Turkey · Central Anatolia · Travel guide
What Konya really costs, where you can see the whirling dervishes without the tourist-show feel, and why the city is more than a stop on the way to Cappadocia.
Photo: Erdem Horat / Pexels
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Estimates for orientation, not booking prices. Flights and hotels vary strongly by season: current prices are behind the links below.
Money & payment: You pay in Turkish lira (TRY). The exchange rate moves a lot, which is why all prices here are given in francs and euros. Cards are accepted almost everywhere; you need cash for the dolmuş, markets and tips. Flight time: 3 to 4 hours.
Nine options in three price ranges, each among the best-rated on Booking.com.
Budget
Colourful design hotel on Mevlana Caddesi, a four-minute walk from the Mevlana Museum. Rooms are modern and clean, and the breakfast buffet with local specialities gets praised in review after review, as do the location and the staff. Parking available. For the price you get noticeably more comfort here than in the older houses around the museum.
A fixture next to the Mevlana mausoleum for decades, with plenty of Turkish decor, carpets in the corridors and a roof terrace looking straight at the dome. The rooms are a little dated, but large, quiet and cheap. Good breakfast, in-house restaurant with local cuisine, and groups from Cappadocia are frequent guests here.
Classic family-run city hotel in the centre, a few minutes' walk from Alaeddin Hill, the pedestrian zone and the Mevlana Museum. Decent rooms with air conditioning, reliable breakfast, fair prices and staff who will happily sketch you the way to the Sema hall. Nothing special, but everything you need for two nights in Konya, at an honest price.
Mid-range
The most beautiful boutique hotel in the city: a restored historic house with only a handful of rooms, modern design, old stone walls and a quiet courtyard, 200 metres from the Mevlana Museum. Personal service, very good breakfast, tea in the courtyard in the evening. Book early, the few rooms fill up fast, especially at weekends and in December.
Solid four-star hotel right on Mevlana Street, with a top-floor breakfast terrace that looks out onto the dome of the mausoleum. The rooms are modern, quiet and well soundproofed, the service attentive and English-speaking. Best choice if you want comfort but still want to be in the middle of the old town without needing a taxi.
Chain hotel of the Turkish Anemon group at Alaeddin Hill, right between the old town and the business district. Large rooms, good breakfast buffet, in-house restaurant and its own car park, which is worth its weight in gold if you have a hire car in central Konya. On foot you reach the Seljuk medreses in ten minutes and the Mevlana Museum in twenty.
Luxury
The established five-star address in the city, in the modern Selçuklu district: indoor pool, spa, hamam, several restaurants and one of the few hotel bars in Konya where you can get a glass of wine. A little outside the centre, tram and taxi take you to the Mevlana Museum in a quarter of an hour. Quiet, reliable, international, with views over the city from the upper floors.
Large, gleaming five-star hotel with pool, hamam, spa and a panoramic restaurant on the upper floors. Popular for conferences and weddings, which pushes prices down noticeably at weekends and in quiet months. The rooms are spacious and modern. You need a taxi for the old town, but in return you get the most comfort per franc anywhere in Konya.
International standard in a high-rise with views over the city, indoor pool, gym and spa. The rooms are modern and soundproofed, the breakfast extensive, and the staff are used to foreign guests. Located in the business district right on the tram line, which gets you to the Mevlana Museum in about 20 minutes without having to deal with taxis.
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The tomb of the poet Rumi under the turquoise dome, a place of pilgrimage and the most beautiful building in the city. Arrive right at opening before the coaches from Cappadocia turn up, dress respectfully, and do not skip the dervish cells. With a guide you understand the symbolism you would otherwise miss.
Every Saturday at the Mevlana Kültür Merkezi, free and without any show-business feel. Arrive at least half an hour early, stay quiet, do not applaud and put the phone away. One of the most moving experiences in Turkey, and nothing like the tourist version in Istanbul.
9000-year-old settlement and UNESCO World Heritage Site, 45 kilometres from the city on the plain. With a guide, mud walls under shelters turn into one of the oldest cities of humankind. Without explanation much of it stays incomprehensible. Half a day including the drive, start early in summer.
Alaeddin Mosque, Karatay Medrese and İnce Minareli Medrese in two hours on foot, all within a kilometre. The tiled dome of the Karatay Medrese alone is worth the trip, and the portal of the İnce Minareli shows why the Seljuks are famous as stonemasons.
13th-century Seljuk Koran school with a fully tiled dome in turquoise and black, plus a collection of tiles from the Kubadabad summer palace. Small, cheap, overwhelming. 30 minutes is enough, but you will spend longer looking up.
Eight kilometres out of town: a former Greek Orthodox village with the restored Aya Elenia church, rock dwellings, a small museum and tea gardens by the stream. Reachable by city bus. Ideal for a quiet afternoon away from the coaches, with gözleme and tea under the trees.
Learn to make the metre-long flatbread and Fırın Kebabı yourself, plus the desserts of the region. Small groups, usually in a family home or a restaurant in the morning, including a shared meal. More honest than any restaurant and the most direct way to the people of Konya.
The Panorama Museum tells Rumi's life in a 360-degree painting with sound and light, right next to the mausoleum, and is a good introduction for anyone without prior knowledge. Afterwards head to the small mosque of his teacher Şems, five minutes' walk away, where the pilgrims go too.
About 100 kilometres southeast lies Meke Crater Lake with its volcanic cone in the middle, an unreal place in the steppe that is almost dry in some years. Only reachable by hire car or tour, easy to combine with Çatalhöyük. For photographers and anyone seeking silence.
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Konya has one of the most distinctive regional cuisines in Turkey, shaped by Seljuk palace cooking and by wedding feasts that have been cooked the same way for centuries: lamb from the oven, metre-long flatbreads, okra soup. Everything is cheap, and with your meal you drink ayran, not beer.
A paper-thin flatbread over a metre long with minced meat, onions, tomatoes and peppers, baked in a stone oven in minutes. Crisp and light, enough for two. CHF 4 to 6 (about EUR 4.30 to 6.40).
Tip:Order it with ayran from the clay jug and eat it topped with lemon and parsley; freshest at lunchtime.
Lamb shoulder and ribs, cooked in the oven for hours until the meat falls off the bone, served on pide without any sauce. The city's feast dish. CHF 9 to 14 (about EUR 9.50 to 15) a portion.
Tip:The kebab comes out of the oven in the morning; early lunch gets the best pieces.
Stale bread soaked in meat broth, topped with shredded lamb, yoghurt, onions and hot butter. Hearty and surprisingly good. CHF 4 to 6 (about EUR 4.30 to 6.40).
Tip:Order at lunchtime, in the evening tirit is often sold out; half a plate is enough as a starter.
Soup of tiny dried okra pods with lamb, lemon and tomato, tart and light. The first course of every Konya wedding meal. CHF 1.50 to 2.50 (about EUR 1.60 to 2.70).
Tip:With bread and a squeeze of lemon; traditionally it is served after the main course, in lokantas also before.
Small, hard sugar sweets flavoured with mint or rose, in tins and boxes with a picture of the dervish lodge. The classic souvenir from Konya. CHF 2 to 4 (about EUR 2.10 to 4.30) a pack.
Tip:The shops on Mevlana Caddesi sell the sweets loose, so you can taste them there.
A warm dessert of unsalted fresh cheese, semolina, butter and sugar, grainy and lightly caramelised, with walnuts. CHF 2 to 3 (about EUR 2.10 to 3.20) a portion.
Tip:Order it warm, ideally straight after the fırın kebabı.
Paper-thin sheets of dough with walnuts and syrup, baked between two metal trays, crisp and less sweet than baklava. A Konya speciality. CHF 2 to 4 (about EUR 2.10 to 4.30).
Tip:With a small bowl of kaymak and Turkish coffee in the afternoon.
Tea in a tulip glass in the tea gardens on the hill with the Seljuk mosque, the highest point of the old town. 40 to 60 centimes (about EUR 0.45 to 0.65) a glass, refilled for as long as you sit.
Tip:After sunset, when the city meets here; no alcohol, but backgammon.
Konya is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. About 40 kilometres to the southeast lies Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic settlement from around 7000 BC where several thousand people lived in mudbrick houses packed so tightly together that the roofs served as streets. In antiquity the city was called Iconium, and the Apostle Paul preached here. Its golden age came with the Seljuks: from 1097 into the 13th century Konya was the capital of the Sultanate of Rum, and Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad turned it into a centre of art, science and architecture. It was during this period that the Persian poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din Rumi, known in Turkey as Mevlana, arrived. He lived and taught in Konya until his death in 1273, and his followers founded the Mevlevi order, the whirling dervishes. His mausoleum with its turquoise dome remains the heart of the city and one of the most visited places in Turkey. The Ottomans took Konya in the 15th century, Atatürk banned the dervish orders in 1925, and the Sema ceremony survived as cultural heritage. Today Konya, with more than two million inhabitants, is an economically strong, deeply religious city and the breadbasket of Turkey.
Rumi's mausoleum is the reason most people come to Konya, and it is worth every mile. Admission for foreign visitors is a moderate CHF 10 or so (about EUR 11), locals and pilgrims enter free. Come right at opening time at 9 am: from late morning the coaches from Cappadocia roll in, and by the afternoon you are queuing in front of the sarcophagus. Respect the fact that for many this is not a museum but a place of pilgrimage. Shoulders and knees covered, women wear a headscarf in the tomb chamber (handed out free at the entrance), photos without flash and no posing in front of the graves. Take time for the side rooms: the old dervish cells use figures to show how novices lived and studied for 1001 days. The rose garden in front of the entrance, with the dome lit up in the early evening, is the most beautiful spot in the city.
In Istanbul the whirling dervishes cost CHF 30 to 50 (about EUR 32 to 54) as a tourist programme with a drink included. Konya is different: at the Mevlana Kültür Merkezi, a large hall a few minutes from the mausoleum, a Sema takes place every Saturday evening and is understood as a religious ceremony, not a show. Admission is free and seats are allocated on a first-come basis, so be there at least half an hour early. In summer some ceremonies are held outdoors. Behave as you would in a church: no applause, no talking, no phone screens. If you are in Konya from 10 to 17 December you can experience Şeb-i Arus, the commemoration week of Rumi's death, with daily ceremonies, but then you need tickets and a hotel booked months in advance. The small Semas in old-town restaurants are prettily staged, but that is exactly what they are: staged.
Konya has the densest collection of Seljuk buildings in Turkey, and most visitors walk straight past it. Start at Alaeddin Hill with the 12th-century Alaeddin Mosque, where the sultans of the Sultanate of Rum lie buried inside. At the foot of the hill stands the Karatay Medrese, today a museum of Seljuk ceramics: the turquoise dome inside is one of the most beautiful things you will see in Anatolia. Five minutes' walk further is the İnce Minareli Medrese with its famous, lavishly carved portal, which shows why Seljuk stonemasonry is so admired. All three sites lie within a kilometre of each other, admission costs two to four francs each (roughly EUR 2 to 4), and you are through in two hours. In between lies the pedestrian zone with tea gardens where a çay costs less than a franc.
Çatalhöyük is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, yet on a normal day you will often meet fewer than ten other visitors. The settlement lies about 45 kilometres southeast of Konya on the flat plain. Two large shelters span the excavation areas, between them a small museum with replicas of the famous wall paintings and a reconstructed house you are allowed to climb into. Admission is low. Without a guide, though, the site is hard to read: you see mud walls in various layers, and the context is missing. Read up beforehand or book a guided half-day tour from Konya. Getting there: hire car or taxi, reckon on about CHF 35 to 50 (about EUR 37 to 54) for the return trip including waiting time. By public transport it is awkward: a dolmuş takes you to Çumra, from there you need a taxi.
Konya has one of the most distinctive regional cuisines in Turkey. The signature dish is Etli Ekmek: a wafer-thin flatbread more than a metre long topped with minced meat, tomatoes and peppers, straight from the stone oven. In a simple place it costs CHF 4 to 6 (about EUR 4 to 6) and is enough for two. Drink Ayran from a clay jug with it. Also try Fırın Kebabı, lamb slow-roasted in the oven for hours until it falls off the bone, and Tirit, soaked bread with meat broth and yoghurt. The best-known restaurants are around Mevlana Street, but you will find good Etli Ekmek ovens in every neighbourhood. Finish with Höşmerim or Sac Arası, a layered pastry with walnuts and syrup. Important: Konya is conservative, and you will only get alcohol in a few hotels and restaurants. If you expect a beer with your meal, you will be disappointed. In return, a complete evening with starters, main course and tea for CHF 12 to 15 per person is realistic.
Konya has its own airport, but the smarter way in is the YHT high-speed train. From Ankara it takes about two hours for roughly CHF 10 to 15 (about EUR 11 to 16), from Istanbul (Söğütlüçeşme or Pendik) four and a half to five hours for CHF 15 to 20. Buy tickets online from TCDD Taşımacılık, and book early in high season and at weekends. The station is a little outside the centre, the tram gets you downtown in twenty minutes. In town the tram covers almost everything, a ride costs under a franc. On behaviour: Konya is the most religious big city in Turkey. Nobody expects you to dress up in disguise, but short shorts and crop tops stand out here, and during Ramadan it is better not to eat ostentatiously in the street during the day. In return, people are strikingly helpful and visibly pleased to see guests who do not just step off the bus for an hour.
Two full days are ideal: one day for the Mevlana Museum, the old town and the Seljuk buildings, half a day for Çatalhöyük, and a Saturday evening for the Sema ceremony. If you only fit Konya in as a stopover between Cappadocia and the Mediterranean coast, plan at least one overnight stay, otherwise all you will see is the coach park.
April to June and September to October, with pleasant temperatures of 18 to 28 degrees. Summer is dry and hot (over 35 degrees on the plateau), winter cold and often snowy. Şeb-i Arus in December is the biggest event of the year, but hotels are then full and expensive. On Fridays the city is quieter around midday because of prayers.
Two options: fly from Zurich (or another Western European hub) to Istanbul and on with Turkish Airlines or Pegasus to Konya (KYA), about 5 to 6 hours in total, from around CHF 320 (about EUR 340). Or fly to Istanbul or Ankara and then take the YHT high-speed train, which reaches Konya from Ankara in about 2 hours. The train option is cheaper, more comfortable and takes you right through the Anatolian steppe.
The official Sema takes place every Saturday evening at the Mevlana Kültür Merkezi, free admission, usually starting at 7 or 8 pm depending on the season. Come early, seats are limited. In December, during the Şeb-i Arus commemoration week, there are daily ceremonies that require tickets. Everything else offered in restaurants is a show for tourists.
Hardly any. Konya is the most conservative big city in Turkey, the vast majority of restaurants do not serve alcohol, and shops with an alcohol licence are rare. Some of the larger hotels have a bar. If it matters to you, buy some beforehand or settle in for Ayran and tea. It is part of the experience, not a shortcoming.
If history interests you, absolutely: a 9000-year-old settlement, UNESCO World Heritage, almost no visitors. If you are expecting spectacular ruins like Ephesus, though, you will be disappointed, as it is mud walls under shelters. The visit gets many times better with background knowledge or a guide. Allow half a day including the drive.
The wedding night: that is what the Mevlevi call the anniversary of the death of the mystic Rumi on 17 December 1273. For ten days Konya hosts daily sema ceremonies of the whirling dervishes in a large hall, plus concerts and lectures. The ceremonies are not a show but a religious service: stay quiet, do not applaud. Tickets through the city of Konya, often free but limited and gone weeks in advance.
For travellers: Konya is fully booked around 17 December and the high-speed train from Ankara and Istanbul is full then; organise tickets and hotel early.
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