Cappadocia at dawn. Istanbul after dark.
Which balloon company actually flies when the wind turns. Which Bosphorus boat is dinner and which is a ferry with a soundtrack. What a proper hammam costs before the tip. Reviews of 2,401 tours across Turkey.
The Bosphorus boats and balloon baskets everyone books first.
All the Turkey reviews →Two cities carry most of Turkey’s bookings: Istanbul on the water and Goreme in the air. These are the runs travellers take more than any other.
1
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Review of Istanbul’s Bosphorus dinner cruise, with a private table, Turkish food, live shows, city views, pricing, and practical tips.
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
Basilica Cistern Fast-Track Entry and Audio Guide
from $44
7
Top Choice For Cruisers: Ephesus, Mary’s House WITH TICKETS+LUNCH
from $29
8
Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride / Royal Balloon
from $133
In Cappadocia the day starts at half past four.
Pickup in the dark, a field of nylon filling with hot air, and forty minutes over the fairy chimneys before breakfast. By ten the valleys belong to the quad bikes and the horses.
Balloons, ruins, hammams and the Bosphorus.
Six kinds of day carry most of a first trip to Turkey. Here is what each one is really like, and the best way to book it.
Istanbul is two continents and one ferry ticket.
Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque face each other across a single park. The Grand Bazaar eats an afternoon. The Bosphorus boats run from Eminonu until late, and the cheapest of them costs less than a coffee back home.
The Aegean and the Med, one gulet at a time.
Suluada really is that colour. Wooden boats leave Antalya, Side, Alanya, Fethiye and Marmaris every morning with lunch aboard; the good ones anchor in coves the day-trip fleet has already left. Between swims there is Oludeniz to jump off and Kekova to paddle over.
- 1Jeep Safari & Green Lake Boat Trip with Lunchfrom $19
- 2Suluada Boat Tour From Antalya (Maldives of Turkey) with Lunch & Hotel Transferfrom $23
- 3Green Canyon Jeep and Boat Tour with Lunchfrom $28
From an $8 Bosphorus ferry to a $150 balloon basket.
Half of Turkey’s best days out come in under fifty dollars. Here is what each price band actually buys you.
Ferries up the Bosphorus, museum tickets, hammam sessions, bazaar walks and coffee ground on hot sand.
The full days: a boat with lunch aboard, Ephesus with a guide, jeep and quad runs into the canyon.
Sunrise in a balloon basket, private guides through Istanbul, multi-day runs out to Cappadocia.
The balloon, the hammam and the dervishes.
Ruins and beaches belong to the whole Mediterranean. These three days do not happen anywhere but Turkey.
The Goreme Balloon
Around a hundred balloons lift out of the Cappadocian valleys on a flyable morning, which is why the photographs look like that. The civil aviation authority grounds the whole fleet when the wind turns, and it turns often between November and March, so book the first morning of your stay and keep the second in reserve. Flights are ninety minutes door to door for about forty in the air.
- 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
A proper hammam is a domed marble room heated from beneath the floor, and the ritual has not changed much since the sixteenth century: sweat on the hot stone, a kese mitt that takes a layer of you with it, then a foam wash and cold water over the head. The historic Istanbul houses charge for the room as much as the scrub. Bring nothing; they hand you everything.
- 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 Dervish Ceremony
The sema is a religious rite, not a floor show: the sheikh, the reed flute, and the turning that carries the dancer’s right hand up and left hand down. The halls that stage it properly run on set nights and ask for quiet and no flash. Cave restaurants in Cappadocia serve the other tradition, the folk night with the drums and the belly dance, and they are honest about which is which.
- 1Bosphorus Dinner Cruise with Turkish Night Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 10,127 reviews
- 2Bosphorus Cruise with Dinner Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,181 reviews
- 3Turkish Night at Cave Restaurant with Dinner and Unlimited Drinks★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,225 reviews
Istanbul does not go quiet when the sun drops.
More Istanbul after dark →Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Read our review →
Bosphorus Sunset Yacht Experience: Istanbul’s Best
Read our review →Four Turkish days you cannot book on arrival.
Most of Turkey can be arranged from the hotel desk the night before. These four cannot: they run on weather windows, fixed ceremony nights, cruise-ship timetables and a finite number of seats.
- 01Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride / Royal BalloonFlights are grounded whenever the wind turns, and the fleet is capped each morning. Book your first day in Cappadocia and hold the second in reserve.
- 02Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private TableA Bosphorus dinner boat has a handful of window tables per sailing, and they are gone long before the gangway opens.
- 03Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & ExhibitionThe ceremony runs on set nights in a hall that seats a few hundred. There is no walk-up queue worth joining.
- 04FOR CRUISERS: Skip The Lines PRIVATE EPHESUS TOUR &On Time ReturnShip days flood the site. The private runs that guarantee an on-time return to Kusadasi port fill first, and the port is a long way from the ruins.
When the Aegean sun wins, go under marble.
July on the coast runs past thirty-five degrees and Ephesus has almost no shade. The old answers still work, and all of them are indoors: the cool of a hammam, the columns of the Basilica Cistern, coffee brewed on hot sand, and the covered lanes of the bazaars.
By region — the caves, the city, the coast
Istanbul926 tours
Cappadocia477 tours
Antalya295 tours
Kusadasi & Ephesus119 tours
Side100 tours
Alanya180 tours
Fethiye & Oludeniz69 tours- All fifteen regions →
By experience — balloon, boat, bath or bazaar
Istanbul, the caves, the ruins, then the sea.
Istanbul
Cappadocia
Pamukkale
Kusadasi
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