Gallipoli, Troy, Ephesus & Pamukkale Bus Tour from Istanbul, 5 Days

Meals: Lunch · Base: Canakkale · Transfers included

06:30 – Pick-up at your Istanbul hotel and drive to Gallipoli, stopping for breakfast on the way (the pick-up time depends on where your hotel is). The drive takes about 5 hours.

12:30 – Lunch in Eceabat ahead of the tour.

• Beach Cemetery: One of the most personal places on the battlefield. It looks onto the shore where the campaign turned real for thousands of young soldiers, and its quiet setting makes the loss feel human rather than abstract.
• ANZAC Cove: The narrow landing beach that sits at the centre of Australian and New Zealand memory of Gallipoli. Standing on it shows why the terrain shaped the fighting from the very first hours.
• Ari Burnu: The northern end of the landing zone, where cliffs, ridges and sea meet in a tight space. It makes clear how little level ground the men had once ashore.
• Lone Pine: A deeply symbolic site, remembered for fierce close-quarter combat; its cemetery keeps the memory of those days. The name holds both military and emotional weight.
• Johnston's Jolly: Opposing trench lines survive here so close together that the harsh geography of trench warfare is obvious. Few places show better how fixed and cramped the front line became.
• Shrapnel Valley: A risky path inland from the beaches, open to fire from the heights all around. The name alone tells you what the soldiers faced moving through these gullies.
• Walker's Ridge: A broader view over the ANZAC sector that links the landing beaches to the high ground above, turning the battlefield map into real landscape.
• Chunuk Bair: One of the campaign's key summits, which for a short time became a point of desperate strategic hope. Its memorials carry a strong sense of sacrifice and of what was at stake.
• Turkish Memorial: It honours the Ottoman soldiers who defended the peninsula and completes the story, presenting Gallipoli as a place of shared memory for both sides.

17:00 – Transfer to your hotel in Canakkale.

Night in Canakkale.

Meals: Breakfast · Transfers included

08:30 – Pick-up after breakfast for a visit to Troy Ancient City.

• Replica Trojan Horse: Standing at the entrance, the replica links Homer's legend with the archaeology and sets you up for a site where myth and excavation keep crossing paths.
• City Walls of Troy VI: These walls are among the best candidates for the era tied to Homer's city. Their size helps explain why Troy was pictured as rich and well defended.
• Temple of Athena: It dates from Troy's later Greek and Roman phase, when the city had become a place of memory and prestige, and shows that Troy mattered long after the Bronze Age.
• Schliemann's Trench: A striking reminder of early archaeology, when the hunt for Homer destroyed as much as it uncovered. It is key to understanding the history of excavation itself.
• Odeon: It belongs to Roman Troy, when shows, meetings and public culture filled the ancient mound.
• Sanctuary: The sacred areas prove that Troy was more than a fortress; across many periods it was also a place of ritual and shared identity.
• Troy II Ramp: One of the most significant early structures on the mound, showing how the city controlled access to its fortified centre.
• Megaron Houses: They point to domestic and elite buildings from Troy's earliest layers and help you picture the settlement beyond its walls and legends.
• Excavation Areas: The open trenches reveal how complex this multi-layered site is: every layer is a separate city, built on the ruins of the one before.

11:30 – The tour ends and you are driven to Canakkale Bus Station for the bus to Izmir.

13:30 – Intercity bus towards the Izmir area.

18:00 – Our team meets you and takes you to your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Night in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meals: Breakfast & Lunch · Transfers included

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

• Library of Celsus: The best-known facade in Ephesus, built to be both a library and a grand tomb. Its restored columns and statues reflect how much the city loved public display.
• Great Theater: With room for about 25,000 people, it hosted performances, civic meetings and public announcements. Its size makes Ephesus feel like a real metropolis.
• Marble Road: It connects the main public spaces and still feels like a formal Roman processional way. Walking it gives you a physical sense of how people moved through the city.
• Curetes Street: One of the city's main ceremonial streets, lined with fountains, monuments and the houses of the elite, where daily life and public show came together.
• Temple of Hadrian: Small but richly carved, famous for its graceful arch and mythological reliefs. It proves that even modest monuments carried imperial meaning.
• Trajan Fountain: Through water, sculpture and architecture it once celebrated imperial power. What remains shows how fountains shaped the beauty of the city.
• Terrace Houses (optional entry): Mosaics, frescoes, heating systems and multi-storey homes reveal how wealthy Ephesians lived in private. Entry is optional and paid separately.
• Temple of Artemis: One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Only fragments survive, but the stop completes the sacred map of Ephesus.
• House of Virgin Mary: A peaceful pilgrimage site above Ephesus. Its quiet chapel and shaded courtyard feel far removed from the scale of the Roman city.

16:00 – Return to your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Night in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meals: Breakfast & Lunch · Transfers included

07:30 – Departure from your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk to Pamukkale.

• Pamukkale Travertines: White terraces built by mineral-rich spring water running down the slope, a natural monument that looks almost man-made.
• Hierapolis: A Roman spa city above the hot springs. Its theatre, streets, baths and sacred areas show how health, faith and city life overlapped.
• Necropolis: Among the largest ancient cemeteries in Anatolia, with sarcophagi, house tombs and monumental graves lining the old roads.
• Temple of Apollo: Tied to the sacred identity of Hierapolis, it stood close to powerful natural springs and served as the city's ritual heart.
• Plutonium: Linked with the underworld because natural gases rose out of the ground, it is one of the strangest sacred places on the site.
• Byzantine Gate: It marks a later stage, when Hierapolis was reshaped to meet Christian and defensive needs.
• Bath Complex: The baths reflect the thermal culture that made Hierapolis famous, bringing Roman bathing, healing and social life together under one roof.
• Cleopatra Pool area: Warm spring water surrounded by fallen Roman columns. A swim is optional and paid on site.

16:00 – Transfer to Denizli Bus Station.

19:15 – Overnight intercity bus to Istanbul, roughly 10 hours, with reclining seats and rest stops (the bus time can change).

Transfers included

07:00 – The bus pulls into Istanbul Bus Station (the arrival time can change).

Your tour finishes at the main bus station in Istanbul. If you would like a transfer to your hotel, you can request one at extra cost.