- Home
- About Nicole
- Explore the World
-
Travel Library ▾
Proud affiliate of Favorite Grampy Travels
The Istanbul skyline from the water, which is the way everybody tells you to see it first · this one is not ours, we have not been to Turkey
Turkey — Everything We Know
“The magical Anatolian decorational style of the Nisanyan Hotel in Sirince, Turkey.”
We have never been to Turkey, and the honest version of why this page exists is that people keep asking me for it. Turkey sits at number nineteen on the list of places Americans search for when they come to me, and it climbs every year. So this is advisor work. It is what I book, what I read, and what I would tell a friend over coffee. It is not a trip report and I will not pretend it is.
The closest I have ever come to Turkey was standing in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan in March 2010, reading the numbers on the wall. Twenty three hundred men from eleven countries. Turkey, four hundred and sixty two. Second only to the British. I wrote about that cemetery and I still think about that number, because I had no idea Turkey had been there at all. That is the thing about Turkey. It is in more of the story than most Americans realize.
What I would say hardest to a family planning this is that Istanbul is not a two day stop. People give it a weekend on the way to a beach and then tell me it was crowded and they got hassled in the bazaar. Of course they did. They saw the four things everyone sees, at the hour everyone sees them. Give Istanbul five days and it turns into one of the great cities of the world. Give it the days.
Turkey City by City
Eight places, in the order I would actually send a family. Istanbul is first and it is not close. Everything under it is a decision about whether you are adding ruins, water or rock.
Istanbul
Cappadocia
Ephesus
Antalya
Pamukkale
Bodrum
Izmir
Fethiye
Why Turkey
Because it gives a family more for the money than anywhere else within reach of Europe, and because Istanbul is genuinely one of the handful of cities on earth that changes how you think about cities.
It is also the honest answer to a question I get constantly, which is where do we go instead of Greece. The Turkish coast has the same water, the same ruins and better food, at prices that are not in the same universe.
Two continents, one city
Istanbul sits on Europe and Asia and the ferry between them costs about the same as a bus ticket. For a nine year old, crossing continents before lunch is the kind of fact that sticks for the rest of their life.
The ruins are not roped off
Ephesus, Hierapolis, Aphrodisias, Troy. Sites that would be behind glass anywhere else and you walk through the middle of them. Ephesus alone is bigger and better preserved than anything most families have seen in Italy.
The value is real
The lira has fallen hard against the dollar for years, and while inflation has eaten a lot of that at home, for a visiting family Turkey remains dramatically cheaper than Greece or Italy for the same coastline. That gap is the whole argument.
Turkey, four hundred and sixty two. Second only to the British. I had no idea Turkey had been there at all.
Nicole, on the UN Memorial Cemetery in Busan, March 2010Culture and Etiquette
Turkish hospitality is not a marketing line, it is a genuine social obligation, and it will be aimed at your children before it is aimed at you. Let it happen. Also understand that the friendliness in the tourist streets of Sultanahmet is a different thing entirely, and knowing the difference is most of what makes Turkey easy.
Mosques ask for cover. Shoulders and knees covered for everyone, hair covered for women, shoes off at the door. Scarves are lent at the big ones. Teach the kids before you get there so nobody is being corrected in a doorway.
The bazaar price is an opening. In the Grand Bazaar and the tourist strips, the first number is a conversation, not a price. Offer roughly half, expect to land near two thirds, and be willing to walk. In a normal shop with tickets on the goods, the price is the price and haggling is rude.
Say yes to the tea. You will be offered cay constantly and it is not always a sales tactic. Sitting down for ten minutes is how a lot of Turkish transactions work. Accepting does not obligate you to buy anything.
The tout at the mosque is a tout. Anyone who opens with where are you from, my friend, outside a major sight, is working. It is not dangerous, it is just tiring. A flat no thank you without breaking stride is the correct move and it is not rude.
It is Turkiye now, officially. The country formally changed its name at the United Nations in 2022. Turkey is still what everyone says in English and nobody will correct you, but you will see Turkiye on documents and packaging.
The Grand Bazaar. Go early, go once, and go knowing that the lamps are beautiful and that the same lamps are half the price in a shop three streets outside the walls. Kids love it for about forty minutes and then it is very loud and very warm.
What to Eat
Turkish food is the easiest sell I have for a picky family. Grilled meat, bread, rice, yoghurt, tomatoes, nothing hidden in a sauce. If you have a kid who eats plain food, they will eat here. If you have a kid who eats everything, they will be very happy.
Getting Around
Turkey is enormous. It is roughly the distance from New York to Kansas City between Istanbul and the far side of Cappadocia, and families consistently underestimate that. The answer is almost always to fly the long legs.
Domestic flights are cheap and frequent. Istanbul to Cappadocia is about ninety minutes and often costs less than the train. Istanbul to Izmir, Antalya, Dalaman, all the same. Book them the way you would book a bus.
In Istanbul itself, get an Istanbulkart at the airport and use it for the tram, the metro, the funicular and the ferries. The ferry between the European and Asian sides is on the same card and it is the best thing you will do for the price of a coffee. Do not drive in Istanbul. On the coast and in Cappadocia, do rent a car, roads are good and it is the only way to reach the smaller ruins and bays.
Cappadocia at dawn. Balloon flights lift around sunrise, take about an hour, and most operators set a minimum age around six. They are also canceled for wind more often than people expect, so book the first morning of a three night stay, not the last. If a child is nervous, watching a hundred balloons come up from a hotel terrace is genuinely almost as good and costs nothing.
Money and Practical Basics
The lira moves. Turkey uses the Turkish lira and it has been volatile for years. Do not price your trip in lira months out. Price it in dollars, check again a week before, and expect restaurant menus to have been reprinted since the reviews you read.
Withdraw from a bank ATM. Use a Ziraat, Garanti or Is Bankasi machine, decline the machine conversion, and take out larger amounts less often because per withdrawal fees are high. The exchange offices in Grand Bazaar streets are actually competitive, unusually, but count it in front of them.
Cards work, cash still rules the edges. Cities and hotels are card everywhere. A village restaurant, a bazaar stall, a taxi, a site entrance in the middle of nowhere. Carry lira.
Do not drink the tap water. Turks do not. Bottled water is everywhere and costs almost nothing. This is the one hygiene rule that actually matters here and it is easy to keep.
Check your visa before you book. US citizens can currently enter visa free for short stays, which changed in 2024, but this is exactly the kind of rule that moves. Check the official Turkish e-visa site for your own passport within a month of travel.
When to Go
Turkey has four real climates at once. The coast in August is Mediterranean brutal, Cappadocia in January is snow, and Istanbul is grey and wet in a way nobody warns you about. Pick the shoulder and the whole country gets easier.
Spring
April to early June is the best window in the country and it is not close. Istanbul has its tulip season, the ruins are walkable without dying, the sea is warming and the prices have not turned over yet.
Summer
July and August on the coast means high thirties and packed beaches, and Ephesus at midday in August is a genuinely bad idea with children. If you must come then, be coastal, be in the water by eleven, and skip the inland ruins entirely.
Autumn
September and October are the other right answer. The sea is still warm through October, the light in Cappadocia is at its best, and the crowds thin out sharply after the first week of September.
Winter
Istanbul is cold, grey and often wet, and it is also empty, cheap and beautiful under snow. Cappadocia in snow is genuinely spectacular and balloon flights are canceled more often. The coast largely closes.
How Many Days and How to Route It
The single most common mistake is trying to do Istanbul, Cappadocia, Ephesus and a beach in ten days. Here is what actually works.
Five days, all Istanbul. This is the trip I would sell most families first. One flat, one card, the old city, the Asian side, the Bosphorus, the Archaeological Museum, and time to sit still. Nobody comes back from this disappointed.
Eight to ten days, add Cappadocia. Fly. Three nights in a cave hotel, the underground cities, one balloon morning with a spare morning behind it. This is the classic and it is classic for a reason.
Two weeks, add coast or ruins, not both. Either fly to Izmir for Ephesus and the Aegean, or fly to Dalaman for Fethiye and the boats. Choosing one and staying put beats a coach tour of three.
Do not day trip Cappadocia from Istanbul. It is sold everywhere as a long day with a dawn flight each way. It is eighteen hours of misery with children and you will see it exhausted. Three nights or skip it.
Regions at a Glance
Istanbul and Marmara
The city, plus the Princes Islands, Bursa and Gallipoli. Most first trips never leave this box and that is a perfectly good trip.
The Aegean Coast
Izmir, Ephesus, Bodrum, Kusadasi, Pamukkale inland. Ruins and clear water in the same week. The most direct Greece comparison and the strongest value argument.
The Mediterranean Coast
Antalya, Fethiye, Kas, Olympos and the Lycian Way. Warmer, greener, more dramatic cliffs, and where the gulet boat trips run. Best for families who want water first.
Central Anatolia
Cappadocia, Konya, Ankara. Rock, caves, balloons and the country as it actually is away from the coast. Colder, higher, and the part that surprises people most.
Where to Go in Turkey
In the order I would build a trip, with the reason attached.
Istanbul, and give it five days. Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern, Topkapi. Then the parts people skip. The Archaeological Museum, the ferry to Kadikoy and lunch on the Asian side, Balat for the painted houses, and the Bosphorus at dusk.
Cappadocia, three nights minimum. A cave hotel is not a gimmick, kids lose their minds over sleeping in a rock. Kaymakli or Derinkuyu underground cities, the Goreme open air museum, and a balloon morning with a backup morning behind it.
Ephesus, early or not at all. Be at the gate when it opens. By ten it is coach parties and forty degrees on white marble. The Terrace Houses cost extra and are worth every lira. Sirince is fifteen minutes away and is where I would eat lunch.
Pamukkale for one day. White mineral terraces you walk barefoot up, with Hierapolis and a Roman theater on top. It is genuinely strange and children love it. It is also a long way from anything, so pair it with the Aegean coast rather than routing around it.
Fethiye and the Lycian coast for water. Oludeniz lagoon, day boats out of Fethiye harbor, sunken ruins you snorkel over at Kekova. This is the part of Turkey that competes directly with the Greek islands and wins on price.
Antalya if you want a city and a beach together. Kaleici, the old walled town, is genuinely lovely, the archaeological museum is excellent, and you can be swimming ten minutes after leaving it. The best single base for a family that wants both.
Istanbul at night, from above the Bosphorus. I have not been to Turkey. The closest I have come was a cemetery in Busan in 2010, where four hundred and sixty two Turkish soldiers are buried, more than any nation except Britain. That is why I read about this country differently now · photo: stock
Family Travel Considerations
The safety picture, honestly. The US State Department has Turkey at Level 2, exercise increased caution, the same level it gives France, Italy and Spain. The Level 4 do not travel areas are the southeast border provinces with Syria and Iraq, hundreds of miles from anywhere on this page. Istanbul, Cappadocia and the coasts are ordinary large tourist destinations with ordinary big city petty theft. Check the advisory yourself before you book, because it moves, but do not let a headline make the decision.
Children are genuinely welcomed. Restaurants will take your baby around the kitchen. Strangers will hand your kids sweets. Turkish culture treats children as everyone business in a way that is warm and occasionally a lot. Nobody will glare at you for a loud toddler.
The heat is the real hazard. Not crime. Marble ruins in August at forty degrees with no shade is how families ruin a trip. Hats, water, early starts, afternoons indoors or in the sea. This is the rule that matters.
Check the balloon minimum age. Most Cappadocia operators set six or seven as the minimum and some require a minimum height. Confirm with the operator directly, not with the booking site, before you pay for five people.
Dogs are complicated. Turkey has a large street dog population and rules on bringing your own dog in are stricter than the EU. If Poppy came with us this would need real planning, and it is one reason Turkey is not our next trip.
Splurge-Worthy Experiences
A private Bosphorus boat at sunset
Not the group cruise with the loudspeaker. A small chartered boat for ninety minutes at golden hour, which for a family of five often costs less per head than the ferry tour and is a completely different evening.
A cave suite in Goreme
The good ones are carved into actual rock with a terrace facing the valley, and you watch the balloons come up over breakfast without paying to fly. This is the single best money in Turkey.
A proper hamam, with the kids old enough
A historic Ottoman bathhouse, the marble slab, the scrub. Family and mixed sessions exist at the big Istanbul hamams. It is an hour they will talk about for a decade.
The Terrace Houses at Ephesus
The extra ticket most people skip. Roman townhouses under a modern roof with the mosaics and frescoes still on the walls. It is the only place in Ephesus that is shaded, quiet and air cooled, which is its own argument.
What Surprises First-Timers
How big it is. Turkey is larger than Texas and people plan it like Portugal. Look at the flight times before you write an itinerary.
The call to prayer at five in the morning. Five times a day, amplified, and in Sultanahmet you are inside a ring of mosques. Most people find it beautiful. Everyone finds it early. Ask for a room away from the street.
The cats. Istanbul is run by cats and it is not a joke. They are fed, doctored and respected by the whole city. For a nine year old it is the single best thing about the trip.
How much of it is not Muslim in the way you expect. Turkey is officially secular, Istanbul and the coasts are visibly so, and alcohol is served openly in most restaurants a tourist walks into. Central Anatolia is more conservative. Both are Turkey.
Go Deeper
I have not written about Turkey, because I have not been. These are the nearest things I have, and they are honest about that. If you want the wider picture, the Europe guide sits above all of this, and Greece and Croatia are the two guides worth reading beside this one, because they are the countries families are usually choosing between.
Pairs Well With
If you have the time to add a second country, these are the ones I would actually pair this one with. Not a list of neighbors. A list of trips that work.
More Europe Guides
Every other country in Europe we have a full guide for. Tap one and go.
