Two continents, a valley of balloons, and a coast that never stops.
Which Bosphorus boat is worth the dinner ticket. What a Göreme balloon really costs at sunrise. Whether Ephesus works as a day trip or wants the whole night. Reviews of every tour you can book in Türkiye.
The Bosphorus, Göreme at dawn, Ephesus and the white terraces.
The four bookings a first Türkiye itinerary is built around. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first afternoonDaytime or Sunset Sightseeing Cruise & Audio GuideTwo continents from the water for the price of a coffee. Ninety minutes, and the city finally makes sense as a shape.
02Before sunriseGoreme Hot Air Balloon Flight at SunriseUp over the chimneys while the valleys are still cold. Flights are called on the wind at five in the morning, so leave a spare day.
03The marble streetSmall Group Tour for Cruise PassengersEphesus from the top gate downhill, so the Library of Celsus arrives last. Small groups clear the Terrace Houses faster.
04The white terracesPamukkale Hierapolis and Cleopatra’s Pool Tour with lunch from AntalyaHierapolis above, Cleopatra’s pool below, and travertine you walk barefoot. Long drive, so take the one with lunch built in.
Istanbul first, then the chimneys, then whichever stretch of coast your flight lands on.
A city split between two continents, a volcanic valley you fly over at dawn, the Roman coast behind Kusadasi and three resort towns that run their own boats. Six starting points, and the best day out in each.
In Türkiye the day usually ends on a deck.
A city cut in half by a strait, a coastline of bays with no road to them, and a boat leaving from every one. Three kinds of day afloat, what it costs to board each, and which harbour it sails from.
Istanbul: the Old City before the queues, the strait after dark.
Everything in Istanbul →
Sultanahmet stacks three world monuments around one square, and by ten it is shoulder to shoulder. Take it early, sleep through the heat, then take the water at dusk. These three carry more travellers than anything else in the city.
Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Cistern
Each carries its own ticket and its own queue. The combo passes bundle two or three and walk you past the gate line, which is money well spent in July and barely worth it in March.
Which Bosphorus boat is worth it
The cheap sightseeing run gives you the palaces, the bridges and an audio guide. The dinner boats add a table, a band and a bill four times the size, and the good ones earn it.
A hammam that is not a tourist trap
The historic baths on the peninsula are the ones with the domes and the heated marble. Book a scrub and a foam massage for the hottest part of the afternoon and lose an hour to it.
Göreme runs on two clocks: balloons at dawn, valleys after breakfast.
Take the flight on your first clear morning, because the wind cancels more of them than anyone admits. The rest of the day belongs to rock churches, cities carved eight storeys down, and an ATV through the Red Valley at sunset.
Türkiye’s most popular days out.
Every Turkish tour we have reviewed →More travellers take these than anything else in Türkiye. What each one is, what it costs, and who it suits.
1
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Spend three hours aboard the Mega Lüfer yacht, crossing between Istanbul’s European and Asian shores over a three-course Turkish meal. Expect folk dance, flamenco, belly dance, live music, and views of Dolmabahçe Palace, Ortaköy Mosque, and the Bosphorus bridges. Hotel pickup, VIP seating, and drink packages vary.
From · $34
Read our review →
2
Daytime or Sunset Sightseeing Cruise & Audio Guide
from $8
3
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise with Turkish Night Show
from $34
4
Best of Istanbul 1, 2 or 3-Day Private Guided Istanbul Tour
from $100
5
FOR CRUISERS: Skip The Lines PRIVATE EPHESUS TOUR &On Time Return
from $39
6
Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride / Royal Balloon
from $133
7
Hagia Sophia Skip-the-Line Ticket & Museum Option
from $33
8
Goreme Hot Air Balloon Flight at Sunrise
from $142
Ephesus is the best-preserved Roman city on this sea, and it sits an hour from a cruise berth.
Marble Street runs downhill from the top gate to the Library of Celsus, which is the facade everybody came for. Add the Terrace Houses for the mosaics and the House of the Virgin Mary for the quiet hillside. Kusadasi is the base; Selçuk is closer.
- 1FOR CRUISERS: Skip The Lines PRIVATE EPHESUS TOUR &On Time Returnfrom $39
- 2For Ship Guests:BEST SELLER EPHESUS PRIVATE TOUR & On Time Returnfrom $39
- 3ALL INCLUDED: Ephesus Ruins, Mary’s House Tour incl ENTRY TICKETSfrom $59
What a day out in Türkiye actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best Turkish days come in under the price of lunch at home.
Ferry cruises, mosque and museum tickets, hammam slots and the jeep days out of the resort towns.
The full-day standards: Ephesus with entry included, Pamukkale with lunch, most balloon flights.
Private guides, chartered gulets and the sunrise flights that put you in the front basket.
From Antalya to Fethiye the road is one long balcony over the water.
Suluada is a bare rock in impossible blue. The Green Canyon runs cold under the Taurus dams. Between them sit jeep tracks, a paraglider launch above Ölüdeniz and a boat leaving every harbour by nine.
Every day on the turquoise coast →
Three things that only happen in Türkiye.
Ruins and beach clubs run all the way round this sea. A valley of stone chimneys flown at first light, a marble bath house older than the republic, and forty minutes of turning do not.
The Göreme balloon fleet
On a good morning around a hundred and fifty balloons lift out of the Cappadocian valleys inside a two-hour window the aviation authority sets the night before. Pilots steer by dropping into different winds at different heights, so the valleys do more of the flying than the burners do. Wind grounds the fleet more often than visitors expect, which is why the advice is always to book your first morning in Göreme rather than your last.
- 1Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride / Royal Balloon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 6,829 reviews
- 2Goreme Hot Air Balloon Flight at Sunrise★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4,924 reviews
- 3Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride/ Turquaz Balloons★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,330 reviews
The hammam
The bath house arrived with the Ottomans and never left: a domed hot room, a heated marble slab in the middle, and an attendant who takes a layer off you with a coarse mitt before burying you in foam. The oldest working baths in Istanbul have been open for four centuries. Men and women are separated by room or by hour, and the towel etiquette gets explained at the door.
- 1Private Turkish Bath, Massage, and Spa in Old City★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 3,225 reviews
- 2Private Turkish Bath, Sauna, and Massage★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,306 reviews
- 3Istanbul Gedikpasa Historical Turkish Bath with Privacy Option★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,285 reviews
The sema ceremony
The Mevlevi order has turned since the thirteenth century: right palm up to receive, left palm down to pass on, the body a channel between the two. It is a rite rather than a show, which is why the serious venues ask for no applause and no flash. Konya is the order’s home, but Istanbul and Cappadocia hold the ceremonies most travellers see.
- 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
Four Turkish bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on flight caps, timed entry and calendars that take no interest in when you land.
- 01Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride / Royal BalloonOnly a fixed number of balloons are cleared to fly each morning, and in season every basket goes. A grounded flight rebooks to the next clear day, not the next hour.
- 02Hagia Sophia Skip-the-Line Ticket & Museum OptionUpper-gallery entry runs on timed slots and the building closes to visitors for prayer through the day. The early slots are the only ones with room to move.
- 03Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & ExhibitionThe ceremony halls seat a few dozen. There is one showing a night, and it is the same night everyone else is in town.
- 04FOR CRUISERS: Skip The Lines PRIVATE EPHESUS TOUR &On Time ReturnShip days flood the site between ten and two. The tours that beat them leave around eight, and there are only so many seats on those.
A July afternoon at a Turkish ruin is thirty-eight degrees with nowhere to stand.
Two things break a midsummer day here. Open sites are punishing from eleven, and the balloons stay on the ground whenever the wind gets up. Both have the same answer: go at first light, then get under stone. Marble bath houses, carved-out underground cities, covered bazaars and a cold canyon lake.
By place: city, valley and coast
Istanbul, Cappadocia, Pamukkale, Ephesus, then the coast: the run almost everybody does first.
PamukkaleThe newest Turkish tour reviews.
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Cappadocia South Tour (Pro Guide, Tickets, Lunch, Transfer incl)
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Full Day Cappadocia Highlights Private Tour (Car and Guide )
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Cappadocia Shared Transfer From/To Kayseri or Nevşehir Airport
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Red (North) Tour Cappadocia (small group) with lunch and ticket
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Cappadocia Red Tour (with zelve Open Air Museum and Paşabağ)
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Great Deal : 2 Full-day Cappadocia Tours from Hotels and Airports
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Cappadocia Red Tour With Open Air Museum And Expert Tour Guide
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North Cappadocia (Red) Tour with Goreme Museum Entry & Lunch
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