The following guide contains everything you need to know about attending the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli independently, without a tour.
Attending the Gallipoli dawn service in ANZAC Cove has been called the Australian pilgrimage. Generations of Australians and New Zealanders have made the journey to honour ANZAC soldiers that died at ANZAC cove. If you ever meet someone that has been, it is always spoken about with reverence and pride. I’ve always known that attending the dawn service at Gallipoli was on my bucket list. In 2024, I finally had the opportunity!
The most popular way to visit is by taking a 2 or 3 day tour from Istanbul. This is actually a great option! There are loads of tours for all budgets. I was attending the dawn service with my parents and we had already decided to hire a car so opted to do it ourselves. If you’d rather have everything planned for you, I suggest some tour options below.
If you’re interested in attending the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli without a tour, you absolutely can! We attended the Gallipoli dawn service in 2024. Although there is not a lot of information online about how to do it independently, we found it was actually really simple!
The Australian government advises people to attend the Gallipoli dawn service as part of an organised tour. We were surprised to find that a lot of people went independently and it is quite easy to attend the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli without a tour.
This post will tell you all the things that I wish we knew before attending the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli without a tour
Registering for the ANZAC dawn service at Gallipoli
The first thing you will need to do if you’re interested in attending the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli without a tour is register for an attendance pass. You can do this on the Department of Veterans’ Affairs website. Registration opens around 6 months before the service.
It is free to register and you will need to show this attendance pass on the day of the service. Even if you have opted to take a tour, you will still need to register for your attendance pass.
When you register for your ANZAC Day dawn service attendance pass, you will be given the option to register for the mobility shuttle buses. There is a substantial amount of walking from site to site, most of which is uphill. If you are travelling with elderly people, children or people with limited mobility I would recommend signing up for the shuttle bus.
Which is the best town to stay in for the ANZAC dawn service?
As far as accommodation goes, your best bet is to either stay in Eceabat or Canakkale. Both are good options but have their pros and cons.
Staying in Eceabat for the Gallipoli dawn service
Eceabat is the closest town to where the Gallipoli dawn service is held at ANZAC Cove. It is a small, sleepy town with not a lot going on. There aren’t many hotels there, but there are a few good options. The best part is that you are only about a 7 minute drive from where you will get the shuttle bus to ANZAC Cove on the morning of the service.
For this reason, we decided to stay in Eceabat and we weren’t disappointed. Most of our time in Turkiye was spent in larger cities or tourist towns so it was quite nice to see a different side of life there.
There are not a lot of hotels in Eceabat and ANZAC Day is one of the busiest times of year. If you want to stay in Eceabat, I recommend booking early.
We stayed at Eceabat Doga Pansiyon Hotel for 2 nights and were really happy with it.
Another popular option in Eceabat is Hotel Crowded House.
Staying in Çanakkale for the Gallipoli dawn service
Çanakkale is a much larger and more tourist friendly town. There is a wide range of accommodation options, great restaurants and plenty of places to have a beer.
Çanakkale has other areas of interest such as the ancient ruins of Troy nearby and a few interesting museums. It is a small city that you can easily spend a few days.
The downside of staying in Çanakkale is that it is further away from the ANZAC Day dawn service commemorations. You will need to either wait for the car ferry or drive north to cross the 1915 Çanakkale bridge. If you plan on sleeping under the stars at ANZAC Cove before the dawn service, this is no problem. It will be a very early to start to drive from Canakkale the morning of the service.
How to get there and where to park
If you’re driving your own car or rental car to the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli, you will need to park at the Kilye Cove carpark. This is the only carpark available for people attending the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli without a tour.
Kilye Cove is about a 7 minute drive north of Eceabat. In 2024, it wasn’t marked on Google Maps so I was a bit concerned if we would find it so early in the morning. It was actually very easy to find, it was just called Tanitim Merkezi Otopark. I have marked it on the map below. When you get close, you will see temporary signs to guide you to the parking area.
When we arrived at the carpark we were met by a group of volunteers that made the rest of our time so easy! A shuttle bus leaves from the carpark when full and takes you to Beach Cemetery. You will then need to walk the remaining 1km to reach ANZAC Cove.
There are security checkpoints before entering the commemorative sites at ANZAC Cove, Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair. Airport style restrictions apply with no liquids over 100ml, no items that could be considered weapons, etc. The full list of restricted items can be found here.
What time to arrive to the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli
The ANZAC dawn service at Gallipoli starts at dawn, around 5:30am on ANZAC Day, 25th April. A lot of tour groups will arrive from Istanbul and spend the night sleeping under the stars. This would be an amazing experience, but you need to be prepared! It can get very cold and sometimes wet.
If you are driving yourself, you have a bit more flexibility as to when you arrive. There are road closures in place around the Gallipoli peninsula for the ANZAC Day commemorations. Due to this, it is not possible to access Kilye Cove carpark after 3:30am the morning of the service.
We opted to arrive to Kilye Cove at 2:00am. It took about an hour in total until we were at ANZAC Cove, through security and rugged up on the grass with a cup of coffee. We were surrounded by people sleeping on the grass and watching short documentaries about the Gallipoli campaign and ANZAC stories. We didn’t sleep the whole night there, but we still got to soak up a bit of the experience with everyone that did!
What to expect on the day
Once you arrive at the ANZAC day dawn service commemoration area at ANZAC Cove, the rest is really easy! When you go through the security checkpoint you receive a bag with a programme, a poncho and a few other goodies.
There are toilets, food and drinks available.
If you choose to arrive in the early hours of the morning, you might have a hard time finding a place to sit with view of the service. The lawns are strewn with Australians and Kiwis in sleeping bags and there aren’t a lot of gaps.
Don’t worry too much about where you sit for the beginning. Just find somewhere comfortable. Around 4;30am everyone starts to wake up and sit up so they take up a lot less space. This is a good time to move to get a better view of the service.
Food and drink at ANZAC Day dawn service
Due to the security checkpoints, it is not possible to bring your own water to the dawn service. There are plenty of water stations and volunteers handing out bottles of water throughout the day.
Tea, coffee and food is available for purchase at ANZAC Cove, Lone Pine and Chunnuk Bair. It is recommended to bring your own snacks though as the food lines can be quite long at certain times of the day. Make sure you bring cash!
What to wear and what to bring with you
One of the biggest unknowns when attending the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli is the weather! You really need to prepare for all possibilities and keep a close eye on the weather forecast in the days leading up to the ANZAC Day.
A friend of mine slept at ANZAC Cove before the dawn service one year and called it the coldest night of his life! And he’d been living in the UK for years at that point.
In 2024, we were very lucky! It was cold, but we got by with just jackets and beanies. We had no rain or wind. There were even people sleeping in their sleeping bags with just t-shirts on.
I’m told this is very much the exception! It is therefore best to come with warm clothes, protection from the rain, and a blanket or sleeping bag if you plan to spend the night. A plastic ground sheet or bin bags to sit on to protect from the dewy grass is crucial.
Given a Gallipoli tote bag on arrival which had a disposable poncho in case it rained.
The order of events
The ANZAC Day dawn service at ANZAC Cove starts at 5:30am. It’s a very moving service that lasts for a little over an hour. Starting in the dark and ending as the sun comes over the ridge, it’s a memory that will stay with you.
Other services on the day
After the dawn service, people begin the walk up Artillery Road to either the Australian service at Lone Pine or the New Zealand service at Chunnuk Bair. The walk is about 3km uphill. It is quite steep in parts but if you are of moderate fitness, you will be fine. There are volunteers stationed with water along the way and you have plenty of time to make it to the top!
There are some cemeteries and trenches along Artillery Road which are worth a stop.
The Lone Pine memorial service begins at 10am.
The Chunnuk Bair New Zealand commemorative service is another 3km along the road and begins at 11:30am.
It is difficult to attend both because they are too far apart. If you are getting the mobility shuttle you can possibly make all 3 services.
Getting home from ANZAC Day at Gallipoli
The buses start to leave Chunnuk Bair from 1:00pm. There are a lot of people waiting around for tour buses and it takes a bit of time to get everyone on the right bus to the right place. My advice is to just settle in, find a chair, buy an ice cream and wait it out.
There is a really friendly vibe in the crowd, with most in attendance being Aussies and Kiwis for whom it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience to attend the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli. It’s an easy place to spend a bit of time waiting for your bus or shuttle to be called.
We were waiting for less than an hour before the shuttle going to the private carpark at Kilye Cove arrived to take us back to our car.
Why you should attend the ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli
The reasons why should attend the ANZAC Day dawn service in Gallipoli don’t really need to be explained. I think it is something that most Australians want to do in their lifetime. We learn so much in school about the ANZACs, the ANZAC spirit and how through this story an Australian identity began to emerge. It feels important to honour that.
What I will say is how special the experience was beyond what I expected. There is such a nice vibe and something very moving about being in a crowd of people who have all travelled to be there.
The service began with Maori singers followed by a lone naval officer playing the didgeridoo. Everyone there had goosebumps. It was chillingly beautiful.
Another thing that really struck me on the day was how much respect there was from the people of Turkiye. In 1934 Ataturk wrote a letter to the mother of the ANZACs which said:
“You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace”.
These beautiful words really made clear just how tragic the events of Gallipoli were and how no one there, on either side, deserved the hand they were dealt. You can read the whole letter here.
I’ve attended dawn services for most of my life, but I have never before reflected with such clarity about how unfair and tragic the events at Gallipoli were. If you have the opportunity to attend an ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli, you should take it!
ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli tour options
If you choose to do a tour to the dawn service there are some great options. Doing a tour takes a lot of the thinking out of it, you don’t need to worry about hiring a car or driving, and you get to make some friends to share the experience with.
Here is a list of some of the better tour companies that run ANZAC Day dawn service at Gallipoli tours:
