Turkey holidays

Cappadocia is a landscape unlike anywhere else on the planet — fairy-chimney rock formations, underground cities, cave hotels carved into 4th-century churches, and the dawn hot-air balloon flights that have become an Instagram archetype but are genuinely worth the early start. Two nights is enough; the balloon flight is the trip-defining moment.

The Turkish Mediterranean (Antalya, Belek, Kemer) and Aegean (Bodrum, Marmaris, Çeşme) coasts are the resort-holiday side of Turkey — bigger, cheaper and warmer than equivalent Spanish or Greek resorts, with the upside of a 4-hour flight versus a 2-hour. Bodrum is the cosmopolitan, beach-club end; Antalya is the value family-resort end; the Lycian Way between Fethiye and Antalya is the dramatic-cliff-and-cove walking-and-yacht end.

The seasonal rhythm: April-June and September-October are ideal — warm but not punishing, manageable crowds. July-August is reliably hot (40°C inland in places like Konya and Şanlıurfa, mid-30s on the coast), with the coast still working well because of sea breezes. November-March: Istanbul is genuinely lovely (snow on the Hagia Sophia dome is a Turkey-as-Byzantium image), Cappadocia is below-zero but spectacular under snow, the resorts shut.

Turkish food is a genuine surprise to travellers who think they know Mediterranean cooking. The kebab-and-mezze image is right but undersells it. The breakfast culture (Turkish kahvaltı — cheeses, olives, eggs, breads, jams, honey, tea) is one of the great breakfasts of the world. Istanbul's street food (simit, börek, midye dolma), Cappadocian pottery kebabs, Aegean seafood-and-meze tavernas, and the South-Eastern (Gaziantep) baklava are each a reason to design a trip around food.

Turkey pairs naturally with Greece (Bodrum-Kos ferry, Marmaris-Rhodes ferry, or a Greek-Turkish cruise) and with Cyprus (1-hour flight from Antalya). Within Turkey, the headline 10-12 day trip is Istanbul + Cappadocia + coast; for second-time travellers, the Lycian coast yacht cruise or eastern Anatolia (Mount Nemrut, Mardin, Şanlıurfa) opens a different Turkey altogether.