Turkey's climbing walls fall into two groups. Walk-in bouldering gyms, which adults can use without a licence, are concentrated in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Antalya, with single gyms in cities such as Eskişehir, Samsun and Trabzon. Most of the country's roped and competition walls belong to clubs, universities, municipalities and the state, and are used by licensed climbers, students and federation courses.
Istanbul has the most choice. Boulderhane, founded on İstiklal Avenue in 2002, now has around 600 m² of bouldering in the Metrocity mall in Levent, and Boulder İstanbul, in Kadıköy, has been running since 2009. In Ankara, Tragos Boulder & Outdoor combines a bouldering gym with an outdoor-gear shop; Izmir has Climbinn in Bornova; and Antalya's Boulder Jungle opened in Kepez in December 2022. Beyond the four big cities, Boulder Eskişehir, Zone Climbing in Trabzon and Veo Climbing in Samsun serve their own cities.
Most commercial gyms are for bouldering only. A few also have roped walls: Inventist in Çekmeköy, Istanbul, has around 1,530 m² of lead, speed and bouldering walls; Veo Climbing has a lead wall; and Mozaik Climbing in Antalya has a 16-metre outdoor wall. Our city guides cover Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Antalya in more detail.
Most of Turkey's competition walls were built by provincial youth and sports directorates, municipalities and universities. The Yenimahalle sports complex in Ankara, the Canik sports hall in Samsun and the Yomra gymnastics complex in Trabzon host national championships; municipal "athlete factory" complexes such as Gürsu in Bursa and Ulubey in Ankara host federation courses; and many universities have walls for their sport-science students and mountaineering clubs, from METU and Bilkent in Ankara to a 22.5-metre outdoor tower at Atatürk University in Erzurum.
These walls are used by licensed climbers through their clubs, by students and staff, and by federation courses, so our listings hide them unless you choose to show walls that aren't open to the public. A few do take outside climbers: Efeler Belediyesi's 15-metre outdoor wall in Aydın is open to anyone over four, and the university walls in Çanakkale, Nevşehir and Sakarya can be booked by the hour or through a climbing school.
Sport climbing is run by the Turkish Mountaineering Federation (TDF), based in Ankara and a member of the IFSC, now World Climbing, since 2007. To climb at federation and club walls, or to join courses and competitions, you need an athlete licence, issued by your provincial or district youth and sports directorate, with a visa for the current season. In 2026 the licence is free for climbers under 30 and for first-timers, and the yearly visa costs ₺430 for over-30s.
The federation teaches roped climbing through five-day courses, a basic course followed by an advanced one, booked through clubs on its online system. Both need a current licence and a first-aid certificate, and in 2026 they were free for club members under 23. Foreign nationals can only be licensed if they live in Turkey, so visitors climb at the commercial gyms, which need no licence.
In October 2026 a day pass at a walk-in bouldering gym cost from ₺550 at Tragos in Ankara to ₺850 at Boulder İstanbul, with ₺750–₺800 the most common price. Students, usually those under 25, pay a fifth to a quarter less, several gyms discount weekday daytime visits, and most ten-visit passes cost ₺6,000–₺6,500. Shoe hire is ₺200–₺250. University walls that take visitors charge by the hour: ₺300 for outside climbers at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, for example.
National championships move around the country's competition walls. The 2026 Turkish Championships in lead, bouldering and speed run from 14 to 21 November at the Yenimahalle sports complex in Ankara, where Timur Taş set the Turkish speed record of 5.99 seconds in April 2025. Para-climbing became an official sport in Turkey in June 2025, and the para team made its World Cup debut in Innsbruck in June 2026. Istanbul hosts the European Games from 16 to 27 June 2027, one of the first qualifying events for climbing at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
Turkey's best-known crags are on the Mediterranean coast. Geyikbayırı, about 25 km west of Antalya, has over 1,000 bolted limestone routes and a season that runs from autumn to spring, and Olympos, about an hour and a half's drive from Antalya, has close to 300. Near Izmir, Kaynaklar in Buca has more than 200 routes and Sarıkaya around 170. Istanbul climbers head to Ballıkayalar, a canyon near Gebze with around 100 routes; Ankara climbers go to the granite of Karakaya, in Eskişehir province; and Datça, near Marmaris, has over 300 routes that can be climbed all year. For alpine climbing, the Ala Dağlar in Niğde have multi-pitch routes of up to 650 metres, and the federation runs its outdoor rock courses there in summer.
The national championships in lead, bouldering and speed run from 14 to 21 November 2026 at the Yenimahalle sports complex in Ankara, for climbers from 13 to seniors. Here's the schedule, who can enter and why the results matter for the national team.
Joe Rushton
Turkey has two climbing systems: walk-in bouldering gyms that anyone can use, and club, university and state walls for licensed climbers. Here's how each works, what it costs and how visitors can climb.
Joe Rushton
A year after para-climbing became an official sport in Turkey, the national para team made its World Cup debut in Innsbruck, won medals in Brno and reached a final in Laval. Six climbers are entered for Gunsan at the end of October.
Joe Rushton
