Why Türkiye
The country was the centre of three successive empires — Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman — and it keeps their stacked layers: a church become a mosque become a museum become a mosque, in Istanbul, sums the matter up well enough.
Beyond Istanbul, Türkiye is a country of landscapes: Cappadocia and its fairy chimneys, the limestone terraces of Pamukkale, the Lycian coast and its ruins at the water's edge, and an eastern Anatolia that almost nobody visits.
Getting around
The long-distance bus is excellent and covers the whole country, with serious companies, wide seats and regular stops. Overnight journeys save a hotel night.
Domestic flights are numerous and cheap: Istanbul–Cappadocia takes an hour against eleven by bus. The high-speed train links Ankara to Istanbul and to Konya. In the city, Istanbul is crossed by tram, metro and above all by boat — the Bosphorus ferries are part of the ordinary transport network.
Money
The Turkish lira depreciates sharply and regularly: prices quoted in last year's guide no longer mean anything, and it is better to think in euros. That depreciation makes the country very affordable for a visitor.
Cash remains useful in the markets and small businesses, but cards work everywhere else. Haggling is practised in the bazaars, not in fixed-price shops.
Before you go
The carpet sellers and restaurant touts of the Sultanahmet district in Istanbul are persistent and well drilled: the conversation always begins with a friendly, unrelated question. A polite refusal and a continued walk are enough.
In Cappadocia, hot-air balloon flights are cancelled at the last moment because of wind, more often than people think: allow two or three possible mornings rather than one, and check the refund policy.
The ancient sites of the coast — Ephesus, Aphrodisias, Hierapolis — have almost no shade and are visited before nine or after four, never in between.