Turkey

Welcome to Europe!!! Upon arriving at the airport we will be waiting to transfer you to your hotel. You can enjoy your free time until your tour starts. Please, check the informative posters placed at the hotel reception area which have all the information about your upcoming services such as meeting place, time, and the guide’s name.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Sightseeing tour. Cable car to Pierre Loti’s viewpoint. Topkapi Palace. Night transfer to Taksim.

A sightseeing tour of the city. We find ourselves in a city built on two continents. On our tour, we will include a cable car ride up to the Pierre Loti viewpoint and we will enter the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent (the largest in Istanbul). We will see the walls, the Golden Horn, and the fishing district, and we will admire the exterior of Hagia Sofia. After the visit, we will offer tickets and a visit to the Top Kapi Palace, which was the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire, with its magnificent courtyards and its pavilions.

At the end of the afternoon, we will provide a transfer to the Taksim neighborhood, the most commercialized and lively area of the city. 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.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Boat trip on the Bosphorus.

Today we include a boat trip on the Bosphorus that will last about two hours, exclusively for Europamundo travelers. The Bosphorus is a strait that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, which separates Istanbul into two parts: the European and Asian parts. 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.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: High-speed train. Arrival in the fantastic Cappadocia region. Dinner included.

Today we travel by train: from the station in the Asian district, we take the most modern and fast train in Turkey, a pleasant 4-hour trip through the Anatolian landscapes, where you can also enjoy the train café. Arrival in ANKARA. After some time to grab lunch at the station, we will continue traveling by bus to the Mausoleum of Ataturk. Afterward, we continue to Cappadocia. We will pass through the SALT LAKE, with its incredible landscapes. Arrival in AVANOS (CAPPADOCIA), dinner included.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: landscapes of spectacular shapes. Picturesque towns. Dinner included.

Full day in the fantastic region of CAPPADOCIA, with its lunar landscapes, its churches, and troglodyte villages. We will discover the GOREME Valley with its open-air museum and its churches carved into the rocks, entry tickets included. We will visit UCHISAR, a natural fortress. In KAIMACLI we will visit the underground city that could house 30,000 people. Returning to Avanos we stop at PASABAG, the valley of the fairies, and we will walk in this spectacular natural area. Free time and dinner are included.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Ihlara Valley, Caravanserai, Konya. Dinner included.

At the far end of Cappadocia, we will visit the IHLARA Valley; known for the freshness of its waters, its churches, and villages excavated in the rock. Then we continue our route, with a stop in an old CARAVANSERAI from the 13th Century before arriving in KONYA where we visit the Mausoleum of Mevlana. Here we will learn about the sect of the Dervishes (entrance included). Dinner included. At night, we suggest that you attend the dance performance of the whirling dervishes in the cultural center.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Fantastic Cotton Castle at the end of the day. Dinner included.

We take a scenic road between the lakes and get to know EGRIDIR, a beautiful town next to a large lake, with its walls and mosques. There’s time to have lunch. We then continue to PAMUKKALE-Hierapolis, whose calcareous waters have created the Cotton Castle (entrance included). Dinner included.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Ephesus. Dinner included.

We leave for EPHESUS, the best preserved ancient city of Asia Minor; 2000 years ago it had a quarter of a million inhabitants. We see the house of the Virgin Mary, the Basilica of Saint John, and the impressive ruins of Ephesus (entrance included). We then go on to KUSADASI, a popular coastal town with a lot of atmosphere, commercial life, and a small castle. Dinner included.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT: Interior of Anatolia. Hanging bridges crossing the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus Strait.

We leave for the city with the fourth largest population in Turkey: IZMIR. We make a brief visit with our guide to this city considered the most westernized and modern city in the country in terms of values, ideology, and lifestyle. We then return to inland Turkey. Stop en route for lunch before reaching BURSA, the fourth largest city in Turkey, whose historic center has been declared UNESCO World Heritage, with its traditional commercial districts, mosques, religious schools, public baths … The green mosque stands out. Arrived in ISTANBUL at the end of the day.