If anyone has recommendations for a 7-8 day trip to Istanbul with a side trip to Ephesus, I'd love to have them. I'd be traveling solo, interested in this May or early June. I want first class or deluxe hotels. I'm looking into a week's tour with Isram, I company that I used with great results when I went solo to Morocco last year, but their Mystical Turkey tour only has 1.5 days in Istanbul, and I'd like 2-3 full days and a side trip or overnight to Ephesus.
thanks

I don't know if they have your specific combination of locations, but we traveled with Pacha tours last May and had a great experience.

I agree about Pacha Tours. I took a two-week tour of Western Turkey and the guide was wonderfully knowledgeable. A small group of 19 people on the bus (they run the tours regardless of numbers). Everything was included in the tour price except tips.

Although the hotels were very good I don't think they are rated first class or deluxe (certainly not deluxe). They were standard tour-type hotels.

pachatours.com

I am checking out their offerings, thanks.
I've only taken one escorted tour before, and there was free time, to explore things not on the guided tour.
Did you feel there was time for that?

Free time depends on the tour and you're looking for Istanbul and Ephesus only. The hotel location for Ephesus varies and there may be things to do in the evening depending on the hotel location. We were outside of a town and there wasn't much to do in the evening except a leisurely dinner and chatting with our travel companions.

Outside of Istanbul there isn't necessarily anything else to see except what the tour takes you to. I remember one afternoon free and we were in a town so a bunch of us walked through the pedestrian area and then took a boat cruise in the harbor. But in Goreme the only thing to see in the evening was the Whirling Dervishes which we could walk to from the hotel. The stop was to see the Goreme open air museum and optional balloon ride. The hotel was close to the museum but there was nothing else around. So free time wouldn't be a factor.

Pacha offers many tours and you can mix and match the offerings. You're only looking for a week long tour but if you were staying longer you could take the first week of the Western Turkey tour, second week do a Gulet cruise in the south, and the third week you could jump on the next Western Turkey tour to complete the Western Turkey trip. I think they also have mini tours so that you could book an Ephesus tour and an Istanbul tour separately and then have time on your own in Istanbul.

yes, it's in Istanbul where I was thinking I'd want some free time.
I'll look into combining tours, thanks

Another option is to arrive in Istanbul a day or two before your tour and have some time on your own. DH and I did that, and set it up through Pacha so we were in the same hotel. We paid Pacha for the extra night at the hotel. We did it on the front end of our tour, and this gave us an extra day to recover from jet lag.

Like Adrienne, we did the 2-week Western Turkey tour. Some of the hotels--most of the hotels--are not near anything you would want to walk to, except in Istanbul and Antalya. We took the middle "grade" of tour, and our hotels were all 4 or 5 star.

good suggestion, to arrive a day earlier and arrange it through the tour organization. It will help with the jetlag, too.
thanks

Since you have seven day in Turkey if you ask me the best think to do is 3 nights in Istanbul 1 night in Cappadocia 1 night in Izmir (to see Ephesus and the city it self) then 2 nights in Istnabul before you leave or 2 nights in izmir you can include city of Pergamom to your itenary. This kind of tour may cost excluding hotels but including domestic airfare, transfers and all entrance and lunches and private car and english speaking guide for the tours costs 1000 USD.
think about it please
Bon Voyage

Coming to Cappadocia for a day only while you have a week would be waste of time and money.

Istanbul on arrival or before going back home 3 days, 1 day for Ephesus and at least 2 full days in Cappadocia would be a better option. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are the days for direct flights Izmir-Kayseri or vice versa.

Happy travelling,
Murat

great suggestions - bookmarking