Türkiye
Turkey
Cappadocia balloons, Istanbul bazaars, turquoise coast
Why go
Turkey is a lot of trip for the money. Istanbul alone is worth three or four days — Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque facing each other, the Grand and Spice bazaars, a Bosphorus cruise between Europe and Asia. Then fly to Cappadocia for the surreal rock landscape, the cave hotels and the dawn balloon flight, and, with more time, Pamukkale's mineral pools and the ruins of Ephesus. It works as a week of highlights or stretches easily to twelve days with the coast added.
Trip highlights
- Sunrise hot-air balloon over Cappadocia
- Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and the bazaars of Istanbul
- A cave-hotel night in Göreme
- Pamukkale's travertine terraces and ancient Ephesus
Ways to travel Turkey
Istanbul and Cappadocia
The classic week — four nights in Istanbul, three in a Cappadocia cave hotel with a balloon flight, linked by a short flight.
Highlights of the west
Add Pamukkale and Ephesus, and a night in Kusadasi or Izmir, for a fuller ten-day loop.
Coast add-on
Extend to the turquoise coast — Fethiye, Ölüdeniz and a gulet (wooden yacht) cruise.
Turkey itineraries to start from
Ready-made routes you can tweak — change hotels, add nights, combine with another destination.
Let's build your Turkey trip
Send us a rough idea — a destination, a month, a budget — and we'll come back with a plan you can actually picture yourself on.