Southeast Europe and Western Asia
Roman cities, an eleven-thousand-year-old temple, a volcanic landscape carved into churches, and 8,000 km of coastline.
Turkey occupies the land bridge between Europe and Asia and has been fought over, settled and rebuilt by Hittites, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans. The practical consequence for a visitor is an almost absurd density of archaeology: there are more classical Greek cities in Turkey than in Greece, and the Roman remains at Ephesus and Aphrodisias are better preserved than most of what survives in Italy.
It also has genuine geographical variety. The Aegean and Mediterranean coasts run for thousands of kilometres past pine-backed coves and Lycian tombs cut into cliffs. Central Anatolia is a high, dry plateau where volcanic ash eroded into the cones and pinnacles of Cappadocia. The Black Sea coast in the north is green, wet and mountainous, closer to the Alps than to the Aegean. And the southeast holds Göbekli Tepe, a temple complex built around 9500 BC — six thousand years before Stonehenge and before agriculture existed.
The other thing that draws people is value. Turkey has had high inflation for several years, and for visitors holding euros, pounds or dollars it remains among the best-value destinations in the wider Mediterranean — often half the cost of Greece or Italy for comparable quality. That gap is narrowing, but it is still real.
Where to go
Ordered roughly by how strongly we would recommend each for a first visit. Turkey is large — Istanbul to Şanlıurfa is 1,300 km — so most trips take a coastal cluster or a central one rather than crossing the country.
Marmara
The only city on two continents, holding the buildings of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires, a covered bazaar of 4,000 shops, and a waterway running through the middle of it.
Don't miss Hagia Sophia — a cathedral for 916 years, a mosque for 481, a museum for 86, and a mosque again since 2020.
Explore Destination — IstanbulNevşehir, Central Anatolia
A landscape with no real parallel: soft volcanic rock carved by wind and water into towers and cones, then carved again by Byzantine Christians into painted churches and underground refuges.
Don't miss A hundred hot-air balloons rising out of the valleys at dawn — and being in one of them.
Explore Destination — Cappadociaİzmir, Aegean
The best-preserved classical city in the Mediterranean, where you walk the actual paved streets past a 24,000-seat theatre, public latrines and a library, with a small Turkish town alongside it.
Don't miss The Terrace Houses — six Roman apartments with mosaic floors, painted walls and plumbing, under a modern roof.
Explore Destination — Ephesus & SelçukDenizli, Aegean
Calcium-rich springs have been depositing white travertine down a 200-metre hillside for millennia, creating stepped pools that the Romans built a city above and bathed in.
Don't miss Walking barefoot up the travertines at opening, with the terraces to yourself and the water still warm.
Explore Destination — Pamukkale & HierapolisAntalya, Mediterranean
Turkey's Mediterranean capital pairs a beautifully preserved walled old quarter with the best archaeological museum in the country and a mountain range that comes almost to the sea.
Don't miss Aspendos — a Roman theatre from 155 AD so intact that it still holds concerts for 12,000 people.
Explore Destination — Antalya & the Turquoise CoastMuğla, Turquoise Coast
The base for the Turquoise Coast: gulet trips from the harbour, a ghost village in the hills, an 18-kilometre gorge inland, and the start of the 540-kilometre Lycian Way.
Don't miss Paragliding off Babadağ at 1,965 metres and spiralling down for half an hour onto Ölüdeniz beach.
Explore Destination — Fethiye & ÖlüdenizSoutheastern Anatolia
A pilgrimage city of sacred carp pools and covered bazaars, twenty minutes from the site that pushed the start of monumental building back by six thousand years.
Don't miss Göbekli Tepe — carved stone enclosures raised around 9500 BC, before farming, pottery, metal or writing.
Explore Destination — Şanlıurfa & Göbekli TepeMuğla, Aegean coast
Turkey's most stylish stretch of Aegean coast, built on the site of Halicarnassus, with a Bronze Age shipwreck in the castle and thirteen villages on the peninsula behind it.
Don't miss The Castle of St Peter, built by the Knights of St John out of the stones of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Explore Destination — BodrumEastern Black Sea
The one part of Turkey that looks like the Alps: rain-fed forest, highland pastures at 2,000 metres, the last Byzantine capital, and a food culture built on anchovies, cornmeal and butter.
Don't miss Sumela Monastery, built into a rock face 300 metres above the Altındere valley.
Explore Destination — Trabzon & the Black Sea CoastCentral Anatolia
A planned republican capital on the Anatolian plateau, with Atatürk's mausoleum, a Byzantine citadel, Augustus's own account of his reign carved on a temple wall, and Bronze Age capitals within reach.
Don't miss The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations — Çatalhöyük, the Hittites and the Phrygians under one Ottoman roof.
Explore Destination — AnkaraExperiences
The experiences that recur wherever you go, and that make a Turkish trip feel Turkish.
Çay is served in small tulip-shaped glasses at every possible occasion — in shops, at ferry terminals, while you look at carpets, before and after meals. Turkey drinks more tea per head than any other country on earth, and refusing a glass is unusual.
Tip It is served without milk, with sugar cubes on the side. Saying 'açık' gets you a weaker brew.
A Turkish bath is a hot marble room, a scrub with a coarse mitt that removes an alarming quantity of skin, a foam wash and a rest. The historic ones in Istanbul date to the 16th century and are architectural monuments in themselves.
Tip Bring nothing; everything is provided. Historic hamams are more expensive and considerably more beautiful than neighbourhood ones.
Turkish kahvaltı is a spread rather than a dish — cheeses, olives, tomato, cucumber, honey with clotted cream, eggs, jams and endless bread and tea. It takes an hour and a half and it is the best meal of the day.
Tip A 'serpme kahvaltı' is the full spread for a table. Van, in the far east, is famous for the most extravagant version.
Ephesus & Selçuk, Aphrodisias, Pergamon, Hierapolis at Pamukkale & Hierapolis, Perge and Aspendos near Antalya. Several have theatres seating 15,000 and streets you can walk end to end.
Tip Go at opening or in the last two hours. Shade is minimal and summer temperatures on these sites exceed 40°C.
Wooden broad-beamed boats sail the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts on trips from a day to a week, anchoring in coves reachable no other way. The 'blue cruise' between Fethiye and Antalya is the classic route.
Tip Cabin charters share the boat with strangers; private charters are surprisingly affordable split between six or eight.
Fixed prices are normal in shops and supermarkets, and negotiation is expected in bazaars, for carpets and for some taxi journeys. It is a conversation rather than a confrontation, and usually involves tea.
Tip Decide your price before starting. Walking away is a legitimate move and often produces a better offer.
Food and drink
Turkish cooking draws on Ottoman court cuisine, Anatolian village food, and the Balkan, Arab, Persian and Caucasian traditions the empire encompassed. It is regional to a degree that surprises visitors.
Not one dish. Adana kebap is hand-minced lamb with red pepper; Urfa is the milder version; İskender is döner over bread with tomato sauce and yoghurt; şiş is cubed and grilled. Each region defends its own.
Where to try it Gaziantep and Şanlıurfa in the southeast are the heartland. Every city has good ocakbaşı grill houses.
Small cold and hot dishes eaten before or instead of a main course — stuffed vine leaves, aubergine purée, yoghurt with garlic, marinated anchovies, broad beans in olive oil. Served with rakı.
Where to try it Meyhanes — traditional taverns — in Istanbul, İzmir and along the Aegean coast.
Pide is a boat-shaped flatbread baked with cheese, minced meat or egg. Lahmacun is a paper-thin round topped with spiced minced lamb, rolled with parsley and lemon and eaten by hand. Both are cheap and everywhere.
Where to try it Pide salonu and lahmacun shops in any town. Lahmacun is the better street food.
Layers of filo with pistachio or walnut, soaked in syrup. Gaziantep's pistachio baklava has protected status and is a cut above. Künefe — shredded pastry over melting cheese — is the other essential.
Where to try it Gaziantep for baklava; künefe across the southeast and in Hatay.
Grilled fish in bread, sold from boats and stalls at Istanbul's Eminönü. In winter, hamsi — Black Sea anchovies — appear everywhere, fried in cornmeal or baked with rice.
Where to try it Istanbul's waterfront for balık ekmek; Trabzon and the Black Sea coast for hamsi from November to February.
Coffee ground to powder and boiled in a cezve, served unfiltered with the grounds settling in the cup. Rakı is an anise spirit drunk with water and ice, which turns it white, alongside meze and fish.
Where to try it Coffee everywhere; rakı in meyhanes, traditionally over a long evening rather than quickly.
Eggs scrambled slowly with tomato, green pepper and sometimes cheese, eaten with bread. The centrepiece of a breakfast spread that also includes cheeses, olives, honey and clotted cream.
Where to try it Breakfast salons everywhere, especially at weekends when Turkish families make a morning of it.
Before you go
The essentials, current for 2026. Turkey is straightforward to travel in, though the currency situation and the entry rules both change often enough to need checking close to departure.
Excludes international flights. Figures are typical rather than absolute — cities and peak season run higher.
When to go
Turkey has several climates — Mediterranean on the south coast, continental on the Anatolian plateau, and a wet oceanic Black Sea coast. The shoulder seasons work almost everywhere, which is not true of high summer.
The strongest window. Istanbul's tulips in April, wildflowers in Cappadocia, warm but not punishing coastal temperatures, and the archaeological sites bearable. The sea is swimmable from late May.
Hot everywhere and extreme inland — the southeast regularly exceeds 42°C and walking Ephesus at midday is unwise. The coast is at its busiest and most expensive, and the sea is warm. The Black Sea coast is the comfortable exception.
Arguably the best of all. The sea is at its warmest in September, the heat eases inland, the crowds thin and prices fall. October is excellent for Cappadocia and the archaeological sites.
Istanbul is cold, grey and atmospheric with very few visitors. Cappadocia under snow is spectacular. The coast largely closes — many resort hotels and restaurants shut from November to April — and eastern Anatolia gets severe.
Worth planning around: Ramadan affects opening hours and the atmosphere in more conservative regions, though restaurants in tourist areas operate normally. The dates move each year. The two Eid holidays see domestic travel peak and transport book out.
Trip length
Turkey is 1,600 km across and the highlights are spread thinly. Domestic flights are cheap and frequent, which is what makes an ambitious itinerary possible — but two or three regions is still the sensible limit.
Getting around
Turkey's distances are large and its domestic flights are cheap. Long-distance buses are excellent and the high-speed rail network is expanding but still limited.
Sample route
Istanbul, Cappadocia and the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, using two internal flights and a hire car for the coastal leg. Covers six of the ten destinations in this guide.
Culture
Turkey is a large and internally varied country: Istanbul and the coastal resorts are cosmopolitan and secular in feel, while central and eastern Anatolia are considerably more conservative. Hospitality is a genuine and serious value almost everywhere.
Remove shoes at the entrance, cover your head if you are a woman — scarves are usually provided — and cover shoulders and knees regardless of gender. Avoid visiting during the five daily prayers, and never walk in front of someone praying.
Being offered tea is a genuine courtesy and carries no obligation, including in shops. Accepting a glass and then not buying anything is entirely normal and nobody will mind.
Beachwear is fine on the coast and normal city clothing is fine in Istanbul. In central and eastern Anatolia, covered shoulders and long trousers or skirts are considerably more comfortable for everyone.
Expected in bazaars, for carpets and souvenirs, and for some taxi journeys. Not expected in shops, supermarkets or restaurants. It is a friendly negotiation, not a confrontation.
Politics, Atatürk, the Kurdish question and the events of 1915 are all subjects where strong feelings exist and where insulting Atatürk or the Turkish state is a criminal offence. Listening rather than asserting is the sensible approach.
Meze arrive to the table for everyone, dishes are passed, and a rakı evening is expected to last hours. Refusing food repeatedly reads as rejection rather than restraint.
Travel tips
The things that most often catch visitors out in Turkey, several of which are specific to how the country works rather than general travel advice.
FAQ
The areas covered in this guide — Istanbul, the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts, Cappadocia, the Black Sea and the Şanlıurfa region — are generally safe for visitors, with the usual precautions against pickpocketing in Istanbul's crowded tourist areas. Border regions with Syria and Iraq are a separate matter and carry government travel advisories. Check your own government's current advice before booking, as it is updated regularly.
Twelve to sixteen for a first trip covering two or three regions. Eight to ten days does Istanbul and Cappadocia comfortably, which is the classic pairing. Four or five days is enough for Istanbul alone, and the city justifies it. Turkey is 1,600 km across, so trying to add the southeast or the Black Sea to a fortnight means living on aeroplanes.
It depends on your passport and the rules have changed several times recently. Many nationalities need an e-Visa obtained online before travel, while several European countries have been exempted in recent years. Check the official Turkish e-Visa website for your specific nationality before booking — it takes minutes and the requirement is enforced at check-in.
It remains among the best-value destinations in the wider Mediterranean, often half the cost of Greece or Italy for comparable quality, though persistent high inflation means lira prices change quickly. Mid-range travel runs roughly €75–130 per person per day. Budget travel works at €35–60. The main exception is a Cappadocia balloon flight at €200–300 per person, which is worth budgeting for separately.
April to June and September to October. Spring brings wildflowers and comfortable temperatures everywhere; September has the warmest sea of the year and thinning crowds. July and August are hot, with the southeast exceeding 42°C and archaeological sites unpleasant at midday. Winter empties the coast entirely but Istanbul and snowy Cappadocia are both memorable.
For a first visit, both if you have ten days or more. Istanbul is one of the great cities of the world and needs four or five days on its own. The coast — Ephesus, Pamukkale and the Turquoise Coast — is a separate trip in feel and needs a car. If you only have a week, do Istanbul and Cappadocia rather than splitting between the city and the beach.
Widely in Istanbul, the coastal resorts and among younger and university-educated people. Much less so in central and eastern Anatolia and in smaller towns. A handful of Turkish words — merhaba for hello, teşekkür ederim for thank you, lütfen for please — go a long way and are appreciated.
The full travel guide covers routes, budgets, regional differences and how to string these ten destinations into a trip that actually works.
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