Turkey is one of those countries that keeps confounding your expectations. I first came expecting mosques, bazaars and beaches — and found all three — but what I did not expect was the scale of the thing, the sheer variety packed into a country that spans two continents and contains some of the most extraordinary landscapes on Earth. After five separate visits, Turkey remains in my top five countries in the world, and I am still finding reasons to go back.
Istanbul: Where Two Continents Meet
Istanbul is one of the great cities of the world, and I will argue that case to anyone who has not been. The combination of Byzantine and Ottoman history, the Bosphorus dividing Europe from Asia, the extraordinary food scene, the energy of a city of sixteen million people that somehow manages to feel human-scaled in its older neighbourhoods — there is nothing else quite like it.
The Hagia Sophia is genuinely one of the most impressive buildings I have stood inside — 1,500 years old, vast, with a dome that appears to float above the nave on a ring of light. The Blue Mosque next door is beautiful in a completely different way: where the Hagia Sophia is ancient and monumental, the Blue Mosque is elegant and intricate, with 20,000 hand-painted Iznik tiles lining the interior. Go to both, go early, and do not rush.
The Grand Bazaar gets the tourist crowds, but the Spice Bazaar (Misir Carsisi) is my preference — smaller, more atmospheric, with the extraordinary smell of dried herbs, spices and Turkish tea mixing in the air. The Kapalıcarsı (Grand Bazaar) is best explored on a weekday morning before the tour groups arrive, when the shopkeepers are still drinking their first glass of tea and the lanes feel genuinely ancient.
For eating: the Karakoy and Beyoglu neighbourhoods have the best contemporary Istanbul restaurant scene. Istiklal Caddesi is the main shopping street and worth walking end to end for the architecture and energy. The ferry across the Bosphorus — a regular commuter service, costs almost nothing — is one of the finest short journeys in the world, with the minarets of the old city receding behind you and the Asian shore growing ahead.
Cappadocia: Nowhere Else on Earth
Cappadocia is the place in Turkey that most reliably makes first-time visitors question whether they are actually looking at something real. The landscape — thousands of volcanic rock formations called fairy chimneys, carved over millennia by erosion into cones, columns and mushroom shapes — looks like a film set for a science fiction story, and the hot air balloons that rise above it at dawn every morning add a layer of surreal beauty that photographs cannot fully capture.
I rode in a balloon at sunrise on my first visit, and it remains one of the finest hours of my travelling life. The valleys below are extraordinary at ground level too — the Rose Valley, the Pigeon Valley, the underground cities of Derinkuyu and Kaymakli, where entire ancient communities lived beneath the earth. Stay in a cave hotel in Goreme or Uchisar: the rooms are carved into the rock, cool in summer and cosy in winter, and waking up in a cave with views across the fairy chimneys is an experience with no equivalent anywhere I have been.
The Turquoise Coast: Gulet Sailing and Oludeniz
Turkey’s Aegean and Mediterranean coastline is one of the most beautiful I have seen anywhere. The water is that specific shade of turquoise-blue that appears in photographs and looks artificial but is entirely real, and the combination of pine-covered mountains dropping into the sea, ancient ruins in coves you can only reach by boat, and small fishing villages that have not changed significantly in decades makes it genuinely extraordinary.
A gulet cruise — typically three to seven days on a traditional wooden sailing boat, island-hopping between anchorages — is the finest way to experience it. The classic Blue Voyage route runs from Bodrum or Fethiye and takes in the bays around Gocek, Oludeniz and the Bozburun Peninsula. You anchor in deserted coves for swimming, eat on deck, sleep under the stars and move on each morning to somewhere new. It is, without qualification, one of my favourite travel experiences in Europe.
Oludeniz, with its famous Blue Lagoon, is one of the most photographed beaches in Turkey — rightly so. It is also a world-class paragliding destination: the tandem flights from Babadag mountain above the lagoon are genuinely extraordinary, the highest commercial paragliding launch in Europe, with the blue water stretching out below you as you spiral down.
Ephesus: Walking Through Ancient Rome
Ephesus, near the modern city of Selcuk on the Aegean coast, is one of the best-preserved Roman cities in the world, and walking its marble-paved streets — the Library of Celsus, the Great Theatre, the Terrace Houses with their extraordinary mosaic floors — gives a more vivid sense of ancient urban life than almost any other site I have visited. The scale of it is remarkable: at its peak, Ephesus had a population of around 200,000 people, making it one of the largest cities in the ancient Mediterranean world.
Go early, before the tour groups arrive from the Aegean cruise ships. The Terrace Houses — a separate ticketed section showing the homes of wealthy Ephesians, still decorated with original frescoes and mosaics — are worth every extra lira and are the highlight of the site.
Pamukkale: The Cotton Castle
Pamukkale — the name means “cotton castle” in Turkish — is a hillside of white travertine terraces formed by calcium-rich thermal waters flowing down the slope and depositing mineral formations as they cool. The terraces cascade down the hillside in a series of white pools that look, from a distance, like a frozen waterfall. You walk barefoot along the terraces (shoes are required to be removed to protect the formations) through warm, ankle-deep water, with views across the plains below. It is one of the stranger and more beautiful natural phenomena I have encountered anywhere.
At the top of the hill, the ancient Greco-Roman city of Hierapolis adds a historical dimension that makes Pamukkale more than just a visual spectacle. The ruins include a well-preserved theatre, a necropolis stretching for hundreds of metres, and a thermal pool called the Antique Pool where you can swim among submerged Roman columns.
Practical Tips for Turkey
- The Turkish lira has weakened significantly against major currencies in recent years, making Turkey excellent value for international visitors — good restaurants, accommodation and experiences cost a fraction of what equivalent quality would in Western Europe.
- Dress modestly when visiting mosques — shoulders and knees covered, shoes removed at the entrance. A small scarf for women is useful to have in your bag.
- Turkish tea (cay) is offered everywhere and refusing it is mildly impolite — accept, drink, and enjoy. It is very good.
- The best times to visit Istanbul and the coast are April-May and September-October; Cappadocia is beautiful year-round but magical in snow (December-February).
- Fly into Istanbul for the west of the country; Kayseri airport is the gateway for Cappadocia.
Love the Mediterranean? Also read our guide to the best quiet resorts in Crete — another stunning destination just across the sea from the Turkish coast.
