Istanbul Trip Overview
Whether you have a love of ancient history, delicious food, exploring new cultures or even just walking amongst some of the most beautiful natural scenery in the world, you’ll find what you’re looking for on one of our expert-led cultural tours of Turkey. This incredible tour follows Istanbul, Ankara, Cappadocia, Pamukkale, Ephesus, İzmir, Pergamon, Troy, Canakkale, Anzac Cove, and returns to Istanbul. We have prepared this trip with a mind so you can book at ease. No guesswork with Eskapas to make that happen, leaving you worry-free once it is booked for good. Eskapas guaranteed departures take the guesswork out of planning your adventure and give you the peace of mind to book the tour that suits you.
It is time to join us!
NB: Please consult us if you want to add a pre/post accommodation (with/without visits) in Istanbul.
Additional Info
Duration: 7 days
Starts: Istanbul, Turkey
Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Cultural Tours
Explore Istanbul Promoted Experiences
What to Expect When Visiting Istanbul, Turkey, Turkey
Whether you have a love of ancient history, delicious food, exploring new cultures or even just walking amongst some of the most beautiful natural scenery in the world, you’ll find what you’re looking for on one of our expert-led cultural tours of Turkey. This incredible tour follows Istanbul, Ankara, Cappadocia, Pamukkale, Ephesus, İzmir, Pergamon, Troy, Canakkale, Anzac Cove, and returns to Istanbul. We have prepared this trip with a mind so you can book at ease. No guesswork with Eskapas to make that happen, leaving you worry-free once it is booked for good. Eskapas guaranteed departures take the guesswork out of planning your adventure and give you the peace of mind to book the tour that suits you.
It is time to join us!
NB: Please consult us if you want to add a pre/post accommodation (with/without visits) in Istanbul.
Itinerary
Day 1: Istanbul – Ankara
Stop At: Istanbul, Istanbul
Pick up between 12:00-13:00 from your hotels (city centered) Departure to Ankara (450 km) by our deluxe coach passing through the intercontinental bridge in Istanbul. Arrival in the capital of the country. Dinner at the hotel.
Overnight: Ankara Meals: Dinner
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Ankara, Ankara
Pick up between 12:00-13:00 from your hotels (city centered) Departure to Ankara (450 km) by our deluxe coach passing through the intercontinental bridge in Istanbul. Arrival in the capital of the country. Dinner at the hotel.
Overnight: Ankara Meals: Dinner
Duration: 4 hours
Meals included:
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Hotel best ou similar 4****/First class hotel
Day 2: Ankara – Cappadocia via Salt Lake
Stop At: Anitkabir Command Anittepe, Ankara 06570 Turkey
This mausoleum is the eternal resting place of Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, revolutionary, brave soldier, great leader and international figure. It overlooks Ankara and was completed being built in 1953 and in November 1953, Ataturk was buried there. The Mausoleum is adorned with statues, relief’s and embellishments created by many of Turkey’s artists
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Anadolu Medeniyetleri Muzesi, Gozcu Sokak No: 2 Ulus, Ankara 06240 Turkey
The collections in this museum place an unusual emphasis on the earlier of Anatolia’s occupiers, and start with an interesting exhibit of finds from the Catal Huyuk site, often described as the earliest known human community in the world. Other highlights include a collection of tablets, the translations of which remind you how little some things in the world have changed over the millennia.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Lake Tuz, Sereflikochisar Turkey
A short photo stop
Duration: 15 minutes
Stop At: Ozkonak Underground City, Nevsehir Turkey
Ozkonak is one of the widest underground city in Cappadocia. We wisit 5 floors of it.
Duration: 40 minutes
Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Cappadocia Dinler Nevsehir, Avrasya or similar 4**** hotel
Day 3: Cappadocia
Stop At: Goreme National Park, Goreme 50180 Turkey
Perhaps one of the most recognizable attractions in Cappadocia, Turkey, the unusual edifices at the Göreme Open-Air Museum (Göreme Açık Hava Müzesi) are an important part of monastic history. A popular Byzantine settlement in the fourth century, the cave churches found at Göreme were carved out of soft volcanic cliffs.Goreme Open Air Museum is not a simple collection of fairy chimneys, it is a complex of nearly 600 cave churches which are decorated with the most beautiful biblical frescoes from the Byzantine period.
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: Pasabag, Urgup Turkey
Strange rock formations.
Duration: 45 minutes
Stop At: Fairy Chimneys, Zelve Yolu, 50500 Çavuşin/Avanos/Nevşehir, Turkey
Famous fariy chimneys
Duration: 20 minutes
Stop At: Uchisar, Uchisar, Cappadocia
Uçhisar, which is situated on the edge of Göreme National Park, is dominated by a 60-metre-high castle-mountain, which is visible over a wide distance and has the form of a large cylindrical tower. This massif is crisscrossed by numerous underground passageways and rooms, which are now mostly blocked or impassable. They served as residential areas, as well as cloisters in Byzantine times. Originally, around 1,000 people lived in the castle, but it is no longer inhabited today. The landscape is also marked by the fairy chimneys scattered through it.
In the centre of the town there is an underground gallery, which extends for about 100 metres underneath some houses. It was cut in tuff (a type of rock) in earlier times and probably served as a link from the fortress to the outside world and to protect their water supply.
Duration: 30 minutes
Stop At: Pigeon Valley, Uchisar KasabasI Nevşehir Kapadokya, Goreme 50240 Turkey
You can see unique panoramic view of Pigeon Valley, take photos, see hundreds of pigeon houses, feed the pigeons.
Duration: 15 minutes
Stop At: Cappadocia, Cappadocia
Breakfast at the hotel. Day dedicated to visiting this fantastic region with its spectacular fairy chimneys, unique in the world Goreme Valley, with its cave churches, with paintings from the 10th and 11th centuries; stop at the trogloyta village of Uçhisar, visit Avcilar which has a spectacular landscape, the Derbent valley with its curious natural rock formations and time for artisan workshops such as carpets and onyx-stones mounted on silver jewelry. Dinner and accommodation at the hotel. Overnight: Cappadocia Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
Duration: 1 hour
Meals included:
• Dinner
• Breakfast
Accommodation included: Cappadocia Dinler Nevsehir, Avrasyo or similar 4**** hotel
Day 4: Cappadocia- Sultanhani – Pamukkale
Stop At: Sultanhani Kervansarayi, SultanhanI Zafer Mahallesi Sehit Murat Caddesi No 3, Sultanhani 68190 Turkey
Located on Konya and Aksaray Road, famous Sultan Hani Caravanserai (Kervansaray in Turkish) is the biggest masterpieces in Seljuk Period. This glorious structure was built by grand architect Muhammad bin Havlan el-Dimiski by the order of Anatolia Seljuk Sultan Aladdin Keykubat I between 1228 and 1229.
It’s enchanting, marvellous and splendid architectural tissue grabs the visitors. This rectangular planned structure covers the field of 4.800 m2 hence; it looks like a castle. This great building consists of two separate blocks; one block includes a marble door furnished with fascinating geometrical figures, a huge courtyard surrounded by an arcade of rooms, a mosque symbolising the Seljuk art style and the special rooms for the passengers.
The other block contains stables, storages, treasury, repair shops, bakery, two amazing
Duration: 40 minutes
Stop At: Pamukkale, Pamukkale
(UNESCO World Heritage List) Deriving from springs in a cliff almost 200 m high overlooking the plain, calcite-laden waters have created at Pamukkale (Cotton Palace) an unreal landscape, made up of mineral forests, petrified waterfalls and a series of terraced basins
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Hierapolis & Pamukkale, Pamukkale 20280 Turkey
. At the end of the 2nd century B.C. the dynasty of the Attalids, the kings of Pergamon, established the thermal spa of Hierapolis. The ruins of the baths, temples and other Greek monuments can be seen at the site.
Duration: 2 hours
Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Hotel Tripolis or similar 4****
Day 5: Pamukkale – Ephesus – İzmir
Stop At: Ancient City of Ephesus, Selcuk 35920 Turkey
Ancient City of Ephesus (UNESCO World Heritage List)
Ephesus was an ancient city which is located on the west coast of Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era. In the Roman period, it was for many years the fourth largest city of the Roman Empire; ranking behind Rome, Alexandria and Antioch. Here was the capital of Roman Empire in Asia Minor. The city’s importance as a commercial center declined as the harbour was slowly silted up by the Cayster River (Küçük Menderes). Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BC.
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: Meryemana (The Virgin Mary’s House), Sultaniye Mahallesi, Selcuk 35100 Turkey
It is known with certainty that the Virgin Mary went to Ephesus and lived there for some time. Whether or not she died in Ephesus was not known until Anne Catherine Emmerich’s vision. The stigmatized German nun who had never been to Ephesus had a vision of the House of the Virgin Mary and described it in detail to the German writer Clemens Brentano who later published a book about it. Catherine Emmerich died in 1884. In 1891 Paul, Superior of the Lazarists from Izmir read about her vision and found a little building which corresponded with Emmerich’s descriptions. Archeological evidence showed that the little house was from the 6C AD but that the foundations were from the 1C AD.
Duration: 40 minutes
Stop At: The Temple of Artemis, Ataturk, Park Ici Yolu No:12, Selcuk Turkey
Artemis is a goddess who was passionately venerated in an archaic icon. The original was carved of wood, with many breast-like protuberances apparently emphasizing fertility over the virginity traditionally associated with the Greek Artemis. Like Near Eastern and Egyptian deities (and unlike Grek ones), her body and legs are enclosed within a tapering pillar-like term, from which her feet protrude.
Duration: 15 minutes
Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Hotel Kaya Prestige or similar 4**** hotel
Day 6: İzmir – Pergamon – Troy – Çanakkale
Stop At: Bergama, Bergama, Izmir Province, Turkish Aegean Coast
Breakfast at the hotel. Depart for Pergamon, the current Bergama (110 km). Arrival and visit to the ruins of Asclepion, which was the most important hospital in Asia Minor, with its therapeutic center. Continuation to Troy (~ 190 km.). Visit to the famous archaeological city of history that evokes the poetic name of the Iliad saga of Homer. Continuation to Çanakkale (~ 25 km.). Dinner and accommodation at the hotel.
Overnight: Çanakkale Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
Duration: 2 hours
Stop At: Ruins of Pergamum, 8 km (5 mi) from Bergama, Bergama Turkey
Pergamon was an ancient city located in the Anatolia region, approximately 25 kilometres from the Aegean Sea in present-day Bergama, Izmir Province of Turkey. The city had great strategic value, since it overlooked the Caicus River Valley (modern name Bakırçay) which provided access from Pergamon to the Aegean coast. Pergamon reached the height of its influence during the Hellenistic period, becoming the capital of the Attalid kings. During the Roman period the city was the first capital of the Asian province, but it eventually lost this status to local rival, Ephesus.
Duration: 1 minute
Stop At: Pergamon Antik Kenti, Bergama Turkey
Pergamon was an ancient city located in the Anatolia region, approximately 25 kilometres from the Aegean Sea in present-day Bergama, Izmir Province of Turkey. The city had great strategic value, since it overlooked the Caicus River Valley (modern name Bakırçay) which provided access from Pergamon to the Aegean coast. Pergamon reached the height of its influence during the Hellenistic period, becoming the capital of the Attalid kings. During the Roman period the city was the first capital of the Asian province, but it eventually lost this status to local rival, Ephesus.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Troy (Truva), Tevfikiye Koyu, Intepe, Canakkale Turkey
Troy (UNESCO World Heritage List)
Troy is the name of the Bronze Age city attacked in the Trojan War, a popular story in the mythology of ancient Greece, and the name given to the archaeological site in the north-west of Asia Minor (now Turkey) which has revealed a large and prosperous city occupied over millennia. There has been much scholarly debate as to whether mythical Troy actually existed and if so whether the archaeological site was the same city; however, it is now almost universally accepted that the archaeological excavations have revealed the city of Homer’s Iliad. Other names for Troy include Hisarlik (Turkish), Ilios (Homer), Ilion (Greek) and Ilium (Roman).
Duration: 1 hour
Meals included:
• Breakfast
• Dinner
Accommodation included: Hotel Akol or similar 4****
Day 7: Çanakkale – Gallipoli – Anzac Cove – Istanbul
Stop At: Gallipoli, Gallipoli, Province of Lecce, Puglia
Breakfast. We will cross Dardanelles Strait by car ferry and continue to Gallipoli Peninsula. We will visit one of the most emotionally touching places in Turkey, the WWI Battlefields of Gallipoli, including Brighton Beach, Beach Cemetery, ANZAC Cove, Ariburnu Cemetery, ANZAC Commemorative Site, Respect to Mehmetcik Statue, Lone Pine Australian Memorial, Johnston’s Jolly, Turkish and Allied trenches and tunnels, 57. Regiment Turkish Memorial,The Nek,Chunuk Bair New Zealand Memorial. Arrival late (between 08:00 pm and 09:00 pm) to Istanbul transfer to your hotel. End of our services.
Overnight: N/A Drop-off to your hotel Meals: Breakfast
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Anzac Cove, 17900 Canakkale Province, Gallipoli Turkey
Anzac Cove is a small cove on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. It became famous as the site of World War I landing of the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) on 25 April 1915. The cove is 600 metres (2,000 ft) long, bounded by the headlands of Arıburnu to the north and Little Arıburnu, known as Hell Spit, to the south. Following the landing at Anzac Cove, the beach became the main base for the Australian and New Zealand troops for the eight months of the Gallipoli campaign.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Gallipoli National Park, Kabatepe Mevki Eceabat Merkez, Eceabat, Gallipoli 17900 Turkey
We will visit one of the most emotionally touching places in Turkey, the WWI Battlefields of Gallipoli, including Brighton Beach, Beach Cemetery, ANZAC Cove, Ariburnu Cemetery, ANZAC Commemorative Site, Respect to Mehmetcik Statue, Lone Pine Australian Memorial, Johnston’s Jolly, Turkish and Allied trenches and tunnels, 57. Regiment Turkish Memorial,The Nek,Chunuk Bair New Zealand Memorial.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Gallipoli Battlefield, Eceabat Turkey
We will visit one of the most emotionally touching places in Turkey, the WWI Battlefields of Gallipoli, including Brighton Beach, Beach Cemetery, ANZAC Cove, Ariburnu Cemetery, ANZAC Commemorative Site, Respect to Mehmetcik Statue, Lone Pine Australian Memorial, Johnston’s Jolly, Turkish and Allied trenches and tunnels, 57. Regiment Turkish Memorial,The Nek,Chunuk Bair New Zealand Memorial.
Duration: 1 hour
Stop At: Istanbul, Istanbul
Return to Istanbul and transfer to your hotel
Duration: 1 hour
Meals included:
• Breakfast
No accommodation included on this day.
