6-Day Cappadocia, Pamukkale & Ephesus Tour, Flexible Start

Transfers: included. Free time. Overnight: Cappadocia.

12:00 – We take you to the airport from your hotel in Istanbul for the Cappadocia flight. The transfer time can change.

15:00 – Flight to Cappadocia. The flight time can change.

16:30 – You land at Kayseri or Nevsehir Airport, where our team meets you and drives you to your hotel. The landing airport and time may differ.

The rest of the day in Cappadocia is yours.

Ideas for the afternoon: watching sunset from a viewpoint over Goreme, visiting Uchisar castle, or an optional Turkish night show.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers: included. Overnight: Cappadocia.

Optional early-morning add-ons:

• Hot Air Balloon Flight – rated the number one Cappadocia experience, with sunrise views over the valleys; our most booked activity.
• Balloon Watching Tour – sunrise photos from the top viewpoints in Cappadocia, with the best spots guaranteed.

You can add either one when you book, at the best prices available.

09:30 – Hotel pick-up to start the route through northern Cappadocia.

• Devrent Valley – known for dreamlike volcanic rocks shaped like animals and figures, it is an easy, visual first look at the landscape erosion has carved.
• Pasabag Open Air Museum – some of the most striking fairy chimneys in Cappadocia stand here, among them formations with several caps tied to the early hermits of the area.
• Avanos Pottery Workshop – Avanos sits on the banks of the Red River, and local potters have shaped its clay for thousands of years. The visit links the land with a craft that is still practised.
• Zelve Open Air Museum – formerly a monastic settlement and cave village spread over several valleys. Its deserted houses, chapels and tunnels reveal how people shaped the soft volcanic rock to live in.
• Uchisar Panoramic View – one of the finest panoramas in the region, the castle rock towering above valleys, cave houses and volcanic shapes in the distance.

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

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Free time in the evening. Overnight: on the bus.

09:30 – Once you have had breakfast and checked out, the Yellow Route begins.

• Red Valley – warm-toned rock walls, cave rooms tucked out of sight and sunset colours that come from iron-rich volcanic layers.
• Gulludere Valley – also known as Rose Valley, it pairs soft pink rock with cave churches and paths that wind between old homes and vineyards.
• Cavusin Village – an old rock-cut settlement whose cave homes and chapels rise up the cliff, showing how village life once merged with the stone.
• Pigeon Valley – its rock walls are dotted with carved dovecotes, once used to gather fertiliser for the vineyards. The viewpoint also looks far across toward Uchisar.
• Underground City – a refuge on several levels with tunnels, storerooms, air shafts and stone doors for defence, built to keep people safe in troubled times.
• Ortahisar Castle exterior view – this natural rock fortress rises in the middle of the village. Even from outside, it shows clearly how the people of Cappadocia used tall volcanic formations for defence and for living.

17:00 – Time on your own for dinner before departure.

19:00 – Night bus to Pamukkale, taking about 10 hours with planned rest stops. The bus time can change with the date and availability.

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

05:30 - 06:00 – You arrive at Denizli Bus Station and we drive you to a hotel in Pamukkale, where a room is ready for you to freshen up.

10:00 – The Pamukkale and Hierapolis tour begins.

• Pamukkale Travertines – a white hillside created over thousands of years as thermal water left behind calcium carbonate. The terraces are one of the best-known natural landmarks in Turkey.
• Hierapolis Ancient City – a Roman spa town built above the hot springs. Its streets, theatre, baths and sacred areas explain why it grew into both a health resort and a major city.
• Necropolis – the huge cemetery of Hierapolis ranks among the largest ancient burial grounds in Anatolia, with stone sarcophagi, tomb houses and grand graves set beside the ancient roads.
• Bath and Basilica – the ruins of the baths and the basilica trace how the city moved from Roman public life to Christian use in later times, linking its thermal tradition with its urban story.
• Temple of Apollon – it stood close to the holy spring and the ancient Plutonium, a place where gases rising from the earth created an eerie setting for rituals.
• Cleopatra Antique Pool area – warm spring water flows in among fallen Roman columns. A swim is optional and paid for locally.

16:00 – We drive you to your Kusadasi/Selcuk hotel.

Meals: breakfast. Free time. Overnight: Kusadasi/Selcuk.

A day off in Kusadasi/Selcuk to relax on the Aegean coast, look around the area or ask us for an optional activity.

Ideas for the day: Ladies Beach, the bazaar in the old town and the marina, or a quick trip to Sirince village.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers: included.

08:30 – Once you have had breakfast and checked out, the Ephesus tour begins.

• Ephesus Ancient City – a leading city of Roman Asia, where marble streets, temples, baths and public buildings survive on an impressive scale.
• Library of Celsus – the most photographed front in Ephesus, built both as a library and as a grand tomb honouring a Roman governor.
• Agora and Marble Street – together they reveal the commercial and ceremonial side of city life, joining its public squares to the main procession routes.
• Temple of Hadrian – a small, finely decorated monument known for its graceful arch and its reliefs from mythology.
• Great Amphitheatre – the Great Theatre held about 25,000 people and staged shows, civic meetings and public events in Roman times.
• House of Virgin Mary – a peaceful place of pilgrimage on the hills above Ephesus, valued for its spiritual mood and its long Christian tradition.
• Temple of Artemis ruins – the temple was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Only fragments are left today, but the visit completes the story of ancient Ephesus.

16:30 – Drive to Izmir Airport.

19:00 – Flight to Istanbul, the last flight of your 6-day Cappadocia, Pamukkale and Ephesus package. The exact time and airport can change with the season, airline schedules and operations.

20:30 – Landing in Istanbul, then a drive to your hotel, where our services end.