7 Tips for Finding a Hotel in Turkey

Little fuzzy friends live everywhere in Turkey. You’ll be sure to find some at your hotel as well. You can read more about a local cat hangout here.

I love researching. I love taking a topic and digging in deep, discovering all of the ins and outs and how they all fit together. Nerd alert: When I worked at the Apple Store there was the rare occasion where we had some down time and I would play the Wikipedia Race game. We would pick two topics (St. Louis and eggs, for example) and race to connect those two topics using only internal Wikipedia links. Whoever could connect them the fastest won. Of course, we also each went back through our histories showing how we arrived from point A to point B.

All of that to say, when it comes to finding a good place to stay in Turkey, I’m all about the research. I would like to share with you some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way.

“Bold” and “bright” is a good way to describe Turkey.

1—Sometimes Turkish hotel sites are cheaper than international sites

This isn’t always the case, but I have found that sometimes I can find the same hotel on a Turkish website like etstur.com or odamax.com for less than hotels.com or booking.com. This has mostly been the case for larger hotels and resorts on Turkey’s western coast. So how do you find these Turkish hotel sites?

Göbeklitepe is one of the oldest archaeological sites in the world and it is in Turkey. You can read more about it here.

2—Turkish Trivago

I think I saw Trivago advertised in Turkey for the first time at the cinema. I decided to check it out and this was the first time I delved deep into the world of Turkish hotel sites. I’ve already mentioned etstur.com and odamax.com. There is also otelz.com, tatil.com, tatilsepet.com, jollytur.com, just to name a few. So my favorite way to search through Turkish hotel sites is to use trivago.com/tr.

3—What if I don’t know Turkish?

If you don’t know Turkish it could make this process of hotel hunting a bit difficult on the local websites, but not impossible! One of my favorite features of Google translate is the camera mode. You can open the camera and hold it up to the computer screen to get instant translation of the webpage. However, odamax.com has an English feature on their website. I have used them several times and have always been pleased with the service.

You should add the city of Gaziantep to your itinerary if you are visiting Turkey. Not only is it known as the “Food Capital” of the country, it is also where these really cool leather shoes are made.

4—Sometimes you need a Turkish credit or debit card

Sometimes Turkish websites only offer Turkish payment options; however, in the last few years I have found that my American credit card has been accepted on more and more websites, so it’s worth a try! If you are an expat living in Turkey, I highly recommend opening a local bank account so you can access some of these great local services.

5—The international sites work too

Turkish Trivago actually will show results from hotels.com. But you can still use old reliables like expedia.com, kayak.com, and booking.com. If you are in Turkey you won’t be able to make bookings in Turkey without using a VPN. Booking.com is my favorite international hotel search engine because of it’s ease-of-use and design. Because I’ve used them so often and have Genius status sometimes I find the best deal with them.

Airbnb.com and vrbo.com also work if you are looking for something different than a hotel. There are some really nice villas on the Turkish coasts in places like Antalya, Kaş, and Bodrum and these websites are great for finding places like that to stay.

I had a bad experience with agoda.com once, so I don’t use them anymore and wouldn’t recommend that you do either.

It’s like a dream. But it’s real. Go to Kaş. That’s all I will say.

6—You may want to book directly through the hotel

Discussions abound on the internet of whether you should book through a search engine or directly through the hotel. I’ll let you read those discussions and decide.

Another reason to visit Kaş. This is Kaputaş Beach and it is a short drive from the city.

7—Don’t forget the little guy

Turkey is well-known for its hospitality and evidence of that fact abounds in all facets of life, including a hotel stay. Turkey has some really nice large, luxurious hotels as well as some world-renowned brands. But they also have an incredibly strong local hotel market that I recommend you not pass by. Sometimes these hotels will only have 10-20 rooms but they are clean and well-maintained properties. The real treasure of staying with the little guy is the ability to get to know the proprietor and glean from their experience of the area. For example, Göreme in Cappadocia is a place that has a lot of small, boutique hotels and on multiple stays in multiple hotels the hotel proprietors have shuttled me to the trailhead for a nature hike, ordered dinner from my favorite restaurant and had it delivered to my room, arranged for tours and hot air balloon rides, and so much more. These hotel proprietors can tell you where to go, how to get there, and how much you should expect to pay for what. When you stay at their place they take you in as their own and will make sure you have everything you need. It’s really incredible.