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Hot-air balloons spread across a pale dawn sky above the eroded tuff valleys of Goreme in Cappadocia
Balloons over the Göreme valley at first light. Flights go up all year; December to April is when the wind cancels them, sometimes for days at a time.
Country brief · 39.9334°N 32.8597°E · Updated

Turkey

52.8 million people visited in 2025, and most of them saw Istanbul, Cappadocia and one beach. The country is 1,600 kilometres wide.

How long
Ten daysa fortnight to go past the three
Getting around
Fly the long legsand drive the Lycian coast
When
April to June, September onnot high summer on the coast
Language
Turkishless English than the coast suggests
Money
The liraand cash for the tip
Airports
Two in Istanbulon two continents
How long

How many days do you need in Turkey?

Ten days for Istanbul, Cappadocia and Ephesus; a fortnight adds the Lycian coast or the southeast. The country is 1,600 kilometres wide, so the east is a separate trip. US, UK, Canadian and most EU passports need no visa for 90 days in any 180

Getting around

Do you need a car in Turkey?

Only on the coast, where it is the one sensible way. Turkish Airlines, AJet and Pegasus fly about fifty domestic airports and most legs are under two hours. High-speed rail runs Istanbul to Ankara in about four hours and Ankara to Konya in one hour forty

When

When is the best time to visit Turkey?

April to early June and September to October. The coast runs above 35C through July and August and the southeast hotter still. Cappadocia flies balloons all year, but December to April is when the wind cancels them, and Istanbul works in every month. Konya holds Şeb-i Arus from 7 to 17 December, the whirling dervish ceremonies in the Sema Hall of the Mevlâna Cultural Centre that end on the anniversary of Rumi's death.

Language

What language is spoken in Turkey?

Turkish. English proficiency is low, 71st of 123 on the 2025 EF index and 33rd of 34 in Europe, so it is fluent in the Istanbul and resort trade and thins fast inland. Kurdish is widely spoken in the southeast

Money

What money does Turkey use?

The lira. Cards are taken almost everywhere, taxis included, but tipping is cash and the machines have no gratuity line. Inflation was near 32 percent in mid-2026, so any price quoted online is old. Always choose to pay in lira, never in the card's home currency

Airports

Where do you fly into Turkey?

Istanbul has two, on opposite continents: IST took 84 million passengers in 2025 and Sabiha Gokcen SAW 48 million. Antalya AYT and Dalaman DLM for the coast, Izmir ADB for Ephesus, Kayseri ASR or Nevsehir NAV for Cappadocia, Trabzon TZX for the Black Sea

Why you should visit

Ninety seconds on the country

Turkey is where Europe stops and Asia starts, and it was run as the centre of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman worlds in turn. The evidence of all three is still standing, and a great deal of it is free to walk into.

A record 52.8 million foreign visitors came in 2025. Almost all of them went to Istanbul, Cappadocia and one southwestern beach. Those three deserve the crowds; they are also about a tenth of what is here.

The second week is the argument. Göbekli Tepe on the Mesopotamian plain pushed the start of monumental building back by seven thousand years. Ani was a city of a hundred thousand people and nobody has lived in it since the fourteenth century.

The mistake is scale. Istanbul to Kars is 1,400 kilometres and the roads are slower than the map suggests, so the long legs are flown. The seasons are the other trap: July and August on the coast run above 35C, while April, May, September and October are the months when everything is open and nothing is full.

Six Ways to Travel It

Start with the best of the country, or pick how you want to travel. The towns, the things to do and the map all change with it.

Hagia Sophia's great dome and minarets rising over the trees of Sultanahmet under a cloudy sky
Hagia Sophia from the Sultanahmet side. It is a working mosque, so visits pause at prayer times: avoid Friday midday, and cover shoulders and knees, with a headscarf for women.

Best of Turkey

The Best Places to Visit in Turkey

Fly into Istanbul and keep three nights for it, starting early in Sultanahmet, where Hagia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern and Topkapi Palace are a few minutes' walk apart. Then fly to Kayseri or Nevşehir for Cappadocia and give it two nights at least. Book the balloon for your first dawn there, so a flight the wind cancels can move to the next morning.

From Cappadocia, head west through İzmir airport to Selçuk, a short ride from the gates of Ephesus. Pamukkale is about three hours inland by road, so sleep a night beside the travertines and see them at both ends of the day. With more time, fly east to Şanlıurfa for Göbekli Tepe, or finish on the coast at Fethiye for Ölüdeniz.

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