Tentative Turkey Itinerary 9/28-10/10/10
 

This is the bare bones of our travel. Because the flights between Izmir run every other day I had to fly either Monday or Wednesday. I would have liked to fly on Tuesday to give us 3 days in Istanbul instead of 2. We are in our late 50's and we have been traveling somewhere every year and we probably will not be back to Turkey. I know I am giving short shrift to each area, but we have sort of short attention spans and I wanted to try and see as much as I could. Any comments would be appreciated.

arrive istanbul Wednesday 9/29/10 5:15PM at Ataturk airport
Fly Istanbul Sabia Goken airport to Antalaya leave 10:55PM arrive 11:59PM
Book hotel near Antalya airport
Pick up car in the morning 9/30/10 Thursday
Thursday 9/30/10 through Tuesday 10/5/10 drive visit from Antalya to Izmir
Wed 10/6/10 fly Izmir to Capadochia leave 1:40PM arrive 3:05PM
Thursday 10/7/10 fly Kayseri to Istanbul leave 9:20PM arrive 10:35PM
Fri 10/8 & Sat 10/9/10 tour Istanbul
Fly home Sunday 11:20AM

I found a flight on Onur Air from Ataturk to Antalya that leaves 2 hours earlier than the flight I was going to book from Sabia Goken. This should make it easier on the first day in Turkey since we will be really tired.

Wondering why you don't go clockwise..Istanbul, Cappadocia, Antalya, Izmir, istanbul?

Hi
The only reason that I am doing it the way I did is because the flight from Ataturk to Antalya was the only flight I felt confident that I could get and make on the day I arrive in Istanbul at 5:15PM. I am have another idea. i was thinking that I could fly to Izmir the 1st night and rent a car and drive towards Antalya and then also drive from Antalya to Cappadochia. My understanding is that it is a 9 hour drive from Antalya to Cappadochia and if I take a flight from Izmir to Cappadochia at 1:30Pm it will pretty much shoot that whole day anyway. I think that there are some pretty good sights on the road from Antalya to Cappadochia. The problem with the ist day is that the flights that are available on the 1st day are mostly from the other airport and I am not sure how long it will take to get through customs and get to the other airport. I could do it either way, either fly to Kayseri the 1st day or Izmir. It depends which flight I could get that I could make.

I drove from Istanbul - Ankara - Cappadocia - Antalya - Marmaris - Bursa - Istanbul. We skipped Izmir. There is a ferry from Bursa to Istanbul.

I was staying in Istanbul, so we started from there.

Between Cappadocia and Antalya we hiked the Ilhara valley (not too strenuous) and visited an Underground city. We spent night in Konya.

Marmaris and Kas are nice stops. You'll like that drive.

How many days was your trip?

We drove from Cappadocia to Antalya and it was a very easy drive (we were there around the same time of year). I'm not sure you have allowed enough time in Cappadocia - I would think at least one more day.(Maybe take one day off your drive up the coast)There is quite a bit to see and do there. Our Australian friend is a pilot for Royal Balloons and a hot air balloon ride is a real treat. But there are some beautiful valleys also which are lovely to walk through - also the Underground City we found fascinating - pay the 25 TYL and hire a private guide to take you through - it's absolutely worth it.

We then drove all the way up the coast right up to Gallipoli and into Istanbul. Coast highlights for us were Kas and Bodrum. We stayed in Celcuk to visit Ephesus and absolutely loved it there. We also drove out to Pammukhale which we thought was worth the drive.

Two days in Istanbul will give you time to see the highlights though an extra day there would be good but we can't have everything and I appreciate that time can be a premium.

I think I will drive and cut a day off the coast as suggested above and I will add a day to Cappadochia. I am going to start out in Izmir because there is an 8:00PM flight from Ataturk airport on the afternoon I arrived. At the beginning of October, I was thinking that I would hang loose as far as booking hotels except for the 1st night and the 3 nights I am staying in istanbul. Hopefully it will be warm enough to take a dip in a pool or in the Mediteranian in the 1st 6 days in October.

James,

Landed on 4th of August in Istanbul, left on the 18th. Spent about 5 days in Istanbul, rest was driving the country. Most places we stayed one night, except for Antalya where we stayed 2nights. Knowing what I know now, would add time to a few of the stops.

Michel
If you did it over and you were starting in Izmir going down to Antalya and then to Cappadochia, where would you stop for the night and for how long in you had 8 complete days to allocate? I know everyone's tastes are different, but in past trips I determined that I spent 2 days somewhere and i could have apent the afternoon there.

We are flying to Izmir and driving to Antalya on 11 Oct (Monday) and return to Istanbul on 15 Oct (Friday). I thought we would stay the first night in Seluck to visit Ephesus the next day. After that I thought we should stop in Kas. I have not researched any further. Do we need to book in advance or can we will be able to find accomdodations as we drive along?

Marmaris was an interesting place and worth a night. Busy harbour area with lots of restaurants.

Our stop coming from Antalya was Kas. Kas is on my places to go back to. Small port town, nice harbour area. We took a Lycean ruins cruise out of there, full day, with swimming stops, lunch, on a glass bottom boat. Our hotel was right on the water, our room had no windows, just this open view of the Med. Nice. We wandered shopping stalls, ate in the downtown area.

Thank you. I couldn't remember where the glass bottom boat cruise started. Great idea!

Thanks also.