3-Day Pamukkale & Ephesus Tour from Istanbul, Flexible Flights

Included: flight, transfers, accommodation and hotel pick-up.

At noon our team collects you from your Istanbul hotel and drives you to Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gokcen Airport for your flight. The pick-up time and airport may change.

Your flight to Izmir departs at 15:00 (flight times can change); the flexible departure lets the package fit around your stay in Istanbul. You land at 16:10, meet our team and transfer to your hotel in Selcuk/Kusadasi. The arrival airport and time depend on availability.

In the evening you check in and rest in the Aegean region. The first day is kept light so you are fresh for the two guided days ahead.

Included: breakfast, lunch, transfers and entrance fees.

At 07:30, after breakfast and check-out, we pick you up and drive inland through the countryside to Pamukkale. The pick-up time may vary a little with your hotel location.

Pamukkale route:

• Pamukkale: the springs stay at about 35 degrees Celsius, warm enough for a soak and mild enough to linger.
• White Calcium Terraces: at peak saturation the white pools take on a pale turquoise shade from minerals still active in the warm water.
• Hierapolis Ancient City: beyond the famous terraces, the site has a theatre, a main street, several temples, bath complexes and one of the largest ancient cemeteries in Anatolia.
• The Necropolis: burials here run from about the second century BC to the Byzantine period, a remarkable record of continuous settlement.
• Bath and Basilica: Roman baths were community centres as much as places to wash, and the size of this complex shows how central bathing was to life in Hierapolis.
• Frontinius Gate: it follows the standard plan of a Roman triumphal arch, with a large central opening between two narrower side arches, all framed by engaged columns.
• Frontinius Street: shops and workshops filled the ground floors under the colonnades, with homes and storerooms on the floors above.
• Latrina: unlike the baths, which charged a small fee, Roman public latrines were free, so people from every level of society used them.
• Northern Byzantine Gate: the large dressed blocks in the lower courses are Roman originals; the smaller, rougher stones higher up are Byzantine repairs and additions.
• Fountain of the Tritons: Greek mythological figures on a Roman fountain in what is now western Turkey show how deeply Greek culture ran through the Roman world.
• The Temple of Apollon: placing a major temple right above a toxic volcanic vent was deliberate; the dangerous gas made the spot seem touched by supernatural forces.
• Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool: it lies inside the Hierapolis archaeological park. Seeing it is part of the tour, but swimming is optional and costs a separate fee paid on site.

At 16:00 you drive back to Selcuk/Kusadasi for the night.

Included: breakfast, lunch, flight and transfers.

At 08:30, after breakfast, we pick you up and drive to the Ephesus area for the final guided day. The pick-up time may vary a little with your hotel location.

Ephesus route:

• Ephesus Ancient City: marble columns, carved inscriptions and mosaic floors in a city that still feels remarkably whole.
• Marble Streets: kerbstones and drainage channels set into the paving show how advanced Roman town planning was.
• The Odeon: from its upper rows you look out over the ruins of the lower city.
• The Agora: public announcements, trials and religious festivals all took place in this open square.
• The Temple of Hadrian: small next to the great temples of the city, but extraordinarily detailed in its carving.
• The Monumental Fountains: a fountain in Ephesus was never only practical; it also advertised the donor who paid for it.
• The Library of Celsus: the column capitals on its two-storey facade alternate between Corinthian and Composite styles.
• The Great Amphitheatre: inscriptions on the seat rows reserved sections for particular guilds, religious groups and city officials.
• The Roman Baths: excavators found a statue of Scholastica, a 4th-century Christian woman who paid to renovate the bath complex.
• House of Virgin Mary: a German mystic's 19th-century visions of Mary's home sent scholars searching the hills above Ephesus, and there they found a building.
• Temple of Artemis: Herodotus records that Croesus, king of Lydia, gave gold columns to an early phase of the temple.

At 16:00, after lunch and the last site, you transfer to Izmir Airport. The evening flight to Istanbul leaves at 20:00 (flight times can change), and you land at 21:10. Our team meets you and drives you back to your Istanbul hotel; the arrival airport and time depend on availability.