Need help with Turkey itinerary
 

Hello all,

My husband and I are planning a trip to Turkey in May. While I have the first part of the trip nailed down, in Istanbul and Cappadocia, I dont have the rest totally figured out. I want to find out if there is anything blaringly obvious that I have missed, something that is a "must see" or a town/site that I should skip all together.

1. Istanbul – 3 days - staying at the Blue House – seeing all the main sites

2. Cappadocia – 3 nights, 2 days - staying at Esbelli Evi

3. Antalya (spend a night or 2)

Either fly from Kayseri to Antalya
OR
drive from Kayseri to Antalya - I believe that this is at least a 7 hour drive, so unless there is something we would really miss by flying, I would probably rather fly even though it goes back to Istanbul and takes 3 hours. Any advice?

Sites in Antalya: ??
Myra Rock Tombs?
Karain cave?
Kursunlu Waterfall? (not sure how close it is to Antalya)

4. Kas (spend a night)
Sites: ?

5. Fethye (spend a night or 2)
Patara beach?
Oludeniz?
ruins of Kimk (Xanthos) & Leton ?
sail to Gocek Gulf?

6. Marmaris (spend a night or 2)
Greek Island - Rhodes?
Knidos & resort town of Datca?
can visit Kaunos & canal of Dalyan?

7. Pamukkale (spend 1 night)
See Aphrodisias on the way
Herapolis

8. Kusadasi (spend couple of nights)
Sites:
Ephesus

9. drive to Izmir and dropping car off rental car and fly back to Istanbul

Any feedback would be great!!

Thanks,
Jenni

Hi Jenni,

We are also planning a trip to Turkey in May. We have found www.turkeytravelplanner has the most info. The founder of the site, Tom, often answers the questions.

I am curious as to why you are going from Kayseri to Antalya rather than going from Cappadocia to Antalya and then working your way West and then up towards Izmir towards the end to fly back to Istanbul?

We are visiting many of the same places you will be but we keep altering our itinerary. At this point our 18 day itinerary is:

Arrive in Istanbul Friday morning, May 20th

3 days 2 nights in Istanbul

Night train to Ankara and 4 1/2 hour bus ride to Cappadocia. Arrive early afternoon.

Stay 2 1/2 days 2 nights

Night bus to Antalya

At this point we are going to wing it. We might stay 1 night in Antalya. We will have at least 1 1/2 days because we will arrive early in the morning. We will definitely stay in Kas for a couple of nights.

We will visit Olympos, Chimera, Myra, Termessos in this area.

Our next overnights are up in the air but may include Dalyan for the Lycian ruins. Maybe Bodrum for a couple of nights.

Once we have explored the area above we will drive towards Selcuk visiting Didyma and Priene on our way.

We plan on staying one night near Pamukkale to visit there quickly and then to Afrodisias.

We will stay 1-2 nights in Selcuk before flying back to Istanbul for the last couple nights of our trip.

I have been researching this trip extensively for a couple of months. We have decided that we will rent a car from Antalya to provide freedom to wander. We will not book ahead during this part of our trip so we can stay wherever we feel suites us best.

I hope both of us get some suggestions here.

Cheers!

Tamara

Oops! I had a brain fart regarding this part of my post:

"I am curious as to why you are going from Kayseri to Antalya rather than going from Cappadocia to Antalya and then working your way West and then up towards Izmir towards the end to fly back to Istanbul?"

For some reason I was thinking of Kayseri being elsewhere. It dawned on me that it is right by Cappadocia.

Sorry!

I think You should visit patara beach and ruins. You can Find information about patara and some photos at www.stnicholastravel.org

brownarch, there is no reason to advertise here on Fodors. In fact it is forbidden.

At least I'll give you credit for posting this one on a more current thread than the 3 and a half year old one you just dragged up to put the same advertisement on.

HI, Jennie, there is boat trip
around Kas that is fun. You can
swim among some ruins of a city
that was flattened by an earthquake.
Have fun.