Visiting Türkiye (Turkey) In The Winter: What You Should Know

March 2, 2025

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All information in this post is accurate as of the publishing date, however it is always best to check timetables, pricing, or opening hours before visiting a destination or venue.

Türkiye (previously known as Turkey) is a popular budget holiday destination, and for good reason! There are so many amazing places to see and things to do there. There’s the incredible mosques in Istanbul, and the fairy chimneys of Göreme. Read about how to spend 24 hours in Göreme here! Plus so many beautiful coastal destinations and lots of interesting historical destinations. One of the most popular draws of course is the beautiful Mediterranean water and weather during summer. Because of this, it means the high season in Türkiye is from June to August, with over 7 million tourists visiting in July alone. So is it still worth it to visit Türkiye in the winter?

We chose to visit in late January/early February because we had just moved to the UK, and wanted to explore Türkiye before finding jobs and a place to live. You can read more about our move from Australia to the UK here! However when researching if visiting Türkiye in the winter was worth it, we really didn’t find much information. We know that more coastal destinations such as the Amalfi coast and the Greek islands tend to sort of shut up over winter, so we wanted to make sure Türkiye didn’t do this.

Now that we’ve come back from our trip, we’ve decided to write this post. It will give you all information you need to know to decide if you should visit Türkiye in the winter.

Visiting Türkiye In The Winter: What You Should Know. A large, circular fountain with clear blue water and tall, symmetrical water jets in front of the historic Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Türkiye, which is a light pink building with a blue dome and 2 tall pink towers on either side. The mosque is surrounded by trees and visitors on a winter day "Visiting Turkey In The Winter: What You Should Know" — The beautiful Hagia Sofia Grand Mosque in Istanbul

Pros

Firstly lets go through some of the pros of visiting Türkiye in the winter:

Quieter

We found this to be the best thing about Türkiye in the winter, it’s so quiet! Hotels were never full, lines for tourist attractions were short and the coastal towns were basically empty. It is worth saying that not every hotel was open but we didn’t have any problems finding accommodation. We also found that transport between cities such as long distance buses and trains weren’t super quiet. Locals use them all year round so do book those in advance if you’re using them.

We visited Istanbul, Göreme, Antayla and Bodrum. Obviously Istanbul was the busiest during our visit, but the other three cities were so quiet. Bodrum especially was super quiet, and for most of our stay we were the only guests at our amazing hotel. We even got special attention such as personalised breakfasts and a free lift to the bus station. On top of that, out of the five accommodations we stayed in during our trip, our rooms were upgraded three times. So it really does pay off to visit when it’s quiet!

As well as the hotels being quieter, there’s also significantly less people clogging up the tourist attractions and restaurants. Firstly, we took ferries over to the Asian side of Istanbul and from Bodrum to Kos on reasonably empty ferries. We saw the hot air balloons in Göreme and at one point had our entire hotel balcony to ourselves. We took a day trip to Pamukkale and the small group was able to fit on one minibus. Lastly, we were able to get into the Michelin starred Italian restaurant in Bodrum called Arka two nights in a row with barely any queuing, which would never happen in summer.

A seaside promenade with palm trees on the path along the right, a red sailboat docked by the calm blue water on the left, and a backdrop of mountains and a clear sky in Kos, Greece. There's also no one else around! "Visiting Turkey In The Winter: What You Should Know" — Kos was SO empty when we visited

The white travertine terraces of Pamukkale, Türkiye. They're white pools with turquoise thermal water in some of them and it's cascading down the hillside under a partly cloudy sky. Above the pools are some people, some trees and some hills "Visiting Turkey In The Winter: What You Should Know" — The day trip to Pamukkale was so worth it

Cheaper

Another pro of visiting Türkiye in the winter is that it’s obviously quite a bit cheaper! This is definitely true for accommodation but we can’t confirm if the tourist attractions or local transport gets more expensive in summer. However let’s look at our hotel in Göreme, the Paradise Cappadocia Hotel. In February one night there cost us around €45 or ₺1,700. In the middle of July that goes up to €161 (₺6,100). Similarly our second hotel in Istanbul the Ada Hotel was €45 or ₺1,700 a night in February. This jumps up to €138/ ₺5,230 in July. So as you can see it literally pays to travel in the off season.

Snow!

While the weather in Türkiye in the winter is definitely not always great, we were lucky. The start of our trip was quite warm, even allowing us to wear t-shirts in Antayla in February. Whilst in Göreme, we got two still and sunny mornings so the hot air balloons were able to fly. And as a bonus, because it was winter and the balloons fly at sunrise, we didn’t have to wake up until after 7am to see them. However later in the trip a cold front came through and the temperature dropped into the negatives. This meant snow arrived in parts of the country including where we were in Istanbul.

Now depending on your preferences, this could be a negative or a positive. We personally think that snow is very pretty and seeing things covered in snow is always amazing so this could be something to look forward to if you’re lucky!

An empty beach in Antayla, Türkiye with clear turquoise water on the right and a pebbled beach on the left with a restaurant above it. It's surrounded by rugged cliffs and stone structures with lush greenery "Visiting Turkey In The Winter: What You Should Know" — Sometimes we had t-shirt weather

Krissie standing in a purple winter coat and white beanie on a hill overlooking Göreme, Cappadocia, Türkiye. The view is of the town with sand coloured buildings, pointy hills and roads and above it all is numerous colourful hot air balloons floating in the sky. "Visiting Turkey In The Winter: What You Should Know" — And sometimes we needed to rug up!

Cons

Now let’s discuss some of the cons of visiting Türkiye in the winter:

Quieter (hear us out)

Considering we just put this as a pro, you might be confused as to why this is also in the cons. This really depends on what you want to get out of your trip. As there’s so few people around, it means there’s less locals around to chat to if this is something you like to do. As well, there’s also less tourists around to meet in hostels or on tours. It also means that restaurants, bars and clubs might even be not open or just quiet. If you like to meet people and socialise on a trip, winter might not be the best time for you.

Things Close Over Winter

Often cities will use the off season to shut and renovate parts of the city that need fixing. Luckily we didn’t notice any of the major tourist attractions shutting which was good. However we did notice small things like scaffolding on the occasional building. As well, when we did our day trip to Pamukkale we noticed the Cleopatra Antique thermal pools were shut for renovation. On top of that, we saw this as well when we visited the coastal towns such as Bodrum and on our day trip to the Greek island of Kos.

In both these places, there were lots of shops and restaurants shut as there were way less tourists to cater to. There were still places open to shop and eat at, but they were more for the locals that lived there.

An empty narrow street in Bodrum, Türkiye with stone walls and wooden storefronts which are all shut on either side. The street is covered by intertwining branches with red flowers, and there's also two parked scooters near the entrance to a store. "Visiting Turkey In The Winter: What You Should Know" — In Bodrum there were so few other tourists around, it was super strange. This photo was taken at 11am!

Weather

Of course one of the major cons we were prepared for was the weather. As mentioned above, we got lucky and for half of our trip we had lovely weather. However that’s definitely not to be expected! Temperatures in January/February range from 2-10 degrees Celsius in Istanbul. In Göreme and the Cappadocia region they can dip into the negatives especially early in the morning or if it snows.

Also, if you’re heading to Cappadocia to see the hot air balloons fly (or to ride in one), winter has the highest chance of them being cancelled. In winter they will only fly 10-12 days a month due to the higher risk of rain, fog, wind and snow. However between May and November they fly the most, with more than 20 days a month in summer. Overall they’ll fly on average about 280-300 days each year.

On the coast around Bodrum it can get up to 15 degrees but when we were there during the cold snap it was much colder. Because of this, if you’re heading to Türkiye with the intention of swimming and taking advantage of that beautiful Mediterranean water, winter is not the time to visit. The water is cold, a lot of the beach clubs are shut, and the beach chairs are all packed away. Türkiye in the winter is definitely more about seeing the landscape than enjoying the beach.

A pedestrian street in Antayla, Türkiye, lined with cafés and restaurants with outdoor chairs and tables with no one sitting at them and red and orange awnings and Turkish flags hanging above. "Visiting Turkey In The Winter: What You Should Know" — Sometimes we had clear but cold days

A cobblestone street in Istanbul, Türkiye, lined with colourful buildings in shades of pink, blue, and yellow, leading up to the historic Galata Tower, with people walking along the wet street and cafés on either side. "Visiting Turkey In The Winter: What You Should Know" — But sometimes it was rainy and cold

Our Experience

Personally, we LOVED visiting Türkiye in the winter. It perfectly suited the way we like to travel, in every way. It’s cheaper, there’s significantly less people around and queues were shorter or non existent. As well as that, we also loved the perks of being randomly upgraded in our accommodations and treated extra special just because we were the only ones around. Considering it was winter, we didn’t really expect to go anywhere super warm so we weren’t upset that we couldn’t swim or enjoy the sunshine.

So Is It Worth It?

Overall, the answer to this questions boils down to what you want to get or expect to get from your trip to Türkiye. If you’re heading there wanting to meet other tourists in hostels or at clubs, stay out late, try lots of cool new restaurants or spend lots of time relaxing on the beach or in the water, this will not be for you.

However if you just want to see the country without all the tourists and don’t mind if it’s a bit cold, this is the perfect time to visit. As we said it’s also way cheaper and pretty much everything is open so we didn’t see any negatives. For us, we barely saw any downsides and would absolutely recommend visiting Türkiye in the winter. Especially if you like to travel the same way that we do!

A vibrant bazaar street with colourful Turkish rugs, pillows, and textiles displayed on walls and shelves on either side of the street in Antayla, Türkiye. Hanging lights illuminate the corridor, while a sign reading "NİSAN Carpet and Rugs" is visible above. "Visiting Turkey In The Winter: What You Should Know" — The old towns in all the places we visited were so beautiful and sold amazing things

If you’re ready to start planning your trip to Türkiye, get started on your accommodation search now!

Our favourite travel planning resources

Flights: When planning a trip our favourite websites to compare flights on are Googl e Flights and Skyscanner. We then personally prefer to go through the airlines official website to book flights.

Travel Insurance: Once you’ve booked flights, the very next step should be travel insurance. We highly recommend booking travel insurance for every international trip no matter the length. For our Australian readers, we use and love Travel Insurance Saver, as they accept one way trips.

Travel Items: We have some favourite travel items that we’ll never set off without. We wrote a post here about the best items that we recommend for all travellers!

Accommodation: For everywhere we stayed, we booked on either Airbnb or Booking.com. Both websites allow you to filter to only show you places in your budget, and pick from inclusions such as kitchen and laundry so it’s really easy to find exactly what you need!

Travel SIM: We used Airalo e-SIMs for data while overseas and loved them. You download the app, pick the plan you want and install it on your phone in less than 10 minutes. Our referral code KRISTE3325 will get you $3USD off your first purchase.

Tours & Activities: We booked all our day trips and some activities through GetYourGuide.

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