Türkiye travel guide

Travel to Türkiye between Apr – Jun, Sep – Oct. Those are the months the weather, the crowds and the airfare line up — outside them you trade one of the three.

Currency

Turkish Lira (TRY)

Language

Turkish; English in tourist districts, very little in the interior.

Time zone

TRT (UTC+3) — 2½ hours behind India

Plug type

Type C / F, 230V

Flight time from India

6.5 hrs

Flying from

Mumbai · Delhi · Ahmedabad

• 

  Sultanahmet in one morning: Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Basilica Cistern

  All three are within a five-minute walk of each other. Hagia Sophia has been a cathedral, a mosque, a museum and a mosque again, and the layered Christian mosaics above Islamic calligraphy are the whole history of the city in one ceiling. Go at opening; both mosques close to visitors during the five prayer times.

• 

  A balloon over Göreme at first light

  Pickup is at 4.30am, the flight is about an hour, and you land to a glass of cherry juice in a field. Flights are cancelled by the civil aviation authority for wind far more often than agents admit — perhaps one morning in four in spring. Book day one of a three-night stay so there are two more chances.

• 

  The Bosphorus, and the Asian side nobody books

  Take the public ferry rather than the tourist cruise — same water, a tenth of the price, and a glass of tea on deck. Get off at Kadıköy for the produce market and Moda seafront, which is where Istanbul actually eats, and come back at sunset with the skyline in front of you.

• Pamukkale and Hierapolis

  White calcium terraces stepping down a hillside, filled with warm mineral water you walk through barefoot — shoes are not allowed, to protect the travertine. Above it sits the Roman spa city of Hierapolis with a theatre and a necropolis, and almost nobody walks the extra ten minutes to see it.

• Ephesus, and the Library of Celsus

  The best-preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean — a marble street you can walk from the top gate down to a two-storey library facade, past the terraced houses with their mosaic floors still in place. Enter from the upper gate and walk downhill; the coach parties do the reverse and climb.

• A hamam, done properly

  The historic baths — Çemberlitaş, Kılıç Ali Paşa — are three hundred to four hundred years old and separate men and women completely. The full service is a heated marble slab, a coarse kese scrub and a foam massage, and it takes ninety minutes. It is not a spa treatment and it is not gentle.

• Meze — the vegetarian way inVegetarian

  Turkey is a meat country with an outstanding vegetable tradition hiding inside it. Haydari, ezme, patlıcan salatası, dolma and imam bayıldı are all meat-free and make a full meal between them. The word to use is etsiz, without meat; be aware that many soups and pilafs start from chicken stock even when they look plain.

• Menemen and simitVegetarian

  Breakfast in Turkey is a spread, not a plate — cheeses, olives, tomato, honey with clotted kaymak, and menemen, which is eggs cooked into tomato and green pepper. Simit, the sesame ring sold from every street cart, is vegan and costs almost nothing.

• Lahmacun and pideVegetarian

  Lahmacun is minced lamb on a thin base and is not vegetarian, but almost every pide house also makes a peynirli pide — cheese, sometimes with spinach or mushroom — from the same oven. Ask for it explicitly rather than assuming the vegetarian option exists on the printed menu.

• Baklava, künefe and lokumVegetarian

  Pistachio baklava from Karaköy Güllüoğlu or Hafız Mustafa is a different food from the version sold in Indian bakeries. It is made with butter and sugar syrup, so it is vegetarian but not vegan. Turkish delight is usually starch and sugar, but check the chewy fruit varieties for gelatin.

• Indian and Jain food in IstanbulJain friendly

  There is a small, reliable cluster of Indian restaurants around Sultanahmet, Laleli and Beyoğlu that will cook Jain with a day notice. Cappadocia and Pamukkale have essentially none, so for a Jain group we arrange the meals through the tour operator kitchen in advance rather than hoping.

Set a meal preference — vegetarian, Jain or halal — when you book and we brief every hotel and restaurant on your itinerary.

• Carpets and kilims — buy from a shop you found yourself, and insist on the certificate and the shipping paperwork
• Pistachio baklava boxed for travel, from Karaköy Güllüoğlu or Hafız Mustafa
• Iznik and Avanos ceramics, and the hand-thrown pottery of the Cappadocia potters
• Nazar boncuğu evil-eye glass, made properly in Izmir rather than pressed in a factory
• Peştemal cotton towels, which pack flat and outlast anything from a hotel shop
• Turkish tea, apple tea, sumac and Urfa chilli from the Spice Bazaar — sold loose, negotiate by weight

In Istanbul one Istanbulkart covers the tram, metro, funicular, bus and the ferries, and the tram from Sultanahmet to Kabataş is the spine of a sightseeing day. Between cities, domestic flights to Kayseri or Nevşehir for Cappadocia and to Izmir for Ephesus cost less than the coach in time saved. Cappadocia itself needs a car or a guided tour — the valleys are twenty kilometres apart with no bus. Istanbul taxis are the weak point: use BiTaksi or Uber, which run on the meter.

• The Istanbul taxi routine is meter refusal, a long detour, or a note swap — you hand over a 200 lira note and it becomes a 20. Say the value out loud as you hand it over, and use an app instead.
• Do not accept an invitation from a friendly, well-dressed stranger to see a bar or a club. The bill arrives with a doorman behind it and runs into six figures in lira. The shoeshine man who drops his brush in front of you is the same family of scam, at a smaller scale.
• Carpet shops pay tour guides and drivers a commission of thirty to fifty per cent, which is inside the price you are quoted. Buy on a day you are walking alone, and never on the shop first offer.
• Balloon flights are grounded by the aviation authority, not the operator, and a grounded flight is refunded but not rescheduled if you leave the next morning. Three nights in Cappadocia is a scheduling decision, not an upsell.
• Türkiye sits on the North Anatolian fault. Note the exit from your hotel floor, and do not book a top-floor room in an old Sultanahmet building if that worries you.
• Mosque etiquette is enforced kindly but firmly: shoulders and knees covered for everyone, a headscarf for women, shoes off and carried, no visits during the five prayer times, and Friday midday is closed to visitors entirely.

Per person, per day, on the ground — meals, local transport and entry tickets. Flights and hotels sit in the package price, not here.