımır

Last updated: 15 October 2026

So far I have travelled through and written up 25 countries, mostly across Europe, the Balkans and East Asia:

• Greece: the islands and the mainland, my most-covered country, from ferry routes to where to stay on each island
• Italy: Rome, Sorrento, and Sicily from Taormina to Messina
• France: Strasbourg, Colmar and the Christmas markets of the Alsace villages
• South Korea: Seoul and Jeju Island, where our first English guides start
• Central and Northern Europe: Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland
• The Balkans: North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo
• And more: Spain, Malta, Georgia and my home country, Türkiye, plus a seven-night Mediterranean cruise on Cunard’s Queen Victoria

Those trips have become destination guides in Turkish (137 so far) and 260 travel videos on YouTube. I am now rewriting the most useful of them in English, one destination at a time, starting with where to stay in Jeju.

My Gezginbirchef travel channel ↗ has 283,000 subscribers and 4.5M views. The videos are filmed on the same trips as these guides, so you can see the streets, hotels and food before you go. Many have English subtitles. You can also follow the trips day by day on Instagram.

I am a trained, working chef, and it shapes how I travel. I look past the usual sights for the food culture of a place, from long-running family places in the back streets to the markets locals actually use, and I tell you what a dish should taste like and what a fair price is. That is why every guide has a “where and what to eat” part written from the table, not from a list.

My work as a chef has been featured in the Turkish press:

• Habertürk: Chef Halil Şımır’s iftar menu (in Turkish)
• Milliyet: three quick tuna dishes (in Turkish)
• Food In Life: Chef Halil Şımır in the kitchen (in Turkish)
• Şamdan Plus: light, practical dishes (in Turkish)
• Uplifers: three omega-3-rich dishes (in Turkish)
• Gecce Mekan: a profile of Gezginbirchef (in Turkish)
• Star and Yeni Asır: judging a baking competition in İzmir (in Turkish)

I have also worked with brands such as Migros, Banvit and English Home on food photography and video.

• Been there: I write as first-hand experience only about places I have visited. When something is researched rather than lived, I say so.
• Real prices: I write down what we paid and the date, and I tell you to check current prices before you book.
• Honest areas: where-to-stay guides compare areas with their downsides, not only the highlights.
• Kept up to date: I correct mistakes quickly. If you spot one, email me and I will fix it.
• AI as a tool: AI helps with translation and checking, but the trips, the photos, the videos and every recommendation are mine.

The full rules are on the Editorial Policy page.

Gezginbirchef is free to read. It is funded by display ads (Google AdSense) and by affiliate links: if you book through some links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Pages with affiliate links say so clearly. Commissions never decide what I recommend, and no hotel or brand pays to be included in a guide. Read the full Affiliate Disclosure.

For questions, corrections or collaborations, email info@gezginbirchef.com or visit the Contact page. Travel questions are best asked with “Ask the Chef” at the end of the guide they are about.