Turkish Electric Plugs & Sockets

Last Updated on June 4, 2024

Turkey operates on 220 volts, 50 Hz, with round two-prong European-style plugs that fit into recessed wall sockets or points. This means that travelers who have devices and cords fitted for North American-type ports with three-prong plugs or flat-prong plugs will need alternative solutions for using electricity in Turkey.

While four- and five-star hotels often provide North American-style 120-volt, 60 Hz flush-mounted sockets (points) for North American flat-prong plugs, this is only sometimes the case and is definitely a rarity outside the hotels.

You should check your appliances before leaving home to see what you'll need to bring in terms of plugs in Turkey.

Using Electric Plugs and Sockets in Turkey

Smart Solutions: Plug Adapters

Plug adapters enable devices of various types to fit into outlets. Travelers often use port adapters to use Turkey's two-prong plugs and bypass their native three-prong outlet cords. Here are the most common adopters types to use when traveling abroad:

Read the technical stuff on your power adapter to see (the power adapter is the little gizmo, usually black and rectangular, that's in the power line between your laptop or camera and the socket/point.) Look for "INPUT: A.C. 100-240V".

.

 

If it reads that way, it can operate on either 110-125 or 220-240 voltage. If it says something like "INPUT: 100-125V", then it can't run on Turkey's 220-240 volts, and you'll need to bring a transformer (also called a power or voltage converter).

You'll probably also need a plug adapter for a Turkey electrical outlet.

 

 

Power Strip 

Most travelers today have more than one or two electronic devices to charge in their hotel rooms: mobile phones, digital cameras, computers or tablets, electric toothbrushes. If you carry a power strip with you, you'll only need one plug adapter to plug it into a Turkish outlet, then you can plug all of your non-Turkish devices into the power strip:

Charging station for a traveling couple: two computers, two mobile phones, a tablet, digital camera batteries, and an electric toothbrush.

If you use a 110-125-volt power strip (also called a power tap), be sure it is a power strip (that is, just outlets, without any circuitry) and not a surge protector, which has electronic components. If you plug a 110-125-volt surge protector into a 220-240-volt outlet, there will be a pop and a burning smell, and your surge protector will have turned to junk. You need a simple power tap with no surge-suppressor electronic circuitry in it.

Electricity in Your Hotel Room

In your hotel room, there may be an energy-saving device operated by your room key: you insert the flat card of the room key into a slot, and this activates all the electricity in your room, including lights, fan, and television. (See the photo to the right.) The slot is usually on the wall just inside the door of your hotel room.

The idea is that you will remove the card from the slot when you take your room key with you and leave your room for the day, shutting off all the electricity automatically and thus cutting hotel costs. But what if you want to charge batteries in your computer, smartphone, or other devices while you're out of your room? The batteries won't charge if all the electricity is shut off.

A few clever hotels put all lamps and most wall outlets on the key-card switch but leave one or two outlets always on for such things as minibar refrigerators and even for guests' electronic devices. By experimentation, you may find an outlet that will remain powered on even when the key card is not in its slot.

If not, try this simple solution: if the card is simply a card, slide a piece of stiff paper into the card slot (a business card works well) to turn on the outlets/points in the room, then switch off all the lights and other devices except the one you want to charge.

However, some of these devices use cards with computer chips in them or thick rectangular plastic key fobs. For those, a business card or slip of stiff paper will not work. You'll have to charge your batteries at night while you're in your room. 

When the Lights Go Out

The larger, better hotels in Turkey have auxiliary generators that switch on automatically if the line voltage fails and stay on until it resumes. This came in handy on March 31, 2015, when virtually all of the country went dark due to a power distribution problem. However, there may be delays in resuming service on tramways, high-speed trains, ATMs (cash machines), Wifi networks, mobile phone networks, traffic signals, etc. 

(X [Twitter] is a good place to follow restoration progress... if your smartphone battery still has a charge.) Luckily, such power failures are unusual, infrequent events. The previous widespread power failure happened in conjunction with the Sea of Marmara earthquake of 1999.

-by Tom Brosnahan, updated by Duru Nemutlu

Visit our Facebook group:

Best Travel Agencies