My husband and I are planning on a trip to Turkey in August with our four kids. Our priorities are to visit Istanbul, Ephesus and Cappadocia. I would like to add a second country to our trip to have as many different experiences as possible. Greece seems like the most economical option since it is a ferry ride away. We have 3-4 weeks.

So, these are the things I've considered.
Option #1. Stay in Turkey the entire time and add the Turquoise coast. (My husband is worried about driving on our own and we are considering a guide).

Option #2. Keep to just the priorities in Turkey (Istanbul, Cappadocia, Ephesus) and then spend the rest of our stay on an island in Greece.

Option #3. Which is probably too time consuming and expensive to travel to a different region. If anyone has another country suggestion I'd love to hear it. I've dreamed of going to Italy and my husband would love to take our family to Israel. If anyone has any experience please share so I can see if we could make it work too .

Thanks,

The Dodecanese Islands would be very easy logistically. You can get to Samos, actually part of the Northern Aegean island group, easily from Ephesus by ferry. Then you could move south to somewhere like Patmos, Lipsi, kalymnos and onto Kos to fly to Athens to fly home...

Perhaps Jordan. I loved Jordan, Petra is amazing and Jerash (a Roman city) is well worth seeing, though you will have seen plenty of Roman ruins in Turkey, no doubt.

We did a 2 week sailing trip with Seascapes in 2012 of the Dodecanese...here are our photos

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pug_gi...7635104334882/

Had the best time!

Is this the same trip as all the other threads?

Is your flight directly from wherever to Turkey? If not you might consider breaking up the flight and spending some time in the area of the airport where you would be changing planes.

Great photos jamikins

Thanks for the link to the great pictures. Yes, this is the same trip. We are hoping to form a final itinerary, there are just so many wonderful places to go that it is really difficult to narrow this down. Wish I could do it all! We were originally going to do Israel and Greece. Then my husband fell in love with the idea of going to Turkey - so now I get to pick our second destination.

I'm not sure if it is not OK to post multiple threads. As we learn more we have new questions and the questions need different tags. I am really new to this. Well- a couple of weeks in. I'm picking up my Rough Guide to Turkey at the Library today!

Thanks guys! We loved every minute of that trip and can't wait to get back to Greece! That was the last two weeks of August as well...

It's ok to post multiple threads, but it was useful to understand that your threads were about the same trip rather than several different trips. On the other hand, the person who makes separate posts for every question can get annoying.

There is more than enough to see in Turkey in the time you have. As a rule, I found driving there quite easy. If you haven't already seen it, you might find some useful information in my trip report -- just click on my name to find it. Enjoy!

I haven't read all the replies but when I spent a month in Greece I arrived through the boot of Itally which was interesting--or Dubrovnik and whatever all that area is called now could be lovely. I loved it.

Given the availability of air flights almost anywhere, and low cost flights from Istanbul to the rest of Europe, almost anywhere that strikes your fancy would do. Perhaps you would want a drastic change (at least in climate) and visit Ireland or Scotland. Nothing wrong with that. We generally divide our trips in half, with part of it in France, but the rest can be in Scandinavia, Turkey, Romania, Scotland--whatever we choose as a new destination.

Cyprus and Ukraina are a ferry ride away too.
Bulgaria and Romania are 5 to 10 hrs by bus.

Low cost flights from Istanbul to everywhere in Europe.

Why do I think of food every time I glance at this title?

I love your photos jamikins!!
With a family of 4 children, I think I would spend some time on the Greek Isles where the kids can have a little more freedom to play on the beaches, go swimming, etc. I've never been to the Dodecanese (but I'm going to check it out!) but I've been to the isle of Hydra which is a fun place with children.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYxbEHrcU8g

"on the Greek Isles where the kids can have a little more freedom to play on the beaches"

Why should that not be possible at one of the uncountable nice Turkish beaches?
Turks like children!

Not Greece. They are so similar and Turkey is still light-hearted and delightful along the coast.

How about Ukraine? I think there is enough in Turkey to stay there the entire time.

You can get anywhere from turkey, to it doesn't have to be "logical".

We combined Turkey with Paris as that was where we were going to need to change planes. We were very happy with this combination.