Istanbul, Cappadocia, Pamukkale, Ephesus & Antalya Tour – 10 Days

Overnight: Istanbul. Transfers are included.

Our airport team welcomes you when you land and drives you to your hotel in Istanbul.

Meals: breakfast. Overnight: Istanbul. Transfers are included, and the afternoon is free.

08:30 – Pick-up at your hotel and drive to Sultanahmet.

Hagia Sophia: the finest Byzantine building still standing anywhere. It began as a cathedral, became a mosque, spent a century as a museum and is now a mosque once more. The great dome rises 55 metres above the nave, so the interior feels both intimate and immense. Christian mosaics and Islamic calligraphy share the same walls, a rare layering of faiths in a single space.

Blue Mosque: when the Sultan Ahmed Mosque went up in 1616, its six minarets caused a stir, because only the mosque in Mecca was allowed that many at the time. Inside, 20,000 hand-painted Iznik tiles in more than fifty tulip designs create the blue tone behind its nickname. It is still a working mosque, and the call to prayer rings across Sultanahmet every day.

Hippodrome of Constantinople: for a thousand years of Byzantine rule this was the heart of political and sporting life. Three monuments from three different eras survive along the avenue: an Egyptian obelisk brought here in 390 AD, the Serpent Column from Delphi, dating to the 5th century BC, and the Column of Constantine.

Grand Bazaar (Free Time): founded in 1461, it is the oldest covered market in the world that has never stopped trading. With 61 streets and more than 4,000 shops it is closer to a neighbourhood than a market, with separate areas for jewellery, leather, ceramics and textiles. Use your free time to find the inner courtyards and hans (caravanserais) that most visitors walk straight past.

13:00 – The tour finishes at the Grand Bazaar, and we drive you back to your hotel.

Meals: breakfast. Overnight: Istanbul. Transfers are included.

Spend the morning as you wish, resting or exploring Istanbul at your own pace.

13:30 – Pick-up at your hotel and drive to the pier. You board the Bosphorus Cruise and sail along the strait that divides Europe from Asia.

Bosphorus Strait: Ottoman mansions on the water, palaces, old fortresses and the bridges that join the European and Asian shores of the city.

Panoramic Istanbul Views: from the deck you get one of the clearest views of the skyline, from the old peninsula and the Galata area to the neighbourhoods along the shore.

16:00 – The cruise ends and we take you back to your hotel.

Meals: lunch. Overnight: Cappadocia. Transfers are included.

• 04:00 – Pick-up at your hotel and drive to the airport (pick-up time and airport can change).
• 06:40 – Flight from Istanbul to Cappadocia (flight time can change).
• 08:00 – Landing at Cappadocia Airport (arrival airport and time depend on availability).

Our team meets you after you land and takes you to the North Cappadocia touring area.

Devrent Valley (Pink Valley): the most purely natural landscape in Cappadocia, with no buildings, churches or carved rooms at all. What you see is geology as art: pale pink and cream columns rising from a valley floor that centuries of wind have swept clean.

Pasabag Open Air Museum: the monks here were not a community in the usual sense but lone hermits who valued solitude above everything. Each cell was carved for one person, which explains the tiny doorways and the deliberately bare rooms.

Avanos Pottery Workshop: workshops in Avanos usually keep the demonstration, the hands-on session and the showroom in separate areas, so you can move between them at an easy pace. Visiting the showroom is optional, and the staff do not push you to buy.

Goreme Panoramic View: looking northeast from here, you can make out the shape of the Zelve valley across the plateau, the next big stop of the Red Tour. It is a small but satisfying preview that shows how the route fits together.

Zelve Open Air Museum: it lies inside the UNESCO World Heritage area of Goreme National Park yet sees fewer visitors than other museum sites nearby, so it is usually calmer. People who see both sites in one day often say Zelve moved them more.

Uchisar Castle (exterior view): the castle is linked to the wider web of Cappadocian tunnels, and some of its inner passages are said to join cave systems that run toward the Goreme valley. Your guide explains how far the network reaches during the stop outside; there is no need to go in.

17:00 – The tour ends and we drive you to your hotel in Cappadocia.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Overnight: Kusadasi/Selcuk. Transfers are included.

Optional early-morning extras:

• Hot air balloon flight – the most booked activity and the number one rated experience in Cappadocia, known for its sunrise views.
• Balloon watching tour – sunrise photos from the best viewpoints in Cappadocia, with those viewpoints guaranteed.

Both can be added at the best available price when you book.

After breakfast and check-out we drive to the South Cappadocia area for the southern tour.

Red Valley: named for the strong warm colours that soak its rock all day, from amber in the morning to almost crimson at dusk. The trail is clearly marked and easy to manage, and it passes close to the tallest fairy chimneys, so you can judge their real size.

Rose Valley (Gulludere Valley): most of its cave churches were cut between the 9th and 13th centuries, when the Christian population of Cappadocia was at its cultural peak. Many frescoes in the Gulludere churches follow Byzantine conventions: flat, stylised figures painted in natural red, yellow and black.

Cavusin Village: as you climb through the abandoned settlement, the cliff surface changes. The lower parts are worn smooth by centuries of use, while the upper rooms are sharper and rougher. This record of daily life written into the rock makes Cavusin one of the most rewarding yet least talked-about stops in the region.

Pigeon Valley: its walls are steeper and more vertical than those of Rose Valley next door, which gives it a sterner, more dramatic look for people who prefer raw geology to gentle scenery. Two neighbouring valleys, reached by similar trails yet so different, show how varied the land is in a small area.

Underground City: survey work keeps finding new rooms and passages, and some estimates put the total length of tunnels, dug and still buried, at several kilometres. The guided route shows only the safest and most accessible part of a far larger network that researchers are still mapping.

After the tour we take you to the airport for your flight from Cappadocia to Izmir. If no direct flight is available, you fly via Istanbul and reach Izmir Airport at around midnight (flight and arrival times can change). Our team meets you on arrival and drives you to your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meals: breakfast. Overnight: Kusadasi/Selcuk. Transfers are included.

08:30 – Pick-up at your hotel and drive to Ephesus Ancient City.

Ephesus Ancient City: in the late afternoon, as the sun sinks toward the Aegean, long shadows fall across the marble columns and the stone turns a warm orange. Many people who arrive mid-morning stay longer than planned, drawn from one monument to the next. Comfortable walking shoes and a good guide are the two things that matter most here.

House of Virgin Mary: the Vatican recognises the house in Selcuk as an official Catholic pilgrimage site, a clear claim that sets it apart from many disputed holy places. The research behind that status, based partly on the recorded visions of a 19th-century German nun, is a story in itself, and your guide can tell it. History, faith and landscape meet here in a rare way.

Temple of Artemis: six hundred years passed between the first temple and its final destruction, longer than many civilisations lasted. In that time it was rebuilt twice after fires and once after a flood, and each version was bigger or finer than the one before. Today near Selcuk all that history comes down to a single column in a quiet field, where visitors pause to think about what ambition and persistence once achieved.

17:00 – The guided tour ends and we drive you back to your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Overnight: Antalya. Transfers are included.

08:00 – Pick-up at your hotel and drive toward Pamukkale.

Pamukkale: few natural sites in the country make people stop and stare like this one. Bright white terraces step down a hillside in Denizli province, shaped over millennia by hot springs rich in minerals. UNESCO lists the landscape as a World Heritage Site, and once you stand here the reason is obvious.

White Calcium Terraces: calcium carbonate has been building these terraces for more than two thousand years, and each smooth white ledge shows it. Warm water flows from the hill, spills over the edges and leaves another thin layer of minerals as it cools. The pools are ankle- to knee-deep, and standing in one while looking over the plains of Denizli is a moment that stays with you.

Hierapolis Ancient City: pilgrims came for the healing waters and also for the Plutonium, a cave near the main temple complex that gave off poisonous carbon dioxide. Priests used it in rituals, claiming that animals died there while they themselves survived thanks to divine protection. The site near the Temple of Apollo has been excavated in recent years, and the gas still leaks out today.

Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool: part of the wider Hierapolis archaeological site above Pamukkale. You can enter the pool area for free; swimming is optional and paid on site. Warm mineral water and sunken Roman columns make it a memorable extra if you fancy a swim.

• 16:00 – The Pamukkale tour ends and we take you to the bus station.
• 17:15 – Bus journey to Antalya.
• 20:00 – Our team meets you at Antalya Bus Station and drives you to your hotel.

Meals: breakfast. Overnight: Antalya.

The day is free for you to explore on your own.

Some ideas: the old town of Kaleici and its harbour, Konyaalti or Lara beach, or the Duden waterfalls.

Meals: breakfast. Overnight: Istanbul. Transfers are included.

We drive you to the airport in Antalya (pick-up time and airport can change) for your flight to Istanbul (flight time can change). You land at one of the Istanbul airports; the arrival airport and time depend on availability.

Our team meets you after landing and takes you to your hotel in Istanbul.

Meals: breakfast.

After breakfast you check out of the hotel, and the tour comes to an end. Thank you for travelling with us.