• Guided visit to the Topkapi Palace
• Spice Market and Grand Bazaar
• Optional visit to a Turkish rug cooperative or a free afternoon and evening

This morning our local guide will lead us through the luxurious fifteenth century Topkapi Palace. The story-book beauty of the palace feels almost enchanted. This place is a window for the imagination, the intrigue of palace romances, political aspirations, and the royal setting of the Ottoman court. 

After our visit to the Topkapi Palace and museums we’ll stop by the spice market en route to the Grand Bazaar, the largest and oldest covered market in the world. With over sixty streets and 4,000 shops, a visit to the Grand Bazaar is a multi-sensory experience like stepping into a covered city. This magical market is filled with craftsmen, jewelers, ceramics, and the vaulted ceilings where the expertise of thousands of years of artisan culture is gathered into one place. We’ll chat with local shop owners to learn the routine of daily life in Grand Bazaar. After our visit to the Grand Bazaar we’ll be free for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

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Walking: Strenuous, 5 miles

• Morning flight to Cappadocia
• Goreme Open Air Museum
• Turkish barbeque dinner

After breakfast this morning we’ll head to the airport to fly to Cappadocia. Famous today as a site of natural wonders and hot-air balloons floating over fairy-chimneys at dawn, the underground fourth century A.D. cities of churches, homes, stables, and warehouses are equally marvelous. After lunch and checking into our hotel we’ll have a quick orientation to Sinassos village, one of the oldest settlements of Cappadocia. The architecture here is unique for its stone houses with spacious courtyards and castle-like feel.

This afternoon, our journey will continue through one of the most beautiful valleys in Cappadocia before visiting the Goreme Open Air Museum. These fourth century cave dwellings were once home to a thriving monastic community who embraced a vision of simplicity and sanctity in a life dedicated to prayer in the wilderness. After visiting these ancient churches and hermitages, we'll regroup this evening for a casual wine-tasting and a meal of Turkish barbecue.

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Walking: Easy, 2 miles

Travel time: Approx. 4.5 hrs.

• Optional hot-air balloon ride
• Guided visit of Kaymakli underground city
• Ceramics workshop visit (time and energy permitting)
• Cappadocian-styled cooking lesson

Today we’ll visit the highest and deepest places of Cappadocia on the same day. We’ll set out early this morning for an optional hot-air ballooning experience. The soft morning light rising over the honey-combed landscape is an enchanting perspective of the Pasabag valley. 

After our magical morning ride, we’ll sit down for a second breakfast before descending with our local guide into the underground city of Kaymakli. Hewn from the soft volcanic rock as early as the seventh century B.C., these vast subterranean worlds once offered refuge from invaders and brutal winters—and may have sheltered thousands across hundreds of hidden cities.

Following our visit to the ancient cities, our guide will take us to a ceramic workshop in Avanos. Located along the Kızılırmak — “the Red River” — the source of the region’s distinctive red clay, the pottery tradition here dates back to the Bronze Age and the time of the Hittites. We’ll witness this three-thousand-year-old craft through artisan demonstrations, explanations, and a brief visit to the museum.

We’ll return to Sinnasos for a relaxed late afternoon before we regroup for a Cappadocian-styled cooking lesson and dinner.

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Walking: Moderate, 4 miles

• Flight to Kusadasi
• Guided visit to the Ephesus Archeological Museum
• A relaxed afternoon by the sea and dinner at our hotel

This morning we’ll continue our journey with a flight to Izmir in the western part of Anatolia on the Aegean Sea. Around noon we’ll stop for lunch en route to the Ephesus Archeological Museum whose collection of artifacts dates back to the founding of cities in this region, about nine-thousand years ago. These fragments of continuous civilizations through almost ten millennia help us not only to imagine the daily lives of ancient cultures but also to understand how history is collective like a story that continues from one page to another.

In the early afternoon we’ll arrive at our seaside hotel overlooking the Aegean in time for a swim or to relax by the sea before dinner at our hotel.

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Walking: Moderate, 4 miles

Travel time: Approx. 4.5 hrs.

• Guided visit to the ancient city of Ephesus
• Optional traditional Turkish bath experience
• Afternoon by the sea and dinner at our hotel

After breakfast this morning we’ll drive to the nearby ancient city of Ephesus. Similar in many ways to the Greek sister-city of Athens, Ephesus tells the story of beauty, prosperity, self-governance, and then tragedy, and tyranny. As our guide recounts the stories of love, possibility, and betrayal, we’ll walk the ancient streets and visit the theater that once housed 25,000 spectators. As we explore ancient Roman terrace houses and the remnants of temples, shops, bathhouses, we’ll glimpse the sophistication and simplicity of the port-city that endured more than a thousand years.

For all who might be interested, this afternoon we’ll make an optional trip to a Turkish bath where we’ll experience the next-of-kin to the ancient Roman bathhouse. Men and women will remain separate for this invigorating steam and exfoliating olive-soap massage by our local Turkish masseuse. Take time for tea, hot marble slabs, relaxation, and another massage.

We'll return to our seaside hotel this afternoon in time to relax by the sea before enjoying dinner together.

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Walking: Moderate, 4 miles

• A relaxed morning
• Afternoon wine-tasting and a visit to Sirince
• Dinner at our hotel

We'll take this morning to rest, visit our hotel's spa, and swim in the sea.

This afternoon, we’ll visit the quaint village of Sirince, where we’ll spend our time at a local winery. After lunch and a wine tasting, we’ll wander through Sirince’s cobblestone streets, with time to stop by silversmiths and friendly artisan shopkeepers.

In the early evening, we'll return to our seaside hotel in time for a sunset cocktail overlooking the sea and dinner at our hotel.

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Walking: Strenuous, 2 miles

Bus time: 4 hrs.

• En route to Bodrum we'll explore our guide's hometown region
• Stopping along the coast for lunch and exploration
• Free evening in Bodrum

Departing our seaside hotel after breakfast, we’ll spend the morning exploring some of the best-preserved — yet little-visited — sites of Asia Minor. Time and interest permitting, we’ll stop to see ancient theaters and temples dedicated to Athena and Apollo, with free time for lunch in Herakleia or one of the charming coastal towns.

After checking into our hotel this afternoon, you’ll be free for dinner — either at the hotel’s excellent restaurant, which offers a beautiful view of St. Peter’s Castle, or at one of the seaside taverns in town.

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Walking: moderate, 3 miles

Bus time: 3 hrs.

• Traditional Turkish weaving and Etrim village life
• Cooking with locals
•  A free evening in Bodrum

After breakfast we’ll drive to nearby Etrim for an immersive experience in the traditional culture of a small Turkish village. Etrim is not in your average traveller’s guidebook and will give us an authentic feel for village life in Turkey. We’ll start our day in the village coffee house where we’ll meet our host who will introduce us to the local traditions of wool production and carpet weaving, of wine making, farming, and beekeeping. Next our host will bring us into a couple of local houses where we’ll see firsthand the artisan practice of processing and dying wool, boiling caldrons of pigments, and the looms where the millennial-old art of weaving is practiced. This visit is both a step back in time to an older way of life and stepping closer to humanity and the natural gifts of the world.

Next our host’s mother will bring us into her small kitchen and teach us how to make a dolma, often a communal event in rural Turkish communities. After lunch, coffee, wine, and conversation shared with locals we’ll take a tour of locally made carpets and have an opportunity to learn more about the cooperatives of women that produce them.

In the late afternoon we’ll return to Bodrum for another relaxed evening by the sea.

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Walking: Light, 2 miles

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• Sailing the Turquoise coast on a traditional boat
• Last night dinner, toasts, and celebrating on the water

This morning after breakfast, we’ll board our gulet — a traditional two-masted Turkish sailing boat — to explore the beautiful beaches and islands by sea.

We’ll spend the afternoon sailing the crystal waters of the Aegean while stopping to swim, sunbathe, and chat with our local guide about the beauties we've visited over the previous two weeks. After a day of sailing we'll celebrate our voyage together with a final meal on board before returning to our hotel.

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Walking: Light

Breakfast is included, but no activities are planned for today. Whether continuing your journey in Turkey, Greece, or elsewhere, our guide will be available to help with travel plans.