Odyssey Turkey Tour - 16 Days

Overview

The Odyssey Turkey Tour is our most comprehensive coastal journey — a 16-day sweep from Istanbul through the Aegean and along the Mediterranean, combining Turkey’s greatest ancient cities with some of the most beautiful coastline on the planet.

You travel the same shores that Homer wrote about, that Alexander the Great conquered, that Paul of Tarsus sailed. Every day brings a new civilisation to stand inside.

Itinerary

Day 1 — ISTANBUL

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

Istanbul’s strategic position between Europe and Asia has made it the most fought-over city in history. Whoever controlled Istanbul controlled the trade routes between East and West. Three empires knew this — the Romans, the Byzantines, and the Ottomans each made it their capital.

Accommodation: 5-Star Holiday Inn, Istanbul

Day 2 — ISTANBUL

Full day: Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, Grand Bazaar.

The Topkapi Palace treasury contains the world’s largest cut emerald (3.26 kg) and the Topkapi Dagger, encrusted with three large emeralds. Hagia Sophia’s golden mosaics survived both the Byzantine Iconoclasm and 500 years as an Ottoman mosque by being plastered over — only to be revealed again in the 20th century.

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

Day 3 — ISTANBUL

Morning Bosphorus cruise. Suleymaniye Mosque (best views of the Golden Horn). Afternoon on Istiklal Street, Galata Tower, Rustem Pasha Mosque.

The Bosphorus cruise gives you Istanbul from the water — the perspective from which it has been seen by sailors, merchants, and conquerors for 2,500 years. Sinan’s Suleymaniye Mosque, commissioned by Suleyman the Magnificent in 1550, is considered the masterpiece of Ottoman architecture.

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

Day 4 — GALLIPOLI — DARDANELLES — CANAKKALE

Gallipoli Peninsula: ANZAC Cove, Chunuk Bair, Lone Pine. Cross the Dardanelles.

The 1915 Gallipoli Campaign was a turning point in Australian and New Zealand national consciousness. The shared sacrifice here created a bond with Turkey that endures today — Ataturk’s tribute to the ANZAC dead (“You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country”) is among the most extraordinary acts of statesmanship in modern history.

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) and the Asklepion at Pergamon.

The nine cities of Troy are stacked on top of each other like geological strata. Troy VI (1700-1250 BC) is the city most historians identify with Homer’s Troy. Its walls were destroyed by earthquake, not Greek soldiers — which raises the question of how myth and history intertwine over three thousand years.

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 site, Basilica of St. John.

Ephesus was the publishing capital of the ancient world. Books were produced in bulk here and traded across the empire. The Library of Celsus was also the tomb of the Roman proconsul Celsus Polemaeanus — the library was built directly over his burial chamber.

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

Day 7 — PRIENE — MILETUS — DIDYMA — BODRUM

Three ancient Greek cities in a single day. Priene (perfectly grid-planned Greek city), Miletus (birthplace of Western philosophy and urban planning), Didyma (the great Temple of Apollo). Arrive at Bodrum.

Miletus produced Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes — the world’s first known scientists and philosophers, who in the 6th century BC began explaining the world through reason rather than mythology. Didyma’s Temple of Apollo was one of the largest temples ever built, its oracle second in authority only to Delphi.

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

Day 8 — BODRUM — DALYAN — FETHIYE

Bodrum Castle (Knights Hospitaller, 15th century). Site of the Mausoleum of Mausolus — one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Dalyan river boat to the Lycian rock tombs. Fethiye.

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (at Bodrum) was so magnificent that the Romans adopted the word “mausoleum” for all grand tombs. Almost nothing remains above ground — the Knights of Rhodes used its stone to build their castle — but the foundation is still visible, still remarkable.

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

Day 9 — PATARA — XANTHOS — KAS

Patara beach (birthplace of Saint Nicholas — the original Santa Claus). Xanthos, the Lycian capital. Kas, one of the most beautiful small harbour towns on the Turkish coast.

Patara was the site of a Lycian Oracle consulted by Alexander the Great. The Lycians were a remarkable ancient people who practised a form of democracy in the 5th century BC — over 2,000 years before it became the norm. Their league of city-states is cited by Montesquieu as a model for the American system of government.

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

Day 10 — DEMRE — KEKOVA — ANTALYA

Myra (remarkably preserved Lycian rock tombs and Roman theatre). Saint Nicholas Church in Demre. Kekova: sunken city boat tour — ruins visible through the crystal water. Antalya old harbour.

Kekova’s sunken city was partially submerged by a series of earthquakes in the 2nd century AD. From a boat, you can see staircases, doorways, and house foundations beneath the water — a ghost town frozen underwater for 1,800 years. The Lycian sarcophagi that rise from the water are among the most photographed images in Turkey.

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

Day 11 — ANTALYA — PERGE — ASPENDOS

Antalya Archaeological Museum (one of Turkey’s finest). Perge ancient city. Aspendos — the world’s best-preserved Roman theatre, built 155 AD, 15,000 seats, still used for opera and ballet.

The Aspendos theatre is so acoustically perfect that a person speaking normally on stage can be heard clearly from the highest seats without amplification. It has been hosting performances continuously — with a brief gap of 1,800 years in the middle — since 155 AD.

Distance: 80 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star hotel, Antalya

Day 12 — APHRODISIAS — PAMUKKALE

Aphrodisias (Roman sculpture center, 30,000-seat stadium). Pamukkale and ancient Hierapolis.

Aphrodisias was so renowned for its sculptors that when Rome needed marble sculpture, Roman patrons came here. Workshops in Aphrodisias have been identified by their distinctive style in museums across three continents. The white travertine terraces of Pamukkale — flowing with mineral-rich thermal water for millennia — have drawn visitors since the ancient Greeks.

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

Day 13 — CATALHOYUK — KONYA

Catalhoyuk (world’s oldest known town, 7400-6200 BC). Konya: Mevlana Museum and Karatay Madrasa.

Nothing in archaeology prepared the world for Catalhoyuk. The settlement was sophisticated, densely populated, and internally complex — with murals depicting hunting scenes, geometric patterns, and human figures — 4,000 years before Sumeria was supposedly building the first cities. It changed the timeline of human civilisation permanently.

Distance: 390 km | Meals: Breakfast, Dinner | Accommodation: 5-Star Bayir Diamond Hotel, Konya

Day 14 — CAPPADOCIA

Enter Cappadocia. Kaymakli Underground City, Uchisar Rock Castle.

The volcanic eruptions that created Cappadocia’s landscape happened millions of years ago. The human response — carving entire churches, monasteries, and cities into the soft tuff — happened over a span of 2,000 years. The result is one of the strangest and most beautiful places on earth.

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

Day 15 — CAPPADOCIA

Optional sunrise hot air balloon. Goreme Open Air Museum, Pasabag (Monks Valley), Zelve, Avanos.

A sunrise balloon flight over Cappadocia is as close as most people will come to hovering in silence over a landscape that looks like another planet. Below you: fairy chimneys, cave churches, and valleys carved by millions of years of wind and water.

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

Day 16 — CAPPADOCIA TO ISTANBUL — DEPARTURE

Morning flight from Cappadocia to Istanbul. Connection to international flight.

Meals: Breakfast