My husband and I are in the final stages of planning our itinerary for two weeks in Turkey in May. We're planning on 4 nights in Istanbul, then flying to Cappadocia and spending 3 nights. Pick up a rental car, one night in Konya and then down to the coast heading up to Izmir, Ephesus etc. We have a total of 15 nights.

We really very much want to go to Gallipoli but are having trouble figuring out how to do it. Can we do it as a day trip from Istanbul? Are there tours? Or should we keep the car and go there on our way back to Istanbul? If we don't drive to Gallipoli we would probalby drop the car in Izmir and fly to Istanbul.

If we do drive to Gallipoli is it reasonable to spend our last night somewhere in the vicinity and be able to get to the Istanbul airport by noon for a 2 PM flight?

This is the part that really has us stumped and we really want to do it so any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

You should drive from Izmir through Cannakale and then take the car ferry to the peninsula. You would have to get up very early to drive in order to make your flight; sorry I do not have exact driving times. We drove from Istanbul through the peninsula last fall...good roads.

The road from Istanbul to the peninsula is very good ! From Izmir if you can arrange it stay a night at Cannakale ( you can see Troy as well) then get the car ferry across to the Gallipoli Peninsula, you could probably see most places without a guide but we found having one was a real advantage. You can spend a half day looking around and then spend the rest of the afternoon driving to Istanbul. Hope that helps a little !

Thanks so much. Anyone have an estimate of much time the drive from Gallipoli to Istanbul would take?

According to Lonely Planet, the bus from Istanbul to Eceabat, the main center for visiting the battlefields, takes 5 1/2 hours. That seems a little long to me, as I think we made it from Istanbul to Kilitbahir (where we boarded the "small" ferry) in less time in a private car. You could try searching the Turkish bus timetables for more info on driving times. Or use ViaMichelin.

I did it for you on Via Michelin; they say 3 hours 59 minutes driving time between the two places.

from memory (suspect at times ) it was about 4 and a bit hours with a half hour stop for lunch !