05 DAYS TURKEY TOUR : ISTANBUL AND EPHESUS

DAY 01 ISTANBUL 

Arrival to Istanbul Airport (IST). Our guide will meet you at the airport and will take you to your hotel. Check in. Day free at leisure to explore the world’s capital city on your own. Overnight in Istanbul.

DAY 02 ISTANBUL

Breakfast at hotel. Enjoy full day sighseeing tour, start with Cable car tour to Pierre Loti viewpoint. Then visit Topkapi Palace. After enjoying your lunch in a local Turkish restaurant, transfer to Taksim, the most commercialised and lively area of the city. During the tour today, we will see the Pierre Loti viewpoint and we will lenter the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent (the largest in Istanbul). We will see the walls, the Golden Horn, the fishing district, and we will admire the exterior of Hagia Sofia. Todays highlight, Topkapi Palace which was the administrative centre of the Ottoman Empire, with its magnificent courtyards and its pavilions. There will be time to dine in one of its many restaurants, and you can also take the old tram that crosses the area or go to see the nearby Galata Tower. Transfer to hotel. Overnight in Istanbul.

DAY 03 ISTANBUL

Breakfast at hotel. Our tour today will start with a boat trip on the Bosphorus that will last about two hours. We will undertake the trip on a boat exclusively for our guests. The Bosphorus is a strait that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, which separates Istanbul into two parts: the European part and the Asian one. We will enjoy seeing the liveliness of the strait with its multitude of boats. We will pass under the two bridges that unite Europe and Asia and we will admire the palaces of the sultans, the typical wooden houses and the Ottoman villas. Free time. Transfer to hotel. Overnight in Istanbul.

DAY 04 ISTANBUL – EPHESUS – KUSADASI

Breakfast at hotel. Today you will leave early from Istanbul. You will take your seats in fast ferry (variable schedules according to seasons and months) the Sea of Marmara, after about two hours of crossing, you will arrive at the port of BANDIRMA (or Yalova according to schedules). Then continue the route through the interior of Turkey. At the beginning of the afternoon you will arrive to EPHESUS, the best preserved ancient city of Asia Minor; 2000 years ago it had a quarter of a million inhabitants. We know Saint John´s Basilica, after it, the house of the Virgin Mary and the archaeological site (tickets included). You then continue to KUSADASI, a popular coastal town with a lot of atmosphere, commercial life and a small castle. Transfer to hotel. Overnight in Kusadasi.

DAY 05 KUSADASI – IZMIR – BURSA – ISTANBUL

Breakfast at hotel. You will leave for the city with the fourth largest population in Turkey: IZMIR. You will see the church of Saint Polycarp, the oldest in the city, which reminds us of the importance of this area in early Christianity (entrance included). You then return to inland Turkey. Stop en route for lunch before reaching BURSA, the fourth largest city in Turkey, whose historic centre has been declared UNESCO World Heritage, with its traditional commercial districts, mosques, religious schools, public baths … The green mosque stands out. Arrival in ISTANBUL at the end of the day. Our services end here…