In Istanbul, the restaurants along Sultanahmet’s "Divan Yolu" serve excellent food but stay out of the tourist zone if you want to keep it inexpensive. The Grand Bazar has small restaurants where you can eat leisurely on a small progression of dishes. Istiklal Caddesi has mouth-watering grill joints – walk up the side streets to the south for the best of them.

Good bottled water is sold everywhere. Beer, Turkish wine and the aniseed raki are popular. Turkish coffee, and Turkish tea are well known but you need to acquire a taste for the coffee that can be a very bitter experience if you have it in a gulp!

Bodrum has booming and blaring discos and is a fun-place to be in if you enjoy loud, throbbing music and evenings that stretch forever!

Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir have opera, symphony, ballet, and theatre. Smaller towns have folk dancer troupes. Cinema and nightclubs are to be found in every Turkish town. Both western and Turkish movies can be seen.