Turkey TRIP DETAILS

The lira is the official currency of Turkey. There are plenty of ATMs and credit cards are widely accepted.
For the most up-to date conversion rate click here or download the app- https://www.xe.com/.

Passports must be valid for six months beyond your entry date. You will be denied entry into Turkey if there is not enough space for entry and exit stamps in your passport.
You need a visa to travel to Turkey which you can obtain upon arrival at the airport or using the e-Visa application system prior to arrival.
For more information, please visit the State Department website here.

Turkey has exoticism to spare, with its covered bazaars, whirling dervishes, sultans’ treasures and Byzantine mosaics. And its natural beauty is abundant, with great stretches of sandy beaches and romantic rocky coves.
Travelers will find Turks to be exceptionally gracious hosts, which makes sense given the country’s place as a crossroads between Europe and Asia. The country has dramatically improved its tourist infrastructure, too.
This appealing mix does have a few drawbacks—increasing prices (though it’s still an inexpensive place to travel), sprawling new development and growing crowds—but they’re hardly enough to spoil a visit. Our advice is to take your time in discovering the country. It’s best experienced in leisurely excursions to places of remarkable history and beauty (such as Cappadocia and Ephesus) and in extended visits to fascinating and energetic cities (such as Istanbul).

One look at the names of its ancient cities and landmarks confirms Turkey’s place in the history of human civilization: Constantinople (Byzantium), Troy, Midas, Antioch (Antakya), Philadelphia (Alasehir), Halicarnassus (Bodrum), Mount Ararat. The land has a rich and complicated history —and the people known as the Turks have only been there for about 1,000 years.
The Asian side of Turkey, known as Anatolia or Asia Minor, was settled as early as 7000 BC, but historians don’t really know much about the people who lived there until the Hittites arrived around 2000 BC. The Hittites managed to control a good portion of Anatolia, but their rule was interrupted and overthrown by a succession of smaller states, including the Phrygians, the Lydians and Lycians. Eventually, the great empires of Greece and Persia showed up, too, followed by the Romans.
Constantinople (formerly Byzantium and later Istanbul) was founded in the fourth century AD. It soon came to rival Rome as the seat of the Christian world, and the city flourished in this position for hundreds of years. Not until the formal split between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy (AD 1054) and the arrival of the Selcuks (Turks) in the late 11th century did the city begin to lose its luster.
Until that time, most of Turkey’s rulers had come from the west, but the Selcuks changed that. They were descended from the Turkish people of East Asia, and they had a different language and religion (Islam). Various groups of Turks had been making their way westward for centuries, but the Selcuks were the first to dominate central Anatolia. They were soon followed by the Mongols and then the Ottomans, who arrived in the region around AD 1300. The Ottomans ultimately created a new empire, taking Constantinople in 1453 and spreading their rule through much of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Turkey is one of the geographical links between Europe and Asia. The waterway that connects the Aegean and Black seas (by way of the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus) also divides Europe and Asia, and Turkey has territory on both sides. The country is bordered by Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq and Syria.
Turkey’s landscape varies dramatically. It has more than 5,000 mi/8,000 km of coastline along the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black seas. Eastern Turkey is mountainous, with volcanic peaks capped by snow year-round. The lava layers from ancient volcanoes in central Anatolia created a landscape of gorges and “fairy chimneys” in Cappadocia.
Farther west, the mountains give way to rolling steppes and fertile plains before reaching the coast. Although the steppe area can seem desolate, especially in high summer, parts of northern and western Turkey are surprisingly green. The southern part of the country is much drier than the north.