Our Turkey honeymoon cost more than $20,000, and the only receipt in this post is a spa bill for 71,854 Turkish lira.
About $1,700. Before the tip.
Earlier in the trip, in Istanbul, we’d paid about $150 each for a Turkish bath. Hold onto that number, because the cheap one won.
In short: Our Turkey honeymoon came to more than $20,000: twelve nights in October 2025, five in Istanbul, three in Cappadocia and four in Bodrum, for two people. My husband paid for this one, all of it.
Before you read another line: yes, this is expensive. No, this is not a normal honeymoon, and I’m not putting it up as the one you should be saving toward. It’s what we chose to do, and you deserve to know that up front instead of finding it in a footnote. If you want to know how we’re able to afford a trip like this, start with my freelancing post.
The short answers, before we get into it
How much does a honeymoon in Turkey cost?
Ours cost more than $20,000 for two people over twelve nights, staying at two Four Seasons in Istanbul, the Museum Hotel in Cappadocia and the Mandarin Oriental in Bodrum. The four Bodrum nights came to about $12,000 on their own. A traditional hamam in Istanbul ran about $150 each.
The full Turkey honeymoon cost, all in
Moneyyyyyy checkkkk.
| Where | Nights and hotel | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Istanbul | 5 nights: Four Seasons at the Bosphorus, then Four Seasons at Sultanahmet | not broken out |
| Cappadocia | 3 nights: Museum Hotel, a cave hotel | not broken out |
| Bodrum | 4 nights: Mandarin Oriental, a villa, plus food and everything we did there | about $12,000 |
| Inside the Bodrum number | one spa visit | about $1,700 before the tip |
| Istanbul | a traditional hamam | about $150 each |
| Getting around | flights, paid in cash, no points | not broken out |
| Total, two people | more than $20,000 |
Trip taken in October 2025. These are what we paid, rounded. The Bodrum figure is the whole leg, start to finish. The spa is converted from lira at that week’s rate.
Four nights in Bodrum: about $12,000
Four nights out of twelve.
That’s roughly THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS A NIGHT, covering the villa, the meals, the spa and a boat tour, which was very cheap.
The Mandarin was the most expensive hotel of the trip. It was also the last stop, in late October, and that turned out to be the problem. It rained, and a lot of the resorts in town were closed or in the middle of closing for the season, so we got the most expensive version of Bodrum without the Bodrum part.
The two Turkish baths
In Istanbul we went to a traditional hamam: about $150 each. In Bodrum, at the Mandarin, the Sultan Hamam ritual was €300 each, around $350 at the time, so more than twice the price for the same basic idea, and that was before the facial and the eye treatment that landed on the same bill.
The $150 one was way better.
It was the OG. Very simple, very clean, and my favorite thing of the whole trip. The balloon comes second. If you only do one spa thing in Turkey, do that one.
And if you want the hotel version on top of it, let a girl live. Just know the extra $200 a head isn’t buying you a better bath.
The cost nobody warns you about: eating like it’s your job
We booked two Michelin Guide dinners in Istanbul. One was TURK Fatih Tutak, which holds two stars. The other is in the guide without a star.
TURK is a good restaurant. The spread of different plates was really good, there were a few I’d have passed on, and it is a LOT of food. If I went again, I would not eat for the whole day before. Two dinners like that in one city stay, and you force yourself to eat a lot.
One thing at TURK deserves its own line, though.
The bread. 11 out of 10, no notes ✨
What I would skip
Bodrum, if you’re going to Turkey in the fall. Four nights, about $12,000, and from mid to late fall a lot of the resorts are shut or shutting, so you don’t get the real Bodrum. Go in season, or skip it.
Yeah, girl, no.
The second Michelin dinner. Keep TURK, and let the other night be a walk and whatever smells good.
The cheap thing that beat the expensive thing
Turkish coffee and Turkish delight. The cheapest thing we did all trip, and it really pleasantly surprised me.
The coffee is VERY strong. Like, you will likely poop yourself strong. The Turkish delight is the little add-on that comes with it every time, and it’s super yummy. Have both, and plan your route accordingly.
What else was worth the money
The hot air balloon in Cappadocia. Seven, maybe eight out of ten. Second favorite of the trip, after the hamam.
The camel ride. 7 out of 10. Fun, and still last of the three.
The boat tour in Bodrum. 5 out of 10. It was cheap, though, which is more than I can say for the rest of Bodrum.
The Museum Hotel. Really cool. You are literally sleeping in a cave, and there are beautiful peacocks everywhere.
Two Four Seasons in one city. I enjoyed both, and it was really nice to see two different rooms and two different setups. Would I do it every time? No. If you only pick one, I liked the old town one, Sultanahmet, better.
We work hard and hustle hard, so we said yes to everything
Now you may be asking, sis, why spend more than $20,000 on twelve nights?
WELL. We work hard and we hustle hard, so on this trip we said yes to everything. That was the whole plan, and it was worth it for us.
All of it? Hmm, let’s run that back. Not Bodrum.
What I’d change is the calendar, not the splurge. The priciest hotel of the trip was in a town already packing up for winter when we got there.
If you’re planning a Turkey honeymoon
- Our split was five, three, four, and it held. Five nights in Istanbul, three in Cappadocia, four in Bodrum.
- Budget real time for the flights. We flew between every stop and each one took us 3 to 4 hours, longer than we expected, because Turkey is a big country.
- Skip Bodrum in mid to late fall. Resorts close for the season.
- Book one Michelin dinner, not two. Make it TURK, and eat the bread.
- Do a traditional hamam. It beat the hotel one.
Would I go back to Turkey? Yes. And I’d give Bodrum another shot, in summertime this time.
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