6-Day Istanbul, Ephesus & Pamukkale Tour with Domestic Flights

Transfers included. Free time.

When you arrive at Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gokcen Airport, our team greets you at the exit gate; the arrival airport and time depend on availability. A transfer takes you to your hotel in central Istanbul, and the rest of the day is yours.

Ideas for your free time: a ferry trip on the Bosphorus, shopping at the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar, or a stroll around Galata and Karakoy.

Night in Istanbul.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers included.

At 08:30 we pick you up from your hotel and drive to Sultanahmet.

• Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque: the day starts here. For a thousand years it was the leading church of the Christian world, until Mehmed II made it a mosque in 1453. Almost every surface tells more than one story: Byzantine gold mosaics partly visible under Ottoman calligraphy panels, and Roman column capitals taken from temples around the empire and reused in the nave.
• Blue Mosque: right across the square, built between 1609 and 1616 as Sultan Ahmed I's attempt to match the Byzantine masterpiece opposite. Its 20,000 Iznik tiles and the light from 260 windows give it a calm, almost sea-like mood next to the drama of Hagia Sophia.
• Hippodrome Square: the site of the greatest chariot-racing arena of the ancient world, with three original monuments still on its central spine. The Egyptian Obelisk of Theodosius, brought from Karnak in 390 AD, stands in near-perfect condition on its original base, carved with reliefs of the emperor watching the races.
• Grand Bazaar: more a maze-like trading district than a single market, it grew naturally out of Ottoman commercial tradition over 500 years. Leave the main alleys for the quieter side lanes and you find specialist shops for copperwork, calligraphy supplies and antique tiles, a long way from the souvenir stalls.
• Topkapi Palace: for nearly 400 years the seat of government and the home of the Ottoman sultans, their court and the state treasuries, laid out in linked courtyards above the Bosphorus. The Imperial Treasury, the relics of the Sacred Trust and the harem rooms each tell their own detailed story of Ottoman power.

After the guided tour, at 17:00, you are driven back to your hotel. Night in Istanbul.

Meals: breakfast. Transfers included. Free morning.

After breakfast the morning is free. At 13:30 we pick you up from your hotel and take you to the pier.

• Dolmabahce Palace: built in the 1840s as a clear break from the fortress-style Topkapi, a European Baroque palace on the waterfront that announced the reforming plans of the late Ottoman court. From the boat its 600-metre facade shows a scale you cannot grasp from inside.
• Ciragan Palace: built for Sultan Murad V and now one of the best-known luxury hotels in Istanbul, with its Ottoman facade still intact on the shore. From the water it reflects the late empire's taste for grand European architecture, set in a landscape that is clearly Asian in character.
• Beylerbeyi Palace: on the Asian shore, this was the sultans' summer residence and later a gilded prison for Murad V. Passing it reminds you that Istanbul really spans two continents, with palaces lining both sides of the water.
• Maiden's Tower: it stands on a small island off the Asian shore, where the Bosphorus meets the Sea of Marmara. For more than two thousand years the spot has held watchtowers, lighthouses and quarantine stations, and its small outline is one of the best-known images of the city, in some ways more familiar than its minarets.
• Bosphorus Bridges: the 15 July Martyrs Bridge and the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge physically join Europe and Asia and make the two-continent idea real. Sailing under their spans is one of the highlights of the whole trip.

After the cruise, at 16:00, you are driven back to your hotel. Night in Istanbul.

Meals: lunch. Transfers included. Free evening.

Hotel pick-up is at 05:00 for the drive to the airport (the pick-up time and airport may change). The flight from Istanbul to Izmir leaves at 07:30, and flight times can change. You land in Izmir at 08:30 and transfer to the touring area; the arrival airport and time depend on availability.

• Ephesus Ancient City: at the northern end, the State Agora and the Odeon formed the political centre of the city. The Odeon seated about 1,500 people for council meetings and music, while the Agora handled administration and trade. They get less attention than the Library of Celsus, yet much of the real governing happened here, and starting here before the crowds arrive makes a strong first impression.
• House of Virgin Mary: many visitors leave with a sense of calm that stays with them for the rest of the day. It may come from the mountain setting, the forest air, the sacred links or simply the slower pace after the busy ruins. That is why most Ephesus itineraries include it: it rounds off the day like nothing else.
• Temple of Artemis: destroyed and rebuilt three times before its final destruction in 401 AD, the temple lasted for centuries and was famous across the ancient world. Writers named it one of the Seven Wonders for its size and decoration: 127 columns, each 18 metres tall, around a sanctuary to the goddess of the hunt. One column still marks the site today.

After the tour, at 16:00, you transfer to your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk. Night in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers included.

At 07:30 you check out and we drive you from your hotel to Pamukkale.

• Pamukkale: before turning to the ruins, take a moment for the hillside itself. The white travertine of Denizli province is one of the most striking natural sights in Turkey, formed over millennia by thermal springs carrying dissolved minerals. Each layer of rock stands for centuries of slow, patient geology.
• White Calcium Terraces: the terraces change through the day. Early light makes the travertine pale gold, the midday sun turns it almost pure white, and late afternoon adds warm shadows that bring out the texture of every layer. At golden hour the pools mirror the sky and the hillside turns blue and white.
• Hierapolis Ancient City: unlike most ancient cities, Hierapolis did not slowly fade; it was largely abandoned after a series of severe earthquakes. Those quakes left toppled columns and leaning walls that photographers love, and the dry hilltop climate kept much of what fell. The Greco-Roman ruins spread over a huge area above the terraces, and an on-site museum holds the best finds from the excavations.
• Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool: Roman columns brought down by an ancient earthquake still lie on the pool floor where they fell. Mineral water at 36 degrees Celsius fills it all year round, flowing around column drums and marble pieces, as it has since antiquity. A swim among real Roman ruins is not part of the tour price and is paid on site.

At 16:00 you transfer to Denizli Airport. The flight to Istanbul leaves at 19:45 (flight times can change) and lands at 21:00, followed by a transfer to your hotel; the arrival airport and time depend on availability. Night in Istanbul.

Meals: breakfast. Transfers included. Free time.

You have free time until your final transfer, which takes you to Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gokcen Airport to match your international flight (the pick-up time and airport may change). Your 6-day tour of Istanbul, Ephesus and Pamukkale ends with this airport drop-off.