• Shop in the world's largest covered market, Istanbul's Grand Bazaar, then head uptown to browse for cut-price fashion goods and clothing in the department stores along Istiklal Caddesi or upmarket Nisantasi.

• Take a ferry from the Eminönü dock in Istanbul to the Princes' Islands, a tranquil summer getaway popular with Istanbulis where cars are banned and horse-drawn carriages and bicycles are the transport of choice.

• Sip tea or smoke a nargile as you watch the sunset at one of the traditional cafes beneath Istanbul's Galata Bridge.

• Trek the Lycian Way, which stretches for 500km (311 miles) between Fethiye and Antalya, providing a month's walking through some of Turkey's most spectacular scenery (website: www.lycianway.com). 

• Experience white-water rafting on the Dalaman River (website: www.oludenizbeach.com/rafting.html, the Köprülü River, the Zamanti River or the Coruh River, which is rated by professionals as one of the top rafting descents in the world. 
 
• Relax in a steamy Turkish bath, known as a hammam, and have a scrub and massage. In Istanbul, the most popular historic baths are the Galatasaray Hammam in Beyoğlu and Cağaloğlu Hammam in Sultanahmet, though local baths are often just as good. 

• Catch a ceremony by the renowned Whirling Dervishes (website: www.whirlingdervishistanbul.com), who are members of the Mevlevi Order and who perform the famous whirling dance (Sema). Their amazing ceremony can be seen in Konya, where the Order originated, or in Istanbul. 

• Go trekking in the wild Kaçkar mountain range of Turkey's northeast, close to the Georgian frontier.

• Bathe in the warm therapeutic waters of natural travertine pools at Pamukkale near Denizli in the Aegean region (www.pamukkalethermal.com).

• Wander through the very Middle Eastern-feeling bazaar at Şanliurfa in the southeast, close to the Syrian border, and pay a visit to the cave where Abraham is said to have been born.

• Escape the foreign tourist hordes and join holidaying Turks at one of the small Black Sea coast towns like Ünye or Giresun - less crowded, cooler and greener than the Mediterranean coast.

• Take an early morning hot-air balloon flight over the stunning, other-worldly moonscape of Cappadocia in central Anatolia (website: www.kapadokyaballoons.com).

• Look for fragments of Noah's Ark, reputed to have washed up here, on the slopes of 5,165m (16,945ft) Mount Ararat in Turkey's far eastern region (website: www.ararattrek.com).

• Examine the Ottoman architect Sinan's finest achievement at the 16th-century Selimiye mosque at Edirne in Thrace close to the Bulgarian border.

• Charter a gulet, a traditional wooden boat (website: www.boatingturkey.net), for a leisurely cruise along the Aegean or Mediterranean coast. Itineraries of a week or more are possible, with a variety of destinations and ports of call.

See Contact Addresses for further tourist information.