Turkey
A country split across two continents, and the better half of Istanbul is the one tour buses skip.
Istanbul takes most of a first visit and most of it stays on one side of the Bosphorus. The food is better on the other.
Places in Turkey
Cappadocia
A landscape of volcanic rock and cave houses, best seen without a balloon overhead.
Istanbul
One city on two continents, and the ferry crossing is the best cheap thing to do in it.
Kars
A high, cold plateau city in Turkey's far northeast, still built in the Russian Empire's stone and street grid from its 40 years under the Tsar.
Muğla
The Aegean coast's quiet province — Bodrum gets the yachts, the rest of the coastline gets to keep its water clean.
Logged in Turkey
Araf İstanbul
Istanbul, TurkeyA chef couple's open kitchen in a quiet Kadıköy apartment block, working through offal most menus skip.
Cağaloğlu Hamam
Istanbul, TurkeyA marble Ottoman hammam built in 1741, still washing visitors under the same vaulted domes.
Çırağan Palace Kempinski
Istanbul, TurkeySultan Abdülaziz's Bosphorus palace, rebuilt after a 1910 fire and now the only hotel in Istanbul with its own stretch of the strait.
Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet
Istanbul, TurkeyA neoclassical Ottoman prison two minutes from Hagia Sophia, converted into a hotel with the original cell block layout still traceable in its courtyard.
Hürrem Sultan Hamamı
Istanbul, TurkeyA 16th-century Mimar Sinan hammam beside Hagia Sophia, restored to twin-domed marble symmetry.
Hotel Katerina Sarayı
Kars, TurkeyA stone mansion from Kars's decades as a Russian imperial garrison town, now a hotel with a fire pit built for the snow.
Les Maisons de Cappadoce
Uçhisar, TurkeyCave houses in Uçhisar restored over two decades by a French architect, with a kitchen in nearly every one.
Pandeli
Istanbul, TurkeyA blue-tiled Ottoman dining room above the Spice Bazaar, serving since 1901.
Sabrina's Haus
Marmaris, TurkeyTwenty-two rooms on a private stretch of Aegean coast, reachable only by boat.
Mentioned in
Hotel Katerina Sarayı
Kars, TurkeyA stone mansion from Kars's decades as a Russian imperial garrison town, now a hotel with a fire pit built for the snow.
Kars
A high, cold plateau city in Turkey's far northeast, still built in the Russian Empire's stone and street grid from its 40 years under the Tsar.