19 Days Grand Turkey Tour Package

Arrive in Istanbul, meet our airport team, and transfer to your hotel. The rest of the day is left free so you can settle in before the grand route begins.

Overnight stay in Istanbul.

Meal: Breakfast

08:30 - Pick up from your hotel for the guided Istanbul old city program.

• Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque): One of the world's most photographed skylines belongs to this 17th-century Ottoman masterpiece, whose six minarets and cascade of domes set the visual tone for everything that follows in the tour.
• Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque: First a Byzantine cathedral, then an Ottoman imperial mosque, then a museum, and once again a mosque, no single building holds more of Istanbul's layered history than this one, and its sheer scale inside still surprises first-time visitors.
• Hippodrome of Constantinople: The ancient chariot racing track once seated 100,000 spectators, and the surviving obelisks, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman, tell you how many civilisations passed through this city before the Ottomans ever arrived.
• Grand Bazaar: Free time in one of the world's oldest and largest covered markets, where more than 4,000 shops spread across 60 covered streets filled with spices, ceramics, textiles, and jewellery.

13:00 - The tour ends at the Grand Bazaar, and you will have leisure time on your own. There is no hotel drop-off after the tour.

Overnight stay in Istanbul.

Meal: Breakfast

08:30 - Pick up from your hotel and transfer to the pier.

Your Istanbul stay shifts from monument interiors to the water today. The Bosphorus cruise opens the city from a wider angle, with palace facades, bridge silhouettes, hillside neighborhoods, and waterfront mansions appearing in one continuous panorama before the longer overland route begins.

12:30 PM - The tour ends at the pier, and you will have leisure time on your own.

This tour may also operate in the afternoon depending on availability.

Overnight stay in Istanbul.

Meal: Breakfast

This day is free in Istanbul. Use it for neighborhoods, museums, shopping, or simple rest before the western Turkey section begins.

Overnight stay in Istanbul.

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

Between 06:00 and 07:00 - Early morning departure from Istanbul by bus toward the Gallipoli Peninsula. The transfer takes about 5 hours, with a rest stop on the way.

• Gallipoli Battlefield Areas: More than 100,000 soldiers died at Gallipoli between April and December 1915, and the cemeteries scattered across the peninsula make that number feel personal. A guided tour takes you through Beach Cemetery, Lone Pine, Chunuk Bair, and the front-line trenches where opposing forces were sometimes metres apart. At each stop, your guide connects the individual graves and inscriptions to the broader tactical story of the campaign.

17:30 - Transfer to Canakkale by ferry across the Dardanelles, then continue to your hotel in Canakkale center or Eceabat.

Overnight stay in Canakkale.

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

08:30 - Morning pickup and transfer to Troy Ancient City for the guided visit.

• Troy Ancient City: UNESCO listed Troy as a World Heritage Site in 1998, recognizing its exceptional importance as one of the world's most continuous and layered ancient settlements. Your guided visit covers the Bronze Age defensive walls, house foundations from several settlement layers, the Roman-era agora, Hellenistic sacrificial altars, and the wooden Trojan Horse replica at the entrance. The site signs help connect Troy I through Troy IX, so the compact ruins read as a four-thousand-year sequence rather than a single mythic city.

11:30 AM - The tour ends and you will be transferred to Canakkale Bus Station.

Around 13:00 - The intercity bus departs for Kusadasi/Selcuk or Izmir. You will travel by bus for about 7 hours with short breaks on the way.

Around 20:00 - Arrival at the bus station. Our driver will welcome you with your name sign and transfer you to your hotel.

Overnight stay in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

08:30 - Pick up from your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk for the Ephesus day tour.

• Ephesus Ancient City: One of the most visited ancient sites in Europe, Ephesus attracts travelers from every continent who come to see its legendary Library of Celsus and Roman streets firsthand. Yet even with crowds, the site manages to feel vast, the ancient city covers a large area, and a guided walk spreads visitors naturally across multiple sections. Arriving early gives you the best light and the quietest streets.
• House of Virgin Mary: Approaching the House of Virgin Mary on foot along the forest path gives you a moment to decompress before entering the chapel. The sound of the wind in the pines and the gradual quiet as you climb the hill shifts the mood naturally. By the time you step inside, most visitors are already in a reflective frame of mind, which may be exactly what the setting is designed to produce.
• Temple of Artemis: Walking from the main Ephesus site to the Temple of Artemis takes visitors from the preserved city of marble streets and public buildings to an open field where imagination must do the heavy lifting. That contrast is instructive. Many of the stones you admired in Ephesus were quarried or cut from this very site after the temple's final destruction. The ancient city and the wonder that preceded it are literally built from the same material.

16:30 - Transfer back to your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk after the tour.

Overnight stay in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

07:30 - Early departure from Kusadasi/Selcuk by bus to Pamukkale.

• Pamukkale: It translates as 'Cotton Castle,' a name given by people who saw this white hillside long before there were cameras to capture it. Calcium-rich thermal springs have been shaping the travertine terraces here since ancient times. Today it stands as one of Turkey's most recognizable UNESCO World Heritage Sites, located in the inland province of Denizli.
• White Calcium Terraces: Walking onto the travertine terraces at Pamukkale, you immediately notice the warmth underfoot. Visitors remove their shoes at the entrance, the mineral-rich thermal water flowing across the white calcium surface is genuinely warm, not just cool and decorative. Each wide ledge holds a shallow pool of turquoise water that has been flowing here for more than two thousand years.
• Hierapolis Ancient City: Colonnaded streets are the most visually dramatic feature of Hierapolis above Pamukkale, rows of marble columns lining the main avenues in both directions. In Roman times these columns supported covered walkways that shaded merchants and strollers alike. Today most lie at angles, pushed over by earthquakes, but enough remain standing to give a clear picture of how wide and grand the city's main thoroughfares once were.
• Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool: At Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool, the water is the draw: warm, mineral-rich, and 36 degrees Celsius year-round, sourced from the thermal springs beneath Pamukkale. The pool floor is scattered with marble column drums from Roman structures toppled by ancient seismic activity. Entry costs extra and is paid directly at the pool, not through the tour, bring payment with you if you plan to swim. Swimming is not included in the tour price and is payable on-site.

16:00 - Transfer to your hotel in Pamukkale after the tour.

Overnight stay in Pamukkale.

Meal: Breakfast

Check out after breakfast and travel by intercity bus to Fethiye. This transfer day positions you for the coastal cruise section and creates a clean handoff from inland archaeology to the sea.

Bus time may change according to availability and travel date; it will be confirmed at reservation.

Overnight stay in Fethiye.

Meal: Lunch and Dinner

Transfer to the harbor and board your Blue Cruise. The first coastal day is designed around swimming, open sea views, and a slower rhythm that feels very different from the previous cultural touring days.

• Samanlik Bay: A calm first swim stop close to Fethiye, ideal for easing into the cruise rhythm.
• Butterfly Valley: A steep-sided coastal valley reached from the sea, known for its dramatic cliffs and seasonal butterflies.
• St. Nicholas Island: A sunset anchorage with Byzantine ruins scattered across the hillside above the water.

Overnight stay in your private cabin on the Blue Cruise.

Meal: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

The cruise continues eastward with swimming stops and time in Kas. This day mixes clear-water leisure with a glimpse of one of the Mediterranean coast's most liked small towns.

• Aquarium Bay: Clear water and sheltered conditions make this one of the easiest swim stops of the cruise.
• Kas harbor stop: Time ashore in a lively Mediterranean town with whitewashed lanes, cafes, and small shops.
• Kekova coast: The route begins to enter the archaeological shoreline where Lycian and Roman remains meet the sea.

Overnight stay in your private cabin on the Blue Cruise.

Meal: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Today is one of the most atmospheric parts of the cruise. The coast around Kekova combines archaeology, sheltered water, and small-scale harbor scenery in a way that feels both scenic and historical.

• Sunken City: A protected Lycian-Roman shoreline where submerged walls and stairways are viewed from the boat.
• Simena: A tiny coastal village below a castle, reachable only by boat or on foot.
• Gokkaya Bay: A sheltered overnight bay with calm water and a classic Blue Cruise anchorage atmosphere.

Overnight stay in your private cabin on the Blue Cruise.

Meal: Breakfast

The cruise finishes with the Myra and Demre side of the coast before the overland transfer to Antalya. This final day keeps some sightseeing value and does not reduce the cruise to a simple boat transfer.

• Myra: The ancient Lycian city is known for rock-cut tombs and a large Roman theatre.
• Demre: The coastal town provides the transition point from the cruise route back to land travel.
• Olympos coast: The final coastal views keep the day scenic before the onward transfer to Antalya.
• Onward transfer to Antalya: After disembarkation and visits, continue by road to your Antalya hotel.

Overnight stay in Antalya.

Meal: Breakfast

This Antalya day is free. You can rest after the cruise, walk around Kaleici, or enjoy the coast before the final guided sections resume.

Overnight stay in Antalya.

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

07:30 - Pick up from your Antalya hotel for the southern classical tour.

• Perge Ancient City: One of the most complete ancient city layouts in Turkey, Perge's colonnaded main street, nymphaeum, baths, and stadium foundations are arranged in a way that makes reading the urban plan unusually straightforward compared to more fragmentary sites.
• Aspendos Theatre: The best-preserved Roman theatre in the world is still used as a concert and opera venue today, its two-storey stage wall stands virtually intact, and the curved seating tier retains the full semicircular geometry that Roman engineers perfected in the second century CE.
• Side Ancient City: Built on a small peninsula extending into the Mediterranean, Side mixes Temple of Apollo columns at the water's edge with a large Roman theatre, a main colonnaded street, and a lively harbour-side atmosphere that distinguishes it from the inland sites visited earlier on the route.

17:30 - Transfer back to your hotel in Antalya after the tour.

Overnight stay in Antalya.

Meal: Breakfast

Pick up from your hotel and transfer to Antalya Airport. (Pickup time may change.)

Domestic flight from Antalya to Cappadocia. (Flight time may change.)

A direct flight may not be available; you may fly with a connection via Istanbul depending on flight availability.

Arrival at Kayseri or Nevsehir Airport and transfer to your Cappadocia hotel. (Arrival airport and time may change according to availability.)

Overnight stay in Cappadocia.

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

This is the morning to arrange your optional hot air balloon flight, which launches before the guided tour begins.

09:30 - Pick up from your hotel for the North Cappadocia Red Tour.

• Devrent Valley (Pink Valley): On quiet weekday mornings, Devrent Valley can feel entirely private, with no crowds and no noise beyond the wind moving through the rock columns. That stillness is one of Cappadocia's rarer qualities and Devrent delivers it more reliably than most stops on the Red Tour.
• Pasabag Open Air Museum: Pasabag is often described as the highlight of the Cappadocia Red Tour by visitors who expected only scenery and found instead a site where geology, spirituality, and human ingenuity had intersected for over fifteen centuries. That combination of layers is what separates it from any purely scenic stop.
• Avanos Pottery Workshop: Inside a traditional Avanos workshop, the air smells of wet clay and the walls are lined with pieces at every stage of production: raw thrown forms, leather-hard trimmed vessels, bisque-fired pieces waiting for glaze, and finished stock ready for sale. Seeing the full sequence in one room is genuinely instructive.
• Goreme Panoramic View: Goreme town is visible directly below from the Panoramic View, its white and ochre buildings clustered among fairy chimneys at the valley floor. Seeing how the modern town and the ancient landscape coexist from above gives you context that walking through Goreme's streets alone does not provide.
• Zelve Open Air Museum: No other site on the Red Tour comes as close as Zelve to answering the question of what daily life actually looked like inside Cappadocia's famous rock formations. other museum sites in the region answers the religious question; Zelve answers the domestic one, and for many visitors that makes it the more humanly interesting of the two.
• Uchisar Castle (exterior view): Uchisar means 'three fortresses' in Turkish, a name that references the three natural peaks of the rock formation rather than any constructed battlements. That geological trinity made Uchisar uniquely effective as a natural stronghold: all three peaks offered independent viewing positions over the surrounding landscape.

17:00 - Transfer back to your hotel after the tour.

Overnight stay in Cappadocia.

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

09:30 - Pick up from your hotel for the South Cappadocia Yellow Tour.

• Red Valley: Cappadocia's Red Valley is most commonly visited as part of the Yellow Tour, which circles through the southern and eastern portions of the region in a single day. Its position early in the route means most visitors see it in good morning light before crowds build at the later stops.
• Rose Valley (Gulludere Valley): A carved grape press found along one section of Rose Valley's trail is evidence that local communities produced wine in this canyon using grapes grown on the valley floor. Cappadocia has a documented winemaking history stretching back to ancient times, and Gulludere Valley's carved press is one of the most tangible reminders of that tradition.
• Cavusin Village: A small modern community still occupies the lower section of Cavusin village, living in stone houses at the base of the old cliff settlement. Combining ancient cliff dwelling above with an active village below makes Cavusin one of the most layered and visually complex stops on the Cappadocia Yellow Tour route.
• Pigeon Valley: Wild pistachio trees and thorny scrub grow along Pigeon Valley's lower trail, rooted in the thin soil that collects against the base of the cliff walls. This sparse vegetation softens the otherwise stark canyon environment and provides cover for the small birds and lizards that share the valley with the pigeons above.
• Underground City: Air quality inside Cappadocia's underground city remains surprisingly good even in deep chambers, thanks to ventilation shafts that channel air down from the surface through a calculated network of carved openings. Some shafts also served as communication channels between floors, with sounds and signals passed up and down between community members stationed at different levels.

17:00 - Transfer to Kayseri or Nevsehir Airport after the tour. (Transfer time depends on your flight schedule.)

20:45 - Domestic flight from Cappadocia to Istanbul. (Flight time may change.)

22:20 - Arrival in Istanbul and transfer to your hotel. (Arrival airport and time may change according to availability.)

Overnight stay in Istanbul.

Meal: Breakfast

According to your international departure time, transfer from the hotel to Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gokcen Airport. Your 19-day Turkey route ends here.