A new kind of trip
Something has quietly shifted in the way we travel. The solo pilgrim and the wandering couple haven't disappeared, but they're sharing the road with a new kind of traveller: the family in its fullest sense — grandparents, parents, children, all moving together with a single shared purpose. Researchers tracking tourism trends have noticed the momentum building for a few seasons now, and the numbers have caught up with the feeling: roughly a third of holidaymakers now plan to travel as an extended family, and more than half of Gen Z adults have actively chosen to take a trip with their parents rather than without them.
Turkey, almost without trying, has become the country these travellers keep arriving at.
Belek: sun, fairways and something for everyone
Twenty minutes from Antalya, Belek pulls off something genuinely difficult: it gives the early-morning golfer, the restless grandchild and the grandparent who just wants a lounger exactly what they came for, without anyone having to compromise. Close to three hundred days of sunshine a year, wide sandy beaches, and hotels whose children's programmes are run with real care - the place has the feeling of somewhere that was designed by someone who actually has a large family.
Beyond the resort strip, the ruins of Aspendos, Side and Perge open a door onto the ancient world, while the Köprülü Canyon draws the more adventurous towards white-water rafting. For the curious at the dinner table, the regional speciality of tahinli piyaz - a white bean salad dressed with tahini — captures the generous spirit of the coastal kitchen in a single bowl.
Troy: where myth and archaeology share the same ground
In the north of the Aegean coast, Çanakkale holds what might be the world's most famous excavation site: Troy. Ten layers of civilisation stacked across more than five thousand years, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and an award-winning museum that gives voice to fragments and statues with unusual clarity. Younger visitors often arrive with Homer in mind and leave with something harder to name — the peculiar vertigo of standing somewhere the stories were actually true.
The region has more to offer than its legendary centrepiece. The oxygen-rich Ida Mountains welcome hikers and cyclists. Assos, where Aristotle once ran a school of philosophy, commands the sea from a position of austere beauty. The villages of Adatepe and Yeşilyurt are reminders that rural Turkey needs no mythology to leave an impression.
Urla: the quiet brilliance of the Aegean table
İzmir Urla Vineyards
Urla is a happy anomaly - a Michelin-starred town that has resisted the urge to become a destination. In the İskele neighbourhood, stone façades house artisans' workshops and restaurants where Aegean cooking reaches a quiet kind of excellence. Olive oil has been produced here since antiquity: the site of Klazomenai claims one of the world's earliest known oil-pressing workshops, a detail that tends to make the local bottle taste even better.
Between meals, families can explore turquoise coves, let children discover the rhythms of working farms, or drive to Ephesus — whose Library of Celsus remains one of the most striking sights in the entire Mediterranean world.
Bursa: Ottoman history, an hour from Istanbul
Two hours from Istanbul and several centuries away, Bursa carries its history with a quiet confidence. The city was the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, and this year it marks the seven hundredth anniversary of its founding — giving an already rich heritage an extra layer of occasion. The Grand Mosque, the caravanserais still humming with commerce, the singular bridges with bazaars built along their length: the architecture here speaks without needing a guide.
Above the city, Mount Uludağ is reached by cable car. Below, the UNESCO-listed village of Cumalıkızık arranges its well-preserved Ottoman houses around a square where the traditional Turkish breakfast tends to stretch well into the morning. For older travellers, the historic thermal baths of Bursa offer something close to restoration.
In İznik, on the shore of a still lake, ceramic workshops keep a centuries-old craft alive while younger family members take to the water by canoe.
The meal that ends the day here is non-negotiable: the İskender kebab, a Bursa invention, layers sliced grilled meat with molten butter in a way that feels almost reckless in its generosity. A fitting close, really, to what Turkey does better than most: bring everyone to the same table and make sure nobody wants to leave.
Antalya -Kaş
