Turkey

Sun-seekers looking for cheap holidays to Turkey will do well to consider the stunning city of Istanbul. Balanced on a thread of land linking Europe to the East, Istanbul offers sun, sea, mountains, lakes and a bounteous culture born of a 10,000 year-old civilization.

The city is the ultimate study of contrasts: the medieval atmosphere of the mosques - lovers of grand design will marvel at the six pin-sharp minarets of the Blue Mosque - the heaving Grand Bazaar, and the local coffee shops around Üsküdar, jostle with the toys of Istanbul's jet-set; sumptuous Ottoman Palace restaurants, the chic bars and clubs of Beyoglu and Ettiler, and the pounding disco ferries that trawl up and down the Bosphorous.

It takes no great leaps of the imagination to bring the ancient city of Ephesus back to life; Roman fountains, stables, streets and temples look more like contemporary residences than ruins. Established over 3,000 years ago as a port on the Aegean Sea, the city now sits several miles inland, and the original harbour looks out over a dry valley, with not a drop of water in sight.

The bizarre formations that make up Cappadocia, offer visitors on cheap holidays to Turkey the chance to bed down in unusual dwellings; from hotels carved from rock to early Christian troglodyte dwellings. The views aren't bad either; golden steppes, low grassy valleys and outlandish twisted rock formations make this perfect hiking terrain.

In short, this wonderful country is, and will be for a long time to come, the must-see destination that has travellers worldwide, clamouring for cheap holidays to Turkey.