Turkey Private Tour, 10 Days: Istanbul to Ephesus, Domestic Flights

Our representative waits for you at Istanbul Airport holding a sign with your name and drives you to your hotel in a private van.

Once you have checked in, the day is yours to discover Istanbul independently. Overnight in Istanbul.

Your guide collects you from the hotel lobby or the cruise port to start the Old City tour:

• Topkapi Palace Museum (highlights): for almost 400 years this was not only the sultans' home but also the seat of the Ottoman government. It remains a landmark of Oriental architecture.
• Hippodrome / Sultanahmet Square: in Roman times chariots raced here. The square holds the Egyptian Obelisk, set up in the Byzantine era, and today also the German Fountain.
• Hagia Sophia: Emperor Justinian built it in the 6th century, and it matters to both the Christian and the Islamic world. When the Ottomans took the city and turned the church into a mosque, they removed its bells, altar and sacred vessels and covered many of its mosaics.
• Blue Mosque: built for Sultan Ahmed I in the early 1600s. It is a masterpiece whose proportions seem surprisingly light for such a large building.
• Grand Bazaar: among the oldest and largest covered markets anywhere, with over 4,000 shops. Look for ceramics, leather, rugs and carpets, handicrafts, clothing, and silver and gold.

When the tour ends, your guide walks you back to the hotel.

Your guide collects you from the hotel lobby or the cruise port for the Bosphorus tour:

• Spice Market
• Bosphorus Cruise: a public ferry carries you between the European and Asian sides. On the way you pass Galata Tower and Dolmabahce Palace, then Beylerbeyi Palace and Rumeli Fortress, along with Ottoman-era mansions, the Bosphorus Bridge and mosques right on the shore.
• Dolmabahce Palace
• Taksim Square
• Cicek Passage
• Istiklal Street

*If you would like the cruise on a private yacht instead, just let us know.

Your guide walks you back to the hotel at the end of the day.

For the Golden Horn tour, your guide picks you up at the hotel lobby or the cruise port. Stops today:

• The Suleymaniye Mosque
• The Fener district
• Balat
• Church of St. Stephen
• Pierre Loti Hill, reached by cable car, where you have Turkish coffee or tea with a view of the Golden Horn
• Chora Church, now the Kariye Mosque

When the tour finishes, you are transferred to Istanbul Airport for your flight to Nevsehir, the airport serving Cappadocia. On landing, our representative meets you holding a sign with your name and takes you by private van to your hotel in Cappadocia. Overnight in Cappadocia.

(Optional) If you choose, a dawn pick-up takes you to a hot air balloon that floats over Cappadocia's valleys for one hour. When the balloon lands, you celebrate in the valley and receive a flight certificate at a short ceremony. Afterwards you are driven back to the hotel for breakfast.

At 10:00 am you join your private guide and driver for the North Cappadocia tour. It covers:

• Uchisar Castle
• Goreme Open Air Museum
• Avanos
• Valley of Monks (Pasabag)
• Devrent Valley

At the end of the day your guide and driver bring you back to the hotel. Overnight in Cappadocia.

The South Cappadocia tour starts at 10:00 am, when you meet your private guide and driver at the hotel. Your guide explains each of these stops:

• Kaymakli Underground City
• Rose Valley
• Love Valley
• Pigeon Valley
• Ortahisar Castle
• Mustafapasa (Sinasos)

Afterwards your guide and driver return you to the hotel. Overnight in Cappadocia.

Your private guide and driver collect you at 9:00 am for the road journey from Cappadocia to Pamukkale, with a stop in Konya, a city known for its spiritual heritage. On the way you visit the Sultanhan Caravanserai, among the biggest and most important caravanserais of Central Anatolia.

Reaching Konya takes around 4 hours by road, and your guide talks you through the sights along the route.

Konya stops:

• Mevlana Museum
• Karatay Madrasa
• Ince Minaret Madrasa

You have lunch in Konya, then continue to Pamukkale, where you are taken to your hotel. Overnight in Pamukkale.

Your private guide and driver pick you up at 9:00 am for the trip to Pamukkale, a place where thermal springs have created natural calcium pools.

Today's sights:

• The calcium pools
• The Necropolis
• The Roman Baths
• The Domitian Gate
• The Latrina
• The Frontinus Street
• The Agora
• The Byzantium Gate
• The Triton Fountain
• The Cathedral
• The Temple of Apollo
• Plutonium (explained from the outside, since digging is still going on)
• The Theater
• Hierapolis

(Optional, extra cost) If time allows, you can swim in the Cleopatra Pool.

Later you continue by road to Kusadasi, which is near Ephesus, and check into your hotel. You stay the night in Kusadasi.

Pick-up is at your hotel in Kusadasi. Your guide first introduces the history of Ephesus, and then you explore the ruins, with an explanation at every stop:

• the Great Theater
• the Celsus Library
• the Temple of Hadrian
• then Harbor Street
• the Terrace Houses
• the House of the Virgin Mary
• the Isa Bey Mosque

Next you are taken to Izmir Airport to fly to Istanbul, where our representative holds up a name sign and drives you to the hotel. Night in Istanbul.

The day is free to see more of Istanbul as you like. At the right time you are taken to Istanbul Airport for your international flight.

Our services end here. Thank you for travelling with Get Turkey Tours; we hope to welcome you on another trip.