Grand Turkey Tour - 23 Days

Overview

The Grand Turkey Tour is Serendipity’s magnum opus — a 23-day journey across the entire country, from the Bosphorus to the Armenian border, from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea.

This is the tour for travellers who refuse to choose. In three weeks, you experience Turkey’s complete historical timeline: 12,000-year-old temples at Gobekli Tepe, Hittite imperial capitals, Troy, Greek and Roman cities, Byzantine monasteries, Ottoman magnificence, and everything in between.

Two departures per year. Maximum 8 travellers. This tour does not compromise.

Itinerary

Day 1 — ISTANBUL

Arrival at Istanbul International Airport. Private transfer to your hotel in Sultanahmet.

Accommodation: 5-Star Holiday Inn, Istanbul

Day 2 — ISTANBUL

Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, Grand Bazaar.

Distance: 5 km | Meals: Breakfast | Accommodation: 5-Star Holiday Inn, Istanbul

Day 3 — ISTANBUL

Suleymaniye Mosque, Bosphorus cruise, Istiklal Street, Galata Tower, Spice Market, Rustem Pasha Mosque.

Distance: 15 km | Meals: Breakfast | Accommodation: 5-Star Holiday Inn, Istanbul

Day 4 — GALLIPOLI — DARDANELLES — CANAKKALE

ANZAC Cove, Chunuk Bair, Lone Pine Cemetery. Cross the Dardanelles to Canakkale.

Distance: 320 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 4-Star Iris Hotel, Canakkale

Day 5 — TROY — PERGAMON — KUSADASI

Troy (nine layers of civilization, 3000 BC to 500 AD). Pergamon’s Asklepion ancient medical center.

Distance: 390 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star Elite World, Kusadasi

Day 6 — EPHESUS — KUSADASI

House of the Virgin Mary. Ephesus: Great Theatre, Marble Road, Library of Celsus, Temple of Artemis, Basilica of St. John.

Distance: 30 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star Elite World, Kusadasi

Day 7 — PRIENE — MILETUS — DIDYMA — BODRUM

Priene (Greek city grid, 4th century BC), Miletus (birthplace of Western philosophy), Didyma (Temple of Apollo), Bodrum harbour.

Miletus was where Thales, in the 6th century BC, first suggested that the world could be explained without reference to the gods — the founding moment of Western rational thought.

Distance: 220 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star hotel, Bodrum

Day 8 — BODRUM — DALYAN — FETHIYE

Bodrum Castle, site of the Mausoleum of Mausolus (one of the Seven Wonders). Dalyan: boat trip to Lycian rock tombs. Fethiye.

Distance: 250 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star hotel, Fethiye

Day 9 — PATARA — XANTHOS — KAS

Patara (birthplace of Saint Nicholas, Lycian Oracle site). Xanthos (Lycian capital). Kas.

Distance: 180 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star hotel, Kas

Day 10 — KEKOVA — ANTALYA

Myra and St. Nicholas Church in Demre. Kekova: sunken city boat tour. Antalya old harbour.

Kekova’s sunken city — partially submerged by ancient earthquake — is visible from the boat: staircases, doorways, and sarcophagi rising from the water.

Distance: 200 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star hotel, Antalya

Day 11 — PERGE — ASPENDOS — PAMUKKALE

Perge, Aspendos (best-preserved Roman theatre in the world), drive north to Pamukkale.

Distance: 350 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star Hierapark Hotel, Pamukkale

Day 12 — APHRODISIAS — CATALHOYUK — KONYA

Aphrodisias (Roman sculpture capital, 30,000-seat stadium). Catalhoyuk (world’s oldest town, 7400 BC). Konya Mevlana Museum.

Distance: 450 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star Bayir Diamond Hotel, Konya

Day 13 — CAPPADOCIA

Enter Cappadocia. Kaymakli Underground City, Uchisar, Sinasos.

Distance: 240 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: Cave Hotel, Cappadocia

Day 14 — CAPPADOCIA

Optional sunrise balloon. Goreme Open Air Museum, Pasabag, Zelve, Avanos.

Distance: 40 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: Cave Hotel, Cappadocia

Day 15 — GAZIANTEP

Zeugma Mosaic Museum (spectacular rescued Roman mosaics). Roman castle, old bazaars.

Distance: 280 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star Sirehan Hotel, Gaziantep

Day 16 — MOUNT NEMRUT — SANLIURFA

Mount Nemrut at sunrise or sunset: the giant stone heads of King Antiochus I at 2,134 metres. Cendere Roman Bridge. Arsameia sanctuary.

Distance: 350 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star Elruha Hotel, Sanliurfa

Day 17 — GOBEKLI TEPE — KARAHAN TEPE — HARRAN — SANLIURFA

Gobekli Tepe (9600 BC): the world’s oldest known temple — 7,000 years older than Stonehenge, built by hunter-gatherers who, according to previous academic consensus, should not have been capable of this. Fazli has been guiding here since 2005.

Karahan Tepe: currently under active excavation. Three-dimensional human faces push through 11,000-year-old stone walls. Only 5% excavated. You are at the literal edge of what is currently known about human prehistory.

Harran: beehive mud houses, mentioned in Genesis. Abraham’s city. Sanliurfa: the city of prophets, sacred carp pools.

Distance: 200 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star Elruha Hotel, Sanliurfa

Day 18 — MARDIN — VAN

Mardin: honey-coloured stone city on the Mesopotamian hillside, extraordinary Artuqid architecture, views across the Syrian plain. Drive east to Van.

Mardin has been continuously inhabited since 4500 BC. Its Syriac Christian community still uses a liturgical language related to the Aramaic spoken in the time of Jesus.

Distance: 350 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star hotel, Van

Day 19 — LAKE VAN — AKDAMAR — DOGUBEYAZIT

Boat to Akdamar Island — the 10th-century Church of the Holy Cross with its extraordinary Armenian stone reliefs. Drive northeast toward Mount Ararat. Dogubeyazit: Ishak Pasha Palace at sunset (and Mount Ararat, weather permitting).

Ishak Pasha Palace is an 18th-century castle-palace complex on a hilltop above Dogubeyazit, with one of the most dramatic settings of any building in Turkey — and if conditions allow, the snow-capped cone of Mount Ararat (5,137 metres) visible across the plain.

Distance: 290 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: Hotel, Dogubeyazit

Day 20 — KARS — ANI (UNESCO)

Kars — Russian Imperial architecture on the Armenian plateau. Ani: the abandoned medieval Armenian capital, a ghost city of extraordinary silent beauty, its churches and caravanserais slowly returning to the earth.

Ani was home to 100,000 people at its height. After the Mongol invasion of 1064, it was gradually deserted. Its ruins — across the border with Armenia, on a remote plateau — are among the most haunting in the world.

Distance: 200 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: Hotel, Kars

Day 21 — ERZURUM — TRABZON

Erzurum: the great Cifte Minareli Madrasa (12th century), Yakutiye Mosque. Drive north through the Pontic Mountains to the Black Sea. Trabzon: Byzantine Hagia Sophia.

Distance: 370 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star hotel, Trabzon

Day 22 — SUMELA MONASTERY — AMASYA — HATTUSA (UNESCO) — ANKARA

Sumela Monastery: a Byzantine church carved into a sheer cliff face (386 AD). Drive west through the Black Sea mountains. Amasya’s Pontic royal rock tombs. Hattusa, the Hittite capital (1650-1200 BC), where the world’s first known peace treaty was signed.

The Hittite peace treaty with Egypt, signed in 1259 BC, is older than almost anything in recorded human memory. The Hittite Empire was forgotten so completely that its existence was not even suspected until the 19th century. The site of its capital — with massive city walls, temples, and a lion gate — is genuinely astonishing.

Distance: 650 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star hotel, Ankara

Day 23 — ANKARA — DEPARTURE

Transfer to Ankara Esenboga Airport. Domestic or international connection.

Meals: Breakfast