The Caucasus & the Bosphorus
Türkiye
A city on two continents, and a Mediterranean coast with more classical ruins than Greece.
- Capital
- City
- Destination
- Türkiye
Türkiye is transcontinental: East Thrace is in Europe, Istanbul straddles the divide, and the rest is Anatolia. It is a Council of Europe member and a candidate for EU accession. It holds more Greek and Roman cities than Greece and Italy, a volcanic landscape in Cappadocia carved into churches and houses, and a food culture that repays a trip on its own.
Getting around
High-speed rail links Istanbul, Ankara and Konya. Intercity coaches are comfortable, cheap and go everywhere. Istanbul's ferries between continents are the best transport in the city and cost the price of a bus.
When to come
Spring and autumn. Istanbul is pleasant nearly year-round; the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts are very hot in July and August; Cappadocia is high, cold in winter and best for ballooning in still autumn air.
Worth knowing
- Only East Thrace and part of Istanbul are geographically in Europe; the rest is Asia.
- Mosques welcome visitors outside prayer times; shoes off, shoulders and knees covered, heads covered for women.
- Bargaining is expected in bazaars and not in shops.
At the table
- Breakfast (kahvaltı), which is a spread of fifteen small plates and takes two hours
- Kebab as a regional category — Adana, Urfa, İskender are different things
- Meze with rakı, at a meyhane, in an order that matters
Travel regions
3 editorial regions, each opening onto its cities.
Region
Istanbul & Thrace
The city on the Bosphorus, and the European corner of the country behind it.
Region
The Aegean & Mediterranean
Classical cities, terraces of white travertine, and a long walking path above the sea.
Region
Central Anatolia
Volcanic valleys carved into churches and homes, and the dervish city of Konya.
Popular destinations
The destinations we have written most about, which is not the same as the ones most people go to — and is the only ranking we can honestly compute.
Istanbul
Capital of two empires, on two continents, with a 1,500-year-old church-mosque at the centre of it.
Göreme, Cappadocia
Soft volcanic rock eroded into cones and carved out for a thousand years into churches, houses and underground cities.
Fethiye & the Lycian coast
Rock-cut tombs in the cliffs above a harbour, and a 540-kilometre coastal path starting nearby.
Edirne
The Ottoman capital before Istanbul, in the European corner, with Sinan's masterpiece mosque in it.
Selçuk & Ephesus
A market town beside one of the best-preserved classical cities in the Mediterranean.
Experiences here
A sample of what is listed across Türkiye.
Between continents on a commuter ferry
Twenty minutes, a glass of tea, gulls following the stern, and Europe and Asia both in view. The single best thing in the city and nearly free.
A two-hour Turkish breakfast
Fifteen small dishes, endless tea, and no expectation that you leave. Order for the table and clear the morning.
A section of the Lycian Way
Waymarked in red and white since 1999, through pine, ruins and goat country, with village pensions at the ends of most stages.
The valleys on foot, not from the air
Ihlara, Rose and Pigeon valleys are walked in a morning each, with abandoned rock churches nobody signposts.
Journeys through Türkiye
The Journey Planner holds all 5 of these destinations and the real distances between them. It opens on 9 days, which is the shortest stay this atlas records for each of them added up — change the length, the month, the budget or the pace and build it again.
Stories set here
Fixed points in the year
The record
What we hold about Türkiye, where each figure came from, and when it was last checked. The score says what this country is for, not how good it is — it is useful once you are already interested and is not a reason to be.
- Capital
- Ankara
- Currency
- TRY — Turkish lira
- Languages
- Turkish, Kurdish
- Population
- 83,429,615 (2019) — Natural Earth 1:50m admin 0 countries
- ISO codes
- TR · TUR
- Time zone
- TRT (UTC+3, no DST)
- Membership
- No EU or Schengen membership
- Typical day
- €30–95 per person ≈ ₺1,230–3,900 indicative
- Best months
- April, May, September, October
- Quieter months
- March, June, November
- Facts checked
- not verified why this matters
Europe Experience Score
How this is calculated — derived from our own tagging, not from measurement. It says what a place is for, not how good it is. The tick on each bar is the median across the whole Atlas, so a bar short of it is a dimension this place is not for.