Grand Turkey Tour Package: 19 Days with Blue Cruise & 2 Flights

Transfers included.

Our airport team meets you when you land in Istanbul and drives you to your hotel. The rest of the day is yours, so you can settle in before the long route starts.

Ideas for your free time: take a ferry across the Bosphorus, browse the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar, or wander through Galata and Karakoy.

Night in Istanbul.

Meals: breakfast. Hotel pick-up included.

08:30 – Your guide collects you from the hotel for the old city program.

• Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque): With six minarets and layer upon layer of domes, this 17th-century Ottoman landmark gives Istanbul one of the most photographed skylines on earth and sets the tone for the rest of the tour.
• Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque: Built as a Byzantine cathedral, it became an imperial Ottoman mosque, then a museum, and is a mosque again today. No other building holds so much of the city's layered past, and first-time visitors are still struck by the size of the interior.
• Hippodrome of Constantinople: Up to 100,000 spectators once watched chariot races here. The Egyptian, Greek and Roman obelisks that survive show how many civilisations shaped the city before the Ottomans came.
• Grand Bazaar: Free time in one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world, where more than 4,000 shops line 60 covered streets selling spices, ceramics, textiles and jewellery.

13:00 – The tour finishes at the Grand Bazaar and the rest of the day is free. Please note that there is no hotel drop-off after this tour.

Night in Istanbul.

Meals: breakfast. Transfer to the pier included.

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

Today you trade monument interiors for the water. From the deck the city opens up: palace facades, the outlines of the bridges, hillside districts and waterfront mansions pass in one long panorama before the overland part of the trip begins.

12:30 – The cruise ends at the pier and the rest of the day is yours. Depending on availability, this tour can also run in the afternoon.

Night in Istanbul.

Meals: breakfast.

There is no program today. Explore neighbourhoods, visit museums, go shopping or simply rest before the western Turkey section starts.

Night in Istanbul.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers included.

Between 06:00 and 07:00 – An early bus leaves Istanbul for the Gallipoli Peninsula. The drive takes about 5 hours, with a rest stop along the way.

Gallipoli Battlefield Areas: Between April and December 1915, more than 100,000 soldiers lost their lives here, and the cemeteries spread over the peninsula turn that figure into individual stories. Your guided visit includes Beach Cemetery, Lone Pine, Chunuk Bair and the front-line trenches, where the two sides were at times only metres apart. At every stop, your guide links the graves and inscriptions to the wider tactics of the campaign.

17:30 – A ferry takes you across the Dardanelles to Canakkale, and you continue to your hotel in Canakkale centre or Eceabat.

Night in Canakkale.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers included.

08:30 – Morning pick-up and drive to Troy Ancient City for a guided visit.

Troy Ancient City: Added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1998, Troy is valued as one of the most continuous, many-layered ancient settlements anywhere. With your guide you see the Bronze Age defensive walls, house foundations from several layers, the Roman-era agora, Hellenistic sacrificial altars and the wooden Trojan Horse replica by the entrance. Signs on site connect Troy I to Troy IX, so the compact ruins tell a story of four thousand years rather than one legendary city.

11:30 – The tour ends with a transfer to Canakkale Bus Station.

Around 13:00 – Your intercity bus leaves for Kusadasi/Selcuk or Izmir. The ride lasts about 7 hours, with short breaks.

Around 20:00 – At the bus station our driver waits with a name sign and takes you to your hotel.

Night in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers included.

08:30 – Pick-up at your Kusadasi/Selcuk hotel for the Ephesus day tour.

• Ephesus Ancient City: Among Europe's most visited ancient sites, Ephesus draws people from every continent to its famous Library of Celsus and Roman streets. Even on busy days it feels spacious, because the city spreads over a wide area and a guided walk moves you through several sections. An early arrival brings softer light and quieter streets.
• House of Virgin Mary: You reach the house on foot along a forest path, which gives you time to slow down before entering the chapel. Wind in the pines and the growing silence on the climb change the mood, so most visitors arrive inside already in a reflective state, perhaps just what the setting intends.
• Temple of Artemis: Coming here from Ephesus means leaving marble streets and public buildings for an open field where you have to picture what once stood. The contrast teaches something: many stones you saw in Ephesus were quarried or cut from this site after the temple was finally destroyed, so the city and the wonder before it share the same material.

16:30 – Drive back to your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Night in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers included.

07:30 – Early bus departure from Kusadasi/Selcuk to Pamukkale.

• Pamukkale: The name means 'Cotton Castle', given by people who saw this white hillside long before cameras existed. Calcium-rich hot springs have built the travertine terraces since ancient times, and today the site, in the inland province of Denizli, is one of Turkey's best-known UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
• White Calcium Terraces: Shoes come off at the entrance, and the first thing you notice is warmth under your feet. The mineral water running over the white surface is truly warm, and each broad ledge holds a shallow turquoise pool fed by water that has flowed here for over two thousand years.
• Hierapolis Ancient City: Its colonnaded streets are the most striking sight above Pamukkale, with marble columns lining the main avenues in both directions. In Roman times they held up covered walkways that shaded merchants and walkers. Earthquakes have tilted most of them, yet enough still stand to show how wide and grand the main roads were.
• Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool: People come for the water, which stays warm and mineral-rich at 36 degrees Celsius all year, fed by the springs under Pamukkale. Marble column drums from Roman buildings brought down by ancient earthquakes lie on the bottom. Swimming is not part of the tour price: the entry fee is paid directly at the pool, so bring payment if you want to swim.

16:00 – Transfer to your Pamukkale hotel.

Night in Pamukkale.

Meals: breakfast. Transfers included.

After breakfast you check out and take an intercity bus to Fethiye. This travel day moves you from inland archaeology to the sea and sets you up for the cruise.

The bus time depends on availability and your travel date, and we confirm it when you book.

Night in Fethiye.

Meals: lunch and dinner. Transfers included.

A transfer brings you to the harbour, where you board your Blue Cruise. The first day at sea centres on swimming, open views and a slower pace, a real change after the cultural touring days.

• Samanlik Bay: A calm swim stop near Fethiye and a gentle way to settle into life on board.
• Butterfly Valley: A steep coastal valley reached from the sea, known for its high cliffs and seasonal butterflies.
• St. Nicholas Island: The sunset anchorage, with Byzantine ruins spread across the slope above the water.

Night in your private cabin on board.

Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Sailing east, the boat stops for swims and for time in Kas, so the day combines clear water with a look at one of the best-liked small towns on the Mediterranean coast.

• Aquarium Bay: Sheltered and clear, this is one of the easiest places to swim on the whole cruise.
• Kas harbor stop: Time on shore in a lively town of whitewashed lanes, cafes and small shops.
• Kekova coast: Here the route reaches the archaeological shoreline, where Lycian and Roman remains meet the sea.

Night in your private cabin on board.

Meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner.

This is one of the most atmospheric days on board. Around Kekova, archaeology, calm water and small harbours come together, so the scenery feels historic as well as beautiful.

• Sunken City: A protected Lycian-Roman shore where you look down from the boat at walls and stairways under the water.
• Simena: A tiny village below a castle that you can reach only by boat or on foot.
• Gokkaya Bay: A sheltered bay for the night, with calm water and the classic feel of a Blue Cruise anchorage.

Night in your private cabin on board.

Meals: breakfast. Transfers included.

The last cruise day covers the Myra and Demre side of the coast, followed by the road transfer to Antalya. There is still sightseeing today, so the final leg is more than a simple boat ride.

• Myra: An ancient Lycian city famous for its rock-cut tombs and large Roman theatre.
• Demre: The coastal town where you leave the cruise route and return to land travel.
• Olympos coast: Last views of the coastline before the drive on.
• Onward transfer to Antalya: Once you are off the boat and the visits are done, you continue by road to your hotel in Antalya.

Night in Antalya.

Meals: breakfast.

A free day in Antalya. Rest after the cruise, stroll through Kaleici or spend time on the coast before the last guided sections.

Night in Antalya.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers included.

07:30 – Pick-up at your Antalya hotel for the classical sites to the south.

• Perge Ancient City: Perge has one of the most complete city plans in Turkey. Its colonnaded main street, nymphaeum, baths and stadium foundations are laid out so clearly that the urban design is far easier to follow than at more fragmentary sites.
• Aspendos Theatre: Considered the best-preserved Roman theatre in the world, it still hosts concerts and opera. The two-storey stage wall stands almost intact, and the seating keeps the full semicircle that Roman engineers perfected in the second century CE.
• Side Ancient City: Set on a small peninsula in the Mediterranean, Side pairs the Temple of Apollo columns at the water's edge with a large Roman theatre and a main colonnaded street. Its lively harbour setting feels quite different from the inland sites earlier in the trip.

17:30 – Return to your Antalya hotel.

Night in Antalya.

Meals: breakfast. Transfers included.

You are collected at your hotel and taken to Antalya Airport (the pick-up time may change) for the domestic flight to Cappadocia (the flight time may change). If no direct flight is available, you may connect through Istanbul.

On arrival at Kayseri or Nevsehir Airport, a transfer takes you to your Cappadocia hotel. The arrival airport and time depend on availability.

Night in Cappadocia.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers included.

Optional early-morning add-ons (can be added at the best available price when you book):

• Hot Air Balloon Flight: rated the number one experience in Cappadocia, with classic sunrise views, and our most booked activity.
• Balloon Watching Tour: a visit to the top Cappadocia viewpoints for sunrise photos, with the best viewpoints guaranteed.

If you want to fly, this is the morning to do it, as the balloons launch before the guided tour starts.

09:30 – Pick-up at your hotel for the North Cappadocia Red Tour.

• Devrent Valley (Pink Valley): On a quiet weekday morning you may have the valley almost to yourself, with only the wind moving between the rock columns. That kind of stillness is rare in Cappadocia, and Devrent offers it more often than most Red Tour stops.
• Pasabag Open Air Museum: Many visitors call Pasabag the high point of the Red Tour. They come expecting scenery and find a place where geology, faith and human skill have met for more than fifteen centuries, a mix that sets it apart from purely scenic stops.
• Avanos Pottery Workshop: A traditional workshop smells of wet clay, and its shelves show pieces at every stage: freshly thrown forms, leather-hard trimmed vessels, bisque-fired pieces awaiting glaze and finished work for sale. Seeing the whole process in one room teaches a lot.
• Goreme Panoramic View: From here you look straight down on Goreme town, its white and ochre houses grouped among fairy chimneys on the valley floor. The view from above shows how the modern town and the old landscape live side by side, something a walk through the streets cannot show.
• Zelve Open Air Museum: No other Red Tour stop shows so clearly what everyday life was like inside the rock formations. Other museum sites in the region tell the religious story; Zelve tells the domestic one, which many visitors find the more human of the two.
• Uchisar Castle (exterior view): In Turkish, Uchisar means 'three fortresses', a reference to the rock's three natural peaks rather than to built battlements. Those three summits made it a natural stronghold, each giving its own view across the surrounding land.

17:00 – Return transfer to your hotel.

Night in Cappadocia.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers included.

09:30 – Pick-up at your hotel for the South Cappadocia Yellow Tour.

• Red Valley: Most people see Red Valley on the Yellow Tour, a one-day loop through the south and east of the region. Because it comes early in the route, you usually see it in good morning light, before the later stops get busy.
• Rose Valley (Gulludere Valley): A grape press carved into the rock along part of the trail shows that local people made wine in this canyon from grapes grown on the valley floor. Winemaking in Cappadocia is documented back to ancient times, and this press is one of its most tangible traces.
• Cavusin Village: A small modern community still lives in stone houses at the foot of the old cliff settlement. With ancient cliff dwellings above and a working village below, Cavusin is one of the most layered stops on the Yellow Tour.
• Pigeon Valley: Wild pistachio trees and thorny shrubs line the lower trail, growing in the thin soil gathered at the base of the cliffs. This sparse green softens the bare canyon and gives cover to the small birds and lizards that share the valley with the pigeons above.
• Underground City: The air stays surprisingly fresh even in the deepest rooms, thanks to ventilation shafts that bring air down from the surface through a planned network of carved openings. Some shafts also carried sounds and signals between floors, linking people posted on different levels.

17:00 – After the tour, transfer to Kayseri or Nevsehir Airport (timed to your flight).

20:45 – Domestic flight from Cappadocia to Istanbul (the flight time may change).

22:20 – Landing in Istanbul and transfer to your hotel (the arrival airport and time depend on availability).

Night in Istanbul.

Meals: breakfast. Transfer included.

Depending on the time of your international flight, we drive you from the hotel to Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gokcen Airport. This is where your 19-day journey through Turkey comes to an end.