🇹🇷Turkey

The 150-day passport rule

This is the rule that gets people turned away at check-in, and almost nobody knows it.

• Your passport must be valid for at least 150 days from the date you arrive. Not 3 months, not 6 months from booking. 150 days from arrival.
• The logic is 90 days of permitted stay plus 60 days on top, which is the general Turkish requirement.
• You also need at least one blank page.
• Count the days before you book. A passport with 5 months left looks fine and is not.

Where your nationality lands

• The visa-free list grew a lot in 2024 and again in 2026. If you last checked before your previous trip, check again, because you may have been made exempt.
• evisa.gov.tr is the only official site. Everything with a similar name charges several times the government fee for the same document.
• 90 days in any 180 is a rolling window, counted backwards from each day you are in the country, not a per-entry allowance. Leaving and coming back does not reset it.
• Staying past 90 days needs a residence permit, applied for from inside Turkey, and overstaying carries a fine and a re-entry ban.

At the border and on the way out

• Entry is stamped and the stamp is what counts. Check it before you leave the hall.
• You cannot take out more than the equivalent of USD 5,000 in Turkish lira, and other currencies above USD 5,000 must be declared.
• Antiquities are taken seriously. Buying an old-looking object without an export certificate is how tourists end up in a police station at the airport. This includes coins and fossils sold openly in bazaars.
• Dual Turkish nationals, including children, face additional rules, and a Turkish parent's travel permission may be required.

• The duty-free shops are in the arrivals hall, before passport control, which is unusual and legal - the allowance is applied to what you buy there as well as what you brought.
• Electronic cigarettes may not be imported. Their sale is banned in Turkey and they are confiscated at the border; travellers have been fined for a vape in hand luggage.
• Taking antiquities out is a serious criminal offence. Old coins, fragments of mosaic and stones picked up at a site have all led to arrest at the departure gate. The rule covers anything that might be over a century old.
• Cash equivalent to USD 10,000 or more must be declared on entry, and the same limit applies to taking it out.
• Personal electronics get registered. A phone used with a Turkish SIM for more than a set period is blocked unless the handset is registered and a fee is paid - a trap for long stays, not for a fortnight.

Treatment and who pays

• Private hospitals in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Antalya are genuinely good, often with English-speaking staff and short waits.
• They expect payment or a written confirmation from your insurer before treatment. Have the policy number and the 24-hour line to hand.
• State hospitals treat emergencies and are more crowded, with less English.
• Travel insurance is essential, and should cover repatriation.
• Pharmacies, "eczane", are excellent, open late on a rota, and pharmacists give real advice. Many medicines that need a prescription at home are available over the counter and cheap.

Medical tourism, carefully

Turkey is one of the world's largest destinations for hair transplants, dental work and cosmetic surgery, and most of it is competent and much cheaper than at home.

• Standards vary enormously between clinics. The price difference between a good clinic and a bad one is smaller than you think.
• The FCDO has warned about complications and deaths following procedures booked on price alone.
• Ordinary travel insurance does not cover elective surgery or its complications, including the flight home if something goes wrong.
• Check the surgeon's registration, not the clinic's marketing. Ask who is actually performing the procedure.
• Allow proper recovery time before flying.

Water, food and sun

• Tap water is chlorinated and safe for brushing teeth and washing food. Almost nobody drinks it, including Turks, because of the taste and old pipework. Bottled water is cheap and everywhere.
• Food hygiene is generally good. Busy places with high turnover are the safe bet, as everywhere.
• Summer heat on the coast and in the southeast is severe, regularly over 40 °C. Midday shade, salt and water.
• The sun is stronger than northern Europeans expect, and a boat trip is where people get burnt.

Vaccinations and animals

• No vaccinations are required for entry. Check routine cover, plus hepatitis A and typhoid for longer or rural trips.
• Rabies is present. Turkey has a large and mostly healthy street animal population, and Istanbul's cats are famously well cared for. Do not touch stray dogs, and treat any bite or scratch as urgent: wash it, then get medical advice the same day.
• Mosquitoes are a nuisance rather than a disease risk in the tourist regions.

The accommodation tax, and the date that matters

Turkey charges an accommodation tax on top of the room rate, and it is temporarily cheaper right now.

• 1 percent from 1 May 2026 to 31 December 2026, cut from the standard 2 percent by Presidential Decision No. 11263.
• It returns to 2 percent on 1 January 2027.
• It applies to hotels, pensions, apart-hotels, guesthouses and campsites, and to related services such as meals, the pool and the spa when they are part of the stay.
• It should be shown separately on the bill. If the rate you were quoted looked all-inclusive, check.

Where to stay in Istanbul

This decision matters more than the hotel.

• Sultanahmet puts you next to the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia and is entirely given over to tourism. Convenient, and not where you will meet the city.
• Beyoğlu, Galata and Karaköy are where Istanbul actually lives and eats, ten minutes by tram from the sights.
• Kadıköy on the Asian side is cheaper, excellent for food and a ferry ride from everything. This is where to stay on a second visit.
• Beşiktaş and Nişantaşı are residential and upmarket.
• Check the walk from the tram or metro before booking. Istanbul is built on hills and a 400 metre walk can be a 60 metre climb.

The coast and Cappadocia

• Antalya, Belek and Side are all-inclusive resort country, and for a beach week the value is very good.
• Bodrum, Çeşme and Kaş are where Turkish holidaymakers go, and are pricier and better.
• Cappadocia cave hotels in Göreme, Uçhisar and Ürgüp are the point of going. Book far ahead for a room with a balcony facing the balloon launch.
• Balloon flights are weather-dependent and cancel often. Allow two mornings if it matters to you, and book with an operator who reschedules rather than refunds slowly.

Practical

• Breakfast is usually included and is a serious meal, not a croissant. A Turkish hotel breakfast is one of the best things about the country.
• Book refundable rates in summer on the coast, when heat and wildfire disruption occasionally force changes.
• Air conditioning is essential from June to September and worth confirming rather than assuming.
• Registration with your passport is required at check-in and is a legal requirement, not a formality.

Turkey registers your handset

This is the single most surprising thing about arriving in Turkey with a phone, and it has nothing to do with the SIM card.

• Insert a Turkish SIM and the network logs your handset's IMEI. A 120-day clock starts from that moment.
• After 120 days the device is blocked from every Turkish network, not just the one you used.
• Unblocking means registering the IMEI and paying 54,258 lira for 2026, roughly USD 1,130 at the late-August 2026 rate - the lira figure is fixed for the year, so what it costs you in your own currency falls as the lira does. It was 45,614 lira in 2025 and it rises every year.
• You may register only one device per passport every three years. The dual-SIM workaround people used to stretch this was shut down by the BTK, which began enforcement on 1 January 2026 with a hard deadline of 1 May 2026.
• Registration goes through the e-Devlet portal, which in practice means you need a Turkish tax number and someone to help you.

What this means for you, realistically

• On a two-week holiday, none of this matters. Buy a Turkish SIM and enjoy it.
• It matters enormously if you stay longer than four months, or if you come back often. The clock is against the device and the passport, not the trip.
• Check your own status by dialling to get the IMEI, then looking it up on e-Devlet.
• A foreign travel eSIM that roams on a Turkish network, Saily for instance, is a different arrangement from a Turkish SIM, and is the usual way long-stay visitors avoid the registration question entirely. It costs more per gigabyte and far less than 54,258 lira. If you are staying months, take this route rather than discovering the block.

Buying a Turkish SIM

• Turkcell has the best coverage, Vodafone and Türk Telekom are cheaper and fine in cities.
• You must show your passport, and registration is done in the shop.
• Tourist packages are sold at the airports and in every high street shop, typically 20 GB to 50 GB for a month.
• Airport prices are noticeably higher than the same package in a city centre store.
• Prices move with inflation. A figure you read in a blog from last year is not the price today.

Coverage

• Excellent in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and the whole Mediterranean and Aegean coast.
• Good on the main roads through Anatolia, patchy in the eastern mountains.
• WhatsApp is universal for hotels, drivers, guides and tour operators.
• Some services are periodically restricted, and access to particular sites and apps has been blocked at times of unrest. A VPN installed before you travel is worth having.

Sockets in Turkey are Type C and F at 230 V, 50 Hz - the same Schuko standard as Germany.

• A Europlug fits every socket, which covers most chargers arriving from Europe.
• British, American and Australian plugs need an adapter. Adapters are cheap in any hardware shop or supermarket.
• 230 V, so American 120 V-only equipment needs a converter.
• Power cuts are routine in smaller towns and on the coast in summer. Sockets are fine; the supply behind them is what varies.
• The neighbours mostly match. Greece, Bulgaria and Georgia use the same socket. Cyprus, a short flight away, is British Type G, and so are the Gulf states most flights from Istanbul carry on to.

Alcohol rules that catch people out

• Shops cannot sell alcohol between 22:00 and 06:00. Bars and restaurants can still serve. If you want a bottle for the hotel room, buy it before ten.
• Alcohol is heavily taxed and is the one thing in Turkey that is not cheap.
• Drinking in the street is frowned on and in some places prohibited.
• Rakı is the national drink, aniseed, drunk with water and food, and not to be treated as a shot.

Mosques

• Working mosques welcome visitors outside prayer times and there is usually no charge.
• Shoulders and knees covered for everyone. Women cover their hair, and scarves are lent at the door.
• Shoes off, and carry them in the bag provided or leave them on the rack.
• Do not walk in front of someone praying or photograph people at prayer.
• Friday midday is busy and not the time to visit.
• The call to prayer happens five times a day, including before dawn. Ask for a room away from the minaret if you sleep lightly.

Everyday

• Electricity is 230 V at 50 Hz with European two-pin plugs. UK and US visitors need an adapter.
• The country's name is Türkiye, changed at the UN in 2022, and you will see it on everything official.
• Tea is constant and social. Being offered çay in a shop is hospitality, not a sales technique, and refusing is fine but accepting is better.
• Turkish hospitality is genuine and can be overwhelming. An invitation to eat is usually exactly what it appears to be.
• Take your shoes off entering a home. Always.
• Ramadan falls in February and March in 2027. Nothing closes and restaurants stay open in tourist areas, but eating conspicuously in the street during daylight in conservative areas is poor form.
• Public holidays, especially the two religious holidays, empty the cities and fill every coach, plane and coastal hotel. Check the dates before booking.
• Haggle in bazaars, not in shops.
• Toilets are usually western style, with a small hose. Carry tissues, and note that paper often goes in the bin rather than the bowl.

Prices are a moving target

Annual inflation was 31.75 percent in July 2026 and the lira traded at about 47.74 to the US dollar on 11 August 2026, down 17 percent over a year.

• Every price in this guide, and every price in any guide, is dated. Treat lira figures as a rough scale rather than a quote.
• The "cheap Turkey" of a decade ago is gone in Istanbul and the smart coastal resorts. It is still very good value for food and transport, and no longer cheap for hotels.
• Do not prepay far in advance in lira unless the price is fixed. Conversely, a hotel quoting in euros has already priced the risk in.
• Carry a card and a little cash. Cards work almost everywhere, including taxis and small cafes.

Changing money

• Exchange offices, marked "döviz", give better rates than banks or hotels, and much better than the airport.
• The airport is the worst rate in the country. Change 20 or 30 euros there to get into town and do the rest properly.
• Count what you are handed before you walk away, every time.
• The FCDO warns that counterfeit US banknotes circulate, so be careful accepting dollars in change.
• ATMs are everywhere. Use bank-branded machines, decline the machine's own conversion, and take lira.
• Always be charged in lira, not in your home currency. Dynamic currency conversion here is a notably bad rate.

Tipping and bills

• Restaurants: round up or leave about 10 percent, in cash where you can, because card tips do not always reach the staff.
• Check for a service charge before adding to it.
• Taxis: round up to the next convenient note.
• Hotel porters and housekeeping: a small note is normal.
• Hairdressers, hamams and guides all expect a tip, and roughly 10 percent is the norm.

Bargaining

• Bazaars and carpet shops: yes, and it is expected. Start well below and be pleasant about it.
• Shops with marked prices, supermarkets and restaurants: no.
• Walking away is the strongest move you have and is not rude.

Buses are the backbone

Turkish intercity coaches are better than most European trains and this surprises everyone.

• Reclining seats, attendants serving tea, frequent stops, and air conditioning.
• They reach everywhere, including places no train or plane goes.
• Book ahead in summer and around public holidays. 12Go covers the main routes, including Istanbul to Göreme in Cappadocia, if you would rather book in one place.
• Every town has an otogar, the bus station, usually well outside the centre with free shuttle minibuses into town. Ask for the "servis".
• Overnight buses save a hotel night on long routes and are genuinely comfortable.

Trains and planes

• The YHT high-speed trains link Istanbul, Ankara, Konya and Sivas and are fast, cheap and pleasant. Book on the TCDD site or app.
• Outside those corridors the rail network is slow and sparse. The Eastern Express to Kars is a famous scenic journey rather than transport.
• Domestic flights are cheap and frequent, with Turkish Airlines, AJet and Pegasus competing hard. Istanbul to Antalya or Cappadocia by air is often no dearer than the bus.
• Check which Istanbul airport your domestic flight uses. Again.

In the cities

• Istanbulkart works on the metro, tram, bus, funicular and ferries, and one card can pay for several people.
• The ferries across the Bosphorus are public transport priced as public transport, and are also the best sightseeing in the city. Take one.
• Dolmuş minibuses run fixed routes and leave when full. Cheap, local, and you pass your fare forward along the seats.
• BiTaksi and Uber for taxis. Yandex Maps and Moovit for navigation, both better than Google Maps for Turkish public transport.

Driving

• An International Driving Permit alongside your own licence is expected by rental firms.
• Turkish driving is assertive. Lane markings are advisory and the horn is a communication tool.
• Speed cameras are everywhere and fines follow the rental company to you.
• Avoid driving in central Istanbul. Parking is impossible and the traffic is among the worst in Europe.

Tolls are electronic-only through HGS: no cash lanes, no barriers to stop at.

• A hire car comes with an HGS tag and the company bills the crossings back. In a private car, the sticker is bought from a PTT post office and topped up in advance; passing a gantry with an empty balance becomes a fine.
• The alcohol limit is 0.5 g/l for private cars and zero for anyone towing or driving commercially.
• The motorway network is modern and fast - Istanbul to Izmir or Ankara is straightforward - and the secondary roads across Anatolia are long, empty and hard on tyres.
• Istanbul traffic is in a class of its own. A car in the old city is a liability; the ferries and the metro are not.
• Fuel is expensive relative to the rest of the region, and the price changes often.

The Istanbul bar scam

This is the one to know about. It has been running for twenty years and it still works because it does not feel like a scam.

• A friendly, well-dressed man strikes up a conversation near Istiklal Caddesi, Taksim or Sultanahmet. Good English, a genuine-seeming interest in where you are from.
• He suggests a drink at a bar he knows. Sometimes he mentions his brother's place, sometimes it is simply nearby.
• Women appear at the table, drinks arrive, and the bill is thousands of euros.
• Refusing is when it turns unpleasant, and people have been walked to an ATM.
• It targets men travelling alone above all, and it happens to sober, sensible people.
• The defence is simple: do not go to a bar chosen by someone who approached you in the street. Suggest a place you picked instead and watch what happens.

Counterfeit alcohol

The FCDO warns explicitly about methanol poisoning from illegally produced spirits and counterfeit branded bottles.

• Even small amounts of methanol can kill, and it has killed tourists and Turkish people alike.
• Buy spirits from supermarkets and licensed shops, not from unlabelled bottles or unusually cheap all-inclusive top-shelf pours.
• Be wary of very cheap spirits at bars in resort areas.
• Symptoms are blurred vision, nausea and confusion hours after drinking. Get to a hospital immediately rather than sleeping it off.
• Do not accept drinks from strangers. Spiking is also a reported problem.

The everyday scams

• The taxi meter that is "broken". Insist, or use BiTaksi or Uber.
• The banknote switch, where a 200 lira note becomes a 20 in the driver's hand. Say the amount out loud as you hand it over.
• The dropped shoe brush. A shoeshine man drops his brush, you helpfully pick it up, and you are given a shine you did not want and a bill.
• The carpet shop tour, where a new friend guides you to a shop and takes a commission on whatever you are talked into.
• Restaurant menus without prices in tourist streets. Ask before ordering, especially for fish, which is often priced by weight.
• Fake e-Visa sites charging several times the real fee.

Crime, terrorism and where not to go

• Street robbery and pickpocketing are common in Istanbul's tourist areas, particularly Istiklal, the Grand Bazaar and crowded trams.
• The FCDO advises against travel to parts of southeast Turkey, near the Syrian and Iraqi borders. Check the current regional advice before planning anything there.
• Terrorist attacks have targeted airports, religious sites and public gatherings, mostly in the southeast, Ankara and Istanbul.
• Avoid demonstrations. They can be dispersed forcefully and foreigners taking part in political protest risk detention and deportation.
• Insulting the Turkish state, the flag or the president is a criminal offence, including in a social media post made before you arrived.

Earthquakes

• Turkey sits on major fault lines and earthquakes are frequent. A magnitude 6.2 struck near Istanbul in April 2025.
• Learn the drop, cover and hold on drill and note where the exits are in your hotel.
• AFAD is the national agency and its alerts are the ones to follow.
• Summer brings wildfires, flooding and extreme heat, particularly on the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts.

The number

• Turkey consolidated all its emergency numbers into 112. Older guidebooks list 155 for police and 110 for fire. Use 112.
• English-speaking operators are available, though not instantly everywhere. Say your city first.
• Know your address in Turkish characters or have it written down. Street names are hard to convey over the phone.
• Tourism Police operate in Istanbul, Antalya and other visitor cities and are the right people for theft reports and lost documents.

Practicalities

• Report theft to the police and get the written report. No insurer pays without it, and getting one after you have flown home is not realistic.
• Photograph your passport and entry stamp and keep the copies separate.
• If you lose your passport, go to the police first, then your embassy or consulate. Most countries have a consulate in Istanbul as well as an embassy in Ankara, and Istanbul is the useful one.
• Save your insurer's 24-hour line offline with the international dialling code.
• Keep some cash accessible. Card networks go down during major incidents.

Earthquakes

• AFAD is the national agency and issues the alerts. Follow it rather than social media, which fills with old footage within minutes.
• Drop, cover and hold on. Do not run outside during the shaking; falling masonry is what injures people.
• Note your hotel's exits and stairwells on arrival. Lifts are not an option.
• Aftershocks follow for days and are often what brings down already damaged buildings.
• A power bank, a torch and shoes by the bed are the standard local precautions and cost nothing.

Summer emergencies

• Wildfires close roads and force evacuations on the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts every summer.
• Follow instructions from hotel staff and the authorities immediately. These fires move faster than people expect.
• Extreme heat warnings are issued regularly, and heatstroke is the commonest summer medical emergency among visitors.