Getting Around Without Turkish

Hester Callow · 11 July 2026

Adana is not a tourist city, which is most of its charm and the source of nearly all the friction.

Expect Less English Than You Are Used To

In Istanbul or on the coast you can get through a week in English. Here you often cannot, and there is no reason you should be able to. This is a working Turkish city.

Twenty words of Turkish, a translation app that works offline, and a written note of your address will handle almost everything. People are helpful well beyond the point where the conversation has stopped functioning.

Getting About

There is a metro line through the centre, a great many buses and dolmuş minibuses, and taxis that are cheap by European standards.

The minibuses are the local system and they are genuinely useful once you understand that they stop where you ask rather than at marked stops. Say the name of where you are going as you board.

Money and Hours

Card is widely accepted in the centre and much less so in the smaller towns of the province. Carry some cash before heading out to Kozan or Karataş.

Note the mid-afternoon lull. A lot of the city closes or empties between roughly two and five in summer, and visitors who plan around European hours spend that time confused.

Two Words That Help

Buyurun, which is said to you constantly and means roughly go ahead or help yourself, and kolay gelsin, said to anyone working, meaning may it come easily. The second one costs nothing and changes how a room treats you.

Neither is on a phrase app's first page and both are used a hundred times a day here.