Book your individual trip , stress-free with local travel experts. Select Month. Plan your tailor-made trip with a local expert. Book securely with money-back guarantee. From travel safety to visa requirements, discover the best tips for traveling to Turkey. Many Turks, even in remote areas, have lived and worked abroad mainly in Germany or at tourist resorts in Turkey, and are used to foreign ways.
Also, many Turks are devout or at least conservative Muslims, so you should adhere to local dress codes โ particularly away from resorts and when visiting mosques. If you do stop, remember that drinking only one glass may be interpreted as casting aspersions on their tea. Being invited for a meal at a Turkish home is both an honour and an obligation.
Always remove your shoes at the door. In village houses, however, the meal is usually served at a low table with cushions on the floor; hide your feet under the table or a dropcloth provided for the purpose. Feet, shod or not, are considered unclean and should never be pointed at anyone.
When scooping food with bread sections from a communal bowl, use your right hand โ the left is reserved for bodily hygiene. If you use toothpicks provided at restaurants, cover your mouth while doing so.
What is acceptable dress-wise depends very much on which part of the country โ or even which part of a city โ you are visiting. Overall, though, Turkey is conservative concerning dress. Beachwear should be confined to the beach, while strolling shirtless around resort streets is offensive though plenty of foreign men do it.
