Planning a Trip to Türkiye: What to Book and What to Skip
We got Türkiye wrong in four places out of seven, and none of them were the places themselves.
We spent eighteen nights moving through seven bases in June and July 2025, and afterwards I sat down and annotated our own route with what I would change. Antalya needed three nights instead of two. The gulet cruise needed the three night option instead of the two. Bodrum needed four instead of three. Cappadocia needed at least three instead of two.
That is the single most useful thing I can tell you before you book anything, because the mistake almost everybody makes in Türkiye is the same one we made. The country is enormous, the highlights are spread a long way apart, and it is very easy to build a route that looks generous on a map and turns out to be four one-night-too-short stops in a row.
In this guide I will tell you when to go, how long each base actually needs, where we stayed and what it cost, what eighteen nights came to down to the category, and the handful of things worth booking before you fly.
Planning a Trip to Turkey, My Quick Answer
Give it eighteen to twenty one nights, go in June, and drive at least part of it. Fly into Antalya, work west and north along the coast, and finish in Istanbul rather than starting there.
If you only have ten days, do not try to see all of it. Pick the coast or pick Cappadocia and Istanbul. Türkiye punishes a rushed route more than almost anywhere we have been.
When to Go to Turkey
We were there 15 June to 3 July, and I would book those dates again.
It was hot without being unbearable, the coast was warm enough to swim every day, and we were just ahead of the European school holidays, which is what tips the Aegean coast from busy into unpleasant. Bodrum and Çeşme in August are a different proposition and a considerably more expensive one.
The car hire market tells the same story more bluntly than any weather chart. Checking DiscoverCars for Bodrum, February is the cheapest month of the year and August is the most expensive. Late June sits comfortably below the August peak, which is part of why our costs came out where they did.
I cannot tell you what Türkiye is like in winter, because we have not been. What I can say is that mid June to early July did everything we wanted it to.
How Long You Need, and the Nights We Got Wrong
Eighteen nights across seven bases sounds like plenty. It was not quite, and here is exactly where it fell short.
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| Base | We stayed | I would book | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antalya | 2 nights | 3 | We left wishing we had come back for longer |
| Gulet cruise | 2 nights | 3 | The three night option exists and we should have taken it |
| Fethiye | 2 nights | 2 | Enough, though I was ill for most of it |
| Bodrum | 3 nights | 4 | Between the beach clubs and the town we ran out of days |
| Çeşme and Alaçatı | 3 nights | 3 | The one we got right |
| Cappadocia | 2 nights | 3 minimum | The balloons may not fly on one of your days |
| Istanbul | 4 nights | 3 | The only place I would take a night off |
That comes out at twenty one nights, and the shape of it matters as much as the number. Four extra nights on the coast and in Cappadocia, one fewer in Istanbul.
The Cappadocia one is not a preference, it is a risk. The balloons do not fly in bad wind, and if you have booked two nights and the weather takes one of them, you have no second chance. Three nights buys you a spare morning.
If you want the full route we actually drove, with the stops in order, it is in our two week Türkiye itinerary.
The Seven Bases, Rated
I rated every stop of this trip on camera while we were still there, so these are not tidied-up retrospective scores.
Cappadocia, 10000 out of 10. Not a typo. Cave hotels are phenomenal, the sunrise and sunset views are genuinely worth the alarm, everything is walkable, and it was surprisingly affordable given the hype.
Çeşme and Alaçatı, 100 out of 10. The surprise of the trip and the one nobody told us about. Alaçatı is a bit pricey and worth it, Delikli Koy is the best beach I have swum at, and there is a hotel cafe called Palacaki where the strawberry matcha and the cheesecake are both excellent.
The gulet cruise, 10 out of 10. So many swimming spots, sleeping out on the deck, a day exploring Kaş, and a bar you can only reach by boat. Worth saying plainly: this was a collaboration with Far Out Cruises, so we did not pay for it. That means I am not going to tell you it was good value, because I have no honest basis for that. What I can tell you is that we should have taken the three night option.
Antalya, 9.5 out of 10. Hidden cove beaches, beautiful streets, an enormous number of food options, good cafes to work from, and easy to get around on foot and by tram. Our cheapest base of the whole trip.
Bodrum, 8.5 out of 10. Come ready to splurge, it is one of the most expensive areas in the country. Amazing restaurants, beach clubs and a designer shopping district.
Fethiye, 7 out of 10, with a caveat I want to be honest about. It only scored that low because I got sick and barely explored. The bay was beautiful from what we saw and it had the best jewellery shops of the trip. Do not read our 7 as Fethiye's fault.
Istanbul, 7 out of 10. The food culture is amazing and the vintage shopping is insane. It is also a little too touristy, and the inflation makes it noticeably more expensive than the rest of the country.
Where to Stay in Turkey
Two things to get right, and the second one is the one people miss.
Book a cave hotel in Cappadocia and do not economise on it. The rooftop is the point. We watched the balloons at 4am from our own roof with nobody else on it, and then had breakfast up there. If we had booked somewhere without a roof terrace, the best morning of the trip would have been a scrum with several hundred other people at a public viewpoint.
In Çeşme, stay in or near Alaçatı. We were twenty minutes out and it worked because we had a car. Without one it would have been a mistake.
The three we would book again. One per decision the article has just argued: the rooftop in Cappadocia, the pool in Bodrum, and staying in Alaçatı rather than twenty minutes outside it.
Cappadocia Cave Lodge
Cappadocia. The most expensive bed of our trip at A$170 a night, and the rooftop is where we watched the balloons go up.
Costa Maya Bodrum
Bodrum. Where we actually stayed, A$160 a night for the two of us in June, with a pool we used every day.
GAIA ALAÇATI
Alaçatı. Central and boutique, and where we would stay instead of 20 minutes out in Çeşme.
All seven bases across the eighteen nights, including the four Airbnbs, are on our Türkiye stays page.
Across all eighteen nights and seven bases, accommodation came to A$1,936 for the two of us, which is A$108 a night, or A$54 each. The spread is worth knowing: Bodrum was the most expensive at A$160 a night and Antalya the cheapest at A$88.
What Turkey Actually Costs
These are our numbers, not estimates. The figures below are Daniel's on the ground spending, tracked per transaction: A$2,158 across 19 days, which is A$114 a day for one person, covering food, drink, transport and shopping but not accommodation and not flights.
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| Category | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurants | A$1,019 | 47.2% |
| General, mostly ATM | A$283 | 13.1% |
| Drinks | A$227 | 10.5% |
| Shopping | A$203 | 9.4% |
| Transport | A$172 | 8.0% |
| Activities | A$128 | 5.9% |
| Groceries | A$88 | 4.1% |
| Coffee | A$38 | 1.8% |
Nearly half of it went on restaurants, and one dinner accounts for a chunk of that. We ate at Zuma in Bodrum and it came to A$250.75 for the evening, which is about twelve per cent of everything spent on the ground in nineteen days, in one sitting.
I am not warning you off it. I would do it again. But it is the clearest illustration of the thing worth understanding about this country: Türkiye is cheap unless you choose for it not to be.
Here is what ordinary days actually cost:
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| What | What we paid |
|---|---|
| Turkish breakfast for two | A$14 |
| Coffee | A$5 to A$10 |
| Lunch | A$8 to A$22 |
| An ordinary dinner | A$14 to A$31 |
| Tram in Antalya | A$2.57 |
| Bus, Fethiye to Bodrum | A$21 for both legs |
| Uber from the airport, Istanbul | A$34.45 |
| Ephesus entry | A$72.06 |
The full breakdown by base is in what eighteen nights in Türkiye cost us.
Getting Around, and Why We Would Drive Again
A$172 on transport across eighteen nights and seven bases. That is the number that surprised me most, and it is why I would not plan this trip around flights.
Buses between the coastal towns are cheap and straightforward: Fethiye to Bodrum was two legs and came to about A$21 all in. Trams in Antalya were A$2.57 a ride. Istanbul is the one place where you will spend on an Uber, and even then the airport run was A$34.45.
But hire a car for the Aegean stretch. We picked one up in Bodrum and drove to Çeşme, and that leg is the argument for it: you get Ephesus on the way, you can stay outside Alaçatı where it is cheaper, and you can reach beaches like Delikli Koy that are miserable to get to otherwise.
On price, I can tell you what the market looks like rather than what we paid, because ours was booked well ahead on a different card. Checking DiscoverCars for Bodrum, the cheapest listings sit around €38 to €44 a day with the site average nearer €48, so a week in a small car is roughly €270 to €340. Season moves it a long way, so check your own dates.
What I Would Book Before You Fly
Not much, and that is one of the good things about this country.
Your accommodation, especially the cave hotel. Cappadocia is the one place where the specific property changes the trip, and the good rooftops go first.
A balloon flight, if you want one, and book it for your first morning. I need to be straight with you here: we did not actually go up in a balloon, because we loved our hotel so much that we watched from the roof instead. But if you do want to do it, this is the one everyone was recommending, and it has 4.9 from well over five thousand reviews. Book it for the earliest morning you can, because the balloons get cancelled in bad wind and you want a spare day in hand.
Your car for the Aegean leg, if you are doing the coast.
Nothing else. Antalya does not need a walking tour, we walked it ourselves and took the tram. The beaches do not need booking. Restaurants mostly did not either.
Sorting the route itself is the job worth doing before you land rather than on your first morning, and everything we found across the eighteen nights is in our Türkiye guide.
What I Would Skip
The Grand Bazaar. It is super overwhelming and we lasted about thirty minutes. If you want to shop in Istanbul, the vintage on Serdar-ı Ekrem Caddesi in Galata is genuinely world class, and you should walk all the way down the street rather than stopping at the first few doors.
A fourth night in Istanbul. Three is enough for the food, the mosques and the vintage.
Assuming you need to fly between everywhere. You do not, and the buses are better than you are expecting.
Where to Eat, Because the Food Is Half the Reason
Turkish breakfast is the thing I miss most, and it is what I would tell anybody to prioritise. A full spread for two people cost us fourteen dollars in Antalya and it is a better meal than most places manage at five times that.
The short list: Zakka in Bodrum if you are staying in the main city, Villa Azur for a beach club day and Zuma for the sunset dinner, Palacaki in Alaçatı for the matcha and cheesecake, Keira and Afara in Cappadocia, and Seven Hills in Istanbul for the mosque view. The best cheesecake I have ever had was in Istanbul and cost A$12.13, and it tasted like melted Cadbury.
Still planning? Here is the route we actually drove and every number from the eighteen nights.
FAQs About Planning a Trip to Turkey
How many days do you need in Turkey?
Around three weeks to do the coast, Cappadocia and Istanbul properly. We did eighteen nights and would add three, mostly on the coast and in Cappadocia. If you have ten days, pick one half of the country rather than rushing all of it.
Is Turkey expensive?
No, unless you decide it is. Accommodation worked out at A$54 each a night across seven bases, and on the ground we averaged A$114 a day per person with nearly half of that on restaurants. One dinner in Bodrum came to A$250.75, which is twelve per cent of nineteen days of spending in a single evening. Istanbul is noticeably pricier than everywhere else.
Is Turkey safe?
We spent eighteen nights across seven places and had no incidents and no bad altercations at all. We found Turkish people to be some of the nicest we came across anywhere in Europe, and people frequently wanted to stop and chat to us. I travelled with my partner the whole time, so I cannot speak to solo travel there, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. There is more in our honest answer on safety in Türkiye.
Do you need to hire a car in Turkey?
Not for the whole trip. Buses between the coastal towns are cheap and easy. But the Bodrum to Çeşme stretch is much better with a car, because it lets you stop at Ephesus, stay outside Alaçatı and reach the good beaches.
Should you book the hot air balloons in advance?
Yes, and book them for the earliest morning of your stay. They are cancelled in bad wind, so if you have only booked two nights and lose one to weather, that is the trip gone. We watched from our hotel rooftop rather than flying, so this is about the risk rather than a review of the flight.
Is Cappadocia worth the hype?
It was the highest rated place of our entire trip, and it was more affordable than we expected. Two nights was not enough. There is more in how many days you need in Cappadocia.
What is the best time of year to visit Turkey?
Mid June to early July worked very well for us: hot, swimmable, and just ahead of the European school holidays. August is the peak for both crowds and prices, and the car hire market shows it clearly.
Want your Türkiye itinerary planned in a couple of clicks?
Tell it how long you have got, and it lays the days out from everywhere we actually went.
- Two lengths, one week or the full fortnight
- Only places we actually went, never a generic list
- Both flights inland worked out for you
- Share it to your notes or send it to whoever you are travelling with
