Cappadocia, Pamukkale, Ephesus & Antalya Tour from Istanbul – 6 Days

Meals: Lunch · Base: Cappadocia · Transfers included

04:00 – Pick-up at your Istanbul hotel and transfer to the airport.

06:30 – Flight to Cappadocia. The flight time and the airport can change with the season, the airline schedule and operational availability.

08:00 – Landing and transfer to the start of the Red Route.

• Devrent Valley: The valley is famous for strange volcanic rocks that look like animals and figures. It is a fun but genuinely useful first lesson in how erosion carved Cappadocia's volcanic layers.
• Pasabag Open Air Museum: Some of the most dramatic fairy chimneys in the region stand here, among them multi-capped formations linked to early hermits. At Pasabag the local geology feels close enough to touch.
• Avanos Pottery Workshop: Avanos lies on the Red River, and its clay has supplied potters for thousands of years. The workshop links the landscape with a craft people still practise every day.
• Zelve Open Air Museum: This cave village and monastic settlement once spread over several valleys. Its empty homes, churches, tunnels and open paths show how people adapted to soft volcanic rock.
• Goreme Panoramic Point: From here you can take in the whole valley system at once: cave homes, fairy chimneys and layered ridges. Few places make the scale of Cappadocia so clear.
• Uchisar Castle Photo Stop: Uchisar Castle is the highest natural rock fortress in the region. From the photo stop you see how defence, settlement and landscape worked together in the castle and the valleys around it.

17:00 – At the end of the tour we drive you back to your hotel.

Night in Cappadocia.

Meals: Breakfast & Lunch · Base: Cappadocia · Transfers included

Optional early-morning add-ons: a Hot Air Balloon Flight, rated the #1 Cappadocia experience for its sunrise views and our most booked activity, or a Balloon Watching Tour to the best sunrise photo viewpoints, with the best viewpoints guaranteed. You can add either one at the best available price while booking.

09:30 – Hotel pick-up for the southern Cappadocia route.

• Red Valley: Warm-coloured rock walls, hidden cave rooms and sunset shades produced by iron-rich volcanic layers. Because the colours shift throughout the day, it is one of Cappadocia's most atmospheric valleys.
• Gulludere Valley: Also known as Rose Valley, it pairs soft pink rock with cave churches and paths that run between vineyards and old dwellings. It shows a quieter, more detailed side of the region.
• Cavusin Village: An old settlement cut into the rock, where cave houses and churches rise up the cliff. Here you see how local life once merged straight into the stone.
• Underground City: A refuge on several levels, with tunnels, store rooms, air shafts and stone doors for defence. It explains how the people of Cappadocia kept themselves safe in unstable times.
• Pigeon Valley: The rock walls are lined with carved dovecotes, once used to collect fertiliser for the vineyards. From the viewpoint you also look out towards Uchisar and the valley floor around it.

17:00 – At the end of the tour we drive you back to your hotel.

Night in Cappadocia.

Meals: Breakfast · Base: Pamukkale · Free time

After breakfast and check-out, you leave Cappadocia in a private vehicle with a driver only (no guide). The drive to Pamukkale takes around 10 hours including breaks, with free time in Konya for lunch and exploring on your own.

The Konya stop is self-guided. If you would like a guide there, we can arrange one at extra cost. You reach Pamukkale in the evening and spend the night there.

Some free-time ideas: watch the sunset from a viewpoint above Goreme, visit Uchisar castle, or book a Turkish night show (optional).

Night in Pamukkale.

Meals: Breakfast & Lunch · Transfers included

09:30 – The Pamukkale and Hierapolis tour begins.

• Hierapolis: A Roman spa city on top of the hot springs. Its streets, theatre, sacred areas and public buildings explain why this hilltop grew into both a place of healing and a major ancient town.
• Roman Bath and Basilica: This area ties the bathing culture of Hierapolis to its later Christian period. It is one of the spots where the city feels layered, not just ruined.
• Plutonium: Ancient people connected it with the underworld because natural gases rose from the ground beside the sacred area. Its story gives Hierapolis a darker, ritual side.
• Cleopatra Pool area: The old pool is filled with warm spring water and ringed by fallen Roman columns. Visiting the pool area is part of the tour; swimming is optional and paid on site.
• Pamukkale Travertines: Mineral-rich spring water flows down the slope and leaves white calcium behind. The result is a gleaming natural terrace system unlike any of the classical ruins nearby.

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

Night in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meals: Breakfast & Lunch · Base: Antalya · Transfers included

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

• Temple of Artemis: Counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it once turned Ephesus into a leading centre of pilgrimage and trade. Only fragments are left, but the visit sets the wider sacred scene before you walk into the main ruins.
• Ephesus Ancient City: One of the great cities of Roman Asia, with marble streets, public baths, temples, shops, fountains and civic buildings surviving on an impressive scale. With a guide, the ruins stop being scattered stones and become a living city again.
• House of Virgin Mary: It stands peacefully on the slopes above Ephesus and draws Christian pilgrims as well as travellers looking for a calmer, spiritual stop. The small chapel, the candle area and the shady courtyard feel very different from the Roman city below.

17:00 – Transfer to Izmir Airport.

19:30 – Flight to Antalya Airport (the flight time can change; if no direct flight is available, a connecting flight is arranged).

20:40 – Landing at Antalya Airport. Our team meets you at the exit and drives you to your hotel.

Night in Antalya.

Meals: Breakfast & Lunch · Transfers included

09:00 – Start of the tour of Antalya's old city and waterfalls, with a panoramic boat ride.

• Duden Waterfall: Here you see the freshwater side of Antalya, where the river system reaches the coastal plain on its way to the Mediterranean. The sound of the water, the shade and the cliff views are a cool change after the archaeological days.
• Karpuzkaldiran Waterfall: Also called Lower Duden, it plunges from the cliffs straight into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the few places where you see a waterfall, the open sea and the city coast in one view.
• Kaleici Old Town: Antalya's old harbour district packs Ottoman houses, Roman walls, narrow alleys, boutique courtyards and sea views into a small area. It is the city's most characterful place to walk.
• Panoramic Boat Tour: A short trip on the water shows the cliffs, the harbour and the old town from the sea, a calm last view before your flight back to Istanbul.

16:00 – Transfer to Antalya Airport.

18:30 – Flight to Istanbul. The flight time and the airport can change with the season, the airline schedule and operational availability.

20:00 – Landing in Istanbul and transfer to your hotel.

This is where the package ends. We have enjoyed hosting you and hope your trip through Turkey leaves you with good memories.