Greece vs Turkey

The sea is the same on both coasts, so the season is too. On Rhodes and in Antalya the water passes 24-25°C in June, reaches 28-29°C in August and is still 24-25°C in October, which is why October is a good swimming month in both. From November to April the sea is 17-21°C and swimming is for the brave.

The air is where they differ. Antalya's July and August highs are about 35°C, against 31°C on Rhodes, and the Greek islands get a cooling summer wind, the meltemi. Antalya's rain falls in winter, with more than 200 mm in December and January and almost none in July and August. The Greek figures here are for Rhodes, the warm southeast. Corfu, in the northwest, is cooler and wetter, so a northern Greek island won't match the table.

The best months for both are June, September and early October. If you can only go in July or August, Greece is the milder choice. If you're going in late October, Antalya is a little warmer and has fewer rainy days than Rhodes.

Both are Mediterranean coasts with clear water, and the difference is in the variety. In 2026 Greece had 624 Blue Flag beaches, second in the world, and Turkey had 580, third. The count is close. What the islands add is a different beach every day: a lagoon, a pebble cove, a sandy bay with a taverna, often within an hour of each other.

Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean coasts have the opposite character: long sandy resort beaches, pine-covered hills coming down to the water, and bays you reach by boat. Konyaaltı in Antalya is a good example of the long city beach, and the boat trips from Fethiye, Marmaris and Bodrum are the Turkish answer to island hopping. If you like beach days that need no planning, Turkey is easy. If you like finding your own cove, Greece is better.

This is Turkey's strongest card. Around twenty million people land at Antalya airport every year, and most go straight to an all-inclusive hotel on the coast, according to our Antalya guide. The format is the point there: a large beachfront hotel with food and drinks included, a kids' club, a water park, and the sea at the door. If your holiday is a week of that, you'll find more choice in Turkey than anywhere in Greece.

Greece has all-inclusive hotels too, but most of the islands work differently. You stay in a small hotel or apartment, eat at the tavernas and pay as you go, which is cheaper to start with and costs more as you eat out. If you like to wander out for dinner, that's the better holiday. If you'd rather not think about money after you arrive, it's Turkey.

The Turkish coast doesn't have to be all-inclusive: Kaleiçi, Antalya's old town, is a good base for the ancient sites around it. But if the resort is the question, Turkey answers it more simply.

Turkey wins on range. Istanbul is a city of about fifteen million people on two continents, with Hagia Sophia (25 EUR for foreigners, card only), Topkapı Palace and the Grand Bazaar, and it's one of the biggest city trips in Europe. Ephesus, an hour or so from İzmir, is the big ancient city of the Aegean coast, at about 40 EUR with its museum. Cappadocia has no equivalent in Greece: valleys of fairy chimneys, rock-cut churches and balloon flights at about 150-300 EUR in the April to October season (winter flights are cheaper, and more of them are cancelled). Those three alone are a whole second holiday, and all are a short flight apart.

Greece's answer is the ancient Greek world itself. Athens has the Acropolis (about 30 EUR) and one of the best museums in Europe at its foot, and Delphi and Meteora are trips out of Athens. On the islands the sites are close to the beach: Knossos on Crete, the old town of Rhodes. If your idea of sightseeing is Classical Greece, the Acropolis can't be replaced. If it's variety, Turkey has more of it.

Plan to book ahead in both: the Acropolis uses timed tickets, and Cappadocia's balloons fly only when the weather allows, so keep a spare morning.

A lot of the table is shared: meze, grilled fish and lamb, stuffed vine leaves, olive oil with everything, yogurt, honey and nut pastries. The disagreements are on the details, and neither wins. Greece has the taverna, with shared plates of moussaka, souvlaki, grilled octopus and a Greek salad, and the island dishes that change from place to place. Turkey has a wider range of regional cooking, since Istanbul gathers the whole country's kitchen: kebabs, a breakfast spread with cheese, olives, eggs and honey, and in Cappadocia a pot kebab cracked open at the table.

In the all-inclusive resorts you'll eat from a buffet, which is a good place to eat well and a bad place to find out what the country eats. If food is a reason for the trip, leave the resort for at least a few dinners in either country. Alcohol is available in both, but in Turkey buy it from reputable places: the FCDO warns that illegally made alcohol containing methanol has killed people.

Turkey comes out cheaper on the ground, with one caveat: the evidence is one resort. The Post Office Family Holiday Report 2026 (July 2026 prices, in pounds) prices the same basket of ten family items in 22 resorts: coffee, beer, cola, wine, water, suncream, insect repellent, children's snacks, a two-course lunch for two and a three-course family dinner. Marmaris, the only Turkish resort in it, came to £158.33. The Greek islands it measured came to £181.38 on Kos, £186.10 on Rhodes, £204.34 on Corfu and £221.57 on Crete. That makes Marmaris about 13% cheaper than Kos, 15% than Rhodes, 23% than Corfu and 29% than Crete.

Most of the gap is the family dinner: £83 in Marmaris against £92 on Rhodes and £106 on Corfu. Coffee is dearer in Marmaris (£3.41 against £2.27 on Rhodes), and wine and lunch are close, so it isn't cheaper on everything. The caveat is that this is one resort against four islands, and the basket leaves out the hotel and flights. The direction is steady, though: in the 2025 edition Marmaris was also the cheapest of 16 destinations, and Crete, Kos and Rhodes came 7th, 8th and 9th. We have no survey figures for Antalya, Bodrum or Fethiye, so we can't say the whole country is cheaper. The numbers also move fast: the report found Marmaris up 22.7% in a year in pounds, even as the lira fell by almost 12%.

Turkey's currency is the lira, and inflation was 29.73% in September 2026, down from 49.38% in September 2024, so prices in lira rise fast and any price list ages quickly. Many of the big sights are priced in euros for foreigners, so sightseeing costs about the same as in Greece: Hagia Sophia is 25 EUR, Ephesus about 40 EUR, the Acropolis about 30 EUR. Greece uses the euro, so what you read is what you pay.

The package is still the number that decides most trips. Price the same week at the same star rating in both countries on the dates you'd travel, with flights, and compare the total. If it's all-inclusive, add up what you'd spend on drinks and meals in a Greek resort to see what you're really comparing.

For most readers it's a tie. Greece is in the Schengen area, so EU, UK and US citizens need no visa. Serbian citizens with a biometric passport can also visit Greece without a visa for up to 90 days in any 180, according to Serbia's foreign ministry, which asks for a passport valid for three months after you leave. Turkey needs no visa for tourism for up to 90 days in any 180 days for UK, US, Canadian, Australian and Serbian passport holders and for the EU countries we checked, according to the Turkish foreign ministry's list. Other nationalities should check that list and the Greek rules. For British travelers the FCDO says your passport must be valid for at least 150 days after arrival and have a blank page.

The paperwork changes are on the Schengen side. The EU's Entry/Exit System registers non-EU visitors with a fingerprint and a photo at the border instead of a passport stamp, and it became fully operational on 10 April 2026, so expect a few extra minutes at the Greek border on your first visit. ETIAS, the EU travel authorisation for visa-free visitors, is not in operation yet, and the EU says it will announce the start date several months ahead. Check that page before you book if you travel in 2027.

Flights are close. From London, Antalya is about 2,900 km away and Rhodes about 2,800 km; Istanbul is about 2,500 km and Athens about 2,400. Direct flights take about 3 h 40 min to Athens, about 4 h to Istanbul and about 4 h 10 min to Antalya, and the Stansted-Rhodes flight is a little under four hours (times vary by airline and wind). Antalya is a very big charter and low-cost airport, and Istanbul is a major hub with flights from most of Europe. Both countries have many seasonal routes, so in winter you'll often connect through Athens or Istanbul.

Getting around is where Greece wins. The islands are served by ferries you can book as you go. From Heraklion, the fastest ferry to Santorini takes about 1 h 35, and from Rhodes Town, Symi is under an hour and a quarter away. In Turkey you pick one base and take day trips, boat tours and domestic flights. A hire car is useful in both for the coast, and essential for the sites around Antalya.

If you're comparing specific places, see Greece vs Egypt for how the Greek islands compare with a warm-water resort country, and the guides to Rhodes, Corfu, Heraklion and Thessaloniki. Choosing between Greek islands is its own question: Crete vs Rhodes, Corfu vs Crete and Santorini vs Mykonos.

We follow the official advice here, and the UK Foreign Office is the source for both countries. For Turkey, it advises against all travel within 10 km of the border with Syria, an area far from the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts. It does not advise against travel to Istanbul, Antalya, Cappadocia or the coastal resorts, but it does say terrorist attacks are likely in Turkey, mostly in the south-east, Ankara and Istanbul, and that regular protests in big cities can turn violent. Because of the wider situation in the Middle East, it also tells travelers to be ready for flight cancellations and airspace closures. Pickpocketing is common in Istanbul's tourist areas. Travel against FCDO advice can invalidate your insurance, which is why the border strip matters even though few holidaymakers go near it. The Greece advice names no area to avoid; its main warning is a high wildfire risk from April to October.

The practical difference is health cover. The EU's EHIC and the UK's GHIC cover state healthcare in Greece, but not in Turkey, so buy travel insurance with medical cover for Turkey. That's why Greece takes this one. In both countries, check the advice again shortly before you travel, because it changes.