• 7 Dinner (D)
• 10 Breakfast (B)
• 1 Lunch (L)

• Cappadocia: Step inside a traditional cave house and meet a local Cappadocian who has lived there for decades. Hear how the home was shaped, how it has changed over time and what it means to remain rooted in this landscape.

• Hand sanitizer is freely available on board for you to use throughout the day.

Insight Vacations

Meet your Travel Director and fellow travellers over dinner at a local restaurant in Istanbul. This hosted gathering offers a chance to get to know the small group with whom you will explore Turkey.

Conversation begins against the backdrop of a city shaped by the Bosphorus and centuries of Byzantine and Ottoman history. It is a relaxed introduction to both your companions and the journey ahead.

Visit ANZAC Cove and Lone Pine Cemetery on the Gallipoli Peninsula, where Australian and New Zealand troops landed on 25 April 1915. Look across the narrow shoreline and surrounding ridges while learning how the terrain shaped the campaign.

These memorial sites give a human dimension to the history of the First World War. ANZAC Cove remains a focus of remembrance, including the dawn service held here each ANZAC Day.

Explore the archaeological site of Troy at Hisarlik and see its reconstructed Trojan Horse. Walk among the excavated remains of a place whose name has endured through Homer’s account of the Trojan War.

Archaeologists have identified multiple settlement layers here, spanning the Early Bronze Age to the late Roman period. The ruins reveal a real city with a long history, distinct from—but inseparable from—the legend that made it famous.

Visit the Ephesus Archaeological Museum in Selcuk, where objects recovered from the ancient city bring its public spaces and domestic life into closer focus. Examine artefacts that offer a different perspective from the monumental ruins.

The collections connect centuries of settlement in this part of western Anatolia. Seeing finds from Ephesus in a museum setting helps reveal the beliefs, artistry and everyday practices of the people who lived there.

Walk through ancient Ephesus with a Local Expert, following the Arcadian Way into one of the Roman world’s great cities. Stand before the Library of Celsus and take in the scale of its vast theatre.

Streets and monumental facades recall Ephesus at its height as a commercial and cultural centre. Exploring the site on foot makes the layout of the city—and the ambitions of those who built it—tangible.

Visit the House of the Virgin Mary, a small shrine in the hills above Selcuk and the ruins of Ephesus. Step into the modest stone building and experience a quieter side of this historically layered area.

The site is revered by pilgrims who associate it with Mary’s later life. Its wooded setting and continuing place of worship offer a contrast to the grand civic remains of the ancient city below.

Discover Turkish carpet weaving at a local workshop near Ephesus. Learn how wool and silk, natural dyes and regional knotting techniques contribute to the patterns and texture of a finished carpet.

This introduction focuses on the work behind one of Anatolia’s long-standing crafts. Watching the techniques up close gives greater meaning to designs whose colours and motifs can reflect the traditions of different communities and regions.

Learn to play tavla in a traditional Izmir coffee shop, with an introduction to the rules before a friendly match with local players. Sip Turkish coffee as dice and counters set the pace of the game.

Backgammon has been part of social life in Anatolia for generations. Taking a seat at the board offers an engaging way to experience the customs and easy conversation of a neighbourhood gathering place.

Visit a Turkish leather shop to learn how different materials, cutting methods and finishing techniques shape the final designs. See the stages and choices involved in turning leather into wearable goods.

The visit offers a practical look at a craft with a long history in Turkey. Examining the details of construction and finish brings attention to the workmanship behind items often encountered only as completed pieces.

Explore ancient Hierapolis with your Travel Director, visiting its Roman theatre and the remains of streets, bathhouses and tombs. Walk through the ruins above Pamukkale’s white terraces to see how the city was laid out.

Hierapolis developed around the area’s thermal waters, which attracted visitors in antiquity as they do today. Its surviving structures place the natural springs within a wider story of Roman urban and social life.

Walk alongside Pamukkale’s white travertine terraces and see thermal water flowing across the hillside. Observe the pools and mineral deposits that give this landscape its distinctive, layered appearance.

Calcium-rich water has built the limestone formations over time and continues to reshape them as it moves. The contrast between pale terraces, blue water and the nearby ruins of Hierapolis makes this a striking meeting point of geology and history.

Step inside Sultanhani Caravanserai, a fortified roadside inn built in 1229 on a historic trading route across central Anatolia. Explore its courtyard and see spaces designed to shelter travellers, animals and goods.

The surviving stables and storerooms show how these inns supported journeys across the Anatolian plain. Standing within its stone walls offers a sense of the scale and organisation of travel long before modern roads.

Watch hot air balloons from a panoramic viewpoint as dawn reaches Cappadocia’s valleys and fairy chimneys. Look across the sculpted rock formations while balloons rise and drift through the changing light.

This is a ground-based viewing experience, not a balloon flight. Weather permitting, the sight of colourful balloons against Cappadocia’s volcanic landscape offers a memorable opportunity for photographs and a clear sense of the region’s unusual terrain.

Explore Goreme’s rock-cut churches, carved into Cappadocia’s soft volcanic stone. Step inside to see wall paintings that have survived for centuries and observe how the interiors were shaped from the surrounding rock.

These churches preserve traces of early Christian worship in a landscape where people also made homes and other spaces within the stone. Their frescoes give an intimate view of the beliefs and artistic traditions of past communities.

Step inside a traditional Cappadocian cave house and meet a local resident who has lived in the area for decades. Tour the home and hear how its rock-cut spaces serve everyday family life.

The conversation offers a personal perspective on living within Cappadocia’s distinctive landscape. Learn how the house has changed over time and how local traditions remain part of life here, beyond the region’s best-known viewpoints and monuments.

Visit a pottery studio in Avanos to watch local clay being prepared and shaped at the wheel. Learn about the steps involved in forming, drying, decorating and firing a piece.

Set beside the Kizilirmak River, Avanos is known for a pottery tradition with roots reaching back to Hittite times. Seeing the work in progress connects the town’s craft heritage to the clay and skilled hands that sustain it.

Visit Ankara’s Museum of Anatolian Civilisations to see archaeological finds from cultures that shaped the region long before the modern republic. Examine objects associated with Anatolia’s early settlements and the Hittites.

The collections provide a broad perspective on the lands crossed during the tour. Displayed in the historic Ulus district, they connect individual artefacts with wider histories of settlement, belief and craftsmanship across Anatolia.

Cruise the Bosphorus for a view of Istanbul from the waterway dividing its European and Asian shores. Watch ferries, fishing boats and cargo ships pass Ottoman palaces, neighbourhood mosques and busy quays.

Linking the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, the strait has long shaped the city’s trade and daily life. From the boat, the districts on both banks form a vivid picture of Istanbul’s relationship with the water.

Explore Istanbul’s historic peninsula with a Local Expert, visiting the Blue Mosque and crossing the former Hippodrome. Admire the mosque’s six minarets and Iznik-tiled interior while learning about the space where Constantinople once held chariot races.

These neighbouring landmarks reveal different eras of the city: the Hippodrome recalls its Byzantine past, while the mosque expresses the ambitions of the Ottoman capital. Their proximity makes Istanbul’s layered history easy to see on foot.

Choose an immersive digital exploration of Hagia Sophia’s history as one of two included Istanbul experiences. Follow the landmark’s changing roles through exhibits that interpret its architecture and rich past.

The presentation traces the building from Byzantine cathedral to Ottoman mosque and its later period as a museum. This choice offers a focused way to understand why Hagia Sophia’s dome and interior have held such importance across different centuries and traditions.

Choose to visit Hagia Sophia with a Local Expert as one of two included Istanbul experiences. Step beneath its great central dome and examine details associated with its Byzantine and Ottoman chapters.

First built as a cathedral and later used as a mosque, Hagia Sophia carries centuries of religious and architectural history within one structure. Expert interpretation helps reveal how those layers coexist in its remarkable interior.

Visit Topkapi Palace on Istanbul’s historic peninsula, exploring the former palace complex of the Ottoman sultans. Walk through spaces associated with the court and the administration of an empire.

For centuries, Topkapi was a centre of Ottoman power overlooking the waterways that made Istanbul strategically important. Its courtyards and buildings offer a perspective on palace life and on the city’s role as an imperial capital.

Walk the covered streets of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, passing shops and stalls within one of the city’s best-known trading places. Take in the movement, voices and displays beneath its vaulted roofs.

Established in the Ottoman era, the bazaar reflects Istanbul’s long history as a commercial crossroads. Exploring its connected lanes is as much about experiencing the atmosphere of a working market as it is about what fills its shopfronts.

Share dinner at a local Istanbul restaurant with your small group and Travel Director. Raise a toast together and exchange stories from your travels across Turkey.

This hosted meal is a chance to reconnect over the places and people encountered along the way, from Anatolia’s ancient sites to Cappadocia’s rock-cut landscapes. It brings the group together around the table for a final evening in Istanbul.

Share seafood and meze on Izmir’s seafront promenade during an optional dinner with drinks. Enjoy the flavours of Turkey’s Aegean coast in a setting close to the waterfront.

Meze encourages a leisurely, shared meal, with small plates bringing different tastes to the table. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, offering a hosted alternative to choosing your own evening meal.

Witness a Whirling Dervishes performance in Cappadocia, observing the measured turning and music of the Sema ceremony. The ritual offers an introduction to a spiritual tradition associated with the Mevlevi order.

Rather than a dance created solely for entertainment, Sema has a devotional meaning expressed through its movement and sound. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Visit the Copmadam workshop in Ayvalik to see how women turn discarded packaging into handmade, one-of-a-kind goods. Meet the makers and learn about the materials and skills behind their work.

This social enterprise creates employment opportunities for local women while giving waste a new purpose. Your visit supports an initiative aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality.

Walk through the vines at Nif Baglari, a family-owned wine producer in the foothills near Izmir. Learn how the land is cultivated before sitting down to a farm-to-table lunch in the vineyard setting.

Seasonal dishes feature produce grown on the property, connecting what is served with the surrounding landscape. The experience offers a close look at contemporary Aegean food and wine production rather than a conventional restaurant meal.

Explore the underground city of Saratli, walking through passages and rooms carved beneath the Anatolian landscape. See areas used for shelter and storage, and consider how daily life could be organised below ground.

The interconnected spaces reveal the ingenuity of communities that adapted their surroundings to practical needs. Their low ceilings and enclosed corridors make this a distinctly physical encounter with the region’s past.

Explore the fairy chimneys of Pasabag Valley, where tall earth pillars rise from Cappadocia’s volcanic landscape. See formations shaped by erosion alongside rock-cut spaces once used by local inhabitants.

Located on the road to Zelve, the valley brings the region’s geology into sharp focus. Its clustered pillars and former dwellings show how natural processes created a landscape that people adapted for their own use.

Visit Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Ankara. Walk through its ceremonial complex and enter the Hall of Honor, where the monumental design invites reflection.

Ataturk founded the modern Turkish Republic and served as its first President. The scale, symmetry and solemn atmosphere of his mausoleum express his central place in the country’s twentieth-century history and public memory.

• Business class coach with extended leg room
• Top-rated dining, from farm-to-table to local restaurants
• 4 & 5-star stays