Türkiye gives you a city, a canyon and a coast. The order is the hard part.
What the Bosphorus boat costs after dark. Whether the balloon is worth $140 before sunrise. Reviews of every tour you can book in Türkiye.
A balloon at dawn, a boat at dusk, and the two ruins everybody flies in for.
The four bookings a first trip through Türkiye is built around. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01Before sunriseGoreme Hot Air Balloon Flight at SunriseLift off the Göreme valleys while it is still dark and watch a hundred other envelopes come up with you. Flights are sold months out and the first clear morning of your stay is the one to take.
02After darkBosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private TableDinner and a floor show on the Bosphorus with the old city lit on one bank and Asia on the other. A private table is the difference between a good night and a long one.
03The ruins morningFOR CRUISERS: Skip The Lines PRIVATE EPHESUS TOUR &On Time ReturnMarble streets, the Library of Celsus and the theatre, walked downhill from the upper gate before the cruise coaches reach it.
04The blue daySuluada Island Small-Group Boat Tour w/ LunchOut of Kemer to Suluada, where the water goes the colour of a swimming pool and lunch is cooked on board.
Bosphorus ferry, gulet deck or a dinner boat. Pick the hull first.
More of Türkiye is reached by boat than most people expect. Three kinds of day on the water, what it costs to board each one, and which coast it belongs to.
Istanbul: the old city before ten, the water after four.
All of Istanbul →
Sultanahmet holds four of the queues that matter inside a ten-minute walk, and every one of them runs on a timed ticket. Get them done in a morning, then spend the rest of the trip on the Bosphorus, which is where the city makes sense.
Hagia Sophia, and the three around it
The upper gallery now runs on its own ticket and its own line. A guided version bundles the Blue Mosque and the Hippodrome into the same morning, which is the only way to see all four before the heat.
The cistern, and the two Medusa heads
Three hundred columns holding up a Roman reservoir, lit red and green, with the water still moving underneath the walkways. Entry is capped by the hour, and the fast-track ticket is the difference between ten minutes and ninety.
The strait, from a deck rather than a bridge
Ferries, yachts and dinner boats all cover the same water; what changes is whether you get a guide, a meal or just a seat. The sunset sailings are the ones that fill first.
Six bases, and the day out that justifies each one.
A city on two continents, a valley of carved rock, the ruins coast around Kusadasi, and the resort strip that runs from Antalya to Alanya. Pick the bases first; the days sort themselves out afterwards.
Cappadocia is an hour of flying and two days of rock.
The balloons go up at first light and are back on the ground by eight, which leaves the rest of the day for the valleys they flew over: rock-cut churches at Göreme, the pigeon lofts at Uchisar and a city carved eight floors into the ground at Kaymakli.
Every Cappadocia day out →
South of the Taurus the day is a boat, a canyon or both.
The strip from Fethiye round to Alanya sells one thing above everything else: a hull, a cooler and somewhere to swim at noon. Behind it the mountains take over, and the same operators run jeeps into the Koprulu canyon and rafts down the Kopru river before lunch.
Half of you came for the marble. It is spread across three coasts.
Ephesus is the one everybody names, and it deserves it: a whole Roman city you walk downhill through. Then the white terraces and the theatre at Hierapolis, the Sultanahmet monuments, and the peninsula where the Gallipoli landings happened.
The days out more travellers book than anything else in Türkiye.
Every Turkish tour we have reviewed →The tours that carry more travellers than anything else here, and the reason each one earns the slot.
1
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Spend three hours aboard the Mega Lüfer yacht, sailing between Europe and Asia while enjoying a three-course Turkish meal, live folk dance, flamenco, belly dance, music, and DJ sets. Your private table, onboard Wi-Fi, optional transfers, and mobile audio guide make this a polished evening choice. Staff members such as Devran, Talip, Murat, and Fatih are frequently praised for attentive service.
From · $34
Read our review →
2
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise with Turkish Night Show
from $34
3
FOR CRUISERS: Skip The Lines PRIVATE EPHESUS TOUR &On Time Return
from $39
4
Basilica Cistern Fast-Track Entry and Audio Guide
from $44
5
Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride / Royal Balloon
from $133
6
Hagia Sophia Skip-the-Line Ticket & Museum Option
from $33
7
Goreme Hot Air Balloon Flight at Sunrise
from $142
8
Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & Exhibition
from $32
A Turkish bath is not a spa treatment. It is a public building.
Marble slab, hot room, a scrub that removes more of you than expected, then foam and cold water. Some of the Istanbul houses have been running since the sixteenth century; the resort versions are newer, cheaper and faster. Both are the right answer to a forty-degree afternoon.
- 1Private Turkish Bath, Massage, and Spa in Old Cityfrom $53
- 2Private Turkish Bath, Sauna, and Massagefrom $59
- 3Istanbul Gedikpasa Historical Turkish Bath with Privacy Optionfrom $60
What a day out in Türkiye actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A surprising share of the best days here cost less than a taxi from the airport.
Cruises up the strait, museum and cistern entries, hamam sessions, and the jeep days along the coast.
Full-day standards: Ephesus with a guide, Pamukkale and Hierapolis, the red and green valley tours.
Balloon baskets, private guides for a whole city, and the chartered boat days that earn it.
Three things that only happen in Türkiye.
Ruins, beaches and bazaars turn up all round the Mediterranean. A ceremony that is a form of prayer, a ferry that crosses between continents, and sixty covered streets of it do not.
The Sema Ceremony
The turning is a Mevlevi ritual: one hand raised to receive, one turned down to pass it on, and a felt hat that stands for a headstone. Sessions run about an hour, most of them in restored lodges rather than theatres, and the audience is asked not to clap. Hodjapasha in Istanbul and the Konya houses keep the form closest to the original.
- 1Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & Exhibition★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 4,790 reviews
- 2Whirling Dervishes Ceremony and Mevlevi Sema★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,694 reviews
- 3Whirling Dervish Ceremony next to Hagia Sophia★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 906 reviews
Crossing the Bosphorus
It is the only city in the world laid across two continents, and the crossing costs about the same as a coffee. Public ferries leave Eminonu all day for Kadikoy and Uskudar; the guided versions add the Asian food streets and Camlica hill. Do it at least once at dusk, when the mosques light up behind you.
- 1Bosphorus Yacht Cruise Experience: Visit the Asian Side★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,251 reviews
- 2Bosphorus Yacht Cruise with Stopover on the Asian Side – (Morning or Afternoon)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,657 reviews
- 3Bosphorus Explorer: 3-Hour Cruise with Asian Side Visit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,195 reviews
The Grand Bazaar
Four thousand shops under one roof, laid out by trade since the fifteenth century, with the gold on one axis and the carpets on another. The Spice Bazaar down the hill is smaller, louder and better for food. Guided walks are worth it for the workshops behind the arcades, where the lamps and the copper are actually made.
- 1Boat Tour on the Manavgat River w/ Bazaar Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 404 reviews
- 2Istanbul Grand Bazaar: From Rooftops to the Secret Passages★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 337 reviews
- 3Manavgat Boat, Bazaar, & Waterfall Day Trip with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 315 reviews
Four Turkish bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged the night before over a tea. These four run on dawn slots, wind forecasts and ticket caps that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride / Royal BalloonBaskets are capped by the civil aviation authority and every flight leaves within the same half hour before sunrise. In season they sell out weeks ahead, and a cancelled morning rebooks onto an already-full one.
- 02Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private TableThe good tables on the strait are the window seats, and they are allocated when you book rather than when you board.
- 03Basilica Cistern Fast-Track Entry and Audio GuideEntry is released in timed slots with a cap on each. Turning up without one means the queue outside, in the sun, on the Sultanahmet tram lines.
- 04Paragliding Oludeniz – Fethiye, TurkeyBabadag only launches in the right wind, so operators run a waiting list and clear it on the first good morning. Booking early puts you at the top of it.
Midsummer here is decided at dawn, then spent indoors.
From June to September the coast is unusable between noon and four, and Cappadocia balloons only fly when the wind at launch height behaves. Both have the same answer: do the outdoor thing at first light, then go underground, under marble or out on the water for the afternoon.
By place — the city, the valley and the coast
By kind of day — water, ruin, rock or marble
Istanbul, Cappadocia, Ephesus, Pamukkale: the loop almost everybody does first.
Pamukkale
FethiyeTour reviews added in the last few days.
Everything added this month →
Private Ephesus and House of Virgin Mary Tour Cruiser Only
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PRIVATE EPHESUS TOUR FOR CRUISERS: On-time Return Guaranteed
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