Istanbul, Cappadocia and Ephesus

1. Day 1: Arrive in Istanbul

   Istanbul airport to your hotel in Sultanahmet

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Istanbul
   Day 1 details

   We meet you at Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW) and drive you to your hotel in Sultanahmet, the old city on the peninsula between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara. The ride from IST takes about an hour, so aim to land by mid-afternoon. The group meets in the early evening and your guide walks you into Sultanahmet Park at blue hour, when the lamps come on and the floodlit domes of Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque face each other across the fountain. It is the calmest the square gets, after the day visitors have gone and before tomorrow's queues. We end with a welcome dinner nearby, where you meet the group and hear how the next ten days fit together.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW)
   • Blue-hour walk in Sultanahmet Park with your guide
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Afternoon free before the group meets

   

2. Day 2: Old Istanbul: palace, church and mosque

   On foot in Sultanahmet

   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Istanbul
   Day 2 details

   An early start pays off today. At about 7.30 your guide walks you through the Hippodrome, where the chariot track of Byzantine Constantinople ran, past the Egyptian obelisk and the bronze Serpent Column while the square is still empty. We are at the gates of Topkapi Palace when it opens. For nearly four hundred years the Ottoman sultans ruled from its courtyards, and your ticket includes the Harem as well as the treasury and the terraces over the Bosphorus. After lunch on your own we go into Hagia Sophia, finished in 537 for the emperor Justinian, through the gallery entrance and ticket that foreign visitors now use. The Blue Mosque, built between 1609 and 1616 and lined with Iznik tiles, comes last, timed between prayers. Dress for mosques: shoulders and knees covered, a scarf for women.

   Included

   • Early walk through the Hippodrome
   • Topkapi Palace entry, with the Harem
   • Hagia Sophia gallery entry for foreign visitors
   • Blue Mosque visit between prayer times

   Free time: Lunch on your own; evening free

   Activity: About 4 hours on foot, with cobbles and stairs. Topkapi is closed on Tuesdays, so this day never falls on one.

   

3. Day 3: Bazaars, Sinan and the Bosphorus

   Old city on foot, then a Bosphorus cruise from Eminönü

   • By boat
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Istanbul
   Day 3 details

   We go down into the Basilica Cistern when it opens, before the queue builds: a 6th-century underground reservoir held up by 336 columns, two of them standing on carved Medusa heads. Then the Grand Bazaar, one of the oldest covered markets in the world, with about sixty streets under its vaults. Your guide shows you how it is laid out and leaves you time to browse; we have no shops we take you to and no commissions. Up the hill, the Süleymaniye Mosque, built by the architect Sinan for Süleyman the Magnificent in the 1550s, has a garden terrace looking over the Golden Horn. We walk down past Rüstem Pasha's small tiled mosque to the Spice Bazaar. In the late afternoon a boat for our group takes you up the Bosphorus past Dolmabahçe Palace, Ortaköy and the Rumeli Hisarı fortress, in the best light of the day.

   Included

   • Basilica Cistern entry at opening
   • Guided walk through the Grand Bazaar
   • Süleymaniye Mosque and its terrace
   • Rüstem Pasha Mosque and the Spice Bazaar
   • Two-hour Bosphorus cruise in the late afternoon

   Optional experiences

   • Whirling dervish ceremony in the evening

   Free time: Time to browse the Grand Bazaar; lunch on your own

   Activity: The Grand Bazaar is closed on Sundays, so this day never falls on one.

   

4. Day 4: Fly to Cappadocia

   Istanbul to Kayseri or Nevşehir by air, then Göreme

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Göreme
   Day 4 details

   A short morning flight, about an hour and a quarter, replaces the long road and rail days other trips use to cross Anatolia. We fly from Istanbul to Kayseri or Nevşehir, whichever has the better time that day, and drive to your cave hotel in Göreme or Uçhisar, home for three nights. After you settle in, we climb Uçhisar Castle, a tall rock riddled with old rooms and the highest point in the area, for a first look over the fairy chimneys towards the cone of Mount Erciyes, snow-capped in spring. Below it, Pigeon Valley is lined with dovecotes cut into the rock, once used to collect droppings for the vineyards. In the late afternoon we walk the Rose and Red valleys, past small rock-cut churches, and reach the Kızılçukur ridge as the tuff turns pink at sunset.

   Included

   • Flight from Istanbul to Kayseri or Nevşehir
   • Transfer to your cave hotel
   • Uçhisar Castle entry
   • Pigeon Valley viewpoint
   • Guided sunset walk in the Rose and Red valleys

   Easier option: Drive round to the Kızılçukur viewpoint instead of the walk

   Activity: The valley walk is about 2 hours on dirt paths with some short climbs.

   

5. Day 5: Balloon at sunrise

   Göreme, Kaymaklı and Avanos

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Göreme
   Day 5 details

   The balloon flight is in the price. The operator collects you about an hour before sunrise, you watch the envelopes fill in the half dark, and the flight lasts about an hour as the sun clears the horizon and lights up the valleys around Göreme. Civil aviation decides each morning whether balloons may fly; if today is cancelled, we try again tomorrow, which is why we spend three nights here. After breakfast and a rest, we visit the underground city of Kaymaklı, carved into soft tuff, where narrow passages lead down past stables, kitchens and chapels; four of its levels are open. Lunch is in Avanos, on the Kızılırmak, Turkey's longest river, followed by an hour at a potter's wheel using the river's red clay, a craft made here for thousands of years. The late afternoon is free.

   Included

   • Sunrise hot air balloon flight of about an hour
   • Kaymaklı Underground City entry
   • Lunch in Avanos
   • Hands-on pottery session in Avanos

   Your choice: Sunrise balloon flight, about an hour / Watch the balloons rise from a sunrise viewpoint with your guide Included in the price.

   Free time: Late afternoon free

   Activity: Kaymaklı has low, narrow passages and steep steps; skip it if you dislike tight spaces.

   

6. Day 6: Rock churches and a village dinner

   Göreme Open Air Museum and Love Valley

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Göreme
   Day 6 details

   This is the spare balloon morning: if yesterday's flight was cancelled, you fly today. If not, sleep in, or come with your guide to Lover's Hill above Göreme to photograph a hundred balloons rising out of the valleys. We are at the Göreme Open Air Museum when it opens, about 8 am, before the tour coaches arrive at mid-morning. Monks cut these churches and refectories into the rock between the 10th and 12th centuries, and the Dark Church, which your ticket includes, keeps its frescoes bright because so little light gets in. Mid-morning we walk into Love Valley, known for its tall smooth pillars, and the afternoon is yours: sleep, read on the hotel terrace or try a Turkish bath. In the evening we drive to a village for dinner cooked by a local family in their home.

   Included

   • Spare balloon morning if day 5 was cancelled
   • Göreme Open Air Museum entry at opening, with the Dark Church
   • Guided walk in Love Valley
   • Dinner with a local family

   Free time: Afternoon free

   

7. Day 7: To the Aegean and Şirince

   Cappadocia to Izmir by air, then Selçuk and Şirince

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Selçuk
   Day 7 details

   After breakfast we fly from Kayseri or Nevşehir to Izmir on the Aegean coast; ops choose a direct flight where one runs, or a short connection in Istanbul. From Izmir Airport it is about an hour's drive south through olive country to Selçuk, the small town beside Ephesus, where we stay two nights. In the afternoon we walk up Ayasuluk Hill to the ruins of the Basilica of St John, built by Justinian over the saint's traditional tomb, and look down on the 14th-century İsa Bey Mosque. Late in the day we drive about 8 km into the hills to Şirince, a village of white stone and timber houses that was Greek until the 1920s and is now known for its fruit wines. We taste a few, watch the light go off the valley and eat dinner together in the village.

   Included

   • Flight from Kayseri or Nevşehir to Izmir
   • Transfer to Selçuk
   • Basilica of St John entry
   • Wine tasting in Şirince
   • Dinner in Şirince

   

8. Day 8: Ephesus at opening

   Ephesus, the House of the Virgin Mary and Selçuk

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Selçuk
   Day 8 details

   We are at the upper gate of Ephesus when it opens, about 8 am, long before the cruise-ship coaches reach it in mid-morning. From there the old city runs downhill, so the walk is easy on the legs: past the Odeon and the Temple of Hadrian on Curetes Street, to the Library of Celsus, whose two-storey facade from the early 2nd century AD faces the morning sun. The Terrace Houses, Roman homes with mosaics and wall paintings under a protective roof, are included, as is the Great Theatre, which held about 25,000 people. After the walk we drive up to the House of the Virgin Mary on the wooded hill above, a place of pilgrimage visited by three popes. Lunch is in Selçuk, then a short look at the Ephesus Museum and its statues of Artemis. The afternoon is free.

   Included

   • Ephesus entry at opening, with your guide
   • Terrace Houses entry
   • House of the Virgin Mary
   • Lunch in Selçuk
   • Ephesus Museum entry

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot over uneven marble paving, downhill; bring a hat, there is little shade.

   

9. Day 9: Back to Istanbul

   Selçuk to Izmir, fly to Istanbul, Karaköy

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Istanbul
   Day 9 details

   On the way to the airport we stop at the site of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, of which a single rebuilt column now stands in the marsh, often with a stork's nest on top. The flight from Izmir to Istanbul takes about an hour and ten minutes, and we drive you to your last hotel in Karaköy, the old port district below the Galata Tower, across the Golden Horn from the old city. The afternoon is free: cafes and galleries line the streets here, and the tower, built by the Genoese in 1348, is a short walk uphill. We meet at sunset on the Galata Bridge, where anglers line the rail and the mosques of the old city stand dark against the sky, and end with a farewell dinner together.

   Included

   • Temple of Artemis site
   • Flight from Izmir to Istanbul
   • Transfer to your hotel in Karaköy
   • Sunset walk on the Galata Bridge
   • Farewell dinner

   Free time: Afternoon free

   

10. Day 10: Depart Istanbul

    Karaköy to Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gökçen

    • Drive about 1 h
    • Breakfast
    Day 10 details

    Your trip ends after breakfast, and the morning is yours until we drive you to the airport for your flight home, at whatever time it leaves. If your flight is late, there is time for one more thing. The public ferry from Karaköy to Kadıköy on the Asian shore takes about twenty minutes and costs very little, with the old city skyline behind you. Dolmabahçe Palace, where the last sultans moved in the 19th century, is a short ride up the Bosphorus shore and is closed on Mondays and Thursdays. Istanbul Modern, the city's art museum, sits on the waterfront in Karaköy itself. Your guide will help you plan the timing so you are back at the hotel for the transfer. The drive to Istanbul Airport takes about an hour, so allow for it.

    Included

    • Drop-off at Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW)

    Free time: Morning free

Wildlife and weather: Balloon flights depend on wind and are cancelled on some mornings, more often from December to March. Ephesus has little shade and is hot from June to August.

• Istanbul3 nights
• Göreme3 nights
• Selçuk2 nights
• Istanbul1 night