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Türkiye is more than turquoise coasts and ancient bazaars — it’s a hiker’s paradise stretching from Mediterranean sea cliffs to Black Sea alpine peaks, from volcanic fairy chimneys to Aegean ruins half-swallowed by pine forest. Whether you’re a Sunday stroller or a seasoned thru-hiker, there is a trail here that will change the way you see the world. And with flight to Türkiye on Pegasus Airlines — flying to airports right across the country — your trailhead is closer than you think. This is your complete Türkiye travel guide to getting out there.
The Crown Jewel: The Lycian Way
FETHIYE → ANTALYA
You wake before dawn in Ölüdeniz and step onto a path that has been walked for thousands of years. The Lycian Way — Türkiye’s original and most beloved long-distance trail — hugs 540 kilometres of coastline between the turquoise Mediterranean and the pine-clad Taurus Mountains, and every bend reveals something that stops you in your tracks: a ghost town of Lycian rock tombs carved into the cliff face, a deserted cove where the only footprints in the sand are yours, a shepherd’s village where someone will press a glass of çay into your hand before you’ve said a word. You stand at the ruins of Patara — once one of the most powerful cities in the ancient world — and try to picture what life looked like here 2,500 years ago on this same stretch of perfect coastline. After a day’s hiking, seek out a harbour-side table and let Turkish cuisine do its best work: fresh grilled sea bass, a tower of mezes, cold Efes beer as the sun hits the water. The trail can be walked in sections from a single afternoon to the full 29 days. For everything you’d ever want to know and more about the Lycian Way, check out our travel guide at Lycian Way Guide: Both Sports and Travel.
✈️ Cheap flights to Dalaman — your gateway to the Lycian Way.
Key stops: Ölüdeniz, Kalkan, Kaş, Olympos, Çıralı, Myra/Demre, Finike, Antalya — and dozens of Lycian ruins throughout.
Walk in His Footsteps: St. Paul Trail
PERGE → YALVAÇ
You start at sea level amid the Roman columns of ancient Perge — and over 500 kilometres you climb to 2,200 metres on the Anatolian plateau, following the exact route St. Paul walked on his first missionary journey nearly 2,000 years ago. This trail is wilder and lonelier than the Lycian Way: you cross roaring gorges, skirt Roman roads where the original stone paving is still perfectly intact underfoot, and spend nights in mountain villages so remote that your arrival is the most interesting thing to happen all week. At Köprülü Canyon, the extreme sports crowd descends for white-water rafting — an exhilarating detour before the trail climbs again toward the plateau. Eventually you reach Yalvaç, site of Pisidian Antioch, where Paul preached. Standing in the open-air ruins at dusk, the weight of two millennia settling on your shoulders, you feel — in a way that no museum can replicate — that you are somewhere genuinely ancient. Best in spring or autumn. Don’t forget: you can pre-order your in-flight meal via the Pegasus Café’s Pre-order menu up to 24 hours before departure!
✈️ Cheap flights to Antalya — your starting point for the St. Paul Trail.
Key stops: Perge, Aspendos, Köprülü Canyon, Adada ruins, Eğirdir (hotel hub), Yalvaç (Antioch in Pisidia)
MUĞLA → AYDIN
Türkiye’s longest waymarked trail is also one of its best-kept secrets. You walk 850 kilometres through pine-scented hills, past unspoiled fishing villages where cats outnumber tourists, and through the scattered ruins of ancient Carian cities that once rivalled the great powers of the Mediterranean. On the Bozburun Peninsula section, you descend steep hillsides to secret coves where the water is an almost impossible shade of Aegean blue — and you have them entirely to yourself. You pass ancient Carian tombs half-hidden by olive trees and wonder how something this magnificent can remain so unknown. The trail connects north to İzmir, making it easy to combine your trek with a few nights of rooftop terraces and the exceptional Turkish cuisine of the Aegean coast — grilled octopus, cold mezes, the local white wine. Some sections are perfect for cyclists too.
✈️ Cheap flights to Bodrum — your gateway to the Carian coast.
Key stops: Marmaris, Bozburun, Datça, Bodrum coast, Latmos/Bafa Lake, Milas — plus scattered Carian archaeological sites
Through the Midas Kingdom: Phrygian Way
POLATLI → AFYON
Take a cheap flight to Ankara and within an hour you’re standing at Gordion, where Alexander the Great famously cut the Gordian Knot in 333 BC — and where the Phrygian Way begins. Three separate routes converge at the sacred rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya, where the face of King Midas is carved into the volcanic tuff beside a throne and altar. You walk on original Phrygian roads where 2,500-year-old wheel ruts are still worn into the solid rock — and you feel, very quietly, that you’re somewhere almost no tourist has ever stood. The plateau villages along the way are unhurried and genuinely welcoming; people are surprised and delighted to see a foreign hiker, in the best possible way. This is the trail for those who want to feel like a real explorer. Combine the trail start with the Ankara travel guide for a perfect long weekend extension.
✈️ Cheap flights to Ankara — your launchpad for the Phrygian Way.
Key stops: Gordion (Polatlı), Yazılıkaya (Midas City), Afyon, Kütahya, Pessinous, Eskişehir access points
Türkiye’s Alpine Jewel: Kaçkar Mountains Trek
RİZE → ARTVİN
You fly into Trabzon — easily reached with cheap flights to Trabzon — and within a few hours you’re climbing into a landscape most people don’t even know exists in Türkiye. The Kaçkar range is the country’s answer to the Alps: jagged granite peaks, glacial lakes so cold and clear they look like glass, high mountain passes dusted with wildflowers in July, and a magnificent silence broken only by the distant chime of cowbells. You camp at 3,000 metres beside a turquoise lake with no one else in sight, watching the Milky Way appear over the peaks. The high meadows are dotted with the summer pasture huts of the Hemshin people — and if you stop long enough, you will be offered honey-drenched pastries and fresh mountain cheese you won’t forget. The summit push to Kaçkar peak (3,937m) is the crown of the whole experience. Base yourself first in Ayder resort village, then use the Trabzon travel guide to plan your perfect arrival. Open July–September only.
✈️ Cheap flights to Trabzon — your gateway to the Kaçkar peaks.
Key stops: Ayder resort village, Yusufeli, Barhal, Olgunlar plateau, Dilberdüzü base camp, Kaçkar summit (optional)
Land of Fairy Chimneys: Cappadocia Valley Trails
GÖREME
You step out of your cave hotel at 5am and the sky above Göreme is filling with hot air balloons — dozens of them, drifting silently over a landscape that looks like another planet. The Rose Valley and Red Valley glow amber and gold as the sun rises, and you walk between fairy chimney rock formations feeling like you’ve discovered somewhere completely new. Duck through a low doorway cut into the cliff face and you’re inside a Byzantine cave church — 1,200-year-old frescoes still vivid on the walls, painted by monks who chose this remote volcanic landscape to be closer to God. This is the most accessible hiking in Türkiye — suitable for all ages and abilities — and it never stops feeling genuinely extraordinary. Rent a bike and explore the quieter valleys at your own pace, or go underground at Derinkuyu, a city carved 85 metres into the rock. After the hike, the food awaits: slow-cooked clay-pot dishes, fresh flatbread from village ovens, and the warm hospitality that makes Turkish cuisine about so much more than the food itself. Read the Cappadocia travel guide to plan the perfect trip.
✈️ Cheap flights to Nevşehir — land right at the heart of Cappadocia.
Key stops: Göreme, Çavuşin, Rose Valley, Red Valley, Ihlara Gorge, Derinkuyu underground city, Soğanlı
Türkiye’s Rooftop: Mount Ararat
AĞRI
The first time you see it — rising impossibly from the flat Eastern Anatolian plain, perfectly conical and snow-white against a deep blue sky — your heart does something unexpected. Mount Ararat, the legendary resting place of Noah’s Ark, is Türkiye’s highest summit and one of the most iconic peaks in the world. At 5,137 metres, it is a serious extreme sports mountaineering objective: crampons, ice axes, and a licensed guide are all mandatory, along with a permit. You push through deep snow at Camp 2 (4,200m) with your lungs burning at altitude — and then the summit opens before you. Iran, Armenia, and Georgia stretch to the horizon in every direction; the curvature of the Earth is visible; and you understand in your body, rather than just your head, how ancient and layered this corner of the world is. Before or after the climb, make time for the Mardin travel guide — the extraordinary stone-city of the southeast is a world apart.
✈️ Cheap flights to Ağrı — your base for the Ararat ascent.
Key stops: Doğubayazıt base town, Camp 1 (~3,200m), Camp 2 (~4,200m), Summit glacier, Ishak Pasha Palace (nearby)
