Included Highlights
- Topkapi Palace
- Grand Bazaar, the world’s largest and oldest covered market
- Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara
- Saratli, a hidden underground city
- Optional visit to Open Air Museum of Goreme, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Hiking through the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia
- Pamukkale, the Cotton Castle, and the Hierapolis , a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Optional visit to Ephesus and the House of the Virgin Mary
- Ancient city of Troy
- Anzac Cove at Gallipoli
Upon arrival, you will be greeted and transferred to your hotel. Welcome briefing.
Meal: No Meal
• Enjoy a full-day tour including a visit to Topkapi Palace Museum, the residence of the Ottoman Sultans between 1453–1852 (excluding Harem).
• Visit the Hippodrome, once the centre of life where chariot racing and other public events took place.
• Tour the Blue Mosque, built between 1609 and 1616, famous for its blue ceramic tiles.
• An optional visit to St. Sophia, a church built in the 6th century Byzantine capital, converted to a mosque by the Ottomans, still functioning as a mosque today and one of the world’s greatest architectural wonders.
• Your last stop is the Grand Bazaar.
• Join an optional dinner with belly dancing entertainment.
Meal: Breakfast
• This morning, depart on an optional Bosphorus cruise and enjoy the strait that separates Asia and Europe. Its shores are lined with fine neighbourhoods, Ottoman palaces, fortresses, old wooden villas, hotels, parks, gardens, restaurants, and cafés.
• The tour will end on the Asian side, followed by a drive to the capital city, Ankara, for an overnight stay.
Meal: Breakfast
• Visit the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, a historic caravanserai holding artifacts up to 7500 years old, including the most extensive and valuable collection of Hittite artifacts in the world.
• Visit the Mausoleum of Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey.
• Pay a visit to the underground city of Saratli, one of the many underground settlements built for protection and religious reasons.
• Continue to a regional rug production centre to experience this unique art form firsthand.
• Enjoy dinner at the hotel and join an optional Whirling Dervishes performance. Overnight in Cappadocia.
Meal: Breakfast and Dinner
• Consider an optional early morning hot air balloon tour and experience floating through volcanic valleys, fairy chimneys, and caves at sunrise.
• Spend the day at leisure or join the full-day optional Cappadocia tour.
• Visit to a 13th-century caravanserai
• Visit the Göreme Open-Air Museum (a UNESCO World Heritage site), a historical region of Turkey located among rock formations, which was first settled during the Roman period. Many rock churches can still be seen today, as Christianity was the prevailing religion in that region.
• Then explore Red Valley.
• Continue to the town of Avanos, renowned for its high-quality earthenware, and attend a brief regional pottery workshop in a cave.
• On the way back to the hotel, visit Devrent Valley.
Meal: Breakfast and Dinner
• Drive to Pamuk kale.
• Dinner and overnight in Pamuk kale.
Meal: Breakfast and Dinner
• Visit the unique cotton fortress of Pamuk kale, with its white lime cascades formed by mineral springs, and the ruins of the Roman health spa of Hierapolis (a UNESCO World Heritage site).
• Visit a leather factory, where you can see and purchase exquisite samples of Turkish-made leather products after watching a fashion show.
• Proceed to Izmir for overnight.
Meal: Breakfast
• Spend a full day at leisure, or join the optional tour to Ancient Ephesus, an important cultural centre of the ancient world.
• Explore the 2,000-year-old marble streets, a theatre, the Library of Celsus, a gymnasium, and Hadrian’s Temple.
• Take a short drive to see the stone cottage of St. Mary, where it is believed the Virgin Mary spent her last years with St. John.
Meal: Breakfast
• Visit the ancient medical centre Asclepion in Pergamum.
• Continue to Troy, renowned for its famous wooden horse and as the setting of the Trojan War, with many cities built on top of each other.
• Proceed to Canakkale for an overnight stay, dinner at your hotel.
Meal: Breakfast and Dinner
• In the morning, depart for Gallipoli, the site of many World War I battle.
• Visit Anzac Cove, Lone Pine Cemetery, and Chunuk Bair, then drive to Istanbul.
• Enjoy a Farewell Dinner. Overnight in Istanbul.
Meal: Breakfast and Dinner
Transfer to the airport for your return flight home.
Meal: Breakfast
- First Class hotels with private facilities
- Meals are indicated on itineraries by (B) breakfast, (L) lunch, (D) dinner
- Licensed guides throughout Turkey
- Private air-conditioned transportation
- Luggage handling (one luggage per person)
- Local taxes and service charges
- Arrival/departure transfers: only on arrival and departure days (arrivals and departure from/to Istanbul Airport). Pre or post-stay transfers are not included.
International / Domestic Airfare.
Optional trips.
Other meals, drinks, Customary tips and other personal expenses or services not specified on the program.
Travel insurance.
Gratuities.
Voluntary tips for guides or drivers.
Travel and medical insurance.
Any items not mentioned as included.
Pre or post stay transfers are not included.
Hotels Used
First Class Hotels
Istanbul - Renaissance Bosphorus
Ankara - Grand Mercure Ankara
Cappadocia - Crown Plaza Nevsehir
Pamukkale - Adempira
Izmir - Park Inn by Raddisson
Canakkale - Double Tree by Hilton