9 Days Istanbul, Ephesus, Pamukkale, and Cappadocia Tour

Our team meets you at Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gokcen Airport and transfers you to your hotel.

The rest of the day is free, settle in at your own pace and rest before the touring begins tomorrow.

Overnight stay in Istanbul

Meal: Breakfast

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

• Hagia Sophia: It stands at the intersection of Byzantine and Ottoman civilizations, built as the world's largest cathedral in 537 AD and later converted into a mosque whose minarets still define the Istanbul skyline. The interior rewards close attention, with original marble floors, Byzantine mosaics in the upper galleries, and Ottoman calligraphy medallions competing for space on the vast domed ceiling.
• Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque): The only mosque in Istanbul with six minarets was built between 1609 and 1616 and immediately became the dominant landmark on the Sultanahmet hilltop. Over 20,000 hand-painted Iznik tiles in more than fifty shades of blue fill the prayer hall, creating the effect that gave the building its popular name.
• Hippodrome: It served as Constantinople's main public gathering space for over a thousand years, hosting chariot races, political ceremonies, and popular celebrations that shaped Byzantine civic identity. Three ancient monuments, the Egyptian Obelisk, the Serpent Column from Delphi, and the Constantine Column, still stand on the central spine exactly where they were installed in antiquity.
• Grand Bazaar: It is among the oldest and largest covered markets in the world, with 61 streets, over 4,000 shops, and a merchant culture unchanged in character since 1461. After a morning of monuments, stepping into its covered lanes changes the rhythm of the day and gives the best sense of Istanbul's commercial identity.

12:30 - Guided program ends at the Grand Bazaar. Free time for the rest of the afternoon.

Overnight stay in Istanbul

Meal: Breakfast

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

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

Enjoy as the boat travels north along the strait between Europe and Asia.

Pass Dolmabahce Palace, Ciragan Palace, Beylerbeyi Palace, Rumeli Hisari, the first Bosphorus Bridge, and a continuous line of historic waterfront mansions.

17:00 - Cruise ends and transfer back to your hotel.

Overnight stay in Istanbul

Meal: Lunch

04:00 - Early hotel pick-up after check-out. You will be transferred to Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gokcen Airport. (Pickup time and airport may change.)

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: Ephesus sat on one of the most important trade routes in the ancient world, linking Rome to the riches of Asia Minor and beyond. That commercial energy is visible in the scale of the Agora, a massive open marketplace where goods from across the empire changed hands. Walking through it today, imagining merchants from Rome, Egypt, and Persia trading in the same space, gives the ancient city a vivid sense of purpose.
• House of Virgin Mary: Water from the sacred spring at the House of Virgin Mary is collected in small individual taps arranged in a row outside the chapel, making it easy for visitors to fill a bottle or simply rinse their hands. Many pilgrims drink from the spring as an act of faith. Even travelers who have never made a pilgrimage before often find themselves joining the quiet line at the taps, something about the setting invites participation.
• Temple of Artemis: Six hundred years separated the first Temple of Artemis from its final destruction, a lifespan longer than many entire civilizations. During that time, the structure was rebuilt twice after fires and once after flooding, each version larger or more refined than the last. Near Selcuk today, that long history is compressed into a single column and a quiet field where visitors stop to contemplate what persistence and ambition once looked like at their most extreme.

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

Overnight stay in Kusadasi/Selcuk

Meal: Lunch

08:00 - Pick up from your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk for the drive to Pamukkale.

• Pamukkale: Few natural sites in Turkey stop travelers in their tracks the way Pamukkale does. Brilliant white terraces cascade down a hillside in Denizli province, carved over millennia by mineral-rich thermal springs. UNESCO recognized this landscape as a World Heritage Site, and standing here, you will understand exactly why.
• White Calcium Terraces: Looking up at Pamukkale's travertine terraces from the valley road, it genuinely looks as if someone poured white paint down the hillside. Up close, each terrace is a wide shallow pool rimmed by calcium carbonate built up over centuries of mineral overflow. The water flowing through these pools is warm, clear, and rich in the dissolved calcium that keeps the rock brilliant white.
• Hierapolis Ancient City: Some of the most striking imagery in Turkey comes from Hierapolis's necropolis, where hundreds of ancient sarcophagi lie scattered across the hillside as if time simply stopped mid-conversation. Tomb inscriptions survive on many of the stone coffins, recording names, professions, and family warnings against disturbing the graves. It is Anatolia's largest ancient necropolis, and walking through it beside the ruins of a living city is a genuinely powerful experience.
• Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool: Warm mineral water fed by Pamukkale's thermal springs fills Cleopatra Antique Thermal Pool at a constant 36 degrees, making it one of the more unusual swimming spots in Turkey. The pool floor is carpeted with Roman marble fragments knocked down by seismic activity centuries ago. This optional stop is not covered by the tour, entry is payable on-site for those who want to take a swim among ancient ruins.

16:00 - Pamukkale tour ends. Transfer back to your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk.

Overnight stay in Kusadasi/Selcuk

Meal: Breakfast

Pick up from your hotel in Kusadasi/Selcuk and transfer to Izmir Airport.

Flight from Izmir to Cappadocia. (Flight time may change.)

If no direct flight between Ephesus and Cappadocia is available, a connecting flight will be used. Some days do not have direct flights.

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

Transfer to your hotel in Cappadocia.

You will have a leisure evening in Cappadocia. Free time for you to explore Cappadocia on your own.

Overnight stay in Cappadocia

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

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

• Devrent Valley (Pink Valley): Devrent Valley's formations were named by locals long before tourism reached Cappadocia, and many of the animal identifications have been passed down through generations of guides. The camel, dolphin, and seal names are now standardized, but older guides sometimes share alternative names that have fallen out of use.
• Pasabag Open Air Museum: Pasabag sits within the Goreme National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its combination of geological spectacle and human history is precisely what UNESCO cited when granting the designation. Few sites in Turkey compress both natural and cultural heritage into such a small area.
• Avanos Pottery Workshop: A genuine Avanos workshop operates at a commercial scale, with multiple potters working simultaneously at different wheels throughout the day. Joining one of those working sessions, even briefly, gives you a sense of what pottery production looks like as a livelihood rather than a hobby.
• Goreme Panoramic View: Its elevation above the valley floor is not extreme, but it is sufficient to shift your visual relationship with the landscape entirely. What felt intimate and enclosed from within the valleys becomes legible and sweeping from above.
• Zelve Open Air Museum: It is one of Cappadocia's most layered historical sites, a fully inhabited cave village that remained occupied until 1952 before residents were relocated for safety. Walking its carved corridors today means walking through streets where families cooked, prayed, and traded within living memory.
• Uchisar Castle (exterior view): Afternoon light catches Uchisar Castle's western face and illuminates the carved openings with a warmth that flat midday light does not produce. Red Tour guides often time the Uchisar stop for mid-afternoon precisely to take advantage of that lighting window, which improves the photographs considerably.

17:00 - Transfer back to your hotel in Cappadocia.

Overnight stay in Cappadocia

Meal: Breakfast & Lunch

09:30 - Transfer to the south Cappadocia touring area and meet your guide.

• Red Valley: Its color palette of burnt orange, rust, and gold looks especially vivid against the bright blue skies common across Cappadocia between spring and autumn. Travelers who visit on overcast days report that the rock tones appear muted, making sunny mornings the optimal time for both photography and walking.
• Rose Valley (Gulludere Valley): Walking through Rose Valley, you follow a path used by Byzantine monks more than a thousand years ago as they moved between their carved cliff chapels and cave dwellings. Several of these churches remain accessible to visitors today, offering a direct, unmediated encounter with Cappadocia's early Christian heritage.
• Cavusin Village: Cavusin's cliff settlement was home to Greek Orthodox Christians who maintained an active religious and cultural life alongside their agricultural work in the valley below. Several carved churches in and around the old village preserve decorative painted schemes reflecting Byzantine artistic traditions that flourished in Cappadocia between the 9th and 12th centuries.
• Pigeon Valley: Its canyon depth creates a natural wind tunnel effect, with air channeled between the cliff walls at a noticeably higher speed than on the open plateau above. This consistent airflow is believed to have been a secondary reason for the valley's popularity as a dovecote location, since pigeons navigate well in moving air.
• Underground City: Cappadocia's underground cities were not unique to one settlement; more than 36 carved underground complexes have been identified across the region, ranging from small single-family refuges to multi-thousand-person cities. Together they represent one of the most concentrated examples of defensive underground architecture found anywhere in the ancient world.

17:00 - Transfer to Kayseri or Nevsehir Airport.

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

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

Transfer to your hotel in Istanbul.

Overnight stay in Istanbul

Meal: Breakfast

Our driver will arrive at your hotel according to your international flight schedule.

Transfer to Istanbul Airport or Sabiha Gokcen Airport for your departure.

Your tour ends here.