Practical Information for visiting Türkiye

Getting in. Istanbul Airport is a major global hub, with Sabiha Gökçen on the Asian side, and Antalya, Izmir and Dalaman serving the coast directly in season.

Domestic flights are cheap and frequent and are how most people cross a country this size — Istanbul to Cappadocia or the east takes an hour and a half against a full day by road.

Buses are excellent: comfortable, frequent, with attendants serving tea, and they reach everywhere. The intercity network is one of the best in the region.

Trains. High-speed lines link Istanbul, Ankara, Konya and Eskişehir. The Eastern Express to Kars is a long, slow, scenic journey that has become an attraction in itself.

In Istanbul. Metro, tram, funicular, bus and the ferries across the Bosphorus, all on an Istanbulkart. The ferries are public transport and the best sightseeing in the city.

Driving is fine on the motorways and demanding in the cities, where standards are assertive.

The currency is the Turkish lira (TRY). Inflation has been high for several years, which means prices change quickly and figures quoted in guidebooks date fast — many tourist businesses now quote in euros or dollars.

Cards are accepted widely in cities, hotels and larger shops. Cash is needed in bazaars, small restaurants, dolmuş minibuses and rural areas.

ATMs are everywhere; choose to be charged in lira and decline the machine’s conversion offer, which is always poor. Exchange offices in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar and Eminönü give better rates than banks or the airport.

Bargaining is expected in bazaars and for carpets and is a social process rather than a confrontation — expect tea.

Tipping is customary: around ten per cent in restaurants, rounding up for taxis, and a note for the hamam attendant and for guides.

Coverage for mobile networks is good throughout the populated country, with 4G everywhere and 5G in the cities, from Turkcell, Vodafone and Türk Telekom. Eastern mountain areas have gaps.

Turkey is outside EU roaming, and charges can be high. Local SIMs are sold at the airport with a passport — note that Turkey registers handset IMEI numbers, and a foreign phone used with a Turkish SIM is blocked after about 120 days unless a fee is paid. For a normal holiday this does not arise; for a longer stay it does.

Wi-Fi is widespread in hotels, cafes and on buses. Some social media and messaging platforms have been throttled or blocked during periods of unrest, and a VPN is commonly used.

Turkish is the official language. It is Turkic rather than Indo-European or Semitic, agglutinative — grammatical information stacks onto the ends of words — and has vowel harmony, which gives it its characteristic sound. It has been written in the Latin alphabet since 1928, so it is at least readable, and the spelling is entirely phonetic.

Kurdish is spoken by a large minority in the south-east, and Arabic near the Syrian border.

English is spoken in tourist areas, hotels and among younger urban people, and much less in the interior and the east. German is common thanks to the Turkish community in Germany.

A few words open doors: merhaba for hello, teşekkür ederim for thank you, lütfen for please, ne kadar for how much, and afiyet olsun, said to anyone eating.

Turkey receives tens of millions of visitors a year and the great majority have no trouble at all. The risks are regional and situational.

• Border regions. Most governments advise against travel within ten kilometres of the Syrian border and in some south-eastern provinces. Check current advice, which distinguishes sharply between regions.
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• Earthquakes. Turkey is highly seismic. Know where the stairs are, and follow official instructions if a quake occurs.
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• Scams in Istanbul: the shoeshine who drops a brush, the friendly man who suggests a bar and produces an enormous bill, and carpet sellers who take a great deal of your afternoon. None is dangerous; all are avoidable by declining politely and walking on.
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• Traffic is the commonest physical danger, and pedestrian crossings are treated as advisory.
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• Political expression. Insulting the president or Atatürk is a criminal offence, including in social media posts, and foreigners have been prosecuted. Avoid demonstrations entirely.
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• Antiquities. Buying or attempting to export them carries severe penalties.

Medical care is good, and private hospitals in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir are modern, fast and inexpensive by western standards, with English-speaking staff. Turkey is a major destination for medical, dental and hair-transplant tourism as a result.

Visitors pay privately; insurance is sensible, and should cover any activity you plan — ballooning, diving and paragliding are often excluded by default.

Vaccinations: routine cover plus hepatitis A and typhoid for longer or rural stays.

Stomach upsets are the commonest complaint. Tap water is chlorinated and generally safe in cities but most Turks drink bottled, and that is the sensible default.

Heat on the coast and in the south-east between June and September is severe; the sun is strong and the sites offer no shade.

Altitude and cold matter in the east in winter, where temperatures below −20°C are routine.

Pharmacies (eczane) are widespread, with an out-of-hours rota, and pharmacists can dispense a good deal directly.

Mosques. Remove shoes, cover shoulders and knees, and women should cover their hair — scarves are lent at the door of the major mosques. Avoid visiting during prayers, and do not walk in front of anyone praying.

Accept the tea. It is offered constantly and refusing repeatedly is read as coldness. It does not commit you to buying anything, whatever the shopkeeper hopes.

Shoes off on entering a home, and take a small gift — sweets or pastries rather than alcohol unless you know the household drinks.

Do not insult Atatürk or the president. Both are criminal offences, prosecuted, and applied to social media posts made abroad.

Photography. Ask before photographing people, especially women in conservative areas. Military installations and some government buildings are prohibited.

The right hand for giving and receiving. Public affection between couples is uncommon outside Istanbul’s more liberal districts.

Emergency numbers: 112 handles ambulance, fire and police nationally and has English-language support. 155 reaches the police directly and 156 the gendarmerie, which covers rural areas.

Medical. Private hospital groups — Acibadem, Memorial, Medical Park — have international patient departments and are the usual choice for foreign visitors. Payment or an insurance guarantee is required.

Earthquakes. AFAD, the disaster agency, issues alerts and instructions; the standard advice is to drop, cover and hold, and to stay away from buildings afterwards.

Tourist police operate in Istanbul, Antalya and other major destinations and are used to dealing with visitors.

Keep an offline copy of your passport and insurance. Embassies are in Ankara with consulates in Istanbul and, for several countries, in Izmir and Antalya.