Istanbul and Gallipoli: the old city, the Bosphorus and Troy

Arrive in Istanbul

Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW) to your hotel in the old city

• Dinner
• Stay in Istanbul
• Drive about 1 h

Afternoon

The drive from IST takes about an hour, and longer from SAW on the Asian side, so aim to land by mid-afternoon.

Evening

In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group in the hotel for a short briefing on the five days: what to wear for the mosques, how the Gallipoli day runs and where the free time falls. Then we walk downhill through the old streets to the Eminönü waterfront as the light goes, with the ferries loading for Asia and the hills of Beyoğlu across the Golden Horn. Dinner is together at a local restaurant nearby, a first round of mezze and grills, and the walk back to the hotel is short.

Included

• Pick-up at Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Evening walk to the Eminönü waterfront
• Welcome dinner

Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar

A walking day in the old city

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Istanbul

Afternoon

Before the queues build we cross the square to the Blue Mosque, built between 1609 and 1616 and lined with Iznik tiles, timed to leave before midday prayer. Your guide then walks you along the Hippodrome, where Constantinople raced its chariots, past the Egyptian obelisk and the bronze Serpent Column, and down into the Basilica Cistern, a 6th-century reservoir on 336 columns. Lunch is a sit-down meal nearby. In the early afternoon your guide takes you into the Grand Bazaar, shows you how its streets are laid out and how to bargain, then leaves you to browse. The late afternoon is free.

Included

• Hagia Sophia (gallery visit and ticket) at the visitor entrance's opening
• The Blue Mosque
• The Hippodrome with the Egyptian obelisk and the Serpent Column
• The Basilica Cistern
• Sit-down lunch in Sultanahmet
• The Grand Bazaar with your guide

Optional experiences

• Topkapi Palace and its Harem in the free late afternoon (ticket at your own cost; your guide tells you the current price and closing time)

Balat, the Bosphorus and a Kadıköy food walk

Balat to the Bosphorus by boat, Eminönü, then the ferry to Kadıköy

• Breakfast and dinner
• Stay in Istanbul
• By boat

Afternoon

We step off by the Spice Bazaar, and lunch is your own choice from the stalls and lokantas around it. The afternoon is free to rest or go back to a sight you want more time with. At about five we meet at the pier and take the public ferry across to Kadıköy on the Asian shore, twenty minutes with the old city skyline behind us. A local host leads a food walk through the market streets: pickles, cheese, meze, a kebab and a sweet at the end.

Evening

The walk is dinner, and we come back by ferry.

Included

• Balat and Fener walk with your guide, including the Church of St George and the Bulgarian St Stephen's Church
• Boat for our group on the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, about 2 hours
• The Spice Bazaar
• Public ferry from Eminönü to Kadıköy and back
• Evening food walk in Kadıköy with a local host

The Gallipoli battlefields

Istanbul to the Gallipoli Peninsula, then the ferry from Eceabat to Çanakkale

• Breakfast and lunch
• Stay in Çanakkale
• Drive about 4 h

Afternoon

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Eceabat. In 1915 Allied troops landed here to force the Dardanelles and were held by the Ottoman army until they withdrew in January 1916, at a cost of more than 100,000 dead on both sides. We start at the Kabatepe promotion centre (the Çanakkale Epic Promotion Centre) to see how the campaign unfolded, then go to Anzac Cove and the Ari Burnu cemetery, the Lone Pine memorial, the trenches at Johnston's Jolly, where the lines were a few metres apart, the 57th Regiment cemetery and Chunuk Bair with the New Zealand memorial. Where time allows we look north to Suvla Bay, where the Newfoundland Regiment served. If the day runs late, we shorten the promotion centre visit first, then the Chunuk Bair walk, so the ferry is never missed. Your guide can help you search the registers for a family name.

Evening

In the late afternoon the public ferry takes us across the Dardanelles to Çanakkale, and the evening is free on the waterfront.

Included

• Drive from Istanbul to the Gallipoli Peninsula with your guide
• Sit-down lunch in Eceabat
• Kabatepe promotion centre (Çanakkale Epic Promotion Centre)
• Anzac Cove and the Ari Burnu cemetery
• Lone Pine, Johnston's Jolly trenches, the 57th Regiment cemetery and Chunuk Bair
• Public ferry from Eceabat to Çanakkale across the Dardanelles

Troy and back to Istanbul

Çanakkale to Troy, then back to Istanbul over the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge

• Breakfast and lunch
• Drive about 4.5 h

Afternoon

After an early sit-down lunch we drive back to Istanbul, about 350 km and four and a half hours over the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge across the Dardanelles (the toll is included) and along the Sea of Marmara. It is the one day over our four-hour driving limit, because Troy has to be seen in the morning, so we break it with lunch and a coffee stop. We reach Istanbul Airport at about 5 pm or your city hotel at about 5:30.

Included

• Troy with your guide, at opening
• The Troy Museum
• Sit-down lunch on the way
• Drop-off at Istanbul Airport (IST) or a central Istanbul hotel