TURKEY TOWN BY TOWN — 2026
Town-by-town guides to Turkey beyond Istanbul: the resorts of the Turquoise Coast and the Aegean, their old towns and bazaars, and the ancient sites within reach, with sources you can check.
Explore Towns
RUINS & THE TURQUOISE COAST25 towns & regionsCoast, Cappadocia and inland Anatolia
351 guidesTowns, trips, food and planning
59 ancient site guidesEphesus, Lycia, Roman theatres
24 sight & area pagesMuseums, caves, castles and resort areas
CHOOSE A TOWN
Start with a town guide, then open its old town, boat trips, ruins, places to eat and the map.
Antalya rewards a split plan: one day on foot through Kaleiçi and down to the old harbour, one day for Perge, Aspendos or Termessos, and a half-day on the water or up the Tahtalı cable car. Here is how to group the sights by area, what costs money, and what to save for a car or tour day.
Side packs a harbour, a Roman theatre and a walkable old town into one small centre, with boat trips, Manavgat Waterfall and the Green Canyon a short drive away. This guide groups the sights by how far you need to travel, so you can build a realistic day around the ruins and leave a half-day for the water.
Alanya packs a harbour, a castle headland and a working marina into one walkable centre, with canyon, river and mountain days a tour or rental car away. Here is how each option fits together, what the packaged trips include, and which sights cost you nothing but time.
Belek works best as a base with three rings of activity: the resort strip itself, the Roman ruins at Aspendos and Perge inland, and long booked day trips to Pamukkale, Manavgat and the Taurus Mountains. This guide splits the resort, the river plain and the mountains, shows which sights need a tour and which you can drive to yourself, and explains how to read a tour listing before you pay.
Kemer packs ancient cities, a burning hillside, a canyon and a mountain cable car into a stretch of pine-covered coast about 43 km from Antalya. Here is how the resort villages, the harbour and the main sights fit together, and how to plan a day around heat, transfers and boat trips.
Manavgat fits into two parts: the town's own river, waterfall, bazaar and mosque, and the excursions sold from it into the canyons and ancient sites. This guide separates what you can walk to from what needs a booked trip, with market days, boat-trip formats and realistic drive times to Side, Aspendos and Antalya.
Fethiye packs a working harbour, a lanes-and-market old town and Lycian tombs into a walkable centre, with Ölüdeniz, Kayaköy, Saklıkent and Tlos within easy reach. This guide sorts things to do by distance from the harbour, so you can plan a day without a car and know when to book a boat or a tour.
Kaş old town is a compact knot of harbour, bazaar lanes and whitewashed backstreets climbing one low hill, with the Antiphellos theatre looking down on it all. This guide sets out the layout, a route through the lanes and how the old town fits around boat trips and days out.
Dalyan packs three headline sights into one short stretch of river: the Lycian rock tombs carved into the cliff, the ancient city of Kaunos across the water, and Iztuzu Beach, the loggerhead turtle nesting ground. This guide sets out how the town is laid out, how one river boat can cover the lot, and how to reach Dalyan from Dalaman, Ortaca and Fethiye.
Hisarönü works as a base for paragliding over Ölüdeniz, jeep and quad safaris, camel rides at Kayaköy and hammams, with pick-ups from the main resorts.
Kalkan's day splits between the old town and harbour, where boat trips leave, and the coast around it: Patara, Kaş, Kaputaş and the Greek island of Meis. This guide separates what you can walk to from what needs a boat, a minibus or a car, and shows how much of a day each outing takes.
Ölüdeniz packs a lagoon, a long beach, a mountain cable car and a launch point for tandem paragliders into one small resort. This guide splits the lagoon, the beach and Babadağ into separate half-days, adds the boat trips and inland days out within reach, and explains how the dolmuş link to Fethiye makes the village a workable base.
Marmaris packs an old town, a hilltop castle and museum, a covered bazaar and a harbour full of boats into a compact centre, with ancient ruins and quiet villages a short drive away. Here is how to arrange the days, what each boat trip involves and how far a dolmuş ride will take you.
Bodrum rewards a plan. The town has the castle, harbour and old bazaar; the peninsula has Gültürkbükü, Gümüşlük and Yalıkavak, and the coastal roads link them slowly. This guide sets out what to see, how to get around, how long to allow and where the expense really lies.
Didim pairs a monumental Temple of Apollo in town with Miletus, Priene, Lake Bafa and a market at its centre. Here is how to split the days, what a boat trip or jeep safari involves, and how far the airports are.
Kuşadası works best as two holidays in one: a walkable harbour town of old streets, a castle island and a busy bazaar, plus a launch pad for Ephesus, Şirince, Pamukkale and the Dilek peninsula. Here is how to split your days, what each trip costs in time, and where the cruise crowds land.
Ephesus rewards a half-day walked downhill from the upper gate to the lower gate. Here is the route past the Great Theatre, the Library of Celsus and Curetes Street, plus the drive times from Kuşadası and İzmir and how to pace the Terrace Houses.
İzmir rewards a day of walking rather than taxi-hopping: start in the Kemeraltı bazaar, cross to Konak Square and the Clock Tower, follow the Kordon waterfront, then climb to the Agora and the historic lift for the view. Keep Ephesus and Pamukkale for separate days.
İçmeler works best as a slow base: a bay backed by pine forest that you can walk in an afternoon, with boat trips, a jeep safari and Marmaris close enough for a day out. Here is how to shape the day and what to book.
Cappadocia rewards three or four days on the ground: one morning for a balloon flight, one for the Göreme Open Air Museum and the valleys around it, one for an underground city, and a spare morning in case the balloons are grounded. Group the sights by valley so you are not crossing the region twice a day.
Ankara rewards a day spent by district: climb to Ankara Castle for the view, walk down through the old quarter, cross Ulus for Roman baths and a 15th-century mosque, then give Anıtkabir at least 90 minutes.
Bursa packs its Ottoman sights into a walkable old centre: the Grand Mosque, the Green Complex, Koza Han and Irgandı Bridge sit close together, with the Teleferik to Uludağ and the village of Cumalıkızık as half-day add-ons.
Gallipoli is the Dardanelles peninsula where Allied troops landed in April 1915, and the whole battleground with its cemeteries is preserved as a historic site. This guide covers where the peninsula sits, how to reach it from Çanakkale and Eceabat, which memorials to see across the Anzac and Cape Helles sectors, and how long the ground takes.
Göbekli Tepe is a Neolithic temple complex of carved T-shaped pillars on a limestone ridge 15 km northeast of Şanlıurfa. You view the enclosures from a railed boardwalk under a canopy, looking down on Enclosure D and the Vulture Stone rather than walking among the pillars.
THE RUINS
Greek, Lycian, Roman and older: what stands at each site, how long it takes and which town to base yourself in.
01 Ionia & the Aegean
Ephesus and the Ionian cities around Selçuk and Söke, with Aphrodisias and Hierapolis inland.
02 Lycia
Rock-cut tombs above Fethiye and Dalyan and the Lycian cities along the coast to Kaş and Olympos.
03 Pamphylia & the Antalya coast
Roman theatres, gates and temples within a short drive of Antalya, Side and Belek.
04 Cappadocia
Rock-cut churches and the underground cities dug into the soft tuff of central Anatolia.
05 Troy & Gallipoli
The layered mound of Troy and the 1915 battlefields across the Dardanelles from Çanakkale.
06 The south-east
Göbekli Tepe near Şanlıurfa, the beehive houses of Harran, Mount Nemrut and the Zeugma mosaics.
SIGHTS WITH THEIR OWN PAGE
One page per sight: what is there, how long to allow, how to get there and what to check before you go.
BodrumBodrum Museum of Underwater ArchaeologyThe Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology fills Bodrum Castle, and your ticket covers both the halls and the fortress itself. Here are the shipwrecks, glass, amphoras and towers to prioritise, how the stairs shape the pace, and what sits nearby for the rest of the day.
BodrumMausoleum at HalicarnassusThe Mausoleum at Halicarnassus no longer stands: what remains in Bodrum is a low ruin of podium and column fragments, while the tomb's sculpture sits largely in the British Museum. Here is what the site is, where it lies in the city, how long to allow and what to pair with it.
AnkaraMuseum of Anatolian Civilizations, AnkaraThe Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara walks you through Anatolia from the Stone Age to the Phrygians and Urartians in two Ottoman buildings below the castle. Here is what each gallery holds, how long to give it and how to reach it from Ulus.
AnkaraAnıtkabir, AnkaraAnıtkabir is free to enter and sits on Anıttepe Hill in Çankaya, reached by metro from central Ankara. Here is the route through the Road of Lions, the Ceremonial Plaza and the Hall of Honour, plus the museum, seasonal hours and how long to allow.
AlanyaDamlataş Cave, AlanyaDamlataş Cave is a short, cool stop in central Alanya, a couple of minutes from the beach and within walking distance of the harbour and castle. Here is where the entrance is, what you see inside, how long to allow and how the cave compares with Dim Cave further out of town.
AlanyaDim Cave AlanyaDim Cave (Dim Mağarası) sits about 11 km from Alanya in the Dim valley, with two lit chambers, stalactites and a small lake at the end. Allow around an hour inside, expect a short uphill walk from the bus stop, and plan the Dim River valley as a separate stop below.
BodrumMyndos Gate, BodrumMyndos Gate is the last substantial piece of Halicarnassus still standing in Bodrum: two andesite towers, a dry moat and a cluster of Roman tombs a hundred metres west. Allow about an hour, come on foot or by dolmuş, and expect a free, unfenced site rather than a ticketed monument.
AlanyaAlanya LighthouseAlanya Lighthouse marks the tip of the harbour peninsula below Alanya Castle, reached on foot along a paved causeway. Here is how the walk works, what fills the view back over the harbour and castle walls, and why late afternoon suits it best.TURKISH FOOD & DRINK
The breakfasts, flatbreads, sweets and drinks you will meet in every resort, explained before you sit down.
Where to eat, town by town
Also on the table: Antalya Breakfast Guide · Alanya Fish Market · Antalya Food · Antalya Street Food · Bodrum Breakfast Guide · Bodrum Food · Bodrum Street Food · Fethiye Breakfast Guide · Fethiye Fish Market · Fethiye Food · Fethiye Street Food · Gümbet Restaurants
PLAN BY TOPIC
Every topic gathers the guides from all the towns, from the ruins to the dolmuş.
21 guides
Town-by-town lists for the resorts and historic towns, from Antalya and Fethiye to Cappadocia and Bursa.
All things to do guides59 guides
Ephesus, the Lycian cities, the Roman theatres of the Antalya coast and the museums that hold their finds.
All ancient sites & museums guides55 guides
Kaleiçi, the castles of Bodrum, Alanya and Marmaris, harbours, bazaars and historic mosques.
All old towns & castles guides58 guides
Gulets and day boats, the Twelve Islands, Kekova, jeep safaris, paragliding and balloon flights.
All boat trips & tours guides39 guides
Canyons, waterfalls and valleys, the Butterfly Valley and the hill villages above the coast.
All nature & villages guides34 guides
Breakfast spreads, street food and the dishes and drinks you meet in every resort, plus where to eat.
All food & drink guides33 guides
Weekly market days town by town, covered bazaars and what is worth carrying home.
All markets & shopping guides15 guides
The hammam, tipping, the dolmuş, carpets, ceramics, the evil eye and the whirling dervishes.
All turkish culture guides37 guides
Town maps, worth-visiting verdicts and head-to-head choices such as Antalya or Bodrum.
All plan a trip guidesFactual claims carry a link to the source beside them. Ruins & Resorts Editorial is a publication byline.
Each guide shows when it was published and last updated.
Confirm current dates, prices and booking terms with the operator.
Look for article-level citations beside descriptions, prices and practical details.
Planning FAQ
How to use our Turkey guides, check sources and make booking decisions.
