CLIMATE

You can pretty much guarantee blue skies, sunshine and warm water on the South Coast in the summer. The coastal areas in general have mild winters and good summers, the southern coast hitting the high 30's in June and staying high until well into the autumn. The Black Sea coast follows along about 10 degrees behind. Inland it's a different story with the Anatolian plateau suffering extremes of heat and cold related to its altitude and the lay of the land.

Istanbul is part of Europe and the weather reflects that. You'll find a wet cold winter slowly turning into a damp warm spring and a mild summer that doesn't hang around any longer than it feels is necessary.

The coasts of the Marmara and Aegean gradually warm up as you head south. By the time you reach Izmir the sun begins to blaze and air conditioning engineers start to proliferate. Bodrum, Marmaris and Fethiye are green and sunny. There's a fair amount of water coming down from the mountains for most of the year and this region is many peoples favourite part of the country.