Morning
Land at Istanbul Airport (IST)
IST sits 40 km out on the European side. Allow an hour into the old city by taxi, or ride the M11 metro and change onto the tram.
Afternoon / Day
Check in: Sirkeci Mansion
Taya Hatun Sok. 5, one street behind Sirkeci station. Ten minutes on foot to Hagia Sophia and right on the T1 tram line.
Lunch on Hocapaşa Sokak
Pedestrian lane of grill houses and pide ovens a block from the hotel — the cheapest good lunch in Sirkeci.
Gülhane Park
Topkapı's old palace gardens, now a free public park. Walk it uphill to the Sublime Porte gate and the palace walls.
The Hippodrome
Sultanahmet Meydanı. The Egyptian obelisk, the Serpent Column and the Walled Obelisk still stand on the old chariot track.
Evening
Dinner at Balıkçı Sabahattin
Cankurtaran, Sultanahmet. Seafood in a wooden mansion built in 1927 — take the cold meze tray first, then the day's catch.
Dessert at Hafız Mustafa 1864
Trading since 1864 and still the safe bet for baklava and kadayıf; there is a counter minutes from Sirkeci station.
Morning
Hagia Sophia
A working mosque again since 2020 — foreign visitors pay at a separate entrance for the reopened upper galleries. Women need a headscarf.
Hagia Sophia History & Experience Museum
A separate ticketed museum in the complex beside the mosque, walking you through the building's long history and out over an Eastern Roman cistern.
Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii)
Atmeydanı Cd. Free, and open to visitors between the five prayer times; the tourist route enters from the north side.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch at Matbah
Caferiye Sokak 6/1. Ottoman palace recipes rebuilt from court kitchen records — the fruit-and-meat stews are the reason to come.
Basilica Cistern
Yerebatan Cd. 1/3. Book the slot online and find the two Medusa heads in the far corner. It shuts for restoration from time to time, so check it is open the week you go.
Şerefiye (Theodosius) Cistern
Nine minutes' walk from Yerebatan. A 1,600-year-old cistern, restored and far quieter than its famous neighbour.
Evening
Dinner at Sultanahmet Köftecisi
Divanyolu. Grilling köfte since 1920 — meatballs, piyaz bean salad and irmik helvası. No menu decisions required.
Sultanahmet after dark
The park between Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque is floodlit and half-empty by nine — the best free view in the city.
Morning
Topkapı Palace
Cankurtaran. Book online, start at the Treasury and allow three hours; add the Harem if you visit only one palace in Istanbul.
Hagia Irene
The brick church in Topkapı's first courtyard, never converted to a mosque. Bare, enormously acoustic and usually empty.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch inside the Grand Bazaar
The working lunch spots hide in the covered lanes off Kalpakçılar Cd. — look for a queue of jewellery traders, not tourists.
Grand Bazaar (Kapalıçarşı)
Beyazıt. Thousands of shops under one roof, closed on Sundays. Head for Zincirli Han at the quiet northern end.
Süleymaniye Mosque
Prof. Sıddık Sami Onar Cd. Sinan's mosque on the third hill; the terrace behind it looks straight down the Golden Horn.
Spice Bazaar (Mısır Çarşısı)
Eminönü. Smaller and faster than the Grand Bazaar. Buy pistachios, Antep baklava and dried figs — skip the tourist-grade saffron.
Evening
Dinner at Neolokal
Bankalar Cd., inside SALT Galata. Maksut Aşkar rebuilds vanishing regional Anatolian dishes; reservations essential.
Galata Bridge on foot
Walk back across the lower deck past the fishermen and the fish-sandwich boats; Sirkeci is ten minutes on the far side.
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Morning
Bosphorus ferry from Eminönü
Take a public Şehir Hatları ferry rather than a tour boat — the same strait, a fraction of the fare, and tea served on deck.
Dolmabahçe Palace
Dolmabahçe Cd., Beşiktaş. Closed Mondays, ticket office 09:00–17:00. The crystal staircase, and the clock stopped at Atatürk's death.
Afternoon / Day
Lunch in Karaköy
The lanes behind Galataport do meyhane plates at midday, and the city's best-known baklava counters are on the same block.
Galata Tower
Bereketzade. The queue is worst at sunset — go mid-afternoon, then walk down through the old Genoese quarter.
Istanbul Modern
Tophane İskele Cd. 1/1, on the Galataport waterfront. Istanbul's museum of modern and contemporary art; doors from 10:00, and a roof terrace facing the old city.
Kılıç Ali Paşa Hamamı
Hamam Sok. 1, Tophane. Open daily but split by gender — women 08:00–16:00, men 16:45–23:30. Book ahead.
Evening
Dinner at Mikla
Meşrutiyet Cd. 15, on the roof of The Marmara Pera. Dinner only, Monday to Saturday, last food order 21:30. Reserve.
İstiklal Caddesi
Walk from Tünel up to Taksim past Çiçek Pasajı. The red heritage tram runs the same line if the legs have gone.
Morning
Turkish breakfast at the hotel
Included, and a proper spread — white cheese, olives, menemen, simit. Eat early; the airport run takes a full hour.
Fly Istanbul to Kayseri
About 1 hr 20 min, several departures a day. Nevşehir (NAV) is the smaller alternative. Nobody drives this leg.
Afternoon / Day
Transfer to Uçhisar
Kayseri airport to the Göreme valleys is about 70 km — an hour by shuttle, or arrange the hotel car in advance.
Check in: Museum Hotel
Tekelli Mah. 1, Uçhisar. Cave and stone rooms cut into the ridge below the castle, with the valleys straight out the window.
Uçhisar Castle
The tallest rock in Cappadocia, honeycombed with rooms and five minutes from the hotel. Climb it to learn the lie of the land.
Pigeon Valley walk
The path drops from Uçhisar toward Göreme past cliffs pocked with old pigeon houses. Four kilometres one way, easy going.
Evening
Dinner at Lil'a
Museum Hotel's à la carte room, Turkish cooking with the valley on three sides. Ask for the terrace and go before sunset.
Morning
Balloon flight, Kapadokya Balloons
Adnan Menderes Cd. 14/A, Göreme. The region's first balloon operator, and the standard flight runs 45 to 65 minutes.
Breakfast back at the hotel
Balloons land early, so breakfast is still going when you get back — and the terrace is empty at that hour.
Afternoon / Day
Göreme Open Air Museum
Müze Cd. A whole monastic valley of rock-cut chapels; the Karanlık Kilise holds the best-preserved frescoes in Cappadocia.
Lunch in Göreme village
The lanes around the bus station do gözleme and testi kebab — the sealed clay pot gets cracked open at the table.
Çavuşin and the Rose Valley rim
Old Çavuşin, 3 km north, is half-abandoned cave houses under a cliff church. The Rose Valley trail starts behind the village.
Evening
Sunset Point above Göreme
The ridge on the Uçhisar road fills up an hour before sundown. Twenty minutes uphill on foot from the village.
Dinner at Seten
Çakmaklı Sk. 35, Göreme. Anatolian cooking on a rooftop over the town — they take no reservations, so arrive early.
Morning
Drive south to Derinkuyu
About 40 km from Uçhisar on the Niğde road. Most hotels will arrange a car and driver for the whole day.
Derinkuyu Underground City
Eight storeys cut into soft tuff, with ventilation shafts and rolling stone doors. Ceilings are low — not one for claustrophobes.
Afternoon / Day
Trout lunch at Belisırma
The restaurants at Belisırma sit on platforms over the Melendiz river, exactly halfway along the canyon walk.
Ihlara Valley walk
A 14 km canyon with Byzantine churches cut into the walls. The Ihlara-to-Belisırma half is the good stretch, roughly two hours.
Selime Cathedral
At the north end of the valley — a rock-cut monastery big enough to walk through, reached by a scramble up loose scree.
Evening
Drive back to Uçhisar
An hour and a quarter across the plateau. Stop when Hasan Dağı goes pink in the mirror.
Dinner in Ürgüp old town
Fifteen minutes from Uçhisar. The lanes below the Temenni hill do meze and slow-cooked lamb, and stay open late.
Morning
Red Valley to Kızılçukur
Start from the Çavuşin side and walk to the Kızılçukur viewpoint — 6 km of pink tuff with cave chapels just off the path.
Tea at a valley çay bahçesi
Fruit-juice stands and tea gardens sit at the trail junctions inside Red Valley. Cash only, and worth the stop.
Afternoon / Day
On to Avanos
The pottery town is 10 km north, on the Kızılırmak — the longest river in Turkey and the source of the red clay.
Güray Müze
An underground ceramics museum in Avanos with antique and contemporary halls, plus a workshop where you can sit at a wheel.
Avanos pottery workshops
The riverfront lanes are lined with family workshops still throwing red Kızılırmak clay. Hittite-pattern jugs are the classic buy.
Turasan winery shop, Ürgüp
Tevfik Fikret Cd. 6A-B. Ürgüp's long-established winery — take back a bottle of Emir, the white grape grown on this plateau.
Evening
Dinner at Old Greek House
Mustafapaşa, 6 km south of Ürgüp. An 1850s Greek mansion serving home-style plates — karnıyarık, sarma, stuffed onions.
Mustafapaşa lanes after dinner
This was Sinasos before 1924 — carved Greek stone doorways, a ruined church, and almost nobody about after dark.
Ortahisar, Ürgüp, and Home
Morning
Last breakfast on the terrace
Take it slowly and watch the last balloons come down over the valley — they are usually landing by seven.
Ortahisar rock castle
A honeycombed rock stack in the middle of the village, with a quarter of cold-storage caves beneath it still used for fruit.
Üç Güzeller (Three Beauties)
The three capped fairy chimneys on the Ürgüp–Nevşehir road — the postcard image of Cappadocia, and a two-minute stop.
Kilims on Cumhuriyet Meydanı
Ürgüp's square is ringed with carpet and kilim dealers, and the Temenni hill above it gives a last look at the valleys.
Afternoon / Day
Drive to Kayseri (ASR)
About 75 km east across the plateau, an hour and a quarter, with Erciyes filling the windscreen most of the way.
Fly home from Kayseri
ASR is small — bag drop and security take minutes. Connect through Istanbul for anything long-haul.
Evening
No activities planned
