Private Turkey Tours & Tailor-Made Holidays

Your private driver meets you at Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW) holding a sign with your name, no matter what time your flight lands. On the drive into the Old City your guide gives you a first orientation to Istanbul — a metropolis of over 15 million people that sits, uniquely in the world, on two continents at once, split by the Bosphorus Strait. Check in to your centrally located hotel in Sultanahmet, within walking distance of every major sight covered on Day 2. The evening is free; ask your guide for a personal restaurant recommendation over a welcome glass of Turkish tea.

Today covers the historic peninsula of Sultanahmet, home to more UNESCO-listed monuments per square kilometre than almost anywhere else on earth.

• Hagia Sophia — Commissioned by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in 537 AD, this was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years before its conversion into an Ottoman imperial mosque in 1453. Its vast dome, seeming to float on light, is still considered one of the great engineering achievements of the ancient world.
• Sultan Ahmed Mosque (the "Blue Mosque") — Built between 1609 and 1616, it takes its popular name from the more than 20,000 handmade Iznik ceramic tiles lining its interior. It remains an active place of worship, so visits are timed respectfully around prayer times.
• Hippodrome of Constantinople — Once the social and sporting heart of the Byzantine Empire, this square still holds the 3,500-year-old Obelisk of Theodosius, brought from Egypt in 390 AD.
• Topkapi Palace — The primary residence of Ottoman Sultans for nearly 400 years, its treasury and harem quarters offer an unmatched window into imperial court life, diplomacy and the private lives of the dynasty that ruled from here to Vienna's gates.
• Basilica Cistern — An underground Byzantine water reservoir from 532 AD, its forest of 336 marble columns (including two carved with Medusa heads) makes for one of Istanbul's most atmospheric hidden sights.

Lunch is at a local Ottoman-cuisine restaurant selected by your guide, not a tour-bus buffet. The afternoon is reserved for the covered Grand Bazaar, one of the oldest and largest covered markets in the world, with over 4,000 shops across 61 winding streets dating to 1461.

A private boat takes you along the Bosphorus Strait, the narrow waterway separating Europe from Asia.

• Bosphorus Cruise — Sail past Ottoman waterside mansions (yalıs), the fortified walls of Rumeli Fortress (built in 1452 to seal off the strait before the conquest of Constantinople), and the suspension bridges linking Europe and Asia.
• Ortaköy — A photogenic waterside neighborhood beneath the Bosphorus Bridge, home to the baroque Ortaköy Mosque and a lively promenade of cafés and craft stalls.
• Dolmabahçe Palace — The lavish 19th-century seat built by Sultan Abdülmecid I to rival the palaces of Europe, and the building where the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, spent his final days in 1938.
• Egyptian (Spice) Bazaar — One of Istanbul's oldest covered markets (1664), its arched corridors lined with saffron, sumac, Turkish delight and loose teas, followed by an optional visit to a working Turkish hamam for a traditional bath and massage.

A short domestic flight brings you to Cappadocia, a volcanic plateau in central Anatolia carved by millennia of erosion into "fairy chimney" rock cones, cave dwellings and hidden valleys.

• Hot-Air Balloon Flight (optional) — Guests who wish to greet Cappadocia from above may join an optional flight at dawn; weather permitting, this is consistently rated the single most memorable experience on the entire tour.
• Uçhisar Castle — The highest point in the region, this natural rock fortress riddled with tunnels and chambers offers a 360° panorama over the whole Cappadocian valley system.
• Göreme Open-Air Museum — A UNESCO World Heritage monastic complex of rock-cut Byzantine churches decorated with frescoes dating from the 10th to 12th centuries, hand-carved directly into the soft volcanic tuff.
• Pigeon Valley Viewpoint — Named for the hundreds of dovecotes carved into its cliffs by local farmers to collect fertiliser, this valley between Göreme and Uçhisar is one of Cappadocia's most photographed panoramas at sunset.

Descend into the Kaymaklı Underground City, an eight-level subterranean settlement carved from soft volcanic tuff, first used as far back as the Phrygian era and dramatically expanded by Byzantine Christians hiding from Arab raids between the 6th and 10th centuries — complete with stables, wine presses, ventilation shafts and one-tonne rolling stone doors that sealed passages from the inside. Continue to Devrent (Imaginary) Valley and Paşabağ (Monks Valley) to see multi-headed fairy chimneys shaped by wind and rain over millions of years, then finish in the pottery town of Avanos, where artisans have thrown clay from the Kızılırmak River using techniques passed down since Hittite times.

Travel across the Anatolian plateau toward Pamukkale, breaking the journey with several stops rich in Seljuk and Sufi history.

• Sultanhanı Caravanserai — One of the largest and best-preserved Seljuk caravanserais in Turkey, built in 1229 as a fortified rest-stop for camel caravans travelling the medieval Silk Road.
• Mevlana Museum, Konya — Recognisable by its turquoise fluted dome, this former Sufi lodge houses the tomb of the 13th-century poet and mystic Rumi (Mevlana), founder of the "whirling dervish" order.
• Alaeddin Hill & Mosque — Konya's ancient citadel mound, topped by the 12th-century Seljuk Alaeddin Mosque, offering a green, elevated break in the city centre.
• Lake Beyşehir Countryside — The route skirts Turkey's largest freshwater lake region, a scenic stretch of farmland and orchards before descending toward Pamukkale, where you arrive in the evening at your hotel near the famous white terraces.

Pamukkale means "cotton castle" in Turkish — a striking cascade of brilliant-white travertine terraces formed over thousands of years by calcium-rich thermal springs, and the ancient Greco-Roman spa city built directly above them.

• Pamukkale Travertines — Walk barefoot through the shallow, mineral-warm terraced pools that have drawn bathers here since antiquity.
• Hierapolis Ancient Theatre — A remarkably intact 15,000-seat Roman theatre built into the hillside in the 2nd century AD, with elaborately carved stage friezes still in place.
• Antique Pool (Cleopatra's Pool) — A thermal pool where Roman-era marble columns, toppled by an ancient earthquake, still lie submerged beneath the water where guests once bathed.
• Hierapolis Necropolis — One of the largest ancient cemeteries in Anatolia, with over 1,200 tombs, sarcophagi and tumuli spread along the old city's approach road.

Drive toward the Aegean coast, breaking the journey with three distinct stops before arriving in Ephesus's gateway town.

• Laodicea Ancient City — One of the Seven Churches of Revelation named in the New Testament, this large, still actively excavated Roman city retains its colonnaded main street, stadium and vast bath complex.
• Aphrodisias Ancient City — Famed in antiquity for its marble-carving school, its well-preserved stadium is one of the best-surviving examples of a Roman sporting arena anywhere in the Mediterranean.
• Şirince Village — A hillside Ottoman-Greek village of stone-and-timber houses, known today for its fruit wines, olive-oil soaps and handmade lace.
• Selçuk — Arrive in the late afternoon in this gateway town to Ephesus, home to the ruins of the Temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and the Basilica of St. John, and settle in for an early start the next morning.

Ephesus is widely considered the best-preserved ancient city in the Eastern Mediterranean, once a Roman port of a quarter of a million people and one of the largest cities in the ancient world. Walk its marble main street past the Temple of Hadrian, the Terrace Houses, the two-storey Library of Celsus (built circa 117 AD to hold 12,000 scrolls), and the 25,000-seat Great Theatre where, according to the Book of Acts, the Apostle Paul once preached. A short drive up Bülbül Mountain leads to the House of the Virgin Mary, a modest stone chapel venerated by both Christian and Muslim pilgrims as the traditional final home of Mary, mother of Jesus. In the evening, fly back to Istanbul for your final night.

Enjoy a final Turkish breakfast before your private transfer to the airport for your onward flight. If your departure is later in the day, ask us about a half-day add-on — a Bosphorus ferry to the Asian side, the Basilica Cistern, or simply free time to shop for a last kilim or box of Turkish delight.