15-Day Treasures of Turkey - With Anzac Day, Classic Group 2027

Highlights

• Istanbul: Begin your travels savoring traditional flavors over dinner at a local restaurant.
• Cappadocia: Experience a Sema ceremony performed by the whirling dervishes, part of the Mevlevi Sufi tradition. You’ll watch the ritual unfold through music, movement and costume, in a form of worship still practised across Turkey today.
• Istanbul: Toast the culmination of your travels during dinner at a local restaurant.
• Istanbul: Cruise along the Bosphorus, the strait that links the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara. You’ll watch ferries, fishing boats and cargo ships share the waterway and see how Istanbul’s districts line both banks, built around this route between Europe and Asia.
• Bursa: On your orientation with your Travel Director visit the town’s mosques, bazaars and famous Silk Market.
• Cumalikizik: Visit the over 700 year-old village to get glimpse into what Ottoman villages away from the capital looked like.
• Ankara: Visit Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey and the Republic’s first President. You’ll walk through the ceremonial complex and enter the Hall of Honor, observing how the architecture and setting underline his role in the country’s modern history.
• Ankara: On your orientation with your Travel Director of the capital of modern Turkey discover its Roman and Byzantine heritage, visit the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations and the Mausoleum of Atatürk.
• Visit the narrow passages and interconnecting rooms of this Stone Age underground city dug out from the hills and built to block invaders and defend against attacks.
• Cappadocia: Start before dawn at a panoramic viewpoint in Cappadocia and watch hundreds of hot air balloons drift above the fairy chimneys, valleys and sculpted rock formations. As first light spills across the landscape, enjoy uninterrupted views and exceptional photo opportunities.
• Göreme: Explore the rock-cut churches of Göreme, carved into the soft volcanic rock of Cappadocia. Inside, you’ll see early Christian frescoes that have survived for centuries, offering a close look at how communities once lived and worshipped here.
• Avanos: Visit a pottery studio in Avanos, a town on the Kızılırmak River with a clay-working tradition that dates back to Hittite times. Watch how red river clay is prepared and shaped at the wheel, and follow the stages as each piece is formed, dried and decorated.
• Konya: Step inside the Sultanhani Caravanserai, built in 1229 to support traders and travelers crossing the Anatolian plain. See how the space was designed for overnight shelter, with stables, storerooms and a central courtyard still intact.
• Konya: Accompanied by your Local Expert, visit the beautiful Mevlana Tekke Museum for insight into the mystic Whirling Dervishes. See the Karatay Medrese and Ince Minaret.
• Aspendos: Visit the world's best preserved Roman Theater in Aspendos.
• Antalya: Visit the historic Old Town and wander through its charming narrow streets, discovering souvenir markets and sweeping sea views.
• Pamukkale: Walk along the travertine pools at Pamukkale, where thermal waters have created white limestone terraces across the hillside. You’ll see how the calcium-rich water continues to shape the formations, leaving new deposits as it flows.
• Ephesus: Walk through Ephesus with a Local Expert, following the Arcadian Way into the heart of the Roman city. You’ll stand before the Library of Celsus, take in the scale of the amphitheater and visit the House of the Virgin Mary, set in the hills above the ruins.
• Ephesus: Visit the Archaeological museum housing many of the artifacts from Ephesus.
• Troy: On your orientation with your Travel Director hear about the nearly 4000 year-old settlement, see the wooden Trojan Horse and hear about myths and legends connected to this archaeological site.
• Troy: Visit this ancient sight fabled to have been destroyed over love and view the huge reconstructed Trojan Horse.
• Gallipoli: Visit the Gallipoli Peninsula and attend the moving Dawn Service remembering, honoring and paying respect to the fallen fighting in World War I.
• Gallipoli: Visit ANZAC Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula, the landing site for Australian and New Zealand forces on 25 April 1915. The site remains the focus of ANZAC Day commemorations, including the dawn service held here each year.
• Istanbul: Explore Istanbul’s historic peninsula with your Local Expert. You’ll move between the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome and the former palace complex of Topkapi, tracing how the city shifted from Byzantine Constantinople to the Ottoman capital while life continues in the surrounding streets and markets.
• Uchisar: Enjoy the unique flavors of Anatolia at Uchisar Kadineli Restaurant, where every dish is homemade with love. This remarkable establishment provides employment for more than 65 women from the village. The restaurant is owned by women and focuses on empowering women through employment. Some employed as administrators, some as teachers, some as cooks and some as waiters. Here they are taught how to sow clothes by using modern technology, how to knit, how to cook, how to make various kinds of artifacts, and how to merchandise their products and convert it to money for their families. This experience advances UN Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality.
• 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.
• Istanbul: An immersive digital experience through the iconic structure's rich past, showcasing its transformation from a Byzantine cathedral to an Ottoman mosque and now a museum, with captivating exhibits and architectural wonders.
• Istanbul: Visit Hagia Sophia with your Local Expert. You’ll step beneath the central dome and see how elements from its time as a Byzantine basilica and as an Ottoman mosque share the same interior, reflecting the building’s long and layered history.
• Choose between two carefully selected activities
• Istanbul: An immersive digital experience through the iconic structure's rich past, showcasing its transformation from a Byzantine cathedral to an Ottoman mosque and now a museum, with captivating exhibits and architectural wonders.
• Istanbul: Visit Hagia Sophia with your Local Expert. You’ll step beneath the central dome and see how elements from its time as a Byzantine basilica and as an Ottoman mosque share the same interior, reflecting the building’s long and layered history.