Two continents, one trip.
Balloons over Cappadocia at first light, the Bosphorus at dusk, Ephesus before the coaches arrive. What each one is like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven that sell out by April.
A basket over Göreme before sunrise, a ferry between two continents, the travertine pools at Pamukkale with the light going. These are the ones travellers put in the calendar before anything else.
Istanbul: Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Istanbul Bosphorus dinner cruise on a mega yacht with a 3-course meal, live music, and stage dancers, plus a private table option.
From $34 per person
Read the review →
★ 4.8Sells out earlyIstanbul: Daytime or Sunset Sightseeing Cruise & Audio GuideFrom $814,430 reviews
★ 5.0Crowd favouriteBest of Istanbul 1, 2 or 3-Day Private Guided Istanbul TourFrom $1008,922 reviews
★ 4.6Easy winIstanbul: Basilica Cistern Fast-Track Entry and Audio GuideFrom $447,521 reviews
★ 5.0Worth the early startCappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride / Royal BalloonFrom $1336,829 reviews
★ 5.0Good with childrenCappadocia: Goreme Hot Air Balloon Flight at SunriseFrom $1424,924 reviews
★ 4.4Traveller favouriteIstanbul: Hodjapasha Whirling Dervishes Show & ExhibitionFrom $324,790 reviews
The valley wakes up in the air.
Pickup in the dark, a burner going somewhere over Göreme, and a hundred other envelopes rising out of the same valley as the light arrives. It lasts about an hour. Flights are grounded by wind with no notice, so give Cappadocia two mornings rather than one and keep the second in reserve.
Istanbul, Cappadocia or the coast?
Most first trips reach for all three and one of them ends up with an afternoon. Here is what each region actually asks of the calendar, and what it hands back.
Two continents
Give Istanbul three days
from $61 · 3,977 reviews
One morning in Sultanahmet buys you the outline of it. Three days gets you Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque without queueing twice, the cisterns underneath, a ferry across to the Asian side and an evening on the water. Both are working mosques, so cover shoulders and knees and take your shoes off inside.
See the Old City walks →
Up before four
Two mornings in Cappadocia
from $159 · 2,347 reviews
Book the balloon for the first morning and hold the second back, because wind cancels flights and nobody tells you the night before. The daylight fills itself: rock churches cut into the cliffs at Göreme, the red and green valley routes, an underground city that goes down eight levels.
Compare the balloon flights →
Sea and ruins
A week down the coast
10 to 11 hours (approx.) · from $23 · 2,300 reviews
Antalya puts a Roman harbour, a waterfall that drops straight into the sea and the Taurus foothills inside one day. West of it the water goes the colour the brochures promise, and the ancient cities along that shore sit almost empty through the afternoon heat.
See what Antalya runs →
The strait is better at night.
Ferries keep crossing long after the bridges start changing colour, and the boat that earns its money is the one that stops moving: dinner somewhere between Europe and Asia, the old city going gold behind you. Take the earlier sailing if you want the sunset in it, the later one if you want the lights.
You will eat better than you planned.
Breakfast arrives as nine small plates and none of them is toast. The classes worth paying for teach the two or three dishes you will actually cook again at home, and the food walks end up in back streets rather than on the tourist row.
Worship, not entertainment.
The whirling of the Mevlevi order is a form of worship with a fixed order to it, and the halls that respect that ask for quiet, no applause and no flash. Other evenings pair the turning with dinner and folk music, which is a different sort of night out. The listings say plainly which is which.
Marble streets, no roof.
Ephesus is a city rather than a ruin: a paved main road, a library front still standing three storeys, terrace houses with their mosaics kept under cover. Go at opening or after four, and put the House of the Virgin Mary on the hill above it into the same day if the coach timings allow.
Turkey is a long way across.
Istanbul for the ferries and the mosques. Cappadocia for the morning you get up at four. Pamukkale for the water that turned to stone. Ölüdeniz for the colour of it.
Twelve shapes a Turkish day takes.
Balloon baskets, boat decks, hammam marble and hillsides full of columns. Pick the one that sounds like your sort of morning; everything behind it carries a price and a verdict.
You came for the water.
Something like a thousand miles of Mediterranean and Aegean, warm from May into October. Gulets sleep aboard for three nights, day boats stop for lunch and a swim, and half the ancient cities down here have a beach at the bottom of them.
Ten days, none of them wasted.
The standard first loop is Istanbul, then Cappadocia, then a stretch of coast, and it works because the internal flights are an hour and cost very little. This is roughly how the days fall.
Days 1–4
Istanbul, slowly
Sultanahmet on foot the first morning, Topkapi and the cistern the second, a ferry over to Kadıköy on the third. Keep one evening free for the water.
Plan the Istanbul days →
Days 5–6
Cappadocia, two mornings
Fly into Kayseri or Nevşehir. Balloon on the first clear morning, valleys and an underground city on the other. Two nights is the minimum that survives a cancellation.
Plan the Cappadocia days →
Days 7–10
Down to the coast
Antalya for the harbour and the waterfalls, or Fethiye if the lagoon is what you came for. Ephesus and Pamukkale slot in on the way if you drive it rather than fly.
Plan the coast days →
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