20+ Resources for Traveling to Turkey: The Best Sites & Apps
Planning a trip to Türkiye? These websites and apps will help you make the most of your travels!
When it comes to exploring this amazing country, having the right tools at your fingertips can make all the difference. Imagine effortlessly booking the perfect flights (no 40-hour layovers, yay!), reserving an amazing hotel with jaw-dropping views of Galata Tower, and even having all of your activities, tours, and transportation sorted.
Think it’s too good to be true? Nope, you’ve just unlocked the secret with these resources. 😉
This page includes the best websites, digital resources, and online tools for planning a trip to Turkey, including finding flights, accommodations, tours & activities, transportation, and much more.
As with all of our blog posts, we’ve only listed our favorite websites and travel resources that we personally use when traveling around Türkiye.
We’ve also added some relevant blog posts that might be helpful at the end of each section (i.e. a Guide to Turkish Airports post at the end of the Flights section).
We hope you have fun planning your trip!
The fine print: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, which means we’ll earn a small commission if you make a purchase (at no extra cost to you). This helps us keep running the website and writing even more useful content about Türkiye. Thank you. 🙂
Flights
Whenever we plan a trip and need to research domestic flights in Turkey, Kiwi is our first stop.
The website has everything you need when looking for airline tickets, including powerful filters (number of stops, price, duration, amount of baggage, etc), a helpful visual price calendar, and our favorite — the ability to toggle between best / cheapest / fastest options.
Kiwi is also a lifesaver if you want to book domestic Turkish flights, and especially if you plan to travel to multiple destinations in one trip. Let us illustrate this with an example to make it easier…
Let’s say you want to travel between three popular cities — Istanbul, Izmir/Ephesus, and Antalya — but don’t know where to start.
You can use Kiwi’s Nomad feature, add your departure city (let’s say Istanbul), your trip dates, and any other cities you want to visit (in this case, Izmir and Antalya). Kiwi will then give you multiple options on how to structure your trip, including the exact flights and dates. From there, you can book all of your tickets together!
We also like Kiwi for a few other reasons: it shows options that other flight search engines miss (they look for the cheapest options instead of codeshare routes); you can search for flights by regions; and they even check you in automatically if you forget. 🙂
Here’s the Kiwi widget if you’d like to try it out:
AIRPORT LOUNGES
If you travel frequently, then you’ll love Priority Pass. In a nutshell, having a Priority Pass membership grants you access to more than 1,300 airport lounges around the world (including Türkiye!). You can relax between flights, grab something to eat and drink (no overpriced airport food, yay!), and even take a shower and freshen up during longer layovers.
We use our Priority Pass every time we travel — in fact, sometimes we even get to airports earlier so we can take full advantage of the lounge. 😁 If you’re wondering what are the best airport lounges in Türkiye, we particularly like the Primeclass Lounge (BJV Bodrum domestic), Kepler Hotel & Lounge in SAW Airport (they have cool sleeping pods!), and the IGA Lounge in IST Airport.
Click here to check out Priority Pass →
READ MORE
🧿 Your Guide to Domestic Flights in Turkey — A list of domestic Turkish airlines, how to travel to/from the airport, and other practical tips. Click here to read →
🧿 Airports in Turkey: Info About ALL 50+ Airports & Travel Tips — Planning to visit multiple cities in Türkiye and traveling mostly by plane? This blog post covers everything you need to know about all 50+ airports across the country. Plus, the map is super helpful if you’re a visual person! Click here to read →
🧿 Istanbul Airport (IST) vs Sabiha Gökçen Airport (SAW): Which One Should You Choose? — Flying to Istanbul and don’t know which airport to choose? This guide will help you. 🙂 Click here to read →
🧿 How to travel from Sabiha Gökçen Airport (SAW) to Sultanahmet (Istanbul Old Town), Taksim, or Kadıköy — We have three posts about traveling from SAW Airport to Istanbul’s most popular districts.
Accommodations
Once you have your flight booked, it’s time for the fun part: looking for amazing accommodations in Türkiye! 😍 (you can probably tell that we love cool hotels!)
So, why use Booking.com?
✅ Huge selection: There are more than 50,000 hotels in Türkiye listed, including some very far-away places
✅ Flexibility: Many properties offer free cancellation and/or paying later
✅ Customizability: There are a ton of filters that will really help you narrow down what you’re looking for (i.e. minimum guest rating, distance from center, a list of amenities, etc)
However, there is one important tip: Be sure to book your hotels before arriving in Türkiye, as Booking.com is blocked in the country (allegedly for something to do with taxes, but that’s a different story). If you’re already in Turkey, no worries — just use a VPN to access the site and continue booking!
Without a doubt, we use Booking.com 97% of the time when we travel in Türkiye (and abroad) because it usually has the best prices and options. However, we usually take it further and use two more sites to make sure we’re getting the best deal…
As mentioned above, we use Booking.com because it consistently offers the best deals. However, not every single hotel in the country is listed there, which is why we also recommend checking Hotels.com and Agoda just in case.
This tip works especially well in smaller cities and towns. For example, during our 2 Week Black Sea trip, we only found a decent hotel in a tiny town through Hotels.com.
As they say, it never hurts to double check 🙂
Finally, here are two final sites that cater to specific needs:
🧿 VRBO — Similar to Airbnb, VRBO is good if you’re looking for something unique or specific (i.e. apartments with an amazing panoramic view of Istanbul’s Old Town), cabins in the mountains, bungalows, villas in Bodrum, etc) or if you’re traveling in a large group (there are lots of larger spaces that can accommodate many guests!). Click to check VRBO →
🧿 Hostelworld — A go-to resource if you’re specifically searching for hostels. Hostelworld has a wide range of budget-friendly options across Turkey. Click to check Hostelworld out →
Tours & Activities
GetYourGuide — Our favorite tour booking site and the one we use to book the majority of our activities (yes, travel bloggers need to book things too :P)
GetYourGuide has practically every tour, ticket, transportation, and activity you can imagine, including skip-the-line tickets to Topkapi Palace, a private yacht rental along the Bosphorus, hot air balloon reservations in Cappadocia, Turkish coffee-making classes, day trips, and even full-day tours of Ephesus.
Besides an excellent database of things to do, GetYourGuide also has fantastic support (once we had a logistics problem and they immediately contacted us), an easy-to-use website, and even free cancellation on most activities. Click here to check out GetYourGuide →
Viator — Viator is another popular activity reservation website and has nearly 10,000 bookable tours in Türkiye. We recommend “shopping around” between GetYourGuide and Viator, as sometimes you’ll find the same tour for a few dollars cheaper on the latter site. Click here to check out Viator →
READ MORE
🧿 10+ Alternative Tours in Istanbul: Go Off the Beaten Path With These Unique Tours
Transportation
CAR RENTALS
RentalCars — This is the website we always use to rent cars in Türkiye (and abroad!). We find it really easy to navigate, plus the filters make it easy to find what you’re looking for (automatic vs manual, price, vehicle features, and even customer reviews of that particular car rental office). Click here to find your rental car →
BUS & TRAIN TICKETS
FlixBus — Good ol’ FlixBus works in Türkiye too! 😉 In fact, Flixbus bought out a local bus company (Kamil Koc) back in 2019 and uses their fleet. There are more than a thousand routes listed on Flixbus, including popular cities (Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara, Antalya, etc) down to smaller towns and villages. You can easily buy a ticket through their site or app — click here to check it out →
Obilet — This is the most popular bus ticket website in Turkey that locals use. It’s helpful if you need to travel between less-popular destinations (i.e. Trabzon to Rize) and/or if Flixbus doesn’t have a route. We like Obilet because it shows smaller regional companies that we might not have heard of before. Click here to check it out →
TCDD (Official Turkish State Railways site) — Türkiye has more than 10,500 kilometers (6,500 mi) of railway lines running across the country, so it would be a shame not to go on a fun train journey, right? That’s where the official state railways site, TCDD, comes in. You can book Turkish railway tickets on their official website →
AIRPORT TRANSFERS & PRIVATE TRANSFERS
Kiwitaxi — Instead of dealing with unscrupulous taxi drivers (we’ve written a whole blog post about avoiding taxi scams here!), we prefer pre-booking our airport transfers on Kiwitaxi. You see the price ahead of time (no surprises!), the drivers are licensed, and you’ll get a complimentary meet-and-greet at the airport (the driver will have your name on a sign).
Click here to check prices on Kiwitaxi →
Get Your Guide — Although we talked about GetYourGuide above, it’s also an amazing option for booking airport transfers and private transfers! We especially like it because you can check the reviews before you book and the pricing is transparent. Likewise, GetYourGuide also has a great selection of private transfers between popular destinations.
Check airport transfer prices for Istanbul | Antalya | Cappadocia →
FERRY TICKETS
Ferryhopper — If you’re planning to go island hopping between Türkiye and Greece (we particularly love the islands of Chios and Lesvos!), Ferryhopper is a fantastic resource.
You can easily search for routes, get a list of tickets, and book your tickets all in one place.
We especially love Ferryhopper’s map feature because you can visually see all the ferry routes from Türkiye. As a nice little bonus, you can also book multiple tickets at the same time (for example, Kușadası – Samos – Fourni – Mykonos all on one ticket).
Click here to check out Ferryhopper →
READ MORE
🧿 10 Common Istanbul Taxi Scams (And How to Avoid Them!)
🧿 A Guide to Island Hopping Between Turkey and Greece
Communication
Airalo, Yesim, or Maya eSIM — They all do the same function (provide eSIMs) so we’ve grouped them in one place. 🙂
Instead of paying $40+ USD for a basic tourist SIM card in Turkey, you can save up to 75% off and use an eSIM card instead! (just make sure to check if your phone has eSIM capabilities — this is a good resource).
Click to see prices and availability for Airalo | Yesim | Maya →
Psst… We also have a blog post about the best Turkish SIM cards and eSIM cards — click here!
Google Translate — Google Translate is one of the most essential apps you’ll need when traveling to Türkiye. Although the country is one of the most popular tourist destinations (it was the 5th most-visited destination in 2023!), not everyone speaks English — which is where Google Translate really shines.
You can use it to decipher menus, chat with locals, ask for directions to the ferry station, bargain in the Grand Bazaar, and so much more.
WhatsApp — WhatsApp is the communication app of choice in Türkiye. It’s especially helpful if you need to contact your hotel or Airbnb, food delivery guy, and/or tour operator, since there’s a 99% chance they have a WhatsApp number (and you don’t need a local SIM!)
READ MORE
🧿 The Ultimate Guide to SIM & eSIM Cards in Turkey
🧿 20 Essential Apps for Traveling in Türkiye
Further Resources
Wait, don’t leave just yet! We have even more helpful blog posts that you might be interested in reading. Check them out below. 🙂
🧿 How to Plan a Trip to Turkey: Everything You Need to Know
🧿 30 Major Travel Mistakes in Turkey
🧿 20 Essential Apps for Traveling in Türkiye
🧿 National Holidays in Turkey: Important Dates & How to Celebrate
🧿 20 Common Tourist Scams in Turkey (And How to Avoid Them!)
🧿 How to Dine in Istanbul Like a Local (30+ Tips How to Find Restaurants)
🧿 200+ Essential Turkish Travel Phrases for Tourists (with Pronunciation!)
