Eastern Turkey Tour 2027: Göbekli Tepe, Nemrut, Van and Kars by Season

An eastern Turkey tour in 2027 is easiest to plan by season: Göbekli Tepe, Şanlıurfa and Mardin are good from October to May, the summit of Mount Nemrut is open roughly from early April until the first heavy snow in November, and Kars and Lake Van are at their best from June to September or, for snow and the Eastern Express train, from late December to early March. Every one of these places is a flight of about two hours from Istanbul, so you do not have to drive across the country. Our 2-day Nemrut and Göbekli Tepe tour with flights from Istanbul costs $1,050 per person.

Below are the four regions, what each month is like, sample routes of two to ten days, safety advice and what we sell. Facts about seasons, trains and travel advice were checked on 23 October 2026.

Eastern Turkey at a glance

"Eastern Turkey" covers two quite different areas. The southeast (Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman, Mardin, Diyarbakır) is hot, flat to hilly, and full of the oldest archaeology in the country. The northeast and Van (Kars, Erzurum, Van, Doğubayazıt) is high plateau, green in summer and very cold in winter. Most first trips pick one of the two.

Göbekli Tepe and Şanlıurfa

Göbekli Tepe sits on a hill about 15 km northeast of Şanlıurfa. Its carved T-shaped pillars, put up around 11,000 years ago, are older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids by several thousand years, and UNESCO listed the site in 2018. Visitors walk on raised wooden paths under a large roof, so a visit takes about 90 minutes including the visitor centre film. According to the Turkish press, more than 4.4 million people visited in the eight years after the UNESCO listing, so arrive at opening time in spring and autumn.

Karahan Tepe, about 45 minutes' drive further east, is part of the same group of sites (the "Taş Tepeler") and far quieter. It has a rock-cut chamber with a carved human head emerging from the wall. Most short tours skip it; our 3-day private route includes it.

In Şanlıurfa itself, give yourself an evening at Balıklıgöl, the pools of sacred carp where tradition says Abraham was thrown into the fire, and the bazaar around it. The Şanlıurfa Archaeology Museum, one of the largest in Turkey, holds the 11,000-year-old "Urfa Man" statue. Summer here is hard: July and August often pass 40 °C. Spring, with green hills around the city, is the best time.

Mount Nemrut: seasons and sunrise

The tomb-sanctuary of King Antiochus I of Commagene stands at about 2,150 metres on Mount Nemrut. Its rows of giant stone heads, toppled from their bodies long ago, face east and west, which is why visitors come for sunrise or sunset. UNESCO listed it in 1987.

The summit road is closed by snow in winter. In most years it reopens in early April (Hürriyet Daily News reported a 4 April reopening after a snowy winter) and stays open until heavy snow in November. Inside that window, sunrise in June means leaving a hotel in Kahta at about 03:00. You park at the visitor centre, take the site shuttle or walk the paved road up, then climb roughly 15–20 minutes on stone steps. It is cold at the top even in August, so bring a fleece.

On the way down, the standard stops are Arsameia, the summer capital of Commagene with a long Greek inscription cut into the rock, the Roman Cendere Bridge and the Karakuş Tumulus. Our Nemrut and Göbekli Tepe 2-day tour covers all of them, with flights Istanbul–Adıyaman and Şanlıurfa–Istanbul, a night in Şanlıurfa, entrance fees and two lunches.

Mardin, Midyat and Harran

Harran, 45 km south of Şanlıurfa, is known for its beehive-shaped mud-brick houses and the ruins of one of the oldest Islamic universities. It takes two hours and fits into a Göbekli Tepe day.

Mardin is the stone town on a hillside above the Mesopotamian plain, with madrasas, Syriac churches and terraces looking south toward Syria. Two nights let you see the old town, then Midyat and the Mor Gabriel Monastery, one of the oldest working monasteries in the world, and the Roman-era city of Dara with its cisterns. Mardin's honey-coloured buildings photograph best in the late afternoon.

Gaziantep is the usual start or end of a southeast trip because of its food (baklava, pistachios, kebabs) and the Zeugma Mosaic Museum, home of the "Gypsy Girl" mosaic. From Gaziantep, Halfeti on the Euphrates is a good half-day boat trip.

Our 9-day private Southeastern Turkey route links all of these: Gaziantep, Halfeti, Nemrut, Şanlıurfa, Göbekli Tepe, Mardin and Diyarbakır, with domestic flights, a private van, hotels and tickets. You can find more routes like it in our multi-day trips.

Kars, Ani and the Eastern Express

Ani, 45 km east of Kars, was a medieval Armenian capital on the Silk Road, sometimes called the "city of 1001 churches". Its cathedral, the Church of the Redeemer and the round Church of St Gregory stand on an open plateau above a gorge that forms the border with Armenia. UNESCO listed Ani in 2016. Our private Ani and Kars day tour takes about seven hours, with hotel pick-up, Kars castle and the Kars Museum.

The other reason people go to Kars is the Touristic Eastern Express (Turistik Doğu Ekspresi), a sleeper train from Ankara with long sightseeing stops in Erzincan and Erzurum. For the 2026–2027 winter season, Turkish State Railways announced departures from Ankara on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 21 December 2026 to 10 March 2027, returning from Kars from 23 December to 12 March, with individual tickets on sale from 26 October 2026, according to Hürriyet Daily News. The ride takes around 32 hours. Cabins sell out within hours, so many travellers fly one way and take the train only from Kars back to Ankara.

Kars in January means -15 °C to -25 °C at night, frozen Lake Çıldır with horse-drawn sleighs, and goose and kaşar cheese in the restaurants. In summer the plateau is green and mild, around 25 °C.

Lake Van and Akdamar Island

Lake Van is Turkey's largest lake, a salty soda lake at about 1,650 metres. Its most famous sight is the 10th-century Church of the Holy Cross on Akdamar Island, with carved Bible scenes on its outer walls. Boats leave from a pier near Gevaş, about 45 minutes from Van, and take around 20 minutes; they run mainly from spring to autumn and depend on the wind.

In Van, the rock fortress above the old city and a long Van breakfast (otlu peynir herb cheese, honey with cream, eggs with sucuk) are the usual programme. From Van, the road north to Doğubayazıt gives views of Mount Ararat and reaches the İshak Pasha Palace. Van is not part of our fixed tours, but we add Van days with a local guide and driver to any eastern route on request.

Sample routes for 2027

These are the routes we plan most often. All start and end in Istanbul and use domestic flights.

A good 6-day spring route: fly to Gaziantep (Zeugma, food), drive to Şanlıurfa via Halfeti, a full day for Göbekli Tepe and Harran, two nights in Mardin, fly back from Mardin. A good 8-day summer route: fly to Adıyaman for a Nemrut sunrise, Şanlıurfa and Göbekli Tepe, then fly to Kars for Ani and on to Van for Akdamar before flying home. For the full list of combinations, see our multi-city Turkey packages and the general Turkey tour packages page.

Prices vary by season, hotel and what's included, so ask us for today's price. Private tours for one or two people cost more per person than for a family of four.

Is eastern Turkey safe for tourists in 2027?

The tourist routes on this page are visited every day by Turkish and foreign travellers. The British government's travel advice, updated on 19 October 2026, advises against all travel only within 10 km of the Syrian border; Şanlıurfa city, Göbekli Tepe, Mardin's old town, Nemrut, Kars and Van all lie outside that zone. Harran is about 15 km from the border, so check the latest advice from your own government before going, and keep an eye on it in the weeks before travel.

Practical points: dress modestly in Şanlıurfa's religious sites (women cover their hair at Balıklıgöl's mosques), carry cash for village stops, and expect alcohol to be less common in Şanlıurfa than in Istanbul. During Ramadan (roughly February–March in 2027), many restaurants in the southeast close at lunchtime.

If you want the southeast as a short add-on to a city trip, our multi-day trips from Istanbul include flights and can be booked for the next week. Book Now, Pay Later: nothing is charged online, and we confirm prices and flight times in writing first. Browse the full range on our packages page, or combine the east with Istanbul and Cappadocia through our multi-city packages.

For a more detailed 2-day Göbekli Tepe plan with flight times, read our article on the Göbekli Tepe tour from Istanbul.

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