Jewels of Turkey - 4 Day Trip to Pamukkale Ephesus Cappadocia with Balloon Ride
3.8
11 Ratings
Kuşadası
Embark on a 4-day journey through the Jewels of Turkey, exploring Pamukkale, Ephesus, and Cappadocia. Experience the thrill of a hot air balloon ride over the enchanting fairy chimneys of Cappadocia.
Duration:
4 days
Cancellation:
6 days
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Highlights
Flight from Istanbul to Denizli - Pamukkale, Hierapolis & Laodicea Tour - Transfer to Kusadasi - Overnight at Kusadasi
Istanbul - The travel services will start with a departure transfer from your hotel to airport. Our driver will meet you at the reception of your hotel (or your AirBnb address if the street of it is available for car parking) and then transfer to airport for your flight from Istanbul to Denizli/Çardak. The pick-up time is between 03.45am and 05.00am for this transfer. This timing depends the scheduled departure time of flight from Istanbul to Denizli/Cardak on your travel date. We will inform you about exact timing after booked your domestic flight ticket(s).
Denizli Çardak Airport - Upon your arrival Denizli/Cardak airport, we will meet you at this airport and then driven to Pamukkale - approx one hour from Denizli Airport.
Pamukkale Natural Park - Pamukkale Natural Park is an UNESCO world heritage site that receives many famous visitors since antiquity, such as the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, and it is called the “Cotton Castle”.
Hierapolis & Pamukkale - The highlights of Hierapolis tour are Necropolis, Roman Baths, Domitian Gate, Latrina, Oil Factory, Frontinus Street, Agora, Byzantium Gate, Triton Fountain, Cathedral, Apollon Temple, Plutonium, Theater and Antique Pool.
Pamukkale Thermal Pools - After visited the Hierapolis Ancient City, you will take some photos from the nicest corners of Pamukkale. Free time for about 60-75 minutes to explore the natural beauties of Pamukkale, and swim at white travertines (thermal pools) of Pamukkale. Then meet again with your guide, start walking in the middle of travertines from up to down without shoes and socks.
Pamukkale - You will get your lunch in a local restaurant at the Pamukkale town.
Laodicea - Excavations here have revealed artifacts dating from 3500 BC (Late Chalcolithic) to 3000 BC (Early Bronze Age). The city’s name comes from the Seleucid king Antiochus ii, who named it for his wife Laodike in the 3rd century BC when it wa thriving. Later controlled by the kings of Pergamum, it was willed to the Roman Empire, and thrived again from the 4th to 6th centuries. Its importance then numbered it among the Seven Churches of Revelation.
Kusadasi - At the end of the Pamukkale Natural Park, Hierapolis & Laodicea Tour, we will transfer you to your hotel in Kusadasi.
Kusadasi Castle - This small castle is picturesque Byzantine fortress stands on the causeway-connected Guvercin Adasi (Pigeon Island) and has recently been renovated. ** There is no any visit to this place on tour. You can visit there by your own after we dropped you to your hotel in Kusadasi.
Okuz Mehmet Pasa KervansarayI - This caravanserai was built by the Grand Vizier Okuz Mehmed Pasha to support maritime trade in the region. This historical building is opposite to Kusadasi cruise port. ** There is no any visit to this place on tour. You can visit there by your own after we dropped you to your hotel in Kusadasi.
What's Included
- Domestic Flight Tickets : Istanbul to Denizli - Izmir to Cappadocia - Cappadocia to Istanbul
- 3 nights hotel accommodation including breakfast
- Transfers at the mentioned airports for domestic flights in the itinerary
- Outdoor Tour : Hot Air Balloon Ride (Optional - You can add that tour while booking)
- Hotel Pick-up & Drop-off Services in Istanbul, Cappadocia, Kusadasi, Bodrum, Antalya
- 4 Guided Tours in Pamukkale, Ephesus, Cappadocia
- Entrance fees of museums, national parks, ruins mentioned in the itinerary
- Professional tour guide who licenced by Ministry of Culture and Tourism
- Lunch
- Breakfast
What's Not Included
- Dinner
- Drinks
- Entrance fee of Ancient Pool (Cleopatra’s Pool) in Pamukkale
Additional Information
If you would like discover the main destinations of Turkey, this travel pakage is one of the best Turkey travel itineraries. The services of travel package is starting from your hotel in Istanbul. The connection between the destinations will be with the domestic flights and those flights included. You can update your reservation with a hot air balloon tour for a fantastic experience over fairy chimneys of Cappadocia.
- The prices of package are valid for accommodation at the double or triple room. If you would like add accommodation on single room(s) to your booking, there could be supplement cost. There are not going to be any extra cost for bookings of single / solo travelers. They will already accommodate at single room(s).
- The pre-planned hotels are “Charisma De Luxe Hotel (5stars)” and “Efe Boutique Hotel” in Kusadasi / “Exedra Hotel (De Luxe Cave Boutique)” and “1811 Cave Boutique Hotel (Cave Boutique)” in Cappadocia for your accommodation on this travel. You can choose your hotels while booking. If these hotels (which you preferred) are not available for standard/superior rooms on your travel dates, the tour operator can replace it with an equivalent hotel.
- The check-in time of the hotels is 02.00pm, and you can not start use your room before this time. This is about the check-in & check-out policies of the hotels.
- The differences between the package options are about the hotel categories. Tour(s), airport transfer(s) and flight ticket levels will be same for all options.
- The tour operator will send e-tickets of your domestic flights at six days before your departure date. You will not need the print out copies of the tickets for domestic flights. Your passport and reservation number on the tickets will be enough for check-in to plane.
- The tour operator can request your some passport details for the bookings of your flight tickets. If you do not share the details which requested by the tour operator, your domestic flight tickets can not bookable.
- You will have 15kg luggage + 8kg hand bag quota per person for each domestic flight. If you will need more luggage capacity, please inform that to the tour operator. There could be some extra fee for luggage quotas more than 15kg. This is exactly about the policies of airline companies.
- If your return hotel is different than pick-up hotel, please inform that detail immediately. If you inform that detail after organised your flight tickets, the tour operator can request extra cost because of the distances between the airports and some hotels. If you inform this type changes on service day (last day of your trip), the tour operator do not accept this last minute amending and drop you to your pick-up hotel.
- If your pick-up / drop-off hotels are inside of airports (IST and SAW airports) the tour operator do not provide any hotel pick-up / drop-off service.
- Hot air ballooning is a fully weather-dependent activity and the Civil Aviation Authority determines whether the flight will be held. If your flight is cancelled due to inclement weather conditions, you are entitled to a partial refund. In such a case, your refund will be processed by the day after of that trip. Your refund rate will be the difference between options of “included balloon ride” and “excluded balloon ride” for the cancellations of the hot air balloon ride.
- The Standard Balloon Ride has an One-hour approximately flight duration with 20 to 28 people capacity basket. The flight duration could be 50-55 minutes or 65-70 minutes. This situation depend the weather conditions before landing, and pilots are decide to that within the safety rules of Civil Aviation Authority. Total activity duration is approximately 3 hours.
- Vegetarian option is available, please advise at time of booking if required.
- Please advise any specific dietary requirements at time of booking.
- The children who 5 years old and under are not allowed to balloon tours.
- Child rate applies only when sharing with 2 paying adults. If you will be 1 adult + 1 child, the tour operator can request & charge the amount of 2 adults.
Location
Kuşadası
Cancellation Policy
If you cancel at least 7 day(s) before the scheduled departure time, you will receive a full refund.
If you cancel between 3 and 6 day(s) before the scheduled departure time, you will receive a 50% refund.
If you cancel within 2 day(s) of the scheduled departure, you will receive a 0% refund.
Customer Ratings
3.8
(11 Ratings)
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John_z
Oct 24, 2023
Exceeded our expectations! - Where to start? Communication with the tour provider was amazing. WhatsApp phone app makes it easier. Guides and drivers were professional, knowledgeable and and passionate about Turkey and its history. Do a little historical research before you go. Hotels were terrific and the meals were delicious. Ballon ride - a must do. I’d go again. Highly recommend!
Review provided by Viator
Sushinmumbai
May 11, 2023
Wonderful,informative trip to Cappadocia - We had an excellent tour of Cappadocia.The Red and Green tours were arranged by Muskara Travel Agency .Our guide for the Red tour was Mahmoud and for Green tour Emre. Both of them did a fantastic job giving us in depth information of the place and keeping the mood upbeat during the travel by their wit! The communication was excellent so was the spot selection for the tour.Loved the experience.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Roy
Oct 5, 2022
WAY BEYOND OUR EXPECTATIONS - From the moment we were collected at our hotel in Istanbul we were treated like royalty. This is by far one of the most professional tours we have ever experienced. The guides were extremely knowledgeable and exceptionally helpful and friendly. The two hotels we stayed in were superb. We were able to see some of very special places in Turkey. All in all excellent
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sherpa17469052227
Nov 17, 2021
Great organization. Great service!!! - Great tour. Very well planned and top of the line service.
The company stayed in touched with us the whole time. Everything was planned to perfection.
We were picked up on time every day.
Two great tour guides. Sumet and Mehmet.
Mehmet was amazing. He was so enthusiastic about history, that he was able to get us to enjoy every minute.
The hotel (cave room) in Urgup was beautiful. A dream suite and very romantic.
The Ballon ride was amazing.
I will recommend this tour to anyone. Great customer service.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Rmpbrasil
Dec 29, 2023
12 days Journey though Turkey with Exoticca and Eurorient - We just returned from our Treasures of Anatolia Trip. The dates of the trip were December 4- 14th, 2023. While reading another review about the same trip, I was sad to hear that Exotica and Euroriente, the travel agency in Turkey were aware about the challenges with the hotel (La Quinta by Wyndham) in Istanbul where we spent the first two days and a half in Istanbul. The hotel in Istanbul, the location was terrible. Istanbul's traffic is insane, and this hotel was very far away from the historical cities in Istanbul, so it took at least an hour to get to any of the sightseeing places. We would urge Exoticca to consider a different hotel in Istanbul for this tour, as wasting several hours in traffic while on vacation is not okay. Our tour guide in Istanbul, Cem Ali, was difficult to understand, and always seemed to be disorganized and in a hurry. We learned at the last day that it was his first tour. Perhaps he was feeling insecure. Fortunate, I am able to understand Spanish and the tour guide assigned to look after the four Spanish-speaking guests was excellent and his historical explanation about each location was delivered with enthusiasm and professionalism. He made every effort to make our trip enjoyable. All his explanations were presented calmly and thoroughly. He welcomed questions, and encouraged us to engage in the discussions and conversations. We must say that Cem Ali provided us information about the next day activities using WhatsApp, which was helpful. He also provided information regarding availability of restrooms (whether we needed to pay or not), food and food choices. He did not provide any information about, distance to walk and difficulty of the walk, souvenir shops and quality of merchandise and how much to pay for things. He could have done more to help and to guide us. He was very patient with a couple that was 5–7 minutes late daily and at every stop we made. Which was annoying; after all, we all knew what time we had to be on the bus. There was no reason to be late on a daily basis. Cem Ali was not very patient or solution focused when I shared about my concerns with leaving our luggage unattended at the hotel lobby while we went on our Balloon ride. He dismissed my concerns with; "the hotel will assume the liability for any loss, but not to worry as it has never happened before." I informed him and other guests that I would not leave my luggage unattended and left my luggage inside my room. The hot air balloon ride was interesting! Ankara, Cappadocia, Ephesus, Asklepion, Troia and Bursa were all incredible and interesting. People were very friendly and I felt safe. The best part of the trip was the people we met and had fun while learning about the rich culture of Turkey. Travelling always comes with ups and downs. It is all part of the journey towards self-discovery and personal growth. Considering everything, this trip was memorable and aside from the few things mentioned, we strongly recommend it.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Robin_w
Jan 13, 2020
Pleasantly surprised!! - We hadn't looked into the details of this trip ahead of time, we wanted it to be a surprise... and it was a WONDERFUL one!!! We did a holy land tour with Maranatha tours and a Nile cruise with Viator before coming on this trip near that same region. I can't make up my mind which I liked best. Each was unique and AWESOME, truly!! WE LOVED Turkey!! We had shockingly great tour guides!! Viator had been great in Egypt and so far they were showing the same great colors even though they seemed to be using Lotus tours...not sure why, but they were good. The only problem we had was somehow there was a misunderstanding when picking us up from the airport in Kayseri and getting us to Cappadocia. We found an airport attendant that took up our cause and helped us with the language barrier and phone calls to our company. They made sure to pay us back for that expense when we booked the AMAZING hot air ballon ride. And, though I wasn't real happy with the airport stressor and the loss of a couple of hours, we arrived at our hotel safe and sound! (It was at this point that I wished I had pursued more information with Viator before leaving the states! Probably my bad, and, by the way, every other connection was good and clear and we felt cared for.) Arrival at Cappadocia from the airport was almost magical. The old man running our hotel was sweet. The food everywhere was pretty good. The stay at Lyadia hotel in Kusadasi was so cool as you could see out over the Aegean sea. Gorgeous pictures from their balcony. Ephesus and our tour guide, as well as the one for the travertine pools and Mustafa for underground caves were beautiful, balanced, fascinating and warm, making our trip SO meaningful in the midst of such amazing sights and learning. I LOVED them all!! Thank you guys! I am starting to pray for Turkey as I see what the common people are like as opposed to the government. They are just like us...normal people with needs... and hearts...beautiful ones! We felt safe and secure EVERYWHERE. You'd never know there were problems in Syria several hours away. Will definitely try for future bookings with Viator!!
Review provided by Viator
Jennifer_b
Sep 28, 2023
Great Locations But Investigate Yourself - Tour guides and local support of the regions were terrific and accommodating. However finer details not given til a few days before and found late flights and a hotel although beautiful was in wrong location. Too late to do anything as already overseas . Too much free time in Cappadocia when you needed transport as areas are fairly remote. Stayed in Upgurp when Goreme was more central.
Review provided by Viator
Mdmgreen2018
Sep 2, 2019
Good organisation but need some improvements - Pamukkale, the tour was ok, but was not happy to walk the way back from an slippery path down to meet the guide at the bottom. That was the only path to go down or take a taxi down.
Transfer to hotel was 3 hours in a hotel above a club which music was loud till 3.30 - 4 o clock. Transfer was not fully aircondioned.
The view of the hotel was great though.
We could not see the point of taking us all the way to the end of Kadashari arriving at 20.30 and be picked up again at 8.15.
Also the guide was convinced in which hotel we were staying in and left us in the wrong one. Luckily the driver was still there and helped us out.
Ephesus: tour was good. The logistics not so much. According to the itinerary we had a full day including lunch, however the flights were booked at 16.10. So half and a bit tour and no lunch. It takes an hour to get to the airport. So we flew from Izmer to Istanbul and there we had to wait for our next flight to Kayseri.
So we left Ephesus at 14.00 and arrived at our hotel in Cappadocia at 23.30. I am not sure who did the planning for day 2 but that was definitely no fun !
Again not a fully aircondioned transfer.
Cappadocia: Hotel was great and had a fantastic tour Got picked up from the hotel around 10. We had lovely tours and really enjoyed both days.
Review provided by Viator
Tuckyew_l
Nov 9, 2019
Disappointing Tour - We had used Viator Tours on many occasions in the past and had a positive experience on all of them. So this qualifies as our most disappointing experience with Viator.
The Local contractor used by Viator was poor. For example, the two day tour in Cappadocia was further subcontracted out. It resulted in us being scheduled for the same Green tour on both days because there was no communication between the two sub-Contractors.
Vehicles used were on varying standards and some were of distinctly poor quality; for example in Ephesus. The entire vehicle was fully packed, the seats were filthy, two of us had to squeeze in front with the driver, there were no seat belts and windows couldn’t be opened. Not surprisingly, this vehicle broke down halfway and had to be replaced.
On another occasion, our ride was delayed because there were too many passengers allocated. A poor couple had to be bumped off after some argument.
There are other instances of substandard performance and service, but this gives a flavour of what went wrong with this Viator tour.
Review provided by Viator
Gabyfrommontreal
Jul 13, 2023
Flight cancelled - Our given flight from Izmir to Istanboul is cancelled. We cannot catch our corresponding flight from Istanboul to Kayseri. After waiting 2 hours in the plane they let us out. Flight is cancelled. I’m on line for two hours with 110 people to find an alternative flight for tomorrow. I asked to be called to talk about our alternatives. Nobody is calling us.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
