We stayed at the Hotel Hali which had a nice view from its roof terrace of the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/4209634290/in/set-72157622934223233

Nice photo, Michael.

Lisa, in Cappadocia I can recommend the Old Greek House in Mustafapasa. Good photography and hiking around Mustafapasa. Ephesus is interesting but usually very crowded. I enjoyed Aphrodisias more for photography, with many fewer people. If you want the sea, Antalya is large and busy but you can get away from the tourist crowds and find stunningly photogenic views.

How about 5 nights in Istanbul, 2 in Cappadocia and 2 near Ephesus?

I'd probably do Istanbul at the end so you're close to the airport for the return flight without having 2 stays there.

Highly recommend Ephesus!!!

Allow at least two full days (three nights) in Cappadocia, especially since you will be doing the balloon flight and you want to hike.

We loved our cave hotel, Esbelli Evi in Urgup. It sets the standard for service - total care without any pretension. We are such DIYers, we rarely ask much of a hotel, but I had not been feeling weel, so this time, we let them arrange everything. The costs were less than quotes I had gotten and everything went like clockwork. Even the food they ordered for us our first night was fabulous - and inexpensive.

We used Butterfly Balloons - an absolutely perfect adventure from pick up to cake and champagne.

It really depends on what you want to see and experience and your preferred travel pace, and whether 9 nights means 8 or 9 or 10 days. For my tastes, 5 full days in Istanbul and 3 full days in Cappadocia seemed to give me enough time to see the highlights of each area, though I could easily have used more time in each.

If you want to fit in time for one of Turkey's magnificent Roman/Greek/other ruins, joannyc's plan to shave a bit from each to make time to visit Ephesus makes sense to me. I spent 2 nights in Selcuk, with one full day to explore Selcuk and Ephesus; that worked well for me.

The good news is that you will see some wonderful things whatever you choose!

You might find some of my comments from my trip report helpful; just click on my name to find it.

My wife and I leave on Saturday (weather permitting) for a similar trip. Our itinerary is actually to land in Istanbul and drive to Bolu for one night, then three nights in Cappadocia, one night near Hattusa, one night in Ankara and 3 nights in Istanbul.

I'll let you know how that works out...

I think it depends on how interested you are in ancient ruins, and if you're someone who wants to see as much as possible. Ephesus is amazing, but we recently had 2 weeks (Ephesus--2 full days, Cappadocia--3 full days, and then 6 full days in Istanbul + travel days) and really felt we'd just touched the surface of Cappadocia and Istanbul. I'd vote for staying in just two places.

In Cappadocia we stayed at Aydinli Cave House in Goreme and had an amazing time. Lovely rooms and wonderful people.

Thanks for this advice -- after doing more research and reading some trip reports here we decided on 5 nights in Istanbul and 4 in Cappadocia -- we'll save Ephesus and a gulet trip for another time. Does anyone have recommendation for car rental companies at Kayseri Airport?

Also any recommendations for hotels in Istanbul (Sultanahmet) with special views would be appreciated.

Try kemwel.com or their sister-company, autoeurope.com. They are brokers, not rental companies, but I've always gotten a better price through them than the rental companies.

They've always put me in a Europcar rental.

I used http://www.economycarrentals.com/ as brokers when we went to Turkey and had no problems. It was much cheaper than Autoeurope with no deduction, aka excess.

We're just back from a trip to Turkey -- 4 nights in Antakya and 4 nights in Istanbul. Our hotel was wonderful -- no view, but really thoughtful owners. She is American and he is Turkish. They were full of great suggestions and recommendations.
http://kumruhotel.com/index.html

We did Ephesus as a day trip. Early flight out of IST, met at the airport by Sardar (sp) from Hello Ephesus, guided private tour of the site, lunch (time for carpet shopping but no pressure so we skipped it), Temple of Artemis and back to the airport. We actually had time for more but we were dragging out 7 year old by that point so we called it a day.

Another vote for Esbeli Evi in Urgup - fabulous, once in a lifetime stay in a cave.
In Istanbul, we stayed 5 days at the lovely Sari Konak in Sultanahmet. Family-run boutique hotel in great location, good rooms and excellent breakfast.

I recommend Kapadokya Balloons. Their safety record is outstanding and our flight with the wonderful Kaili, an event we still recall with awe and delight. They collected us from our hotel and returned us after the ride. To float over the fairy chimneys we had explored underground for 2 days prior to the balloon ride was really exciting.

Our guide for the 4 days we were in Cappadocia was the wonderful Mehmet Kunt. His knowledge of the area is amazing and the walk he took us through the Rose Valley, a highlight. Many of the caves would be missed without a guide.

Have a wonderful trip.

Suha the owner of Esbeli Evi screens potential guests and eliminates those he believes will be pains. Everything he does is dedicated toward a comfortable stay.

Personally I would just go to Istanbul and Cappadocia. We spent a week in Istanbul and was not enough and 4 days in Cappadocia. While we enjoyed Ephesus, we have never seen like Cappadocia any where.

Remember you will lose time traveling if you go to too many places.

Golemtoo, I heard that from someone else. Do you really think that is true? Makes me feel lucky if it is true. DH and I kept saying, "We could live here." It was so hard to leave it.