Turkey - Need help with itinerary
 

Hi all,

What do u think of my itinerary below? * is where I intend to stay/base for the next few days. Are these good basecamp for the next few places I wanna visit? I know I need to fly from Istanbul to Izmir to transfer to Kusadasi. Do I rent a car immediately from there and drive all they way. I have done the google map (Turkey 2012, its public) on this itinerary and looks scary for the long journey driving. I probably can drive tops 4 hours a day. Need suggestions on where/when I should get a local tours/drivers to save money on renting car/petrol and when I should fly. Are there any places that I should reduce the number of nights or increase? How about places like Bursa, Bodrum, Fethiye, Rhode?

1 arrive in *Istanbul, 6pm
2 Ist
3 Ist
4 Ist/Sirince - 5pm flight to Izmir, stay in *Kusadasi
5 Ephesus
6 Priene, Miletus & Didyma
7 drive to Aphrodiasias and Pamukalle. Stay in *Selcuk
8 Phaselis & Antalya
9 Perge & Aspendos
10 *Konya
11 Silk Road, Ihlara @ Cappodocia. Stay in *Goreme
12 Capp
13 Capp
14 ?????
15 *Istanbul
16 Flight back home

You might want to take a look at my trip report; click on my name to find it. We flew from Istanbul to Izmir and then drove to Cappadocia and flew back to Istanbul.

Thanks @michael! Very useful. We are just wondering if we should drive the whole stretch from Izmir to Cappadocia as 1) petrol will be costly (how much was a full tank?) 2) save sometime for resting while someone takes over the wheels in the case of getting a local tour/bus

The cost of fuel came close to the cost of the rental itself.

Your plan sounds potentially do-able, depending on what you want to do in each of your chosen destinations, but it seems a faster pace than I would have preferred - and I travel at a fairly fast pace. You might check my trip report and those of others on this board who have traveled there.

It's a wonderful place to visit - enjoy!