Weather

Istanbul is not tropical! It snows in the winter and most of the winters you see some snow sticking on the ground.

Summer (June – September):

10-15 days during July and August tend to be very hot for Istanbul which is around 36-40 centigrade celsius but normally temperatures are comfortable and you’ll hardly need an air-con at your hotel room. A t-shirt wil be fine day and night but if you are around the Bosphorus or at the seaside during the evening, you might need a jumper or a light jacket. This is also a very dry period, so there would be 5-10 rainy days in 4 months time. Beginning of June and towards the end of September you might need a jumper and light jacket. You can head to some nearby beaches for swimming, windsurfing and kitesurfing.

Autumn (October – November):

You should bring some jumpers, a coat and an umbrella. This will not be a time that you can walk around with a t-shirt most likely not even during the day time. Rainy days and dry days might be equal during this period.

Winter (December – March):

Cold time. You will definetely need a warm coat, warm socks and gloves and a hat. Most likely that 10-15 days will be snowy and many other days it will rain. Even if the sun is out, it will still be cold! Time to drink some sahlep to warm up. If you are willing to do as short as 1.5 hours car journey, then you can go for skiing.

Spring (April – May):

Nice temperatures. Quite a few days might be rainy though. A t-shirt might be enough for day time for some of the days in May but in the evenings you’ll still need some jumpers and a coat.