9 Days Istanbul, Ephesus, Pamukkale, Antalya, Cappadocia Tour

Arrival at Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gokcen Airport.

Meet our airport team after landing.

Transfer to your hotel in Istanbul.

Overnight stay in Istanbul

Meal: Breakfast

08:30 - Pick up from your hotel for the Istanbul Old City morning tour.

• Hagia Sophia: Built in 537 AD as the world's largest domed cathedral, Hagia Sophia was later converted into a mosque and today stands as Istanbul's most layered monument. Inside, Byzantine mosaics, Ottoman calligraphy, and vast Roman engineering share the same walls in a way that makes the building impossible to reduce to a single era.
• Blue Mosque: The Sultan Ahmed Mosque earned its informal name from over 20,000 hand-painted blue Iznik tiles covering the interior walls, and it remains the only mosque in Istanbul with six minarets. It still operates as a working place of worship, which gives a visit a different quality from a purely archaeological site.
• Hippodrome: For over a thousand years the Hippodrome was the social and political center of Constantinople, a chariot-racing venue that could hold 100,000 spectators and where Byzantine emperors celebrated or faced overthrow. The Egyptian Obelisk, Serpent Column, and Constantine's Column still stand on the central spine where they were placed centuries ago.
• Grand Bazaar: With 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops, the Grand Bazaar has been Istanbul's commercial heart since 1461 and remains one of the largest covered markets in the world. It closes the guided morning on a livelier note and gives the rest of the afternoon a natural free-time backdrop.

13:00 - Guided touring ends at the Grand Bazaar. Free time in the afternoon.

Overnight stay in Istanbul

Meal: Breakfast

13:30 - Pick up from your hotel and transfer to the pier for Bosphorus Cruise boarding.

Enjoy while sailing between Europe and Asia.

See Dolmabahce Palace, Ciragan Palace, Beylerbeyi Palace, Rumeli Hisari, the Bosphorus Bridge, and the waterfront mansions from the boat.

17:30 - Cruise ends and transfer back to your hotel.

Depending on availability, the Bosphorus cruise may also operate in the morning.

Overnight stay in Istanbul

Meal: Lunch

04:00 - Early hotel pick-up after check-out. (Pickup time and airport may change.)

Transfer to Istanbul Airport.

07:00 - Flight from Istanbul to Izmir. (Flight time may change.)

08:00 - Arrival at Izmir Airport. (Arrival airport and time may change according to availability.)

Transfer to the Ephesus touring area and meet your guide.

• Ephesus Ancient City: Standing at the junction of Curetes Street and Marble Road in Ephesus, four of the ancient city's most important monuments are visible at once, the Library of Celsus, the Brothel, the public fountain complex, and the entrance to the Agora. Few spots anywhere in the ancient world offer this density of well-preserved Roman architecture in a single glance. Your guide will place each building in its historical and social context.
• House of Virgin Mary: On warm mornings, the courtyard outside the House of Virgin Mary is filled with visitors lighting candles, reading from small prayer books, and sitting quietly in the shade of nearby trees. The atmosphere is respectful and unhurried in a way that larger pilgrimage sites sometimes struggle to maintain. Your guide steps back here and lets the place speak for itself.
• Temple of Artemis: Ancient writers ranked the Temple of Artemis above all other wonders because of its combination of sheer size and artistic refinement, the carved column drums depicted mythological scenes with a precision and elegance that left ancient visitors speechless. None of that carving survives intact near Selcuk, but fragments recovered during excavation are displayed in the Ephesus Museum in nearby Selcuk town, giving you a chance to see what those columns actually looked like. A museum visit alongside the site makes the story complete.

16:00 - Ephesus tour ends. Transfer to your hotel in Kusadasi/selcuk.

Overnight stay in Kusadasi/selcuk

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

08:00 - Pick up from your hotel in Kusadasi/selcuk and drive toward Pamukkale.

• Pamukkale: Few travelers leave Pamukkale without stopping to photograph the hillside multiple times. Warm mineral springs flow across wide white ledges, leaving calcium carbonate deposits that slowly build the famous travertine terraces of Denizli province. UNESCO recognized this extraordinary natural and historical combination in 1988, and both the geology and the ancient city above have been drawing visitors ever since.
• White Calcium Terraces: Pamukkale's thermal springs emerge with enough mineral content to turn rock bright white within decades; over thousands of years they have shaped an entire hillside. The cascading calcium terraces form naturally as water overflows ledge after ledge, cooling slightly with each step down the slope. Managed conservation zones now rotate water flow across different sections to keep the travertine white and healthy.
• Hierapolis Ancient City: Hierapolis holds one of the most striking ancient theaters in Turkey, cut directly into the hillside above Pamukkale with views out over the white travertine terraces. The theater seated up to 15,000 spectators in its prime, and sections of the ornate stage building are still standing. Combined with the city's colonnaded streets and temples, this Greco-Roman site offers several hours of serious exploration.
• Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool: Mineral water, submerged archaeology, and a Roman imperial legend combine at Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool in Hierapolis. The pool temperature holds at 36 degrees year-round thanks to Pamukkale's thermal springs, and the floor holds genuine Roman marble columns deposited by earthquake centuries ago. Entry is not included in the tour and is paid on-site, this is an optional extra for travelers who want to make the most of the thermal bathing tradition.

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

Overnight stay in Pamukkale

Meal: Breakfast

11:00 - Our driver will come to your hotel in Pamukkale.

Transfer to Pamukkale Bus Station.

12:00 - Intercity bus to Antalya. The journey includes scheduled rest stops. (Bus time may change.)

15:30 - Meet our team at Antalya Bus Station. (Arrival time may change.)

Transfer to your hotel in Antalya.

Overnight stay in Antalya

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

08:00 - Pick up from your hotel in Antalya for the full-day Antalya classical sites tour.

• Perge: Perge was one of the most prosperous cities in ancient Pamphylia, with a colonnaded main street, large stadium, and a bath complex that rivaled anything in the Roman world at its peak. The site is especially strong for travelers interested in how Roman urban planning looked in a provincial capital rather than in Rome itself.
• Aspendos: The Aspendos theatre is the best-preserved Roman theatre in the world, built in the second century AD and still used today for performances during the Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival. Standing on the stage and looking up at the 15,000-seat cavea that has stood for nearly two thousand years is one of the most memorable moments of the entire tour.
• Side: Side is a compact ancient port city on a small peninsula, where the Temple of Apollo stands dramatically beside the sea and the colonnaded main street leads through a Roman gate into the old town. The combination of ruins, beaches, and a working harbor gives the stop a different atmosphere from the purely archaeological sites of the morning.
• Kursunlu Waterfall: Located inside a nature reserve on the Aksu River, Kursunlu Waterfall provides a natural break in the day with shaded walkways, a clear pool beneath the falls, and a peaceful forest setting. It closes the classical-sites program on a softer, more relaxed note before the evening transfer.

Around 18:00 - When the tour ends, you will be transferred to Antalya Bus Station.

20:00 - Overnight intercity bus to Cappadocia. (Bus time may change.) The journey takes about 9 hours and includes only 1-2 stops on the way for your needs.

Overnight on the bus

Arrival in Cappadocia in the early morning.

The rest of the day is free in Cappadocia.

Overnight stay in Cappadocia

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

10:00 - Breakfast, hotel check-out, and transfer to the Cappadocia touring area.

• Devrent Valley (Pink Valley): No cafe, souvenir stand, or toilet facility exists inside Devrent Valley itself, so making practical preparations before the stop is important. Your tour vehicle will stop at a nearby facility before or after, and your guide will let you know in advance.
• Pasabag Open Air Museum: Walking through Pasabag Open Air Museum, you move between chimneys that range from single-capped to multi-headed formations, each one carved to a different degree by the monks who lived there. The sheer variety within a single site makes Pasabag more visually interesting than it appears from photos.
• Avanos Pottery Workshop: Avanos pottery's distinctive red color comes from iron oxide in the Kizilirmak clay, which oxidizes during firing and produces the terracotta tones that have made the town's output recognizable for centuries. Some workshops also produce pieces from white clay for contrast, but the red is what Avanos is known for.
• Goreme Panoramic View: Sunset from Goreme Panoramic View is a famously beautiful experience, but Red Tour schedules typically bring visitors in the morning or early afternoon. If your accommodation is in Goreme, returning independently in the evening is straightforward and rewarding.
• Zelve Open Air Museum: Zelve ultimately tells a story of coexistence and continuity: Byzantine monks, medieval Christian communities, Muslim village families, and twentieth-century Turkish residents all shaped the same rock over fourteen centuries. Reading that layered history in a single site is what makes Zelve memorable long after the tour day ends.
• Uchisar Castle (exterior view): Uchisar Castle is the tallest formation of its type in Cappadocia, and seeing it from the exterior viewing terrace makes clear why it dominated the visual landscape of the region for two thousand years. Even today, with modern buildings surrounding it, the rock remains the most immediately recognizable landmark in the area.

17:00 - Day tour ends. Transfer to the airport.

20:40 - Flight from Cappadocia to Istanbul. (Flight time may change.)

21:50 - Arrival at Istanbul Airport. (Arrival airport and time may change according to availability.)

Your tour ends at the airport after arrival in Istanbul. If you need a transfer, we can reserve it for an additional fee; please ask us.