Weather in Turkey in May

May is when the coast starts to feel like a holiday: longer days, the sea warming, resorts opening fully. The interior is finally mild. It is busy but not the crush of high summer, which is why people who have done July once often come back in May.

You can swim in the Mediterranean without making it the whole trip. You can walk ruins without getting up at dawn. Cappadocia is in its sweet spot. Istanbul is pleasant. That combination does not last.

Average temp: 17°C
11–23°C

Rainfall: 49 mm
Not much rain

Sunshine: 8 h
hours per day

What to expect

Daytime

Warm on the Aegean and Mediterranean, pleasant inland. Shade starts to matter at midday in the south. A hat is no longer optional on the Antalya coast if you are out between lunch and four.

Evenings are the prize: still warm enough to eat outside on the harbour, cool enough inland that a shirt over the shoulders is enough. This is the month where a coast-plus-Cappadocia itinerary does not fight itself.

Rain

A drier month for most of the country. The Mediterranean and Aegean are in the stretch where you stop planning around showers.

The Black Sea is the exception that still sees them. If your Turkey is Trabzon and the green northeast, May is not the dry-season story the south is telling. For Antalya and Bodrum, pack for sun.