Should You Drive Yourself in Turkey? Car Hire vs Joining a Tour

We are a tour operator, so you can reasonably expect this article to conclude that you should take a tour. It does not, at least not straightforwardly. In most of the scenarios below driving yourself is clearly cheaper, and we would rather you heard that from us than worked it out afterwards and felt sold to.

What follows is the actual arithmetic, then the honest account of what each option asks of you — because price is the easy part of this decision and not usually the deciding part.

Two Situations Where the Answer Is Already Decided

Before any numbers, two cases with no real debate.

Do not rent a car for Istanbul. Not as a cost calculation — as a quality-of-holiday decision. Traffic is severe, parking in Sultanahmet and Beyoğlu is expensive and scarce, and the metro, tram, Marmaray and ferries go everywhere you want to go. A car in Istanbul converts sightseeing time into parking time. If your trip is Istanbul only, this article does not apply to you.

Do not self-drive the far east in winter. Mountain passes close, the Nemrut summit road is shut by snow for much of the winter, and distances that take five hours in June can take considerably longer in snow. If you want eastern Anatolia between December and March, go with someone who drives those roads for a living. Our winter guide covers which regions work in the cold and which do not.

Everywhere and everywhen else, the comparison is genuine.

What Driving Yourself Actually Costs

Let us take a real example: eight days in the southeast — Şanlıurfa, Göbeklitepe, Nemrut, Mardin, Midyat — which is roughly 1,500 km of driving. Two people sharing. Figures are those published at the time of writing.

Item	Cost (2 people, 8 days)
Economy car hire, 8 days	€140–200
Fuel, 1,500 km	about €150
Motorway tolls (HGS)	€20–30
Parking	about €20
Hotels, 7 nights, mid-range double	€400–550
Lunches and dinners, 8 days	€200–320
MuseumPass Türkiye × 2	€330
Total	roughly €1,300–1,600
Per person	roughly €700–800

A simple fuel rule

Fuel in Turkey at the time of writing runs around 80 TL per litre for petrol and 97 TL for diesel. Two things follow.

First, a usable rule of thumb: budget about €10 per 100 km for an economy car, whichever fuel it takes. That holds for both because diesel cars use less but diesel costs more.

Second, and this surprises European drivers: diesel is more expensive than petrol in Turkey, the reverse of several European markets. If you normally assume diesel is the cheap option, drop that assumption here.

And the Tour, Beside It

Our 8-day regional tours are €1,199 per person on a shared-room basis, which includes hotels, breakfasts, several meals, all transport, a licensed guide and entrance fees. For a visitor without a Turkish ID, the museum supplement adds €150, bringing it to €1,349 per person.

So, plainly: for a couple, driving yourselves is roughly €600 per person cheaper. That is not a rounding difference, it is close to half.

For a solo traveller the gap narrows, because car hire, fuel and tolls do not halve when you travel alone and a single hotel room costs most of a double. Self-driving alone comes out around €1,000–1,100, against a tour price with the single supplement nearer €1,650. The tour is still more expensive, but the margin is a third rather than a half.

If cost is the only thing you are optimising, the conclusion is simple and we are not going to dress it up: hire the car.

So Why Would Anyone Take the Tour?

Because the €600 buys four specific things, and whether they are worth it depends entirely on who you are.

1. A guide at the sites where context is the experience

This is the strongest argument and it is particular to this region. At Göbeklitepe you are looking down from a walkway at circles of carved stone. Without someone explaining what you are seeing, it is ninety minutes of looking at rocks — our practical guide to Göbeklitepe is honest about exactly this. The same is true at Nemrut, at Ani, at Mor Gabriel. These are not sites that explain themselves the way a Gothic cathedral does.

If you are the kind of traveller who reads three books before a trip, you can supply that yourself and you should drive. If you are not, a guide is the difference between seeing it and understanding it.

2. Not driving 1,500 km on unfamiliar roads

Eastern Anatolian driving is not dangerous, but it is demanding. Long empty stretches, mountain sections, livestock on rural roads, overtaking customs that take acclimatising to, and towns where signage assumes you already know where you are going. Add the fact that you will be doing it on holiday, tired, after an early start.

Some people find that part of the adventure. Others arrive at dinner having spent four hours concentrating and no longer care what the mosaics looked like.

3. Time

Self-driving converts a meaningful share of each day into logistics: finding the hotel, finding parking, finding dinner in a town you do not know, working out tomorrow's route. Over eight days that is hours. Whether those hours are a cost or part of the fun is a personality question, not a budget question.

4. Risk transfer

On the tour, a breakdown, an accident or a road closure is somebody else's problem. Driving yourself, it is yours, along with the insurance excess, the deposit hold on your card, and traffic fines that can surface weeks later through the rental company.

The Practical Realities of Hiring a Car

If you are leaning towards driving, these are the things worth knowing before you book.

• Cost. Economy manual roughly €17–20 a day off-season and €22 and up in high season. Automatics add several euros a day, SUVs considerably more. Book ahead in summer.
• Age. Minimum 21 to 25 depending on the company, with a surcharge for younger drivers.
• Licence. EU, UK and US licences are generally accepted. An International Driving Permit is advisable if your licence is not in Roman characters — and cheap enough that it is worth having either way.
• Deposit. A credit card hold, anywhere from €100 to €1,000 depending on company and vehicle. Make sure the card has the headroom; a debit card is often refused.
• Insurance. Third-party cover is mandatory and included. Collision damage waiver and theft protection are usually extra, and the excess is where the real exposure sits. Read it rather than initialling it at the desk.
• Tolls. Turkish motorways use the electronic HGS system. Most rental cars have a tag fitted and the tolls are billed to you after you return the car. Confirm this at pickup, because driving through an HGS gate without a tag generates a fine.
• Parking. Roughly €1.50–3 an hour in cities. Free or trivial almost everywhere else.
• Winter tyres. Winter tyre rules apply on intercity routes during the winter months. Ask the rental company directly whether the car is equipped rather than assuming, especially for anywhere inland or eastern.
• One-way drops. Picking up in one city and returning in another usually carries a fee, sometimes a large one. Check before you plan a linear route.

The Option Most People Miss

You do not have to choose once for the whole trip, and the mixed version is often the best value of all.

Drive the easy half, take a guided trip for the hard half. The Aegean and Mediterranean coasts are genuinely pleasant to drive: good roads, short distances, clear signage, sites close together. Eastern and southeastern Anatolia is where a guide adds the most and where the driving is most demanding. Hiring a car for Ephesus, Pamukkale and the Turquoise Coast and taking a guided tour for the southeast gets you the cheap option where it is easy and the valuable option where it is not.

Istanbul on public transport, whatever else you do. This is not a compromise, it is simply correct.

How to Decide in One Minute

• Confident driver, travelling as a couple or family, coast or western Turkey, budget matters → hire the car. It is cheaper and the driving is pleasant.
• Interested in the archaeology more than the road, southeast or east → take the tour. The guide is the product, not the transport.
• Solo traveller → the cost gap is much smaller than you would expect, and the tour also solves company and logistics. Worth pricing both.
• Travelling with small children or anyone with limited mobility → your own vehicle gives you pace control, which usually outweighs everything else. A private tour does the same at higher cost.
• Eastern Anatolia between December and March → do not self-drive.
• Istanbul only → neither. Buy an İstanbulkart.
• First visit to Turkey, nervous, short on time → the tour, for the reasons above that have nothing to do with money.

If you want us to price a specific route both ways so you can see the real gap for your dates, ask. We would rather you booked the right thing than the thing we sell. Our tour pages list what is included, and our comparison of group versus private tours covers the next decision after this one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it cheaper to rent a car or join a tour in Turkey?

For two people travelling together, renting a car is substantially cheaper — on an eight-day southeastern route, roughly €700–800 per person against about €1,350 for a guided tour including the museum supplement. For a solo traveller the gap narrows considerably but self-driving is still cheaper.

How much is fuel in Turkey?

At the time of writing, around 80 TL a litre for petrol and 97 TL for diesel. A practical rule is to budget about €10 per 100 km in an economy car. Note that diesel is more expensive than petrol in Turkey, unlike in several European countries.

Do I need an International Driving Permit?

Generally not for EU, UK or US licences, but it is advisable if your licence is not in Roman characters, and inexpensive enough to be worth carrying regardless.

How do Turkish motorway tolls work?

Through the electronic HGS system. Most rental cars have a tag fitted and tolls are billed after you return the vehicle. Confirm at pickup, because passing an HGS gate without a tag results in a fine.

Should I rent a car in Istanbul?

No. Traffic is heavy, parking is expensive and scarce, and public transport reaches everywhere you want to go. Hire a car only for the part of your trip that leaves the city.

Is it safe to drive in eastern Turkey?

In the open months, yes, with the ordinary caution long rural distances require — the real risks are road and weather rather than anything else. In winter, mountain passes close and we would not recommend self-driving. Separately, on the question of regional safety more broadly, see our guide to whether eastern Turkey is safe.

What deposit will the rental company take?

A credit card hold between roughly €100 and €1,000 depending on the company and vehicle class. Debit cards are frequently refused, so travel with a credit card that has room on it.