6-Day Private Turkey Tour: Cappadocia, Pamukkale & Ephesus

Istanbul to Cappadocia and North Tour

We pick you from your hotel in Istanbul and transfer to the airport for flight to Cappadocia. We can also arrange a connecting flight according to your international arrival flight. Upon your arrival to Cappadocia your private tour guide will welcome you at the airport. You will start your day after a light breakfast.

Our next stop is the Goreme Open Air Museum, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Your guide will explain the meanings of the frescoes in the cave churches, decorated with scenes of the Old and New Testaments dating back to the 10th century. The site has been used as a monastery since the first years of Christianity.

k. Day one concludes in Avanos, a picturesque town on a river that supplies clay for the 4000 year-old Avanos tradition of pottery. A kick-wheel demonstration by a local potter and your chance at trying this ancient custom.

Monk’s Valley with the famous mushroom-shaped fairy chimneys as well as St. Simeon’s monk cell carved into the rock.

Devrent’s animal-shaped rock formations are really interensting Cappadocia phenomenon.

Light Breakfast

Cave Hotel Stay

South Cappadocia ( Green Tour)

Our professional guide and the driver will pick you up from your hotel at 9:30. Our first stop is the amazing Kaymakli Underground City. It is the first and most popular underground city in Cappadocia. This complex carved underground is used for hundreds of years by locals to hide from Romans, Persians and Arabs.

After departing Kaymakli, we will drive further south to the magnificent verdant Ihlara Valley. We walk alongside the Melendiz River for about 1 hour which winds its way through the Ihlara gorge, stopping for lunch in a restaurant on the river in the village of Belisirma.

After lunch, we continue to the Selime Monastery, the largest rock-cut monastery in Cappadocia with a large cave cathedral and breathtaking views over the area.

On our way back to Goreme we stop at the spectacular vista point overlooking Pigeon Valley. Our final stop will be at a local onyx factory to see a demonstration on carving and shaping onyx. We will then drive back to your hotel arriving around 6pm.

At the Hotel

Cave Hotel Stay

Cappadocia to Konya

We leave Cappadocia to Konya city. On our way our first stop will be Sultan Hanı Kervansaray.

Çatalhöyük was a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 6400 BC, and flourished around 7000 BC. In July 2012, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Mevlâna Museum in Konya, Turkey, started life as the dervish lodge (tekke) of the Mevlevi order, better known as the whirling dervishes. It houses the mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (Turkish: Celaleddin-i Rumi), a Persian Sufi mystic.

Stay in Konya at 4 or 5 Star City Hotel

Konya to Pamukkale

After breakfast at the hotel we will start our day and drive to Denizli city for Pamukkale visit.

Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish, is a natural site. It is located in Turkey's Inner Aegean region, in the River Menderes valley, which has a temperate climate for most of the year. People have visited the area for thousands of years, due to the attraction of the thermal pools.

Hierapolis was a tourist center with its hot springs. The hot springs have been used as a spa since at least the 2nd century BC, with many patrons retiring or dying there as evidenced by the large necropolis filled with tombs, most famously that of Marcus Aurelius Ammianos, which bears a relief depicting the earliest known example of a crank and rod mechanism, and the Tomb of Philip the Apostle. It was added as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988.

At the Hotel

Stay at a 4 or 5 Star Thermal Hotel in Karahayıt

Denizli to Selçuk

After our breakfast at the hotel we will drive to Selçuk city for visiting Ephesus Ancient City. It takes around 3 hours drive. Upon our arrival we first visit one of the best quality leather attelier in the city. After wards we have our lunch.

Ephesus was built in the 10th century BC on the site of the former Arzawan capital by Attic and Ionian Greek colonists. During the Classical Greek era, it was one of twelve cities that were members of the Ionian League. The city came under the control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC. Ephesus was recipient city of one of the Pauline epistles; one of the seven churches of Asia addressed in the Book of Revelation; the Gospel of John may have been written there; and it was the site of several 5th-century Christian Councils.

The House of the Virgin Mary is a Catholic shrine located on Mt. Koressos (Turkish: Bülbüldağı, "Mount Nightingale") in the vicinity of Ephesus, 7 kilometres from Selçuk in Turkey. The house was discovered in the 19th century by following the descriptions in the reported visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, a Roman Catholic nun and visionary, which were published as a book by Clemens Brentano after her death.

at the hotel

Stay at 4 or 5 Star Hotel in Kuşadası

Izmir to Istanbul

Transfer from hotel to the airport in Izmir and fly to Istanbul. Upon your arrival to Istanbul we will transfer you to your hotel.

At the Hotel