november in turkey

Pros - off season, less crowds; tour should be less expensive to account for this
Cons - colder; greater possibility of adverse weather; less events going on; may be too cold to swim, sail, or to do the Capadoccia balloon ride (not sure of this, so confirm if you're interested)

Rick's Turkey tours depart as late as November 9 and offer a small discount at that time of year. Many of our tour guides for other parts of Europe did a November trip together in Turkey last year and loved it, as well as the Cappadocia balloon ride did work out for them.

Another con: daylight hours are much shorter, will start the day either while still dark, or have a later starting time with tours. Likewise with end of day coming too soon.

It will depend on where you plan to visit.I am sure Istanbul will be top of the list and that is still surprisingly buy in November-but accomodation tends to be at shoulder rates :) The weather is still mostly reasonable and you would be very unlucky to get day after day of rain.
The Aegean coast is still mostly fine and quite mild and sunny too as of course is the south coast-this is where you are still lucky enough to be able to swim too.Not bath-like warm but not freezing cold either.
Cappadocia in central Anadolu should still be fair most of the time but nighttime after sundown will be cold and you'd need a coat or warm fleece with you.
If you intend to go further eat or south east then you could start to have snow issues on higher ground but I guess it's unlikely you'd be heading over that way.So for the classic triangle of Istanbul,west coast and Cappadocia yes,November is a great time to come;weather still pretty kind,crowds less and accomodation cheaper.

I'm looking at visiting Istanbul for several days before Thanksgiving. I'm finding non-stop RT from JFK for $629 and plenty of centrally located hotels with strong reviews for under $70/nt. I'm trying to decide between Istanbul, Dublin, Montreal, or Paris, and find myself leaning toward Istanbul for the great rates!

Jeff gives a new meaning to Turkey on Thanksgiving! I loved Istanbul and it certainly is cheaper than Paris or Montreal, probably even Dublin, and better weather, more daylight.

As for the RS 13-day tour, I was on the next to last one, end of Oct, beginning of Nov. We had plenty of daylight to see the sights and pleasant weather, usually sunny, sometimes a little chilly but mostly short-sleeves and sandals from mid-morning to late afternoon. I can't say if that was typical weather. Certainly fewer crowds than earlier in the year, notably in Istanbul and Ephesus. There is more of a chance of not being able to take the optional balloon ride in Cappadoccia because of unfavorable weather. They went up all three mornings we were there. And if you don't get to take the ride, you save a lot of money :-)

I'd plan to spend at least a night or two before the tour in Istanbul to get over the jetlag and see some of the city. The tour spends relatively little time there. You may also want to spend another couple of nights there after the tour. There's certainly enough to fill up 5-6 days.

We were in Turkey for 14 days in November several years ago. We had Thanksgiving dinner at our hotel in Pamakkule, pretty unconventional and interesting, especially their take on pumpkin pie...

We were able to see and do everything we'd planned. We had great weather and did a big clockwise circle starting in Istanbul, Ankara, Cappadocia, Antalya, Pamakkule, Kusadasi, Bodrum, etc. Our only adverse weather was snow in Cappadocia but it wonderful seeing a dusting of snow on the tufa stone buildings! Otherwise it was usually sunny and warm along the coastal cities with adequate daylight hours for touring. There was even swimming involved. I was a little nervous about our ferry crossing to Kos at the end of November because that was the last day they were running the ferry for the season and it was weather dependent. We stayed on Kos for a few days before our flight to Athens and eventually home.

I'd definitely do it all again. Turkey was a wonderful country to visit.

Weather in October/November? Hot, dry,? comfortable weather for cotton clothes? or???