Best Time To Visit Turkey

September and October give you spring's weather with warmer water. The Mediterranean is still about 27°C in September and 25°C in October, well above April's 18°C.

Crowds thin after the first week of September and prices ease, though Cappadocia and Istanbul boutique hotels stay expensive. Republic Day on 29 October brings fireworks to Istanbul.

July and August are hot and busy, and where you are decides whether that matters. Antalya averages about 35°C by day with essentially no rain, and the sea reaches about 29°C in August, its warmest.

Inland is harder: Ankara and Cappadocia reach about 30°C with no shade at the open-air sites, and Ephesus in midday August is punishing. Istanbul is milder than most people expect at about 28°C, and it still gets some summer rain, unlike the coast.

Winter splits the country in two. Istanbul averages about 6°C in January and snows on roughly 15 days a year; Cappadocia averages about 0°C with nights near -4°C and snow on about 30 days.

Antalya stays mild at about 15°C by day, and snow there is almost unknown at under one day a year. It is also the wettest place in the country now, so this is a warm-and-grey winter, not a beach one. Eastern Anatolia is the extreme, with severe cold and disrupted roads.

The balloons fly about 260 days a year, so roughly three days in ten do not go up. The call is made on the morning by the civil aviation authority on wind, not on rain, so a clear day can still be grounded.

Book your flight for the first morning of your stay so you have days in hand to rebook. Balloons do fly in winter, and December to February is when photographers come for fairy chimneys in snow, at about 0°C and with roughly nine snow days in January alone.

Ramadan moves about eleven days earlier each year. In 2026 it runs roughly 18 February to 19 March, with Eid al-Fitr around 20 to 22 March. In 2027 it starts on 8 February.

Tourist restaurants and sites carry on as normal through Ramadan, but the Eid holiday itself fills domestic flights and buses. Other dates: April for the Tulip and Film festivals in Istanbul, summer for the Aspendos opera festival at the Roman theatre, late October for the Cappadocia wine festival and Republic Day, and December for the Mevlana and Whirling Dervish festival in Konya.

• Istanbul, Hagia Sophia and the Bosphorus: April to June, September to October
• Cappadocia balloons: April to June, September to October
  Balloons over snow: December to February
• Swimming on the Mediterranean: June to October, warmest in August
• Ephesus, Pamukkale and the ruins: April to May, October, and start early
• Blue Cruise on the Turquoise Coast: May to October
• Tulips in Istanbul: April
• Fewest people and lowest prices: November to March, outside Christmas