Hello all,
Can you give your thoughts on whether you would suggest any changes to this itinerary?

We are a family of 4, with 2 kids age 11 and 9. We will have a total of 7 days in July in Turkey, including arrival day from about 9:30 am and departure day around 7 pm. We are not much into adventure or too out of the way places.

Here is what i came up with, including flights:

Fri 9:30 arr IST
Fri 12:10 dep IST arr Izmir (ADB) 13:15 - Pegasus $55
Sun 11:50 dep Izmir (ADB) arr Kayseri (ASR)13:05 - Pegasus $78
Mon 19:50 dep Nevsehir (NAV) arr IST 21:10 - Turkish Air $322
Jul 5, 6, 7 Istanbul
Jul 7 pm: dep IST

1.5 days for Ephesus. Plan to see Roman ruins, house of Virgin Mary. Any others? Will probably take a bit easy after the long flight to Turkey and connection to Izmir.

Just over 1 day in Cappadocia. I know this is very little. We want to see the landscape, a balloon ride, the underground city and open air museum. I see a 1 day guided tour is available that covers this, ending at 5 pm, so we should be able to get the 7:50 pm flight?

Because of the 1 week total time, we can only spend so much time in this region, also need to match up with available flights.

2.5 days in Istanbul, to cover all the major sights.

Thanks for your help!
Matt

When you are staying near Ephasus don't forget to visit the Ephasus museum in Selcuk. It's small-ish but very interesting and helps make sense of some of what you see in Ephasus. Also in Selcuk, within an easy walking distance of the museum, is the ruins of St. Johns Bascilica. Very interesting. And although there isn't much left, you can visit the Temple of Artemis, one of the ancient wonders of the world. It's just outside of Selcuk, on the same road that takes you to Ephasus.

Have a gret trip!
Tracy

Your Cappadocia tour ends at 5 and you have a 7:50pm flight out of Kayseri back to IST? Where are you based in Cappadocia? It takes about an hour to get from Gorome to Kayeri's airport, and you you need to arrive at least 1 hour before departure time for domestic flight.

Remember that balloon flight is dependent on the weather. So plan to fly it the morning of your first full day in Cappadocia in case it has to be cancelled to redo the next morning. You really only have 1 day for Capp? It really is a neat place to spend a few days, but hopefully your day tour will give you enough of a taste for some of its highlights.

Look out for stork nests on the aqueducts when you're in Selcuk. Your children might enjoy seeing them. When I was there three weeks ago, I could see little baby storks moving about up in the nest. So cute.

For a less hurried schedule, you could just do (a) IST and Ephesus or (b) IST and Cappadocia.

Tracy and Axel, thanks very much for your replies. Good points, will make a note of them.

Yes, i did consider leaving out Ephesus to spend more time in Cappadocia, but i would rather get a quick taste of what is there, and if we love it we will go back.

Flight from Capp to IST - yes it is tight. We may not do the full day tour and instead hire a private guide or taxi, thus finishing earlier. However - after i posted above i found a cheap flight on Anadolu Jet for $55, leaving at 9:30 pm. That will give us lots of time.

One follow up question, the flight from Kayseri to Istanbul Sabiha airport (SAW) arrives at 11 pm. Will we get a taxi at that time, to get to our Sultanahmet hotel?

Thanks again
Matt

Are you planning a vacation or a marathon? Realistically, skip Ephesus & extend Cappadocia. Your kids will thank you. Ephesus is best seen between 8AM - 10AM. After that it is absolutely zoo'd. So if you are going to short change any part of your trip, do it here. Cappadocia demands some leisure time. When you see it, you will see what I mean. Take more time, take the kids on one of the hikes & give yourself a fall back position in case weather kills the balloon ride on your chosen day.

Re: airports, see my reply on your other thread.

Ian

>>One follow up question, the flight from Kayseri to Istanbul Sabiha airport (SAW) arrives at 11 pm. Will we get a taxi at that time, to get to our Sultanahmet hotel?<<

The easiest thing to do is to have your hotel pre-arrange for an airport pickup.

We flew Pegasus Airlines back into Sabiha airport and it was a huge pain. I would definitely try to arrange for transportation waiting for you before you leave.

We just returned from 15 days in western Turkey and I'm still exhausted. Sounds like you are going to be spending most of your time making transfers. I agree with Ian, skip Ephesus and add a day to Cappadocia. This will increase your chances for ballooning too.

Dear all,

Thanks for your suggestions. I agree with you all that it is a tight itinerary. However, this time around Turkey is a stopover on our trip to Asia, and 1 week is all we can get. On this trip we just want to get a sense of what the country is like. There is a very good chance we will be back for a more relaxed visit.

Our final itinerary is very close to what I wrote above, except delayed by a week. I will be sure to provide a trip report when we are back in late July.

Thanks again
Matt

Agree with Nicci...skip Ephesus add a day to Cappodocia and a day to Istanbul. Istanbul has so much that 2.5 days is just not enough and you'll be exhausted going from city to city. Cappodocia is magical. If you do hook up with a local tour company, check out Rose Tours in Goreme. They did a small van with about 6 people and one day we saw the Goreme Open Air Museum and many other sites and the next day did the Undergound cites and a lot of other places. I loved Cappodocia. Check out Temenni Evi Cave Hotel in nearby Urgup. I also stayed in Sultanahmet at the Sultania Hotel. Very convenient. A great hotel. Have fun. Turkey is marvelous!