6 Days Istanbul, Cappadocia, Pamukkale & Ephesus Package Tour

After breakfast the morning is free. Istanbul was capital to the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires, and the old city still carries all three.

Optional Old City Small Group Tour (6–8 guests, English-speaking guide, entrance fees and local lunch): USD 135 per person instead of USD 145, minimum 2 guests. Its five core stops are described below, and you can also visit them independently.

🕌 Hagia Sophia

Completed in 537 under Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia has served as a church, a mosque and a museum. Its colossal dome seems to float above a space of gold mosaics, marble and light, and it remains the defining monument of Istanbul.

🕌 Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque)

Built in the early 17th century, it is named for the blue İznik tiles that line its interior. Six minarets and a cascade of domes make it one of the most recognisable silhouettes in the world.

🏇 Hippodrome and Obelisk of Theodosius

Once the centre of Byzantine public life, with chariot races before tens of thousands of spectators. The Egyptian Obelisk and the Serpent Column still stand where the track once ran.

👑 Topkapı Palace

For about four centuries this was the residence of Ottoman sultans. Courtyards, the Imperial Treasury and the Harem hint at palace life, with views across the Bosphorus.

🛍️ Grand Bazaar

One of the world’s oldest and largest covered markets, with thousands of shops selling ceramics, textiles, lamps, jewellery and spices. It is a lively end to a day of history.

On your free day you are welcome to add the Bosphorus, Galata Tower or the Spice Bazaar.

✈️ Evening flight

You are collected from your hotel, check in yourself at the airline counter with your passport and fly to Cappadocia. A driver meets you with a name sign and transfers you to your cave hotel.

Meals: Breakfast

Few places on earth feel as unreal as Cappadocia at first light. Millions of years ago, volcanoes across central Anatolia buried the plateau in ash that hardened into soft tuff. Wind, rain and frost then carved it into cones, ridges and canyons, and people carved it further, cutting homes, churches, stables and entire cities into the rock. Today you wake up in a cave hotel inside that landscape.

An optional sunrise balloon flight opens the day: drifting silently above the valleys as dozens of balloons rise with the sun is, for many guests, the single most memorable hour of the whole week. If weather cancels the flight, the balloon payment is fully reimbursed. After breakfast, your sightseeing begins around 09:30–10:00 on either the Northern or the Southern route, depending on the day.

🌄 Northern route: Göreme Open-Air Museum

A UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985, Göreme began as a cluster of monasteries carved into a rocky valley. Inside its small chapels, painted ceilings and walls preserve Byzantine frescoes of saints and Gospel scenes, some still surprisingly rich in colour. It is the best place to understand how faith shaped this landscape.

🏰 Ortahisar

The village rises beneath a huge rock castle honeycombed with passages and rooms. For generations locals used cool cave chambers to store fruit and produce, a neat example of how communities adapted daily life to the tuff.

🍄 Paşabağ (Monks Valley)

Here the fairy chimneys stand in clusters, many topped with mushroom-like caps of harder rock. Early hermits are said to have lived in the cones, and the forest of shapes is one of Cappadocia’s most photographed scenes.

🐪 Devrent (Imagination Valley)

Erosion has sculpted the rocks into forms that look like animals and figures, so the game here is to spot a camel, a seal or a face. It is a playful stop that delights children and adults alike.

🏔️ Southern route: Uçhisar Castle

The natural rock fortress is among the highest points in the region. Climb to the top for a sweeping view over valleys, villages and the snowy silhouette of distant volcanoes on clear days.

🥾 Red & Rose Valleys

Enjoy about 4 km of walking through rock walls that glow rose, pink and ochre, especially in the softer light of the day. Along the way you pass rock-cut churches that hint at the region’s early Christian heritage.

🏘️ Çavuşin

One of Cappadocia’s historic settlements, its cliffs are pierced by old dwellings and chapels. Wandering past the abandoned cave houses shows how generations lived within the rock.

🕳️ Kaymaklı Underground City

Descend through narrow tunnels into a hidden city of storerooms, kitchens, stables, ventilation shafts and rolling stone doors. Communities sheltered here in times of danger, and stepping inside gives a strong sense of how they survived for days underground.

🕊️ Pigeon Valley and Three Beauties

Thousands of pigeon holes are carved into the valley walls, once used to collect droppings as fertiliser for vineyards and fields. The route ends at the Three Beauties, a trio of tall fairy chimneys that make a fitting last photograph.

🍽️ Lunch, crafts and flight west

Lunch is at a local restaurant. You may be invited to a handmade carpet or ceramic demonstration; if you are not interested, simply tell your guide. You then transfer to the airport and fly to Izmir, direct or via Istanbul, where a local representative takes you to your hotel in Kuşadası or Selçuk. On some days the connection lands after midnight, so keep your evening flexible.

Meals: Breakfast and lunch

Walk back two thousand years in a single morning. Ephesus was one of the great cities of the ancient Mediterranean, a busy harbour, a centre of trade, learning and worship, and later one of the early Christian communities. Your guide meets you around 09:00–09:30 and leads you through it in an order that tells its story.

🏛️ Temple of Artemis

Begin at the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Little remains beyond a lone column and foundations, but knowing that a vast marble temple stood here to honour the goddess helps you appreciate the wealth and devotion that made Ephesus famous.

🏙️ The Ancient City

Step onto the paved streets of Ephesus and follow the route of officials, merchants and pilgrims. Columns, fountains, public buildings and mosaics surround you, and the scale of the site is what makes it so powerful.

🏛️ Temple of Hadrian

A small but exquisitely detailed temple on Curetes Street, with an arched Corinthian façade and carved reliefs. It is an elegant reminder of Roman Ephesus under imperial patronage.

📚 Library of Celsus

The two-storey façade is the most photographed image of Ephesus. Built in the early 2nd century AD in memory of the Roman governor Celsus, it once held thousands of scrolls. Niches with statues of Wisdom, Knowledge, Intelligence and Valor still watch over the entrance.

🎭 The Great Theater

Carved into the slope of Mount Pion, this enormous theatre seated roughly 25,000 people for plays, meetings and gladiatorial shows. Stand in the stage area and look up at the tiers to grasp the scale of civic life here.

🛁 Baths and Hamams

Roman baths were social centres as well as places to wash. The remains here show heated rooms, changing areas and exercise spaces, revealing how Ephesians relaxed, talked business and stayed in touch.

⚓ The Old Harbor

Ephesus once stood beside the sea, and a great harbour road led ships’ passengers into the city. Over the centuries silt filled the harbour and the sea retreated, which is part of why the city declined.

🍽️ Lunch

Take a relaxed break at a local restaurant, with vegetarian, vegan and halal options available on request.

⛪ House of Virgin Mary

Set among pine trees above Selçuk, this small stone house is traditionally linked to Mary’s final years. It is a pilgrimage place for Christians and is also respected by many Muslim visitors, and several popes have visited. After the monumental ruins, its calm atmosphere feels like a deep breath.

👜 Leather fashion presentation

You may be invited to a short leather fashion show. There is no obligation, and guests who prefer to skip it may tell the guide.

Meals: Breakfast and lunch

Today begins early, around 07:30–08:00, because the best time to meet Pamukkale is before the heat and crowds build. The drive is scenic, and the first sight of the white hillside rising from the plain is a moment travellers tend to remember.

🤍 Pamukkale, the “Cotton Castle”

Calcium-rich thermal springs have flowed down this slope for thousands of years, leaving a chain of dazzling white terraces and shallow turquoise pools. From a distance the hillside looks like snow or a cotton field, which gives the place its Turkish name. It is one of Turkey’s most distinctive natural sights.

👣 Walking on the terraces

Where conditions allow, you can walk barefoot across designated areas of travertine. The mineral surface feels smooth and the warm water gently flows around your feet. Wear sunglasses, because the white rock is very bright.

🏛️ Hierapolis

Above the terraces lies Hierapolis, an ancient city founded in the 2nd century BC around the thermal springs. Visitors came from across the Roman world to bathe and seek relief, and some even came to spend their last years here. The UNESCO-listed ruins include a colonnaded main street, a large theatre and one of the biggest necropolises in Anatolia, with tombs spread across the hills.

🎭 Hierapolis Roman Theatre

The well-preserved theatre, built into the hillside, still shows its rows of seats and elaborately carved stage building. Climb to the upper tiers for a view over the plain.

⚱️ Hierapolis Necropolis

Thousands of tombs, sarcophagi and tumuli line the road out of the city, forming one of the largest ancient cemeteries in Anatolia. It shows how important the city’s healing waters were to those who hoped to stay for good.

🔥 Temple of Apollo and Plutonium

The remains stand near a sacred spring where gases rising from the ground were believed to be a gateway to the underworld. Your guide explains the ancient beliefs that surrounded the site.

🏊 Cleopatra Pool (optional)

For a special refreshment, swim in warm mineral water among fallen ancient columns, a setting unlike any ordinary swimming pool. The entrance fee is not included in the tour price.

✈️ Return to Istanbul

After lunch at a local restaurant, you transfer to Denizli Çardak Airport and fly back to Istanbul. A representative meets you on arrival and takes you to your hotel for the night.

Meals: Breakfast and lunch

Enjoy a final breakfast. According to your international flight time you are transferred to Istanbul Airport (IST) or Sabiha Gökçen (SAW), complete self check-in and fly home with a full story of Turkey. Our services end here.

Meals: Breakfast