Explore the ruins of ancient Troy, the city made famous by Homer’s tales of Priam, Hector, Paris and Helen. Walk through an archaeological site that reveals nine layers of settlement and see a replica wooden horse recalling the legendary siege.

The excavations tell a story beyond myth: communities built and rebuilt on this strategic ground over millennia. Seeing those remains brings the literary legend into contact with the history of a real ancient city.

Taste a traditional pottery kebab at a local restaurant in Cappadocia. This regional dish is cooked in a sealed clay vessel, bringing together local food traditions and the area’s longstanding relationship with pottery.

Sharing the meal offers a different way to experience Cappadocian craftsmanship: clay is part of the cooking as well as the region’s artisan work. The dinner centres on a distinctive local preparation rather than a standard hotel meal.

Explore Istanbul’s historic Sultanahmet district, beginning at the Hippodrome, once the centre of Byzantine public life. See its fourth-century Egyptian obelisk and view the Blue Mosque, celebrated for its slender minarets.

Admire Hagia Sophia, whose vast dome has presided over the city through its Byzantine and Ottoman eras. Together, these landmarks reveal the layers of an imperial capital at the meeting point of Europe and Asia.

Explore Topkapi Palace with your Travel Director and discover the former seat of Ottoman power overlooking the Bosphorus. Its courts and pavilions evoke the world from which sultans governed an empire spanning three continents.

Learn about palace life and the decisions made within its walls. More than a royal residence, Topkapi was an administrative and ceremonial centre, making it a compelling place to understand Istanbul’s Ottoman heritage.

Step into the Grand Bazaar, Istanbul’s centuries-old covered market, and explore its network of vaulted lanes. Browse stalls displaying ceramics, textiles, spices and gleaming lanterns while traders call out beneath the arches.

The bazaar grew into a major centre of Ottoman commerce and remains a working marketplace. Its bustle offers a close encounter with the city’s enduring trading culture, from artisan wares to the time-honoured art of bargaining.

Visit the restored house of Dede Efendi, one of Turkey’s foremost classical composers, to see a rare collection of traditional instruments. Hear those musical traditions brought to life in a private concert by Music Conservatory students.

This Istanbul visit supports opportunities for young performers and the preservation of Turkish music. It also contributes to the work of TURKEV, an association safeguarding traditional architecture and historic houses.

Visit Anzac Cove and the Gallipoli battlefields, where the 1915 campaign left an enduring mark on Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. See the Dardanelles and pay your respects at the Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair cemeteries.

The memorials and burial grounds give personal weight to the history of this contested peninsula. Amid the coastal landscape, reflect on the soldiers who fought and died here and on the different nations that continue to commemorate them.

Meet the women of Demircidere Koyu and visit the village bakery to see how bread is made. Sample it with homemade wine, explore a family garden of seasonal produce and share a hosted lunch in a local home.

Through conversation with your hosts, learn how this Turcoman community preserves its culture and traditional Alevi beliefs while supporting girls’ opportunities to learn and lead. The meal offers a personal introduction to village life rather than a conventional restaurant stop.

Walk through ancient Ephesus, following streets that once served one of the Mediterranean world’s great cities. See the imposing facade of the Library of Celsus and trace the route towards what was once a thriving port.

Its surviving stonework offers a vivid sense of the city’s scale and prosperity under Roman rule. Among the public buildings and paved streets, it is easier to picture the merchants, scholars and residents who moved through Ephesus.

Visit a Turkish carpet emporium to learn about the techniques behind woven carpets. Discover how artisans build intricate patterns and how weaving knowledge has been passed through generations.

Carpets have long been part of domestic and artistic life across Anatolia, with motifs and methods varying by region. This visit focuses on the workmanship behind the finished textiles, giving you a closer appreciation of an enduring Turkish craft tradition.

Visit the House of the Virgin Mary on Mount Koressos, near Ephesus. Spend time at this small hillside shrine, a place of pilgrimage associated by tradition with Mary’s final years.

Surrounded by wooded slopes, the site has a quieter character than the monumental ruins nearby. Its importance to Christian pilgrims, and the respect it receives from visitors of different faiths, make it a distinctive place for reflection in western Turkey.

Watch a leather craftsmanship demonstration and learn how traditional techniques are used to make garments in Turkey. See the attention given to working and finishing the material, from practical construction to decorative detail.

Leatherwork is one of the country’s established artisan trades. The demonstration offers a look at the skill behind products often encountered in shops, adding context to the materials and workmanship rather than presenting them only as finished goods.

Explore ancient Hierapolis, a Roman spa city built beside the thermal waters of Pamukkale. See the remains of a place where visitors once came to seek rest and relief.

Admire Pamukkale’s white travertine terraces and mineral-rich pools, formed as flowing water deposited calcium over time. The contrast between ancient stone ruins and bright, cascading formations makes this UNESCO-listed landscape both a historic visit and a natural spectacle.

Visit the Antalya Archaeological Museum to discover objects connected with the long history of Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. Explore displays that provide context for the ancient cities and cultures of the surrounding region.

Antalya lies close to important archaeological sites of ancient Pamphylia and Lycia. The museum’s collections bring their stories indoors, allowing you to examine surviving works and consider the craftsmanship, beliefs and daily life behind the ruins seen across the landscape.

See the ancient theatre of Aspendos, renowned for its exceptionally well-preserved Roman structure. Take in the sweep of its seating and the imposing stage building, which together reveal the scale of public entertainment in antiquity.

Built in the second century CE, the theatre remains one of the clearest surviving examples of Roman theatre architecture. Its substantial stonework makes it possible to imagine an audience gathering here nearly two thousand years ago.

Visit the Mevlana Museum and Mausoleum in Konya to learn about the spiritual tradition associated with Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes. Explore the legacy of a city that became a major centre of Sufi learning.

At the Karatay Tile Museum, admire Seljuk-era decorative art, including its tiled dome. Together, the two visits reveal different expressions of Konya’s medieval heritage: contemplative religious life and the geometric artistry of its architecture.

See a 13th-century caravanserai of the kind that sheltered merchants and travellers on Anatolia’s historic trade routes. In Cappadocia, explore Saratli Underground City and its rock-cut spaces beneath the surface.

These contrasting sites reveal how people adapted to travel and life in central Anatolia: one provided a secure stopping place along the road, while the other made use of the region’s workable volcanic stone to create a sheltered subterranean environment.

Watch Avanos potters shape local clay into everyday works of art. See the control and practice involved as raw material takes form under an artisan’s hands.

Set near the Kizilirmak River, Avanos has a longstanding pottery tradition associated with the area’s clay. This demonstration connects a characteristic Cappadocian craft to the landscape that supplies its materials, offering an insight into work still practised by local makers.

Meet Ali at his family-run farm near Nevsehir for a hosted look at Cappadocian growing traditions. Taste freshly baked bread alongside fresh and dried fruit, and learn how produce is cultivated using natural fertiliser from pigeons.

Ali’s work revives a farming method rooted in the region’s landscape and local memory. Hearing his family’s story gives a personal perspective on how traditional practices can continue to shape community life in Cappadocia.

Visit Ankara’s Museum of Anatolian Civilisations to explore the cultures that shaped the region across thousands of years. Examine archaeological collections that place Turkey’s historic sites within a broader story of settlement, trade and artistic achievement.

Housed in restored historic buildings near Ankara’s citadel, the museum offers a close view of Anatolia’s material past. Its displays help connect the ancient places visited across the country with the people who made and used their surviving objects.

Join your Travel Director and fellow travellers for a welcome dinner in Istanbul. Share a meal as you meet the people travelling with you and settle into the atmosphere of a city spanning Europe and Asia.

This hosted gathering is an opportunity to connect with your group and hear about the journey ahead. Istanbul’s layered cultural setting makes it a fitting place to begin conversations about the places and traditions you will encounter across Turkey.

Share a farewell dinner with your Travel Director and fellow travellers in Istanbul. Reconnect over a meal and exchange memories of the historic sites, local encounters and landscapes explored across Turkey.

As a hosted group occasion, the dinner offers space for conversation beyond a routine hotel meal. Istanbul’s position between the country’s European and Asian shores provides a resonant setting in which to reflect on the journey together.

Cruise by yacht along Antalya’s coast and join a guided tour of its historic old town. Enjoy a view of the Turkish Riviera from the water and explore the winding streets of Kaleici on foot.

The old town’s Ottoman-era buildings and Mediterranean setting reveal another side of Antalya beyond its beaches. This combined sea-and-city experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Watch hot-air balloons drift above Cappadocia as the sun rises over its valleys and rock formations. This is a chance to see the balloon-filled skyline from the ground, with changing morning light bringing out the contours of the volcanic landscape.

The sight has become closely associated with Cappadocia’s distinctive scenery. This optional viewing experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the itinerary describes watching the balloons, not taking a balloon flight.

Attend a Whirling Dervishes performance in Cappadocia for an introduction to a centuries-old Sufi spiritual tradition. Watch the measured turning of the performers and experience the music and solemn rhythm of the ceremony.

Associated with the teachings of Rumi, the practice carries religious and cultural meaning beyond its striking visual form. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Cruise the Bosphorus in Istanbul, taking in the city from the water as its European and Asian shores pass on either side. See how waterfront neighbourhoods and historic buildings line the strait.

The Bosphorus has long been both a vital passage and a defining feature of Istanbul’s identity. Viewing the city from its waters brings that geography into focus. This optional cruise is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Visit Goreme Open-Air Museum to see churches carved into Cappadocia’s volcanic rock. Explore a landscape shaped by communities who made places of worship and daily life within its soft stone.

See the fairy chimneys of Pasabag, distinctive formations sculpted by erosion into pillars and caps. The pairing reveals two sides of Cappadocia: its extraordinary geology and the centuries of human ingenuity that turned that terrain into a home.

Visit the final resting place of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey. See the monumental setting of Anitkabir in Ankara and learn why Ataturk remains central to the story of the modern nation.

The mausoleum is both a national memorial and a place where visitors reflect on Turkey’s transition from Ottoman empire to republic. Its formal architecture conveys the significance attached to that transformation.

Choose an optional dinner at a local restaurant in Izmir and sample the city’s dining atmosphere. You may also have the chance to try raki, the anise-flavoured spirit often enjoyed alongside Turkish food.

Izmir’s Aegean setting lends its restaurants a sociable coastal character. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, giving you the choice to spend an evening exploring regional flavours with fellow travellers.