Destinations · Saudi Arabia
From Saudi Arabia to Türkiye — where the summer ends.
Four and a half hours to forest, rain and cold evenings. No time change, and a country that already knows how your family travels.
The short version
Saudi Arabia to Türkiye at a glance
| Visa | Saudi citizens travel to Türkiye without a sticker visa for tourism; where a formality applies it is usually an e-Visa obtained online in minutes. Residents of Saudi Arabia holding other passports have different rules — send us your passport nationality and we confirm before you book. |
|---|---|
| Flight time | Dammam 4h 00 · Riyadh 4h 30 · Jeddah 4h 30 · Medina 4h 15 to İstanbul. |
| Direct flights from | Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Medina to İstanbul, with onward domestic flights to Trabzon, Bursa, Antalya and İzmir. |
| Time difference | None. Riyadh and İstanbul share the same clock — no adjustment for you, and none for the children. |
| Currency | Turkish lira (TRY). Saudi cards work normally. Bring dollars rather than riyal — riyal is awkward to exchange here. |
| Language | Arabic is widely spoken in İstanbul hotels, private hospitals and the Black Sea resorts. Arabic-speaking guides, drivers and interpreters arranged on request. |
| Best months | June–September — exactly when the Kingdom is hardest. The Black Sea highlands sit around 20-25°C with genuinely cold nights. |
Where Saudi families actually go
Not the beach. The mountains.
European visitors come to Türkiye for sun. You have more sun than you want. What Türkiye has that the Kingdom does not is altitude, forest, rain and cool evenings — which is why the Black Sea, not the Mediterranean, is where Saudi families go.
Trabzon & Uzungöl
Lake, pine forest and mist. Cool enough for a jacket in August. The trip most families take first, and repeat.
Ayder & Rize
Higher and greener. Waterfalls, tea plantations and highland plateaus. Quieter than Uzungöl in peak weeks.
Yalova & Bursa
Thermal springs and mountain air with İstanbul an hour away. Good for shorter stays.
İstanbul
Shopping, restaurants and the Bosphorus — usually the start or the end of the trip.
Family arrangements
Arranged as standard, not as a favour
- Halal food throughoutThe norm here, not a special request. We still confirm it with every hotel and restaurant we book.
- Villas and privacyPrivate pools, connecting rooms and properties used to hosting large Gulf families.
- Vehicles that fit everyoneMinibus or coach with a driver who waits — not the family split across four taxis.
- Prayer times respectedBuilt into the day's plan, with mosques noted along your route.
- Late diningRestaurants still serving at 23:00, booked in advance rather than hoped for.
- Arabic-speaking guideReserved early — in July and August they are genuinely scarce.
Book in winter for a summer trip. The good villas in Trabzon and the Arabic-speaking guides are taken months ahead. Families who write to us in June get what is left, not what they wanted. If you are reading this out of season, that is the right time to write.
Questions
Before you write
Is it really cold in the mountains in August?
Cool by day, genuinely cold at night in the highlands. Bring layers. Gulf visitors routinely arrive with summer clothes only and end up buying jackets in Trabzon.
We are a large family — twenty people or more.
That is a normal summer booking for us. Give us the number of adults, the children and their ages, and we plan vehicles, rooms and daily distances around the youngest and the oldest rather than the average.
Can we rent a villa rather than hotel rooms?
Yes, and for a large family it is usually better value and far more comfortable. Say so at the start — the good ones go early.
Do you arrange medical treatment?
The travel around it, yes. Treatment itself is handled by our sister company BookingHospital — see medical travel.
Do we need travel insurance?
Yes. It is inexpensive and should include medical cover and repatriation. We are not insurance brokers and will not sell you one — but do not travel without it.
Start here
How many of you, and when?
Those two numbers shape everything else. A written quote, usually the same day.
MOC Health Sağlık Turizm — A-group Travel Agency Operating Licence no. 13801
(Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Law no. 1618, held since 2022).
Verify at online.tursab.org.tr
Şirinevler Mah. Meriç Sok. Toyak İş Merkezi No: 11 / 612, Bahçelievler / İstanbul · +90 533 813 89 77
Operated by Bookinhospital.com Danışmanlık ve Ticaret Ltd. Şti. · MERSİS 0179135604700001
Visa and entry information is general guidance and can change. We confirm the current rules
for your passport before any booking is made.