Turkey Road Trip/Itinerary Advice Please
 

We're planning a trip to Turkey next summer. We've done road trips in various European countries and plan to do the same in Turkey. We'll pick up & return a rental car in Istanbul and we've mapped out a loop--because of time constraints I don't think we can add anything too far out of the basic outline below. We're also trying to avoid driving more than 3-4 hours per day. I'd appreciate any tips, additions, deletions, etc. Thanks in advance for your advice!

Istanbul for a few days, pick up rental car
Ferry to to Bandirma, drive to Bozcaada (see Canakkale, Troy)
Drive to Bergama (see Assos, Dikili, Pergamon,)
Drive to Selcuk (see Ephesus, Selcuk, Salihli, Sardis, Bozdag, Odemis)
Drive to Mugla (see Priene, Bafa Golu, Herakleia, Euromos & possibly Aphrodisias)
Drive to Kas (see Kaya Koy, Tlos, Letoon, Xanthos, Patara; Friday morning market in Kas worth a visit?)
Drive to Cirali (see Cayagzi, Finike, Olympos, Phaselis)
Drive to Burdur/Isparta--not sure which of these to stay in (see Susuz Han, Termessos, Kremna, Sagalassos)
Drive to Kutahya (see Afyon, Ayazin, Aizanoi)
Drive to Iznik (see Iznik, Nicea)
Drive to ?? looks like we can take a ferry from either Bursa/Mudanya or Yalova (take ferry back to Istanbul, return car)

suffrock,

what can i say! I just hope you can do it within your time scale.

Based on your desire not to drive more than 4-5 hours a day, i will try to give you options for O/N locations. Depending on how much you like each location and/or how tired you are, yo may choose to stay more than one night at any location:

- Ferry to bandirma 2-2.5 hours no need for business tickets
bandima to Truva, take the faster Lapseki-Canakkale route, about 4 hours.
- another hour driving to ferry landing for Bozcaada
have you checked the ferry timetable?
- First O/N at Bozcaada.
- Because of the dependence on the not so frequent ferry,
your second O/N will probably be Assos, Kucukkuyu (Lila motel recommended) or Ayvalik.
- You can do your third O/N at Dikili and maybe even at Foca, depending on your stamina sightseeing Pergamom.

By the way, i am assuming that you bunk down reasonably early and start each day's driving early also, to give you time to sightsee without driving too much.

- Fourth o/n at Bozdag or Golcuk on the mountain after Sardis visit. Possibly six hours driving from Dikili.

Another PS : we are at our summer home on Iznik lake, having given a tour of Iznik to our recent friend GTTD from Trip advisor, and i do not have a map with me to give you very precise figures.

- Visit Birgi town coming down the mountain before Odemis and continue to Selcuk for Fifth O/N
- sixth O/N at Selcuk again.
- If you wish to see Aphrodisias, it will mean another O/N at Selcuk.
- 8th O/N at Herakleia
- 9th O/N at Akyaka below MUgla.
- 10th o/n at Kayakoy (villa rhapsody suggested)
- 11th o/n at kayakoy after possible gulet cruise and/or beach.
- 12th o.n at Patara
- 13th o/n at Kas
- 14th o/n at Cirali (canada hotel suggested)

Sagalassos will be possible if you leave East of Kas out and drive North towards Burdur from Kas.

Termessos will be possible with Cirali but will be an extra two hours drive that day to Burdur. (Termessos will also require a lot of climbing and will take at least another two hours to visit.) If you bypass Termessos you can easily continue to Afyon from Cirali that day. The roads are good. lots of divided highways with the new 110 + 10% speed limit.

- 15th o/n . Afyon-Kutahya intersection has some spa hotels, ikbal, orucoglu, etc. Some years ago we got our special large hot healing water jacouzi with my wife, which could have been fun if we knew that you are not supposed to soak for longer than five minutes at a time. I almost had a heart attack and she tried to rush out of the ante-chamber with very little on, fortunately trying to push the door instead of pulling it. we still laugh when we imagine what the rather conservative patrons would have thought, seeing her running dishevelled and me chasing after her. :)

Longish drive to visit Ayazin (have not been there) and Aizanoi and continue to iznik from there. (through Inegol and Yenisehir)

- 16th o/n at Iznik, camlik hotel or Cem hotel, both overlooking the lake, Camli more central and Cem with also an antique city wall view.
- 17th overnight at Iznik.
- Return by ferry from Yalova, 50-60 minutes from Iznik.

If you ask, i will try to give additional details in the coming months.

Just to correct one mistake:

I was thinking that you wouls go North through elmali to korkuteli to follow the Lycian way.

Sagalassos can be done from Cirali, through Antalya, and will be easier than Termessos but still require at least three additional hours (against 4 for Termessos)

What would all us Turkey travel planners have done had you perished in the jacuzzi! We'll take your great suggestions and start building our route. As usual you provided great advice. One more question for now, since you mentioned that you're on Iznik Lake. I noticed the Iznik Foundation Guesthouse on smallhotels.com.tr. Are you familiar with it? It sounded like a unique place to stay. Thanks again.

Suffrock, thank you for the complimen and for caring about my health. you are a compassioanate man.

It is on an idyllic county lane, about 300 meters to the lake, not close to the town center. We have driven past it and of'course visited the foundation production facilities and shop, but never inspected it. when we had guests interested in staying there previously it was all booked.

However, we will go down and have a look in the coming days.

Suffrock, the foundation boarding house was closed when we checked but will try again next time we are at Iznik. However, the lake view from the other two hotels could be more attractive.

Why would you want to drive from Istanbul. Fly from Istanbul and arrange a car from Izmir. Drive from Izmir to Selcuk visit Ephesus. Stay Sirince or drive on. We visited Aphrodisa on Tuesday and found it amazing and then drove to Pamakkuale. My spouse actually walked up the travatines. On Wednesday we will drive down to Kas. We are basing ourselves in Kas for two days and returning to Istanbul on Friday.

We actually like driving. Some of our best days traveling have been getting off the beaten path and discovering places that aren't widely visited. There are places between Istanbul and Izmir that sound pretty great. Also, DH flies constantly for his job and he's looking forward to getting behind the wheel and hitting the road.