7 Days Gallipoli, Troy, Ephesus, Pamukkale, Cappadocia Tour

Meal: Lunch

Between 06:00 07:00 am - Depart from Istanbul for the Gallipoli Peninsula in the morning.

Pick-up is available only from centrally located hotels. Central hotel areas include Sultanahmet, Sirkeci, Beyoglu, Taksim, and Fatih.

There will be one comfort stop on the road for breakfast; breakfast and personal expenses are not included. The journey takes approximately 5 hours.

Around 12:00 - You will arrive in Canakkale and enjoy lunch at a local restaurant. After lunch, you will be transferred to the tour area.

• Beach Cemetery: A quiet burial ground beside the water, where many ANZAC soldiers now rest only a few steps from the shoreline they struggled to reach in 1915.
• ANZAC Cove: This narrow landing beach shows how little space the first Australian and New Zealand troops had as they came ashore under fire, turning the landscape itself into part of the story.
• Ari Burnu Cemetery: Set above the sea with open views across the cove, Ari Burnu Cemetery gives a calm but powerful sense of the campaign's earliest and most costly hours.
• ANZAC Commemorative Site: The main ceremonial area for dawn services, created as a place of shared remembrance for soldiers from every side who fought on the peninsula.
• Respect to Mehmetcik Monument: A deeply symbolic memorial honoring the Turkish soldiers who defended their homeland, and a reminder of the respect that later grew between former enemies.
• Lone Pine Australian Memorial: One of the most important Australian sites at Gallipoli, with preserved trench lines and memorial walls that make the scale of sacrifice unmistakable.
• Johnston's Jolly: Preserved Turkish and Allied trenches sit close enough here to show how narrow the front line was and how harsh daily life became during trench warfare.
• Turkish 57th Infantry Regiment Cemetery: Dedicated to the regiment ordered into the first critical counterattack, this cemetery represents one of the defining Turkish sacrifices of the campaign.
• The Nek: A narrow ridge remembered for tragic charges across exposed ground, now one of the most evocative places for understanding the human cost of Gallipoli.
• Chunuk Bair New Zealand Memorial: A high ridge with sweeping views over the peninsula, marking the place where New Zealand forces made one of the campaign's most determined advances in August 1915.

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

Overnight stay in Canakkale

Meal: Breakfast

08:15 - Pick up from your hotel in Canakkale and transfer to Troy.

• Troy Ancient City: Alexander the Great visited Troy in 334 BC, made offerings at the tomb of Achilles, and declared himself heir to the Homeric heroes. Walking through Troy's Bronze Age walls and altars with that in mind changes how you see every stone. Your guide explains which parts of the site Alexander visited and why Troy carried such political weight for Greek, Macedonian, and later Roman rulers.
• Trojan Horse Replica: The wooden horse replica at the entrance is a modern symbol, but it gives the myth a physical scale before you enter the layered ruins. Your guide connects the legend to the archaeology, showing how a story from epic poetry became one of the most recognizable images in world travel.

12:30 - Continue south by intercity transfer toward Kusadasi/selcuk after the tour. The bus departure time may be adjusted according to the daily intercity schedule.

Around 17:00 - Once you arrive at Izmir Bus Station, we will welcome you at the bus station and transfer you to your hotel in Kusadasi/selcuk.

Overnight stay in Kusadasi/selcuk

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

09:00 - Pick up from your hotel in Kusadasi/selcuk and transfer to the Ephesus tour area.

• Ephesus Ancient City: Among all the monuments in Ephesus, the Great Theatre is the one that captures scale most powerfully, built into the slope of Panayir Hill, it could hold 25,000 spectators for plays, gladiatorial contests, and public assemblies. Looking out from the top rows, you can trace the outline of the ancient harbor road stretching toward what was once the Aegean Sea. That view alone is worth the climb.
• House of Virgin Mary: Positioned at over 400 meters elevation, the House of Virgin Mary offers a panoramic view over the valley that once held the ancient port of Ephesus. Standing outside the chapel and looking down at the landscape, you can begin to picture the geography that made this entire region so important in the ancient world. The view alone justifies the mountain drive.
• Temple of Artemis: Selcuk Museum, located in the town near the Temple of Artemis site, holds several large column fragments and sculptural elements recovered from the ancient wonder's ruins. Seeing those pieces up close gives substance to the single column standing outside, you can study the carving quality, the scale of the individual drums, and the refined workmanship that made ancient visitors call this the greatest building in the world. Museum and site together make a much fuller picture.

16:00 - Transfer back to your hotel in Kusadasi/selcuk after the Ephesus route.

Overnight stay in Kusadasi/selcuk

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

08:00 - Pick up from your hotel, check out, and transfer to Pamukkale.

13:00 - Start the guided Pamukkale and Hierapolis route after arrival.

• Pamukkale: Not many UNESCO sites offer both ancient history and a natural wonder in one location, Pamukkale is one of them. Thermal springs have covered this hillside in bright white travertine over thousands of years, creating formations that rival anything nature builds. Above the terraces, the Greco-Roman city of Hierapolis adds an entirely different layer of history to explore.
• White Calcium Terraces: Mineral-rich thermal water flows continuously across Pamukkale's hillside, depositing a thin layer of calcium carbonate every single day. Over two thousand years of that slow accumulation produced the wide white travertine terraces that cascade down to the valley. Walking barefoot through the warm pools while ruins stand on the hilltop above you is an experience that combines natural wonder and ancient history in one afternoon.
• Hierapolis Ancient City: Ancient Hierapolis sat at the intersection of three major Roman roads, making it a natural stopping point for travelers crossing western Anatolia. Its thermal springs added an extra draw, turning a convenient waypoint into a destination in its own right. The city grew to include baths, temples, a theater, and eventually the largest necropolis in ancient Anatolia, all of which you can still walk through above Pamukkale today.
• Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool: Named after a legend that links the Egyptian queen to this warm thermal spring in Hierapolis, Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool has attracted visitors for centuries. The modern pool preserves its ancient Roman character through the submerged columns that lie across the floor, knocked there by an earthquake long ago. Access is an optional extra paid on-site, entry is not included in the standard tour price.

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

Overnight stay in Pamukkale

Meal: Breakfast

Depart from Pamukkale after breakfast and begin the overland journey toward central Anatolia.

Continue by private vehicle to Konya, the spiritual city associated with Rumi.

Free time in Konya city center for independent exploration.

• Mevlana Museum: The Mevlana Museum in Konya is the resting place of Rumi, the thirteenth-century Sufi poet whose influence on Islamic mysticism and world literature remains enormous. The turquoise-tiled dome and the interior tombs make this one of the most serene stops on the entire route.
• Konya Old Town: The area around the museum gives the Konya stopover a broader cultural dimension, Seljuk mosques, traditional crafts, and a pace of life noticeably slower than the coastal cities. This is the part of Turkey that most western tourism packages completely bypass.

Continue the drive to Cappadocia after your Konya stop.

19:00 - Arrival in Cappadocia and hotel check-in.

Overnight stay in Cappadocia

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

09:30 - Pick up from your hotel in Cappadocia and transfer to the tour area.

• Devrent Valley (Pink Valley): Devrent Valley's open plateau gives you a physical sense of Cappadocia's volcanic origin that enclosed valleys and cave sites do not quite deliver. Seeing the columns arranged across a broad landscape, rather than pressed into a narrow gorge, makes the geological story easier to read.
• Pasabag Open Air Museum: Pasabag translates roughly as 'the pasha's vineyard,' a reference to a time when the valley floor between the chimneys was used for cultivation. No vines remain today, but the name is a reminder that even this dramatic landscape was once put to practical agricultural use.
• Avanos Pottery Workshop: Pottery in Avanos is not a performance staged for tourists but a daily commercial practice, with workshops producing pieces sold to artisan markets across Turkey. Visiting during a working day means the demonstration you see is genuine, not adapted for an audience.
• Goreme Panoramic View: In winter, snow occasionally covers Goreme valley's fairy chimneys while the sky remains clear, and Goreme Panoramic View delivers that scene with an immediacy and completeness that makes it one of Cappadocia's most sought-after seasonal photographs. Off-season travelers who catch that window describe it consistently as a highlight.
• Zelve Open Air Museum: Zelve's site path includes a marked route that covers all three valleys, but the signs also indicate optional extensions for visitors who want to explore beyond the main circuit. Your guide will tell you which extensions are worth taking given the time available in the Red Tour schedule.
• Uchisar Castle (exterior view): Ending the Cappadocia Red Tour at Uchisar Castle leaves visitors with a single dominant image from the day: the tallest rock in the region, covered in centuries of human carving, standing above a valley that has been shaped by geology and habitation in equal measure. As a closing image for a Cappadocia day, it is difficult to improve on.

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

Overnight stay in Cappadocia

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

09:30 - Pick up from your hotel after breakfast and check-out.

Transfer to the South Cappadocia tour area.

• Red Valley: Red Valley's rock formations change appearance dramatically depending on the time of day, shifting from pale gold in morning light to deep orange at noon and warm amber in late afternoon. Planning a visit to Red Valley for mid-morning gives you the most vivid colors before direct overhead light flattens the tonal range.
• Rose Valley (Gulludere Valley): Painted decorations inside Gulludere Valley's rock churches range from simple red-line geometric patterns to complex figurative scenes covering entire vaulted ceilings. Art historians classify these frescoes across several distinct periods, with clear stylistic differences between earlier abstract work and later narrative Byzantine painting traditions.
• Cavusin Village: Old Cavusin village rises dramatically from the valley floor, its cliff face riddled with stacked rows of cave openings, carved doorways, and hollowed-out rooms visible from the road below. Walking up through the abandoned upper settlement reveals how precisely early inhabitants carved staircases, windows, and connecting passages into the solid volcanic rock.
• Pigeon Valley: Hot air balloons launched from Goreme in the early morning regularly drift over Pigeon Valley's canyon, and travelers walking the trail below can look up and watch them pass silently overhead. This combination of ancient carved cliffs, wild pigeons, and drifting balloons makes Pigeon Valley one of Cappadocia's most visually layered experiences.
• Underground City: Cappadocia's underground city descends through several distinct levels, with each floor connected to the next by steep carved staircases and narrow vertical shafts designed for single-file movement. The deepest accessible levels sit roughly 40 to 85 meters below the surface depending on the specific city, deep enough to maintain acoustic and thermal isolation from the world above.

17:00 - Transfer to Cappadocia airport after the tour. (Pickup time and airport may change.)

19:30 - Flight from Cappadocia to Istanbul. (Flight time may change.)

20:50 - Arrival in Istanbul. (Arrival airport and time may change according to availability.)

Final transfer service after landing in Istanbul.

Your 7-day Gallipoli, Troy, Ephesus, Pamukkale, and Cappadocia tour ends in Istanbul.