Best of Turkey Light Tour from Istanbul for 4 Days

Your tour starts from Istanbul with an early morning flight to Kayseri or the night before by bus to Ürgüp.

Day 1: Explore the “Fairy Chimneys” in Devrent Valley and Paşaba (Monks’) Valley, then practise making pottery using an antiquated method in Avanos. Visit Pigeon Valley, the petrified valley of Uçhisar, the highest point in the area, and Göreme, the “open-air museum” housing the earliest churches and chapels carved in fairy chimneys displaying the finest examples of frescoes. Dinner and overnight stay at the hotel.

Day 2: Visit the Hospital Monastery, and wander through the “wonderland” at Kızılçukur (Red Valley) and the village of Çavuşin, which features houses cut out of the rock. Early Christians used to hide out in the rock-cut city of Kaymaklı, which is eight to nine levels below the surface of the earth, to avoid Roman and Byzantine persecution. Investigate the rock structures in Çatalkaya. From Esentepe, a wonderful overview of the fairy chimneys would be a bonus visit for today. You will love what you see today.

Overnight journey to Kuşadası.

Day 3: We will arrive in Kuşadası early in the morning. Departure for Ephesus, one of the twelve Ionian League cities during the classical Greek period. Ephesus is also mentioned in the Book of Revelation as one of the “Seven Churches of Anatolia (Asia).” Visit Ephesus’s ancient Greco-Roman city, Marble Street, Odeon, Bouleterion, Temple of Hadrian and Serapis, Agora, Celsus’ Library, Great Theatre, Double Church, Arcadian Way, and Gate of Magnesia. Mount Solmissos, the Virgin Mary’s final resting place, and lunch in Selçuk. St. John Basilica and the Temple of Artemis, one of the “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,” are both worth seeing. Dinner and overnight in Selçuk or the traditional Anatolian village Şirince.

Day 4: Early in the morning we will travel to ancient Pergamum, the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamum and an ancient Greek city. Visit Aesculapium, an ancient medical centre named after Aesculapius, the “God of Medicine,” where various healing methods such as blood transfusion, meditation, and music and water therapy were first used. After lunch, continue to Pergamum Acropolis, which includes the Athena and Trojan Temples, the Temple of Zeus, the Temple of Dionysos, the Gymnasium of Youth, the Odeon, the Library, the Agora, the Great Theatre, and the Roman Bath.

Return to İzmir for an evening flight or night bus from Kuşadası to İstanbul.

Tour Code: PLN014