Istanbul, Cappadocia & Pamukkale: Türkiye

Türkiye is the country that refuses to be one thing. Istanbul straddles two continents and three empires — Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman — and carries the physical evidence of all three in a single afternoon walk from the Hagia Sophia to the Grand Bazaar. Cappadocia is geology that looks like a film set: volcanic tuff eroded into towers and cones, riddled with cave dwellings and underground cities that sheltered entire communities for centuries. Pamukkale is calcium carbonate deposited by thermal springs over millennia into white terraces that cascade down a hillside above the ruins of Hierapolis, a Greek spa city founded in the 2nd century BC. Nine days is a considered amount of time to move through all three properly. The route begins with the flight into Istanbul and an overnight in Bolu, then heads east through Ankara — where Atatürk's mausoleum anchors the capital — and across the Anatolian plateau to Cappadocia. Two nights in the region give you time for Uçhisar Castle, Pigeon Valley, the underground city at Derinkuyu, and the optional hot air balloon at dawn. The route then crosses to Pamukkale for the Cotton Castle terraces and Hierapolis before heading northwest through Bursa — the first Ottoman capital, with its Grand Mosque and silk bazaar — and into Istanbul for two full days. In Istanbul you cover the Sultanahmet district on foot: the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, the Hippodrome and the Grand Bazaar. The Bosphorus cruise, Eyüp Sultan Mosque and Pierre Loti Hill fill the final morning before the flight home. Halal meals are included throughout every day of this itinerary. This tour is for you if you want Türkiye's three defining landscapes — city, cave and terrace — covered well, in a single structured departure.

• ◆Hot air balloon over Cappadocia — optional at dawn above the fairy chimneys
• ◆Hagia Sophia — 1,500 years of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman history in one building
• ◆Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed) — six minarets, still an active place of worship
• ◆Pamukkale Cotton Castle — calcium terraces above the ruins of Hierapolis
• ◆Bosphorus cruise — the strait that divides Europe and Asia
• ◆Topkapi Palace — seat of the Ottoman Empire for four centuries
• ◆Anıtkabir in Ankara — mausoleum of Atatürk, founder of modern Türkiye
• ◆Cappadocia Underground City — a cave network that housed thousands in antiquity
• ◆Bursa Grand Mosque & Kozahan — the first Ottoman capital's silk bazaar

Day-by-Day