Country guide
Türkiye is 783,562 km² across 81 provinces, most of it Anatolia in West Asia with East Thrace on the European side of the straits. It has three coasts to choose...
Photograph · Benh LIEU SONG · CC BY-SA 4.0
Reviewed by Elena Voss · Roavina Travel Editor
Türkiye is 783,562 km² across 81 provinces, most of it Anatolia in West Asia with East Thrace on the European side of the straits. It has three coasts to choose between — the Black Sea to the north, the Aegean to the west, the Mediterranean to the south — and an interior plateau that behaves like a different country in winter. Istanbul is the largest city and the economic centre, Ankara the capital and the second-largest, and the December 2025 population of 86,092,168 is weighted heavily to the west. A first trip is usually Istanbul and one coast; the plateau is the second trip.
Checked 2026-08-25
Every city catalogued in this country so far, ranked by how much there is to see.
Photograph · Ben Morlok · CC BY-SA 2.0
Photograph · Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · REHBER0770 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Anonymous · CC0
Photograph · Dan Taylor · CC BY 2.0
Photograph · Dogaaunlu · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photograph · Egemenakgul · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
106 places match
Category
Typical visit duration
Interests
Xanthos was the capital of ancient Lycia, and what survives of it stands on two hills above the plain of the Eşen Çayı, the river the Greeks called the Xanthos, in the village of Kınık in Antalya province.
Rumeli Hisarı is a fortress built to close a strait, and everything about it follows from that one job.
Alaşehir throws its festival at the one moment of the year when the whole district smells of drying fruit.
Beylerbeyi Sarayı
Beylerbeyi Palace is the Ottoman court's summer address on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, built for Sultan Abdulaziz between 1861 and 1865 by the architect Sarkis Balyan, with Hagop Balyan named alongside him.
Yedikule Zindanları
Yedikule is a fortress built out of an older monument.
Aspendos is a ruined Pamphylian and Roman city standing on two low hills above the Eurymedon, the river now called the Köprüçay, in Belkıs Mahallesi in the Serik district of Antalya province.
Masumiyet Müzesi
A novel and a building made in parallel, and neither is quite the illustration of the other.
Türk ve İslam Eserleri Müzesi
The Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum is housed in the Ibrahim Pasha Palace, a stone mansion of 1524 that belonged to Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha, the second grand vizier of Suleiman the Magnificent.
İstanbul Modern Sanat Müzesi
Istanbul Modern opened on 11 December 2004 as Turkey's first museum of modern and contemporary art, installed in Entrepo No. 4, a customs warehouse from the 1950s standing on the Karaköy quay.
Pera Müzesi
Pera Museum is a private art museum on the Beyoğlu ridge, established on 8 June 2005 by the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation. Its building was not built as a museum.
Miniatürk Açıkhava Müzesi
Miniatürk opened on 2 May 2003 on the northeastern shore of the Golden Horn, and the idea behind it is straightforward: shrink the architecture of Turkey and the former Ottoman world to one twenty-fifth of full size and lay it…
Çamlıca Televizyon Kulesi
Çamlıca Tower stands on Büyük Çamlıca Hill on the Asian side, the highest point overlooking the Bosphorus, and opened on 29 May 2021.
Deniz Müzesi
The Istanbul Naval Museum was founded in 1897 by Bozcaadali Hasan Husnu Pasha, then Ottoman Minister of the Navy, which makes it the first military museum established in Turkey.
Yıldız Parkı
Yıldız Park is a wooded hillside of 368,751 square metres — roughly thirty-seven hectares — climbing from the Beşiktaş shoreline to the ridge behind it.
Sabancı Üniversitesi Sakıp Sabancı Müzesi
This is a museum that used to be somebody's house, and the house has an unusually crowded guest list. From 1848 to 1884 the Emirgan mansion passed through a succession of high-ranking pasha families and Egyptian khedives.
Haseki Hürrem Hamamı
The Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamam is a twin bathhouse commissioned by Hürrem Sultan, wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, and designed by the imperial architect Mimar Sinan, built starting in 1556 between the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.
Bin Tepe is the royal burial ground of ancient Lydia, a field of more than a hundred earthen tumuli spread across a low limestone ridge on the southern shore of Marmara Gölü, several kilometres north of Sardis across the Gediz…
İstanbul Havacılık Müzesi
The Istanbul Aviation Museum is operated by the Turkish Air Force Academy in Yeşilköy, on the grounds of Istanbul's former main airport, and covers the history of Turkish military and civil aviation from the Ottoman era onward.
Anadolu Medeniyetleri Müzesi
The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is Ankara’s principal archaeological museum, presenting the cultures that shaped Anatolia through settlement, craft, belief and political change. It occupies the Ottoman-period Mahmutpaşa Bedesten and Kurşunlu Han in historic Ulus, beside Ankara Castle.
Emirgan Korusu
Emirgan Park is 470,000 square metres of wooded hillside above the European shore of the Bosphorus in Sarıyer, and it has been changing hands for as long as anyone has been writing things down.
Etnografya Müzesi
The Ethnography Museum of Ankara is an indoor museum devoted to Turkish cultural heritage and material culture. Its displays connect domestic life, religious practice, clothing, textiles and decorative arts through objects, workmanship and local traditions.
İslam bilim ve teknoloji tarihi müzesi
The museum occupies the Has Ahırlar, the former imperial stables, a long low range on the edge of Gülhane Park below the Topkapı walls, and it opened on 25 May 2008 under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Ankara Resim ve Heykel Müzesi
Ankara Painting and Sculpture Museum is a national fine-arts museum in Ankara’s historic Altındağ area, at Hacettepe Mahallesi, Türk Ocağı Sokak No:1.
Kızıl Kule, known in English as the Red Tower, stands as a prominent historic landmark in Alanya, a district within the Antalya province.
Antalya Arkeoloji Müzesi (Museum)
Antalya Museum, locally known as Antalya Arkeoloji Müzesi, is a major archaeological museum in Antalya, Turkey. It stands as one of the country's most significant institutions for ancient artifacts, housing extensive collections from the broader Mediterranean region of Turkey.
Ten to fourteen days allows about four days in İstanbul and at least three around Antalya when coastal archaeology is included. Cappadocia needs its own regional stay, and a one-way coastal route is more workable than returning to the same city each night.
Türkiye's visa position varies by passport and purpose. Verify the rule through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, when eligible, use only the official e-Visa service rather than an intermediary.
İstanbul's two airports and Antalya are the principal gateways for this itinerary. Domestic flights cover long cross-country legs, coaches serve many city pairs, and high-speed rail is most useful on the İstanbul-Ankara axis rather than as a universal substitute.
April to May and September to October are broad choices for combining İstanbul with the Mediterranean coast. Cappadocia nights, inland heat, and Antalya's coastal conditions differ, so confirm weather for each overnight base.
Türkiye uses the Turkish lira (TRY). Keep lira available for smaller transport and market transactions even when cards are accepted, and review the displayed amount in TRY before agreeing to any card conversion.
Dial 112 for emergencies in Türkiye. Electricity is 230 V through Type C and F sockets; tap-water safety is not recorded here, so obtain current local advice at each stop.
