Ten Places To See In Turkey

Cute town west of Izmir with a beach right outside of it.

Big city but not as hectic as Istanbul. There are also ferries to travel to different neighborhoods. I like it a lot.

I didn't explore this one as I only ended up staying for one night, but I hear it's one of the best places for paragliding because you're in the air for like 25 minutes.

Cute down by the sea (but no beach), I was there a few years ago and liked it a lot.

Very popular city that a lot of people visit or move to. Lots of Russians. You get the sea and great mountain views.

I stayed in Ürgüp which was okay, but Göreme really gets you the Cappadocian experience. In any case, you'll visit nearby places anyway, such as the "open air museum" (I think they call it that) and some ancient underground cities.

I didn't visit, I just took a bus there and started hitchhiking from the highway immediately. But from the pictures it looks like a pretty interesting place.

From Kars I hitchhiked to Hopa (this was a few years ago) and I was blown away by the views. Highly recommend.

Most people don't like it very much. Turks are often surprised when I say I liked it. Objectively, it's not great. I get it. But I got to spend time with locals and had a great time. I did stand up and met the Quidditch team from METU university. I think it's a worthwhile city if you find locals to explore it with.

One of my favorite cities in the world. There's something very special about it. I mostly spend my time in Kadıköy which feels quite European (ironically it's in what we call the "Asian" part of the city, although the Turks call it the Anatolian side), but still quite Turkish at the same time.