Includes
- Transfers per itinerary
- Hotels per itinerary or similar
- Meals per itinerary; (B) Breakfast, (L) Lunch, (D) Dinner
- Sightseeing per itinerary
- Travel funds escrow protection program
- Touring by modern air-conditioned motor coach
- Professional tour director throughout the tour
Excludes
- Personal expenses
- Airport taxes
- Optional tours
- Customary tips and gratuities
Enjoy a relaxing overnight flight to Istanbul.
Istanbul-Arrival
You are greeted upon arrival and escorted to your hotel. Remainder of the day is at leisure before a welcome briefing by your tour director.
Istanbul
Enjoy a full-day tour of Istanbul including Topkapi Palace (excluding harem), the Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque, St. Sophia (closed on Mondays), and the Grand Bazaar. Consider an optional dinner with belly-dancing entertainment. (B)
Gallipoli-Dardanelles-Canakkale
En route to Gallipoli, visit Anzac Cove, the Lone Pine Cemetery, Chunk Bair battlefield and Gabatepe War Museum. Cross the Dardanelles to Canakkale. (B,D)
Troy-Pergamum-Kusadasi
Visit Troy’s legendary walls this morning before you continue your trip to Pergamum for a visit to the ancient medical center of Asklepion. Enjoy lunch with the locals at a traditional village. Arrive in Kusadasi in the evening. (B,L,D)
Ephesus & Virgin Mary's House-Kusadasi
Today tour the ruins of Ephesus and explore the 2,000 year old marble streets, a theater, the Library of Celsius, and Hadrian's Temple. Take a short drive to see the Virgin Mary's cottage. Continue to a regional rug production center to have firsthand experience of this unique art form. Consider joining an optional afternoon tour to the village of Sirince. (B,D)
Kusadasi-Pamukkale
Drive through lush valleys to Pamukkale, which means "Cotton Castle", describing the white lime cascades formed by mineral springs. Visit the ruins of the Roman health spa of Hierapolis. Enjoy a swim in your hotel's thermal pool. (B,D)
Pamukkale-Perge-Antalya
Relax during a scenic drive from Pamukkale to Antalya. Pay a visit to the ancient city of Perge with its street of colonnades. Enjoy a relaxing afternoon by the Mediterranean Sea, an area known as the Turquoise Coast. (B,D)
Antalya
Today enjoy a full day at leisure or consider an optional tour to Phaselis, an ancient coastal city, or a lazy yacht cruise along the Turquoise Coast of the Mediterranean. (B,D) Note: You can extend your stay for a week at the Crystal Tat Beach Belek Resort (20 miles east of Antalya).
Antalya-Aspendos-Konya
After breakfast depart for Konya, en route visit Aspendos with its magnificently preserved 15,000-person theater. In Konya visit Mevlana's Mausoleum, founder of the Whirling Dervishes, and the Karatay Koran School, displaying colorful Turkish tiles. (B,D)
Konya-Cappadocia
Drive to Cappadocia, famous for it's "moon-like" landscapes. En route visit a 13th century caravanserai and the famous underground city of Saratli. Enjoy dinner at a local restaurant and overnight in Cappadocia. You can join an optional Whirling Dervishes performance. (B,D)
Cappadocia
Consider an early morning optional balloon tour. Experience floating through the volcanic valleys, fairy chimneys and caves at sunrise. After breakfast, visit Goreme, a historical region of Turkey, located among the rock formations, which was first settled back in the Roman period. Many rock churches can still be seen today, as Christianity was then the prevailing religion in that region. Continue to the town of Avanos renowned for its high quality earthenware. Also visit Pasabagi, the Red Valley and attend a brief regional pottery workshop in a cave. (B,D)
Cappadocia-Ankara
In the morning depart for Ankara. Afternoon tour of the Ataturk Mausoleum, founder of modern Turkey, and the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations with its Hittite treasures and artifacts from the world's oldest city.(B,D)
Ankara-Istanbul
After breakfast drive to Istanbul. In the afternoon, consider an optional, relaxing cruise along the Bosphorus, the waterway that separates Europe and Asia. Make time for last-minute shopping at the Spice Market before a farewell dinner. (B,D)
Istanbul-Return
You will be transferred to the airport for your return flight home.(B)
USA-Istanbul