Day Trips From Ankara: Hattusa, Gordion, Soğuksu and Lake Tuz

Ankara is a good base for short escapes, and several of them start in the direction of the airport. This guide covers six of them from the point of view of someone landing at ESB: how far each place is, what the entry fee was in 2026, how to get there without a car, and when a private driver is the more practical choice. The prices we quote are for transfers only, not tours.

Day Trips From Ankara at a Glance

Distances for places without a route page of ours come from routing data and are approximate. Entry fees are the 2026 foreign-visitor fees for the two archaeological sites; both rise on 1 April 2027 (see below).

How Our Transfers Work for Day Trips

Our driver waits just outside the arrivals exit. After you land, the driver sends the exact meeting point and a short video on WhatsApp. Drivers speak English. The price is per vehicle, not per person: a Mercedes Vito takes up to 6 passengers with luggage, a V-Class VIP is available for smaller groups and a Sprinter suits larger parties. Child seats are available on request. There is no extra charge for traffic or flight delays, and the exact price for your address is shown before you pay.

Every price on this page is for a single journey. A return with waiting time, for example an hour at Eymir or an afternoon at an archaeological site, is not a standard product. If you want a driver to wait and bring you back, ask us on WhatsApp before booking and we will tell you what is possible.

Eymir and Mogan Lakes at Gölbaşı

Gölbaşı lies about 45 km south of the airport and is the closest of these trips: roughly 50 minutes by road. Mogan is the lake beside the town. Eymir is managed by Middle East Technical University (METU), which sets the rules for visiting.

According to the METU rules, updated in April 2026, pedestrians may enter Eymir between 06:00 and 22:00. Cars need a lake entry card (Göl Giriş Kartı), and at weekends cars may be barred from 06:00 to 19:00. Swimming, barbecues, camping and drones are banned. For that reason our driver drops you at the gate rather than driving round the lake. Walking and cycling are free, and the loop around the lake is roughly 9 to 11 km, so most visitors walk only part of it.

Our transfer to Gölbaşı starts from €49 per vehicle; the booking form is on the Ankara Airport to Gölbaşı page. A taxi from the rank costs about €33–49 (₺1,850–2,700) on the meter, with no night rate. The cheapest way is the city bus: EGO line 157 (Opera to Oyaca via Gölbaşı) has a Mogan Park stop, with about seven trips a day and a fare of ₺54 at the time of writing.

Kızılcahamam and Soğuksu National Park

Kızılcahamam is a spa town about 80 km from central Ankara and roughly 90 to 95 km from the airport. Soğuksu National Park has been protected since 1959. It covers 1,184 hectares at altitudes of about 1,030 to 1,776 metres, and it is reached through the town. A visitor centre with a small nature museum has English and Turkish material and trail maps.

The national parks authority (DKMP) published its 2026 tariff on 19 February 2026. For Soğuksu it lists ₺75 per person and ₺225 for a car or van. The vehicle fee covers everyone inside, and it is charged once a day. Visitors from abroad pay a multiple of the person fee, set park by park, so ask at the gate what applies to you.

The town also has two municipal thermal baths. At the time of writing the Büyük Kaplıca costs ₺400 and is open 10:00 to midnight on weekdays and from 08:00 at weekends, while the smaller Küçük Kaplıca costs ₺200 on weekdays and ₺250 at weekends. These are municipal prices that can change, so check on the day. The basalt columns at Güvem, known locally as Sabun Kayalar, stand beside the Güvem–Çerkeş road.

Our transfer to Kızılcahamam starts from €83 per vehicle, about 75 minutes in normal traffic (see Ankara Airport to Kızılcahamam). A taxi meter would show about €69–83 (₺3,850–4,600). By public transport, EGO line 527-2 runs from the Opera area in the city centre, passing the Ankara high-speed train station, in about 85 minutes, with weekday departures between 06:30 and 19:30. You would first need to reach the city, see our airport to city centre guide.

Gordion and the Midas Mound

This section is about the ancient city of Gordion at Yassıhöyük, not the Gordion shopping mall in Çayyolu, which dominates search results for the name. Gordion was the capital of Phrygia, the kingdom linked with King Midas, and UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List on 18 September 2023. The main sight is the Great Tumulus (Tumulus MM), a burial mound about 300 m across and 55 m high. It was excavated in 1957 and opened to visitors after a concrete support was built in the early 1960s. According to the Penn Museum, visitors enter through a modern tunnel and see the wooden burial chamber from behind a barrier, and about an hour covers the museum and the mound, with up to three hours for everything.

The foreign-visitor fee was 3 euros in 2026 and rises to 5 euros from 1 April 2027, when the museum tariff changes. Official listings give slightly different opening hours: one lists 08:30 to 17:30 in winter, with the ticket office closing at 17:15, and muze.gov.tr shows other times. Hours change with the season and winter hours are usually shorter, so check muze.gov.tr before you go.

Getting there is the awkward part. EGO line 528-3 runs from AŞTİ to Polatlı, with frequent departures between about 06:00 and 20:30 and a full fare of ₺165.50 at the time of writing. From Polatlı the site is about 20 km further, and there is no regular bus. Our Polatlı transfer, from €110 per vehicle, covers the town only (see Ankara Airport to Polatlı). For the extra distance to the site, ask us for a quote on WhatsApp. The taxi meter to Polatlı alone would be about €90–110 (₺5,000–6,000).

Polatlı also has the Sakarya battlefield national park, with a Victory Monument museum. Most sections close on Mondays and are otherwise open from 09:00 to 17:00 according to the regional forestry office.

Hattusa, the Hittite Capital

Hattusa (Hattuşa in Turkish) lies near the village of Boğazkale in Çorum province, about 82 km from Çorum itself. It was the capital of the Hittite empire and was added to the UNESCO list in 1986. Hattuşa and the rock sanctuary of Yazılıkaya together became a national park in 1998, and the ticket includes Yazılıkaya. Here "Hattusa" means the ancient site, not the hotel brand of the same name.

The foreign-visitor fee was 3 euros in 2026 and rises to 5 euros from 1 April 2027; the Boğazköy museum is listed at 5 euros from that date. The ministry's visitor portal lists winter hours of 08:30 to 17:00 with the ticket office closing at 16:30, but muze.gov.tr shows different times. As with Gordion, winter hours are usually shorter, so check muze.gov.tr before you go.

By road, routing data puts Hattusa at about 214 km from the airport, close to three hours each way. That makes it a full day with about six hours in the car. Without a car, the usual route is a coach from AŞTİ to Sungurlu, about 2 to 2½ hours with fares of about ₺400 to ₺600 in booking listings, then a taxi for the last 30 km or so. We do not publish a fixed price for Hattusa. If you want to go with a driver, ask us for a quote on WhatsApp and tell us whether you plan to return the same day.

Lake Tuz (Tuz Gölü)

Tuz Gölü is Turkey's second-largest lake, shared by the provinces of Ankara, Aksaray and Konya. It changes a lot with the season. In July 2026 parts of it turned pink after heavy rain, and by early October the water had pulled back, leaving salt crystals visible near Eskil. Over the long term the lake has shrunk a great deal, from about 93,000 hectares in the late 1980s to about 9,200 hectares today, according to figures cited by the press in 2025.

The visitor facilities on the Ankara side are about 15 km before Şereflikoçhisar on the E-90, about 170 km from the airport. Entry is free and parking costs a small fee at the time of writing. Coaches from AŞTİ to Şereflikoçhisar take about 2 hours and cost ₺370 to ₺500 in current listings, but they stop in the town, not at the shore, so plan the last stretch separately.

Tuz Gölü sits on the road to Cappadocia (the E-90 via Aksaray), which is why it often appears as a stop on that journey. A photo stop is not part of our standard service. If you want one on the way to Cappadocia, ask us on WhatsApp before booking. As a separate trip it is a long drive for a short visit, and we would combine it with the Cappadocia run, which is covered in our Ankara Airport to Cappadocia guide.

Beypazarı and Cappadocia

Two larger trips have their own guides. Beypazarı, the Ottoman-era town about 120 km from the airport (and not the mineral water of the same name), is on our price list from €83 per vehicle; see Ankara Airport to Beypazarı. Cappadocia is about 324 km and 3½ hours from ESB, and our private transfer starts from €270 per vehicle. We would treat it as a transfer to stay overnight in, not a day trip with a return the same evening. The details are in Ankara Airport to Cappadocia.

Which Trip Fits Your Time?

• Two or three hours free: Eymir or Mogan, or stay in the city with our Ankara in a day plan.
• Half a day: Kızılcahamam and Soğuksu for walking and the baths.
• A full day: Gordion with Polatlı, or Hattusa if you start early and the days are long.
• A night or more: Beypazarı or Cappadocia, with Tuz Gölü on the way if you ask us beforehand.

Arriving late? Read our guide to arriving in Ankara at night first. Several of these sites close by late afternoon in winter, so a night flight usually means starting the trip the next morning.

Sources — checked on 23 October 2026: muze.gov.tr (Ministry of Culture and Tourism) · Hattuşa on turkishmuseums.com · Gordion on turkishmuseums.com · 2027 museum tariff · DKMP 2026 tariff · Kızılcahamam municipality · METU Eymir rules · EGO timetables · Gordion UNESCO listing · Penn Museum, Gordion · Tuz Gölü (yolcu360) · obilet coach listings
Euro amounts at €1 = ₺55.6.

Related guides: Ankara Airport to Cappadocia · Ankara Airport to Beypazarı · Ankara in a day · Ankara Airport to the city centre · Ankara Airport taxi prices · Ankara Airport bus

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