Things to do in Turkey: 28 experiences worth the trip

About 1 hour in the air, 3 to 4 with transfersBook ahead

Drift over the valleys around Göreme at sunrise, when the winds are lightest, or watch the launches for free from the ridges.

About 1 hourNo booking needed

From the upper galleries you see the Byzantine mosaics and look down on the whole prayer hall beneath the dome at once.

1 to 2 hours, half a day to shopFree

About 3,600 shops under covered streets where gold, carpets, lamps, leather and copper each keep their own lanes and old courtyard workshops.

About 3 hours, plus 30 minutes for the Terrace HousesGo alone or with a tour

Walk the marble streets of a Roman provincial capital downhill, past the Library of Celsus to the Great Theatre.

Half a day with HierapolisGo alone or with a tour

Climb barefoot through shallow pools on a white travertine slope built by hot springs, with a Roman spa town on top.

An hour for lunch, a day with BursaNo booking needed

Thin slices of lamb over pide, hot tomato sauce and sheep's milk butter poured sizzling at the table, in the city where it began.

30 to 45 minutes insideFree

Go inside among the blue İznik tiles in the late afternoon, then step out as the light fades and the six minarets are lit.

Half a day with the HaremBook ahead

Walk inward through the gates of the Ottoman sultans' palace to the Harem, the Treasury and pavilions over the Bosphorus.

1 to 2 hoursBook ahead

Sweat on heated marble under a dome, then get scrubbed with a rough kese mitt and soaped down with foam in an Ottoman-era bath.

Half a dayFree

Enter Antalya's old core through a Roman gate and wander downhill through Ottoman houses to the old harbour.

A day for one stage, weeks for the whole trailNo booking needed

Walk old paths between ancient Lycian cities and ports, with village pensions and the sea always in view.

An evening for the sema, a day with the museumBook ahead

See the Mevlevi dervishes' turning prayer as a ceremony, not a dinner show, in the city where Rumi taught and is buried.

About 1 hourNo booking needed

Go down about 85 metres through levels carved into soft volcanic rock, in a city that could shelter up to 20,000 people.

About 1 hour on site, half a day from ŞanlıurfaNo booking needed

Carved T-shaped pillars with foxes, boars, snakes and vultures, among the oldest known megaliths, raised before farming had fully taken hold.

An eveningFree

Leave İstiklal's shops for the side streets, where meyhane tables spill into the lanes and dinner is a long run of meze with rakı.

An hour, or a day of eatingNo booking needed

Baklava made with the green pistachios grown around Gaziantep, eaten in the morning from fresh trays with tea and a slab of kaymak.

Half a day from KâhtaNo booking needed

At sunrise on a 2,134-metre summit, the stone heads of a king and his gods sit on the ground by his tomb.

A day trip, or three to seven nightsBook ahead

Days of anchoring in coves, swimming off the stern and eating on deck, with the Twelve Islands minutes from Göcek.

Half a day from TrabzonNo booking needed

A Greek Orthodox monastery clinging to a cliff above a forested valley, its rock church still layered with frescoes.

3 to 4 hours with the museumNo booking needed

Nine cities stacked in one mound, from the earliest Troy to the town that served pilgrims to Homer's legend.

2 hours with EyüpFree

Tea in a tulip glass at sunset, with the whole length of the Golden Horn running back towards the Old City below.

30 to 45 minutesGo alone or with a tour

Justinian's reservoir, its roof on 336 marble columns, with two Medusa heads at the far end used simply as column bases.

A night, or a long day from AnkaraFree

Sleep in a restored Ottoman mansion and walk the lanes of a whole timber-framed town once the day-trippers have gone.

Half a day by kayakBook ahead

Glide by kayak over walls, stairways and house foundations of an ancient town that slid into the sea, just under the surface.

3 hours for the acropolis, half a day with the AsklepionNo booking needed

A royal capital on a 335-metre hill, with a theatre that drops 36 metres down the slope, the steepest of all ancient theatres.

Most of a day for the long tourNo booking needed

The city's own ferry zigzags between Europe and Asia to the last village before the Black Sea, with a castle and grilled fish waiting.

1 to 2 hoursNo booking needed

Tiny churches and chapels carved by monks into rock cones, many painted with Byzantine frescoes, along a loop trail in one valley.

About an hour in the air, half a day in allBook ahead

Run off a 1,969-metre mountain with an instructor, soar along its face and land on the beach promenade beside the Blue Lagoon.