Travel to Turkey

Browse listings of Home Exchange, Vacation Rentals, Homestay, B&B (furnished apartments, villas, cottages, condos, farmhouses and other types of accommodations) of Turkey:

Vacation Rentals

Home Exchange

Bed and Breakfast

Homestay

Last Minute Tips Before you Travel to Turkey

• Time ZoneGMT/UTC +2
• Currency: New Turkish Lira (YTL)
• Electricity: 220V, 50 Hz (bring an adapter/transformer for your hair drier, laptop, cellullar phone etc.)
• Weights & measures: Metric
• Country Dialing Code: 90

Must See - Properties on UNESCO World Heritage List 

• Historic Areas of Istanbul
• Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia
• Great Mosque and Hospital of Divrigi
• Hattusha
• Nemrut Dag
• Xanthos-Letoon
• Hierapolis-Pamukkale
• City of Safranbolu
• Archaeological Site of Troy

Turkish Basic Words

Yes = Evet (eh-VEHT)
No = hayýr (HAH-yuhr)
Thanks = Teþekkürler. Sað ol. Mersi. (teh-sheh-kewr-LEHR SOWL. mehr-SEE)
You're welcome = Bir þey deðil (beer SHEHY deh-YEEL)
Please = Lütfen (LEWT-fehn)
Hello = Merhaba (MEHR-hah-bah)
Goodbye = Allaha ýsmarladýk (ah-LAHS-mahr-lah-duhk )
Good morning = Günaydýn (gew-nahy-DUHN)
Good evening = Ýyi akþamlar (EE ahk-shahm-LAHR)
Good night = Ýyi geceler (EE geh-jeh-LEHR )
Water = Su (SOO)
Coffee = car ve (kahve )
Tea = Çay (CHAH-yee)
Ice = Booz (buz)
Where is the bathroom? - Tuvalet nerede? (too-vah-LEHT NEH-reh-deh)
What is your name? - Adýnýz ne? (AH-duh-NUHZ neh)
How are you? - Nasýlsýnýz? (NAHS-suhl-suh-nuhz)
I'm fine, thank you - Ýyiyim, teþekkür ederim (ee-YEE-yihm, tesh-ek-KEWR)
Open – açýk (ah-CHUHKMoney)
Closed – kapalý (kah-pah-LUH)
Money – Para (PAH-rah)

Some Turkish Dishes

Shish Kebab - lamb grilled over charcoal
Döner Kebab - roll of lamb on a vertical skewer turning parallel to a hot grill
Dolma- vegetables as grape leaves, cabbage leaves, and green peppers stuffed with spiced rice
Pilav - rice dish

Turkey

Location
southeastern Europe and southwestern Asia (that portion of Turkey west of the Bosporus is geographically part of Europe), bordering the Black Sea, between Bulgaria and Georgia, and bordering the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, between Greece and Syria

Capital
Ankara

Population
69,660,559 (July 2005 est.)

Regions
81 provinces (iller, singular - il); Adana, Adiyaman, Afyonkarahisar, Agri, Aksaray, Amasya, Ankara, Antalya, Ardahan, Artvin, Aydin, Balikesir, Bartin, Batman, Bayburt, Bilecik, Bingol, Bitlis, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa, Canakkale, Cankiri, Corum, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Duzce, Edirne, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Giresun, Gumushane, Hakkari, Hatay, Igdir, Isparta, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Karabuk, Karaman, Kars, Kastamonu, Kayseri, Kilis, Kirikkale, Kirklareli, Kirsehir, Kocaeli, Konya, Kutahya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mersin, Mugla, Mus, Nevsehir, Nigde, Ordu, Osmaniye, Rize, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Siirt, Sinop, Sirnak, Sivas, Tekirdag, Tokat, Trabzon, Tunceli, Usak, Van, Yalova, Yozgat, Zonguldak

Climate
temperate; hot, dry summers with mild, wet winters; harsher in interior

Ethnic groups
Turkish 80%, Kurdish 20% (estimated)

Religions
Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2% (mostly Christians and Jews)

Languages
Turkish (official), Kurdish, Arabic, Armenian, Greek

Government type
republican parliamentary democracy

Background
Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 from the Anatolian remnants of the defeated Ottoman Empire by national hero Mustafa KEMAL, who was later honored with the title Ataturk, or "Father of the Turks." Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which only Turkey recognizes. A separatist insurgency begun in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the People's Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives, but after the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents largely withdrew from Turkey, mainly to northern Iraq. In 2004, KGK announced an end to its ceasefire and attacks attributed to the KGK increased. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community; over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy, enabling it to begin accession membership talks with the European Union.

Turkey Travel and Accommodation – Your Tips for Travelers

If you would like to share your experiences of traveling to Turkey or to any other country, please send us your article and we will gladly post it at this website.

Istanbul - city with Byzantium flavor by Teresa Szefler

Source: Central Intelligence Agency.
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