This 19 day tour, starts and ends in Istanbul, Turkey.
Day(s) : 19
Countries : Turkey
Start City : Istanbul
End City : Istanbul
Meals : 18 Breakfast(s),7 Dinner(s)
Welcome to Istanbul! You will be transferred to your hotel and the remainder of the day is yours free to explore at your own pace.
Overnight : Istanbul
Category : 4 star
Hotel : Port Bosphorus Hotel
After breakfast, you enjoy a fully guided tour of the only city to span two continents, visiting the Blue Mosque, St Sophia Museum, Topkapi Palace (including Hagia Irene and the Harem) and the Hippodrome.
Cruise between two continents on the stretch of water that separates Europe from Asia in the afternoon with a 1 hour Bosphorus cruise by public ferry where your guide will explain the historical sites along the way.
Overnight : Istanbul
Category : 4 star
Hotel : Port Bosphorus Hotel
Today we visit the WW1 battlefields of Gallipoli including Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair Memorials, ANZAC Cove, The Nek, Johnston's Jolly, original trenches and tunnels.
Overnight : Çanakkale
Category : 5 star
Hotel : Hilton Double Tree Canakkale
Step back in time today as we visit Troy where we will explore the ancient city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the new, award winning, Troy Museum. We continue on to Bergama and up to the magnificent acropolis of Pergamon. Its impressive temples and library made it a renowned cultural and political centre in its time. From here we continue on to Kusadasi.
Overnight : Kuşadası
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Ilayda Avantgarde Hotel
Absorb yourself in history today with a guided tour of Ephesus a once a bustling trade hub and religious center, Ephesus today whispers of ancient marvels, from site of the Temple of Artemis to the Library of Celsus's grand facade and the grand amphitheatre.
Carpet weaving has long traditions in Turkey and at the carpet village we learn how the carpets are made by hand and what determines their value.
We continue on to the former Greek village of Sirince, famous for its fruit wines. Here we will visit a local vineyard and learn about local production techniques. You will taste 3 local wines from the region at the garden of the vineyard before returning to our hotel.
Overnight : Kuşadası
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Ilayda Avantgarde Hotel
After a leather shop visit, we will head to Aphrodisias the ancient city dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of Beauty, Love and Fertility, also famous for its school of sculpture, we visit the stadium, which is the best preserved in Anatolia, the Temple of Aphrodite, the Tetrapylon, theatre and the Museum. Then, we continue to Pamukkale.
Overnight : Pamukkale
Category : 4 star
Hotel : Adem Pira Hotel
This morning we will explore the magnificent white calcium terraces, known as Travertines, in Pamukkale where we also tour the ancient city of Hierapolis. Take a dip, amongst ancient columns, in the hot springs that were used in Roman times for their therapeutic powers.
Then we will head to Salda Lake, is known as Turkish Maldives. It is a mountain lake and located in the mountains before we travel down to South.
Overnight : Fethiye
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Marina Boutique Hotel
Today, you are free to explore the town at your own pace and there is also optional tours and activities.
Optional tours and activities; 12 island boat trip and Saklikent Gorge tour
Overnight : Fethiye
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Marina Boutique Hotel
This morning we head to Kayakoy. The morning light provides excellent photos of this deserted Greek village. Afterwards we drive to the resort town of Antalya. We will visit the Antalya Museum with its wealthy collection from the ancient cities around the Antalya Province.
Overnight : Antalya
Category : Boutique
Hotel : RuinAdalia Hotel
We will visit Perge a famous antique site, early in the morning. After Perge we drive to Aspendos which has the best preserved 2nd Century Amphitheatre in Turkey. We return back to Antalya city in the afternoon and the remainder of your day is free.
Overnight : Antalya
Category : Boutique
Hotel : RuinAdalia Hotel
We will visit the mausoleum of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi with its accompanying Mevlana museum. We continue along the ancient Silk Road visiting the former Greek village Sille.
Overnight : Konya
Category : 4 star
Hotel : Spark Hotel Konya
Today we head to Cappadocia, visiting Sultanhani Caravansary, an ancient Silk Road stop off for merchants and traders. Later we explore the many levels of an underground city.
After checking into our hotel we visit a traditional Turkish home for dinner. Here you can do a course and help cook if you wish.
Overnight : Cappadocia
Category : Boutique Cave
Hotel : Gamirasu Hotel
Marvel at the lunar landscape of Cappadocia today as we visit the Goreme Valley Open Air Museum and the fairy chimneys. We then visit Pigeon and Red Valley, followed by Cavusin village and lastly Avanos town where we will learn about hand-made pottery.
Overnight : Cappadocia
Category : Boutique Cave
Hotel : Gamirasu Hotel
Departure in the morning from Cappadocia, we head to Ankara for our direct flight to Van. On arrival to Van Airport, you will meet with your tour guide. Before we go to our hotel, we will explore the Citadel with its three thousand Urartian fortress of Van and witness the extraordinary sunset.
Overnight : Van
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Van Life Hotel
After breakfast, we will travel by ferry stopping at Akdamar Island to see a spectacular 10th century church built by an Armenian king, if there is time swim in Lake Van.
Then, we will drive back to city centre to visit the largest Urartu Museum in the World. Artifacts from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Urartian, Persian, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Seljuk, Turkish-Islamic, and Ottoman Periods are exhibited in chronological order taking our visitors on a unique historical journey.
After the museum visit Van Cat House. Van cats are relatively large, have a chalky white coat, sometimes with ruddy coloration on the head and hindquarters, and have blue, amber eyes or one eye of each colour. This variety has been referred to as "the swimming cat", and has been observed to swim in Lake Van.
Overnight : Van
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Van Life Hotel
Today we leave for Dogubayazit via Muradiye and the Bendimaahi Falls. In Dogubayazit, we visit the spectacular Ishak Pasha Palace, 1685 - 1784, which has a unique fusion of architecture from Seljuk, Ottoman, Georgian, and Armenian - Persian styles.
We continue our journey north, skirting around the western edge of Mt Ararat. Mt. Ararat is one of the great natural spectacles of the world,. The name Ararat derives from the Bible (Jeremiah 51:27) and is a transliteration of 'Urartu' the name foreigners gave to this region and its inhabitants in Biblical times.
Overnight : Kars
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Kars Beylerbeyi Palace
This morning we journey to the site of Ani, the former capital of the Armenian kingdom. In the mid 10th century, nothing in Europe could rival this capital of the Armenian kingdom in terms of either size or magnificence. The remains of the ruined city include several churches as well as the shell of the Cathedral of Ani, the citadel and a mosque. There are also some exciting remains of frescoes in the Church of St Gregory (Tigran Honentz) despite having been exposed to the elements for centuries.
Afternoon, we will visit 12 Aposotles Church and Kars Castle.
Overnight : Kars
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Kars Beylerbeyi Palace
Transfer to Kars Airport for your onward flight back to Istanbul. On arrival to Istanbul Airport, you will be transferred to your hotel.
Overnight : Istanbul
Category : 4 star
Hotel : Port Bosphorus Hotel
After breakfast our tour concludes and we say goodbye to our new friends and are transferred to the airport for your onward flight.
This is intended to give an idea of the type of accommodation that may be expected. The actual hotels used for any given tour may change due to many reasons such as group size, availability, time of year, hotel standard has dropped or simply we found a better hotel. We update the website immediately if and when any changes take place. If and when we do change hotels it will be to a hotel of equal or higher standard and will be at no extra cost.
Where more than one hotel is shown for a given an overnight stop this means that one of those hotels will be used.
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