Sunrise over Cappadocia, sunset on the Bosphorus.
Which balloon operator still flies when the wind turns. Whether the dinner cruise is worth the private table. How early Ephesus fills on a cruise-ship morning. We book them, we ride them, we write them up.
Cappadocia, the Bosphorus, Ephesus: the days Turkey is known for.
Balloons at first light, a boat between two continents, marble streets at Ephesus, the white terraces above Pamukkale and an hour flat out on hot marble. Most Turkey trips get built around these.
Three days in Istanbul and you have crossed to Asia once.
The city stands on two continents and the commuter ferry between them costs less than a coffee. In between: Hagia Sophia, a cistern under the tram lines, hammams older than most countries, and dinner moving slowly beneath the bridges.
Cappadocia: choosing the flight, and the day around it.
All 63 balloon flights →
Pickup is around half four, the baskets lift as the light reaches the rock, and it is done by breakfast. Flights are capped and grounded whenever the wind says so, which is why the number of mornings you have in Goreme matters more than the operator you pick.
An hour over the fairy chimneys
Lift-off in the dark from the valley floor, the whole fleet rising together as the light arrives, then champagne and a certificate wherever the wind puts you down.
Red Tour, Green Tour, or both
Red stays close to Goreme for Devrent, Pasabag and the open-air museum. Green runs south to the Ihlara gorge and an underground city. Two full days if you have them.
Through the valleys on horseback
Cappadocia means “land of beautiful horses” and the valleys still read best at walking pace, with Rose Valley turning the colour of its name about an hour before dark.
By region — where you are based
Istanbul570 tours
Cappadocia271 tours
Antalya352 tours
Kusadasi140 tours
Alanya253 tours
Side141 tours
Marmaris74 tours
Fethiye43 tours
Bodrum41 tours- All 17 regions →
By experience — what kind of day is it?
The tours more people take than anything else in Turkey.
Every review →A dinner cruise under the Bosphorus bridges leads by a distance. Behind it: balloons, marble ruins and boats. What each costs, and whether it earns its day.
1
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Enjoy a 3-hour Bosphorus dinner cruise with a private table, live Turkish and Latin performances, unlimited drinks, and Istanbul views at night.
From · $28
Read our review →
2
Daytime or Sunset Sightseeing Cruise & Audio Guide
from $8
3
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Turkish Night Show
from $28
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
Turkey stays cheap in a way that catches people out.
Every tour on the site, sorted by what it actually costs. A full day out with lunch and hotel pickup often lands under thirty dollars.
Boat days with lunch, hammam sessions, cable cars and skip-the-line tickets. The everyday best of Turkey.
The long ones: Pamukkale and Hierapolis, Ephesus with the House of the Virgin Mary, dinner cruises, jeep-and-quad combos.
Balloon flights over Goreme, private guides in Istanbul, chartered gulets and the once-a-trip splurges.
White terraces at Pamukkale, marble streets at Ephesus.
Two of Turkey’s great sights sit a morning apart. The travertines are walked barefoot and the warm water still runs over them; Ephesus is a Roman city you walk straight down the middle of; and Hierapolis keeps its theatre on the hill above the pools.
From Antalya to Fethiye, the day is decided by the boat.
The pattern repeats the length of the coast: a gulet leaves after breakfast, anchors in three coves, lunch comes off the back deck and you are back for the evening. The same hills behind the beach carry the rafting, the jeeps and the canyon runs.
- 1Ziplining, Rafting, Jeep Tour & Quad Safari w/Lunchfrom $26
- 2Suluada Island Boat Trip with Lunch & Hotel Pickupfrom $20
- 3Antalya/Kemer: Old City, Waterfalls, Olympos Cable Car, Boatfrom $29
Three things you can only really do in Turkey.
Coast and ruins are shared right around the Mediterranean. The dawn balloon fleet, the marble bath house and the sema ceremony are Turkey’s own.
The Cappadocia Balloon Fleet
Nowhere else lifts a hundred balloons into one valley at the same minute. The rock below was laid down as volcanic ash and carved by water into chimneys, cones and cave houses, and from three hundred metres you see the whole system at once. Flight numbers are capped by the aviation authority and every morning is grounded on wind, so a three-night stay in Goreme buys you a second and third chance at the same sunrise.
- 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 Turkish bath is not a spa treatment. You lie on the gobektasi, a heated marble slab under a dome pierced with glass eyes, until the steam has done its work. Then comes the kese, a coarse mitt worked over you hard enough to be genuinely embarrassing, followed by a cloud of olive-oil foam and rinsing bowls of copper. Several of Istanbul’s bath houses have run this routine since the sixteenth century.
- 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 Whirling Dervishes
The sema is a Mevlevi religious ritual rather than a floor show. The dervishes turn with the right palm up to receive and the left turned down to pass on, and the turning itself is the prayer. Konya is its home, but Istanbul runs the ceremony several evenings a week in a converted fifteenth-century bath house near Sirkeci. Nobody applauds while it is happening.
- 1Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Turkish Night Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 12,954 reviews
- 2Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & Exhibition★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 4,790 reviews
- 3Bosphorus Dinner Cruise with Turkish Night Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 1,950 reviews
Turkish evenings are worth planning, not just filling.
All evening experiences →
Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & Exhibition
Read our review →
Antalya/Alanya/Side: Land of Legends Night Show & Shopping
Read our review →Istanbul Bosphorus Sunset Cruise on Luxury Yacht
Read our review →Book these before you fly to Turkey.
Most of Turkey can be arranged at the hotel desk the night before. These cannot. They run on weather windows, ship timetables and halls that only hold so many people.
- 01Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride / Royal BalloonDaily flight numbers are capped, and any morning can be grounded on wind. Sunrise slots in season go weeks ahead, and a cancelled flight is only rebooked if there is space.
- 02FOR CRUISERS: Skip The Lines PRIVATE EPHESUS TOUR &On Time ReturnPort-day tours are timed to your ship. The ones that guarantee you back on board before it sails fill as soon as the itinerary is published.
- 03Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & ExhibitionThe sema runs on set evenings in a small hall, and it is a ceremony rather than a nightly performance. Seats go before the day itself.
- 04Topkapi Palace and Harem Skip-the-Line-Tickets & Audio GuideThe Harem is a separate ticket from the rest of Topkapi Palace, and the combined morning slots are the first to disappear.
A Turkish summer is brutal. Go underground, or get in the sea.
July and August run past 35°C on the coast and the Cappadocian plateau bakes with them. The good answers are all old ones: the underground cities hold a steady cool hundreds of steps down, the cisterns and bath houses never see the sun, and a boat day exists precisely so you can be in the water by eleven.
Istanbul, Cappadocia, Pamukkale, Ephesus, then the coast.
PamukkaleThe newest Turkey tour reviews.
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