A festival of fun

Turkey has a national obsession with festivals. Over 100 of them take place every year, and practically every city in the country holds its own local event, whilst international culture and art festivals bring a riot of colour and razzmatazz to major centres such as Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

As you might expect of a country with such a wealth of glorious coastline, water sports is another great passion. Sailing is widely enjoyed, with gullets (traditional motor yachts) offering cruises all year round. Scuba diving is another popular pastime, with the Mediterranean and Aegean coasts offering some of the finest diving in the world. And windsurfing has also become a real hit, especially around Bodrum and Antalya where the wind conditions are near-perfect.

But it’s not only water sports that cause a splash in Turkey. The Toros regions along the Mediterranean coast, Northwest Anatolia and Thrace are a caver’s paradise. Indeed, cavers can look forward to exploring some 40,000 caves and caverns throughout the country, from the 16km-long Pinarozu Cavern to the 1880m-deep Kurpinar Sinkhole. That’s caving on an epic scale. 

Over recent years, Turkey has embraced the game of golf with gusto, and international-standard courses have sprung up in Belek to offer the golfing fraternity an exciting and exclusive new sporting destination. A new 18 hole course is now under construction near Gullúk.

Add skiing, mountaineering, Trekking and horse riding, and it’s easy to see why Turkey has a world of leisure opportunities to suit all tastes.