This post serves more as a guide on how to go skiing in Türkiye, rather than a diary.

Ever since we lived in Canada, we’ve wanted to go skiing again. But living in Qatar and relying on school holidays, we didn’t have many options for where to go. We checked Italy and Georgia, but with flights, transport, and other expenses, we would barely have a day of skiing and pay a fortune. But it reminded us of Clare’s first skiing experience from Turkey, so we checked it out – and hey – a cheap flight showed up! Next stop: Kayseri, Türkiye, and the Erciyes Ski Resort!

Erciyes Ski Resort isn’t as large as those found in Europe, but comparable to what we experienced in Banff, Canada. The huge benefit of Erciyes is that it is located right outside of Kayseri (only about 25 km) and situated on the side of the Mt Erciyes (3,917 m), so the season is long (from the end of November to April). You are also in Turkey, so it’s affordable compared to Europe or Canada.

The airport is located right in the town. We would recommend renting a car as driving in Turkey is easy, the town is not busy, and it’s cheap. You can also find a variety of hotels in Kayseri suiting your style and budget. The town is walkable and has ok old center encircled by a wall, which is part of the Kayseri Castle.

The old town is filled with pastırma—a highly seasoned, air-dried, cured beef that is a delicacy in Turkish cuisine. Kayseri is also famous for mantı, Turkish dumplings filled with spiced meat, and sucuk, a spicy Turkish sausage. Manti is ok, but pastirma and sucuk are a must! We are meatlovers and fat bastards, so we got loads. Of course, you can find all the other amazing food that Turkey has to offer – we got loads of that as well!

If you have more time to spare in the region, another huge plus is that Kayseri is the closest airport to Cappadocia, which is an absolutely class and unique place to visit. But probably not the best in the winter…

Skiing

The drive takes about 45 minutes from the town since you have to climb a lot. The road is good, but it can get icy and was covered by snow in some places when we were there. There are several places to park and start skiing. All of them connected with each other by ski slopes.

The closest one to the town is called Hacılar Kapi. It’s a bit off the main road, but the main slope that is under the gondola is hands-down the best slope of the entire resort. It’s marked red and has some steeper parts, but it’s very wide and long. We were there in the morning and had it basically for ourselves.

The next one is called Hisarcık Kapı (yes, they have very similar names). Here you can find another class red slope. When the black slopes at the top of the mountains are closed (like they were when we were there), this is the highest slope you can get to. It’s not as good as the one before, with some narrow parts, but still good.

Hacılar Kapi and Hisarcık Kapı are connected by two blue “slopes”. I put the word in quotes because they are honestly shit! I brought Clare there because I thought they could be good for practicing, but regraded it immediately. I would describe them more as connectors and nothing nice to sky on. But hey, they are great if you need to get from one part of the resort to another.

The main part of the resort is located around Develi Kapı and Tekir Kapı. We parked here for 200 lira. You can easily get between these two parts as they are right next to each other. The main slope right next to the gondola at Tekir is probably the best if you are not a strong skier. Additionally, you can easily traverse to Develi and there are a few more blue slopes around.

There is a red slope accessible from Develi, which is not bad but has a bit of a steep part in the middle, and not great if that’s your first red slope.

You can also connect from Tekir to Hisarcık Kapı, but that’s probably the worst slope of the whole resort! Again, it’s a connector rather than a slope, and we saw so many falls there and tried to avoid it as much as we could.

The slopes close at 5 pm every day, but on Fridays and Saturdays, they also run night skiing at Tekir until 8 pm. It was pretty cool and not as busy as we thought it would be.

Pricing

Erciyes is the only ski resort I have ever been to that doesn’t sell day passes. Instead, you have to buy a card with a pre-paid amount of rides. The card costs 50 TL and these were the ride options in the 2025/2026 season:

Number of rides	Age 13 or above	Under 13
1 Exit	120 TL	100 TL
7 Exits	800 TL	600 TL
14 Exits	1.500 TL	1.000 TL
30 Exits	3.000 TL	2.500 TL
50 Exits	4.000 TL	3.500 TL
100 Exits	7.500 TL	6.000 TL
200 Exits	14.000 TL	11.000 TL

We were there for two and a half days, and 50 rides were enough.

Gear rental

There are several places that rent all types of ski gear in the town. They are almost all located in the same spot. We checked out three different ones and in the end went with Kartal Kayak Evi.

My head is like a sieve, and we paid cash, but I think it cost us 1,500 TL for two pairs of skis, boots, sticks, and helmets. We had everything else, but it’s not a problem to get clothes as well.

We also spotted two more places along the way to the mountains, and of course, there are some rental places right at the parking in Tekir.

Conclusion

We had a great few days of skiing, and I’m glad we had the chance to go. The prices are very affordable, and if we were to fly to Europe, we would be in it for at least a double.

However, the resort isn’t too big, and some of the slopes are terrible. Even though we enjoyed it, I wouldn’t go out of my way to come again. But the price must be a big driver there, as we heard a surprising amount of foreigners and at least 10 Czech people on the slopes/lifts.