Winter · Planning Guide

Skiing in Türkiye where to ski, and how to choose

Five main mountains and a handful of small ones, compared by level, snow, access and the city or landscape around each resort.

Show Me Türkiye October 2026 9 min read

Field notes

Before you book: what we tell friends.

01 Pick the trip, then the mountain. In Türkiye the resort decides your evenings: a city with Seljuk monuments, a hotel zone on the snow, or a forest village.
02 Height buys snow security. The high Anatolian resorts usually hold snow longer than the mountains near the Marmara and Black Sea coasts.
03 Dodge the school half-term. Sömestr, usually late January to early February, fills the resorts nearest Istanbul and Ankara first. Check the Ministry of National Education calendar for exact dates.
04 Opening dates follow the snow. Each resort opens when cover allows. Read its own announcement before booking non-refundable travel.
05 Budget a wind day. Summit lifts on the high mountains stop in strong wind, so a short trip needs a spare day.

In this guide

This page helps you choose one Turkish ski mountain for one trip, and the first thing to understand is that the choice is less about pistes than about distance. Palandöken above Erzurum and Erciyes above Kayseri are the snow-sure, serious-terrain choices, each a domestic flight away with a real city at the foot of the hill. Uludağ above Bursa and Kartalkaya in Bolu are the road-trip choices from Istanbul, with lower slopes and bigger weekend crowds. Sarıkamış near Kars is the specialist pick for quiet skiing in pine forest at the far end of the country.

Kartepe, Ilgaz, Davraz and Saklıkent are small mountains: good for a day or a weekend on snow, not for a ski holiday.

01Compare the resorts

Compare the resorts.

1 min read

Read the table across a row to see what each mountain gives you, then down a column to compare one thing at a time.

Resort	Best for	Snow	Base & access	Off the slopes
Palandöken	Intermediate to advanced	High, cold, dry; long season	Erzurum city; fly ERZ	Old town, Eastern Express
Erciyes	All levels; open bowls	High, open, wind-exposed	Kayseri city; fly ASR	Seljuk centre, Cappadocia
Uludağ	Families, first-timers	Lower; shorter season	Hotel zone; Bursa cable car	Ottoman Bursa, thermal baths
Kartalkaya	Hotel break, snowboarders	Mid-height forest slopes	Hotel cluster; drive via Bolu	Little beyond the hotels
Sarıkamış	Quiet tree skiing	Dry "crystal snow" in pines	Small town; fly KSY	Kars, Ani
Small resorts	A day or weekend on snow	Low; weather-dependent	Drive from nearby cities	Lakes, old towns, coast

Three questions settle most choices.

How far will you travel? Uludağ, Kartalkaya and Kartepe are drives from Istanbul. Palandöken, Erciyes and Sarıkamış mean a domestic flight or a long train journey, and in exchange you usually get more snow and higher terrain.

City or hotel bubble? Palandöken and Erciyes sit minutes from Erzurum and Kayseri, so you can ski in the morning and walk a medieval old town at dusk. Uludağ and Kartalkaya are self-contained hotel zones where you mostly stay on the mountain.

What standard are you? Beginners are well served almost everywhere. Strong skiers get the most from the bigger vertical and steeper ground at Palandöken and Erciyes.

In Türkiye, the evening decides the ski trip as much as the snow does.

02Palandöken, Erzurum

Palandöken, Erzurum.

1 min read

Best for: Intermediate and advanced skiers who want a long season
Access: Erzurum Airport (ERZ), then a short road transfer
Base: Erzurum city, directly below the mountain
When to skip: A short, cheap trip from Istanbul, or an aversion to hard cold
From our film: A beginner snowboarder's day on the mountain, the ice-climbing area, cağ kebabı in Erzurum after

Palandöken is the reason Erzurum calls itself Türkiye's winter city. The resort rises immediately south of town on the eastern plateau, where cold, dry winters keep the snow in good condition through most of the season, and it has some of the longest and most demanding runs in the country.

Palandöken ski resort under deep snow above Erzurum — Palandöken in midwinter, directly above Erzurum on the eastern plateau.

Choose Palandöken over Erciyes if snow quality and steep, sustained runs matter more to you than a Cappadocia side trip, or if you want to link the ski days to the Eastern Express.

The trade-off is wind and cold. The summit lift closes when gusts pick up, so a three-day trip may become two days on the full mountain, and insulated boots and proper layers aren't optional. Down the hill, the Çifte Minareli Medrese and the old town are a short drive away. Our Erzurum travel guide covers the city, the resort and the train, and includes Show Me Türkiye's own film from the Palandöken slopes.

Our day on Palandöken above Erzurum.

Erzurum’s Çifte Minareli Medrese in snow: the city at the foot of Palandöken.

03Erciyes, Kayseri

Erciyes, Kayseri.

1 min read

Best for: All levels; open, high terrain; pairing skiing with Cappadocia
Access: Kayseri Airport (ASR), close to the city, then a road transfer
Base: Kayseri city, or a hotel on the mountain
When to skip: You want tree runs, shelter from wind or a village atmosphere
From our film: From Kayseri's centre up by gondola, a day snowboarding, and an evening torchlit session

Erciyes is a dormant volcano and the highest mountain in central Anatolia. The ski area spreads across its upper slopes in broad, treeless bowls that suit confident intermediates and give strong skiers room to move. Over the past two decades it has become one of Türkiye's most developed resorts, with a modern gondola and chairlift network.

Choose Erciyes over Palandöken if you are a mixed-ability group, want a shorter airport transfer, or want Cappadocia in the same trip. Erciyes and Hasan Dağı are among the volcanoes whose eruptions laid down the deposits later eroded into Cappadocia's fairy chimneys, and on clear days it stands on the horizon across much of the region.

Kayseri rewards an evening: a compact Seljuk centre around the citadel and covered bazaar, and a food culture built on pastırma and mantı. Read our Kayseri guide for the city and the Cappadocia guide for the other half of the trip.

Our winter trip to Erciyes, above Kayseri.

04Uludağ, Bursa

Uludağ, Bursa.

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Uludağ is Türkiye's oldest and best-known ski mountain: a national park with a hotel zone set among fir forest above Bursa. Its slopes are mostly gentle to intermediate, the ski schools and rental shops are long established, and the hotels sit on the snow. For families and first-timers travelling from Istanbul, it is one of the easiest choices.

Gondola cabins climbing over snow-loaded fir forest on Uludağ — The gondola from Bursa climbs through snow-loaded fir forest to Uludağ.

Choose Uludağ over Kartalkaya if you want a city in the trip. The cable car climbs from Bursa to the mountain, and a spare day buys early Ottoman mosques and tombs, the silk bazaar, a hamam and the original İskender kebab. See our Bursa travel guide.

Skip Uludağ if you are an advanced skier, can only travel at weekends, or are booking for a mild winter. It sits lower and closer to the sea than the Anatolian resorts, so the season is shorter and the snow less dependable, and weekends and half-term are crowded.

05Kartalkaya, Bolu

Kartalkaya, Bolu.

1 min read

Best for: A hotel-based ski break; snowboarders; groups from Istanbul or Ankara
Access: By road via Bolu; nearest major airports are Istanbul and Ankara
When to skip: You want a cultural side to the trip, or non-skiers need things to do

Kartalkaya, in the Köroğlu Mountains, is the opposite of a city resort. A small number of large hotels sit together at the base, the lifts start at their doors, and most guests arrive on Friday and leave on Sunday. Snowboarders like it for its terrain and off-piste options.

Choose Kartalkaya over Uludağ if you want a quieter, self-contained mountain and don't need a city. Choose Uludağ instead if you want Bursa, or a cable car rather than a mountain road. Show Me Türkiye has no Bolu guide yet; the Yedigöller and Abant lakes nearby are the area's other winter scenery.

06Sarıkamış, Kars

Sarıkamış, Kars.

1 min read

Best for: Quiet skiing in Scots pine forest; travellers already heading to Kars and Ani
Access: Kars Airport (KSY), then a road transfer; or the Doğu Ekspresi (Eastern Express) train to Kars
When to skip: You want a big lift network, nightlife or a short trip
From our film: The first stop of a 15-day winter road trip: Istanbul to Kars via Trabzon, Bayburt, Erzurum

Sarıkamış is known across Türkiye for its "crystal snow": dry, light snow falling through pine forest. Of the major Turkish resorts, it is the one where tree-lined runs most clearly define the mountain's character. It is smaller and quieter than Palandöken, Erciyes or Uludağ, and a long way from anywhere.

Choose Sarıkamış over Palandöken if you prefer trees and silence to big vertical and a city, and you are already making the winter journey east to Kars, with its Russian-era stone streets, and the medieval ruins of Ani on the border. Show Me Türkiye doesn't have a Kars guide yet.

Sarıkamış is also a place of national remembrance: the Battle of Sarıkamış was fought in these mountains in the winter of 1914–15. Treat the memorial sites with the respect they're given locally.

Our film from Sarıkamış, in the pine forests of Kars.

07The smaller mountains

The smaller mountains.

1 min read

None of these is worth a long-haul ski holiday on its own. Each makes sense when you are already nearby.

Forested slopes below a snow-capped summit in Ilgaz Mountain National Park — Ilgaz: forested slopes below the snowline, inside the national park.

Kartepe (Kocaeli). The closest skiing to Istanbul, on the forested ridge above Lake Sapanca. A small resort with a short, weather-dependent season: a day on snow rather than a ski holiday. See our Kocaeli guide for Maşukiye, Kuzuyayla and the lake.

Ilgaz (Kastamonu–Çankırı). A small ski centre inside Ilgaz Mountain National Park, in old fir and beech forest. A quiet weekend that pairs well with Kastamonu's Ottoman old town. See our Kastamonu guide.

Davraz (Isparta). A mid-sized resort above Lake Eğirdir in the Lakes Region, inland from Antalya. The sensible option for skiers based in south-western Türkiye.

Saklıkent (Antalya). A small ski area on Bakırlı Mountain inland from Antalya, famous because in a good snow year you can ski in the morning and reach the Mediterranean by afternoon. The snow is unreliable, so treat it as a novelty, not a reason to book. It is not the Saklıkent canyon near Fethiye.

08When to go

When to go.

1 min read

The Turkish ski season typically runs from December to March, and the higher Anatolian resorts (Palandöken, Erciyes) often hold snow into April. Uludağ, Kartalkaya and the smaller mountains usually open later and close earlier, and their dates shift a lot with the winter.

Early December: Openings vary by year; book flexible travel or wait for the official announcement
January and February: The most reliable snow almost everywhere, and the busiest weeks around half-term
March: Sunnier, softer snow and emptier slopes at the high resorts; lower mountains may be closing

For current snow and mountain weather, the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM, mgm.gov.tr) publishes forecasts and snow-depth observations. Each resort also posts its own lift status.

Mount Erciyes at golden hour: the volcano that sits between Kayseri and Cappadocia.

09Winter beyond the slopes

Winter beyond the slopes.

1 min read

When two resorts are close on snow, what lies around each one usually decides it.

Cappadocia under snow. The fairy chimneys look entirely different in winter, and balloons fly on calm winter mornings, weather permitting. Erciyes is the natural ski pairing. See our Cappadocia guide.

The Eastern Express (Doğu Ekspresi). The regular Doğu Ekspresi is a scheduled train from Ankara to Kars that crosses the snow-covered eastern plateau via Erzurum, linking Palandöken and Sarıkamış into one journey. The separate Turistik Doğu Ekspresi is a seasonal, sleeper-only tourist service with longer sightseeing stops; its winter cabins sell out quickly once booking opens. Book either only through TCDD Taşımacılık. The Erzurum guide covers the route for now.

Thermal water after skiing. Bursa's long hot-spring bathing tradition makes Uludağ a natural resort to pair with a hamam. Further afield, Afyonkarahisar is Türkiye's best-known thermal town.

The coast for non-skiers. The Mediterranean coast stays mild in winter. For the full seasonal picture, see when to visit Türkiye.

10Decide and book

Decide and book.

1 min read

Choose Palandöken if you are a strong skier and want the most dependable snow plus a winter city.
Choose Erciyes if your group mixes levels or you want Cappadocia in the same trip.
Choose Uludağ if you are a family or first-timer from Istanbul and want Bursa alongside.
Choose Kartalkaya if you want a hotel weekend on the snow with no sightseeing.
Choose Sarıkamış if you are already travelling to Kars and want quiet forest runs.

Before you book:

Ski passes and rental: Prices change every season; check each resort's official channels. Rental in town or at the base is often cheaper than hotel rental; our Erzurum guide has more.

Getting there: Fly to the nearest city airport for the eastern and central resorts; drive or take a transfer for the Marmara and Bolu resorts. Mountain roads can require chains or winter tyres. See our guide to getting around Türkiye.

Insurance: Make sure your travel insurance covers winter sports, including off-piste skiing if you plan to leave marked runs.

Drones: Check current DGCA (SHGM) rules and any local protected-area restrictions before flying. Uludağ and Ilgaz are national parks.

To see the mountains before you choose, our own winter films from Palandöken, Erciyes and Sarıkamış sit in each resort's chapter above, and the rest of the series is in the Let Me Show You Turkiye playlist on YouTube.

Plan the winter

Pick the season first.

Snow, light and crowds change month by month; our season guide puts winter in context.

Best time to visit →

Before you book: what we tell friends.

10 chapters, one country.

Pick the season first.

Plan the rest of the trip.

Hiking in Türkiye: which trail or region suits you.

Erzurum: Palandöken, the old town and the Eastern Express.

When is the best time to visit Türkiye.