6-Day Western Turkey Tour: Gallipoli, Troy, Ephesus & Pamukkale

Meals: lunch. Transfers included.

Between 06:00 and 07:00 am – You leave Istanbul in the morning for the Gallipoli Peninsula. Please note: pickup works only from centrally located hotels in Sultanahmet, Sirkeci, Beyoglu, Taksim or Fatih.

Expect a road journey of roughly 5 hours. There is one breakfast stop en route, which you pay for yourself.

Around 12:00 – Arrival in Canakkale and lunch at a local restaurant, followed by the transfer to the touring area.

• Gallipoli Battlefield Areas – few battles in Australia's military past earned as many Victoria Crosses as Gallipoli did, and Lone Pine accounts for seven on its own. Your guide takes you to ANZAC Cove, Lone Pine, the Nek and Chunuk Bair, covering personal acts of bravery as well as the larger strategic mistakes. Each stop comes with real stories rather than a list of dates.

17:00 – The day's touring ends and you check in at your Canakkale hotel for the night.

Meals: breakfast. Transfers included.

08:15 – Pickup at your hotel in Canakkale and drive to Troy.

• Troy Ancient City – in 334 BC Alexander the Great stopped here, left offerings at the grave of Achilles and presented himself as the successor of Homer's heroes. With that scene in mind, the Bronze Age walls and altars take on new meaning. Your guide points out where Alexander went and why the site held such value for Greeks, Macedonians and, later, the Romans who ruled here.
• Trojan Horse Replica – a wooden horse that ties the excavated remains to the tale of the Trojan War. Almost everyone takes a photo here, and it is a good introduction before you walk through the many levels of the old city.

12:30 – Once the tour is over, an intercity transfer carries you south toward Kusadasi (bus times can vary).

Around 17:00 – Our team greets you at Izmir Bus Station and takes you to the hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk. Night in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meals: breakfast. Free time.

The day is yours in Kusadasi/Selcuk. Relax, walk around town or leave the day entirely open before the next guided days start.

Suggestions: Ladies Beach, the marina and the bazaar in the old town, or a short ride out to Sirince village.

Night in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers included.

09:00 – You set off from Kusadasi toward Ephesus.

• Ephesus Ancient City – aqueducts once fed grand fountains placed at the main junctions, and people gathered around them. Several still show finely carved basins and friezes that remain readable centuries later. Seen beside the famous buildings, these smaller monuments reveal how sophisticated everyday life was in this Roman city.
• House of Virgin Mary – western Turkey has few places that stir so many feelings at once. Here there is a sacred spring, a wall where visitors leave handwritten wishes and prayers, a candle glowing in a tiny chapel and a wide outlook over the valley below. Each speaks in its own way, and taken together they form one of the country's fullest spiritual visits.
• Temple of Artemis – when Antipater of Sidon drew up the first list of the Seven Wonders, he wrote that this temple outshone all the rest. His list also held the Giza pyramids and Babylon's Hanging Gardens, so the compliment was enormous. We cannot know exactly what moved him, but the disappearance of the Artemision is counted among antiquity's saddest losses in architecture.

Around 16:00 – Once the tour wraps up, you are driven back to Kusadasi/Selcuk for the night.

Meals: breakfast and lunch.

07:30 – You leave Kusadasi for a full day at Pamukkale.

• Pamukkale – on the drive into Denizli you catch sight of the white slope earlier than you might think. Closer in, warm mineral water slides across bright travertine and gathers in turquoise pools. UNESCO protects the natural terraces and the ruins of Hierapolis at the top together as one World Heritage Site.
• White Calcium Terraces – as photographers know, the look of the terraces shifts with the seasons. Winter rains fill the pools and keep the stone gleaming white; in summer the water is diverted and some sections dry out. For full pools, smaller crowds and light that makes the mineral crust shine, spring and autumn are usually best.
• Hierapolis Ancient City – the cracks and collapses across the site are not signs of neglect; they are history. Big earthquakes struck in 17 AD and once more in 60 AD, bringing parts of the city down, and what you see today records that damage as well as the Roman reconstruction afterwards. Toppled colonnades and leaning foundations tell the story of land lying on active faults.
• Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool – nowhere else in Turkey can you swim over Roman remains still resting where they fell on the bottom of a pool. The 36-degree water rises from the springs that also formed the terraces below. You pay for entry separately at the pool, as the tour does not cover it, so carry some cash if you want this optional swim.

Around 15:30 – After the visit you head back to your Kusadasi/Selcuk hotel for the night.

Meals: breakfast and lunch. Transfers included.

08:30 – Breakfast and check-out, then departure for the PMD route of Priene, Miletos and Didyma.

• Priene – a model of Hellenistic planning, this small city was laid out in a strict grid by surveyors working for Alexander. It keeps the Temple of Athena and a compact theatre with its stone seating still in place. With far fewer visitors than Ephesus, it feels quiet and personal.
• Miletos – one of the great centres of thought in the ancient Greek world, the birthplace of philosophy and home of Thales and Anaximander. Its huge surviving theatre shows the ambition of the city, even though most of the town is now buried under the plain.
• Didyma – its Temple of Apollo ranked among the biggest temples the Greeks ever raised and was an oracle sanctuary for centuries. With rows of surviving columns and an unfinished cella of huge size, it is among the most evocative ruins on the Aegean coast.

• 17:00 – After the PMD tour, transfer to the airport.
• 19:10 – Your flight leaves Izmir for Istanbul (the time can change).
• 20:30 – Landing in Istanbul (the arrival airport and time depend on availability).

From the airport exit you are driven to your hotel in Istanbul, and the tour ends there.