Turkey Itinerary for Foodies 2027: 10 Days from Istanbul to Gaziantep, Cappadocia and Izmir

The best Turkey itinerary for foodies takes 10 days: three in Istanbul, two in Gaziantep, two in Cappadocia and two on the Aegean around Izmir, with one spare day for travel. Istanbul gives you street food, fish and meyhane nights, Gaziantep the pistachio baklava and kebabs that made it Turkey's first UNESCO City of Gastronomy, Cappadocia clay-pot cooking and local wine, and the Aegean olive oil and meze. We arrange the Istanbul and Cappadocia parts as Turkey tour packages with guides and hotels, and our walking Istanbul street food tour starts from $90 per person.

We have run tours in Istanbul since 2010, and food is the subject guests ask about most after Hagia Sophia. This plan is built from the routes our guides actually use, with honest notes on what is crowded, what is a long day and what we arrange on request rather than as a fixed product.

Turkey food itinerary at a glance: 10 days, four kitchens

Turkish food changes every few hundred kilometres, and that is the reason to move around rather than eat your way through Istanbul alone. The city has the widest choice and the best fish. Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, cooks with red pepper, pistachio and lamb fat and is where most Turks would send you for baklava. Cappadocia on the central plateau is wheat, apricots, pottery and wine. The Aegean coast eats lighter: wild greens, olive oil, artichokes and fish.

The plan works in either direction. Many guests start with Gaziantep while their appetite is fresh, then finish in Istanbul, where our Istanbul tours team can add a last private day.

Days 1–3: Istanbul street food, Kadıköy market and a meyhane night

Day 1. Land, drop your bags and eat lunch at a lokanta, the steam-tray canteens where Istanbul workers eat stews, rice and beans for a fraction of restaurant prices. In the evening walk to Asmalımescit in Beyoğlu for a meyhane dinner: cold meze, warm starters, grilled fish and rakı, stretched over three hours. Weekend tables fill by 20:00, so book.

Day 2. Join our Istanbul Street Food Tour with a Local Guide, 6 hours from $90 per person, with street food tastings, baklava, tea and Turkish coffee in neighbourhoods most visitors skip. If you would rather have the guide to yourself, our private Istanbul food tour page explains the day and night versions. Finish at the Spice Bazaar and the fish boats at Eminönü for balık ekmek.

The Spice Bazaar is good for lokum, dried apricots and pul biber, but it is crowded from late morning and prices near the main gate are aimed at tourists. The streets behind it, around Tahmis Caddesi, sell the same coffee, cheese and spices to Istanbul households, and our guides buy there.

Day 3. Take the public ferry from Eminönü or Karaköy to Kadıköy on the Asian side, 20 minutes across the water. Start with a long Turkish breakfast, then walk the market streets around Güneşlibahçe Sokak: fishmongers, pickle shops, cheese counters, olive sellers and stuffed mussel stalls.

Kadıköy is where Istanbul shops for dinner, and it stays busy until late. In the evening, eat fish on the Bosphorus at Arnavutköy or Rumeli Hisarı, or book a dinner cruise if you prefer to see the palaces lit from the water. All our food walks and evening options sit under Istanbul tours and our food tours page.

Days 4–5: Gaziantep, Turkey's UNESCO City of Gastronomy

Gaziantep became the first Turkish city in UNESCO's Creative Cities network for gastronomy in December 2015; Hatay followed in 2017 and Afyonkarahisar in 2019. Nonstop flights from Istanbul take about 1 hour 35 minutes to 1 hour 50 minutes: Turkish Airlines from Istanbul Airport, Pegasus and AJet from Sabiha Gökçen. Book a morning flight on Day 4 and you are eating lunch in the old town.

Spend the afternoon on foot. The coppersmiths' bazaar (Bakırcılar Çarşısı) and the old caravanserais around it are full of pistachio shops, spice sellers and baklava workshops, where trays come out of wood-fired ovens through the day. For dinner, order Ali Nazik (grilled lamb on smoky aubergine with yoghurt) and a simit kebab of minced meat and red pepper, eaten with raw onion and parsley.

Day 5 starts early, because Gaziantep's two famous breakfasts are morning foods. Beyran, a peppery lamb and rice soup, is served from dawn and sells out; katmer, a thin pastry filled with clotted cream and crushed pistachio, is eaten with tea. After that, the Zeugma Mosaic Museum is the best way to walk off breakfast, and the coffee courtyards of hans such as Mecidiye Han are made for a slow afternoon.

Gaziantep is not one of our fixed tours. We arrange it on request with your domestic flights, a hotel in the old town and a local food guide, then quote the price for your dates. Expect hot summers: July and August afternoons are tiring for walking and eating.

Optional day: Antakya (Hatay) and its food after the earthquake

Antakya, the old Antioch, has one of the best kitchens in Turkey: herb-heavy meze, pomegranate molasses, hummus, oruk and the hot, cheese-filled künefe that is now registered with an EU geographical indication. The city was devastated by the February 2023 earthquakes, and you should go with the right expectations.

Reports from 2025 and 2026 describe a city still under reconstruction. Much of the old centre, including the long bazaar, is a building site, and many well-known kitchens moved. Some reopened at the purpose-built Gastronomy Bazaar in Odabaşı, described by Hürriyet Daily News as 18 restaurants in the style of old Antakya houses, and some künefe makers now work from addresses outside the centre, in districts such as Defne. Opening hours and addresses change, so we check them the week you travel.

Antakya is roughly 200 km from Gaziantep, a long day there and back by car. We add it as a private day with a driver on request. Eating there puts money straight into businesses that are rebuilding, and local cooks welcome visitors, but it is not a sightseeing day in the usual sense.

Days 6–7: Cappadocia, testi kebab, Avanos and local wine

Day 6 is the travel day. Gaziantep to Göreme is about 400 km, close to five hours by private car, or you fly back through Istanbul to Kayseri or Nevşehir. In the evening order testi kebab: meat and vegetables slow-cooked in a sealed clay jug that is cracked open at the table. It is theatre as much as food, and a good one is worth the show. Our Cappadocia tours team can book a cave hotel and the restaurant together.

Day 7. Join the Cappadocia Red Tour with lunch, 6 hours from $80 per person, which covers Paşabağ, Zelve and the potters of Avanos, whose red clay from the Kızılırmak river is the same clay used for testi jugs. In the late afternoon, taste local wines in Ürgüp, where the white Emir grape grows in volcanic soil. Our news piece on Cappadocia food after the harvest covers the season's dishes in detail.

Add a sunrise balloon flight if the weather allows; flights are cancelled on windy mornings, so keep Day 7 as your backup. Hotels and tours here sit under Cappadocia tour packages, and the full list of day trips is on our Cappadocia tours page.

Days 8–9: Izmir, Urla and Şirince for olive oil, wine and meze

Day 8. Fly from Kayseri to Izmir, usually connecting in Istanbul, and spend the afternoon in the Kemeraltı bazaar. Izmir's breakfast is boyoz, a flaky Sephardic pastry, with a boiled egg; its snack is kumru, a sesame bun with cheese and sausage. In the evening, eat Aegean meze in Alsancak: wild herbs in olive oil, sea beans, grilled octopus.

Day 9. Our Urla Wine & Art private tour, 8 hours from $380, visits two boutique wineries with tasting flights (six wines with a cheese platter at Çakır, five at HUS), the Arkas Art museum and the ancient olive oil city of Klazomenai. It runs as a private day with a van and guide, and works best for couples or small groups who want wine rather than ruins.

If you would rather combine history and food, go south instead: Ephesus in the morning, then lunch and fruit wines in the hill village of Şirince. Şirince is pretty and very commercial at weekends; the wine shops on the main lane are aimed at day-trippers, and the village is quieter after 16:00. Day 10 is the short flight back to Istanbul, about an hour and a quarter, and home.

A shorter 7-day Turkey food itinerary

Seven days is enough for two regions, not four. The version our guests book most is Istanbul (4 nights) plus Cappadocia (3 nights): Days 1 to 4 as above with an extra Bosphorus or Asian-side food day, then Cappadocia for testi kebab, the Red Tour and a winery. It fits our Istanbul and Cappadocia packages, and our 2-day Cappadocia flight package from Istanbul starts from $599.

If baklava and kebabs matter more to you than fairy chimneys, swap Cappadocia for Gaziantep: Istanbul (4 nights) plus Gaziantep (3 nights), with an Antakya day if you want it. This version is the more serious food trip, and it is easier on the legs, as Gaziantep's old town is compact.

How much does a food trip to Turkey cost?

Our own tours and packages on this route, with prices as listed on our site in October 2026:

Not included unless your package says so: domestic flights to Gaziantep and Izmir (booked at the fare of the day), meals outside the tours, wine you buy and museum tickets. Prices vary by season, hotel and what is included, so ask us for today's price. A meyhane dinner with rakı costs much more than a lokanta lunch; eat at both, and the average evens out.

The packages above, with hotels, transfers and guides, are on our Turkey tour packages page, and the Istanbul-only versions are under Istanbul tour packages.

Best time for a food trip to Turkey, and how to book

Spring (April to June) brings artichokes, broad beans, green almonds and fresh herbs; the Aegean is at its best. Autumn (September to early November) is harvest time: grapes in Cappadocia, pomegranates in Antakya, new pistachios in Gaziantep and the return of bonito and bluefish to the Bosphorus. Summer works but Gaziantep is very hot, and winter is good for soups, kebabs and fish but short on Aegean produce.

Check Ramadan dates if you travel in early 2027: restaurants stay open for visitors, but evening meals in Gaziantep and Antakya fill at sunset with families breaking the fast, which is a fine time to eat out if you book.

To book, tell us your dates, how many of you, any dietary needs and which version you want. We build the plan around our Istanbul tours and Cappadocia tours, add Gaziantep and the Aegean on request, and send one written price. Message us on WhatsApp or use the contact form; we usually reply the same day.

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