Grand Tour of Türkiye: Eight Days, Inland First

The same circle, driven the other way

This is our eight-day loop through Türkiye run anticlockwise: inland first, coast last. You leave İstanbul on the arrival day and sleep at Bolu, take Anıtkabir and the Salt Lake on the second day while everyone is still fresh, and are in Cappadocia by that evening — early enough for the valleys to have a whole day of their own.

The west then arrives as the trip settles: Konya, Pamukkale, Bursa, and İstanbul for the last two nights.

The same four stops are discussed without a package attached in our guide to the classic Türkiye route. If you have longer than eight days, ten days in Türkiye covers what the extra time actually buys — depth on the same spine rather than more ground.

Two mornings that can be spent in the air

The reason this direction exists is the flying. Cappadocia’s balloon morning falls on day three, and Pamukkale’s balloon or paraglider on day five — two chances, on two entirely different landscapes, several days apart.

Neither is included, and neither can be promised. Balloons fly when the licensed operator and the morning’s weather agree, and no honest operator says otherwise. What the two windows buy you is that a cancelled morning is not automatically the end of the matter.

What each day is for

Day one is deliberately light — a transfer and a dinner at Bolu, nothing a delayed flight could spoil. Day two is Ankara and the Salt Lake on the way in. Day three is Cappadocia in full: an underground city, Pigeon Valley, Camel Rock, Mushroom Valley, the viewpoints.

Day four crosses the plateau by way of the Sultanhanı caravanserai and Mevlâna’s Konya, ending at Pamukkale. Day five gives the terraces and Hierapolis their morning, then the road to Bursa.

Day six is the fullest: the two great Ottoman mosques, Koza Han, the silk market, and then İstanbul with the Bosphorus at the end of it. The last two days are the historical peninsula and a final morning at Eyüp, Pierre Loti and Ortaköy before the airport.

How this differs from our other eight-day circle

We operate two eight-day loops through the same country in opposite directions, and the choice between them is real.

This one runs inland first. It gives Bursa a proper morning — Koza Han and the silk market, not only the mosques — and it offers two optional flying mornings rather than one. Anıtkabir comes early, on day two.

The other runs west first, taking Bursa and Pamukkale in the opening days and reaching Ankara on day five with the Salt Lake. It carries more inside the package price: driver and guide gratuities are included there, and so is the Pierre Loti cable car.

Choose this one if a flight over a valley is the point of the trip, or if the group wants Bursa’s silk quarter rather than a quick mosque stop. Choose the other if you want the fewest separate line items and the western sites while everyone is at their freshest.

Where we would rather be straight with you

Four stops on this route are commercial: an onyx workshop, a textile outlet, a Turkish delight shop and a leather showroom. They belong to the group programme, and we would rather name them here than let you meet them from the coach. Nothing at any of them is compulsory.

Three things people often assume are included are not: the balloon, the paraglider, and the Pierre Loti cable car. Each is quoted as its own line, so that what is confirmed is what is operated.

Asking for the offer

Send us your dates, your final passenger count and your rooming list, and tell us whether the group wants the balloon mornings held open. We will return the eight days written out line by line, with every inclusion and exclusion named. The per-person figure depends on group size, travel dates and the hotels confirmed, so it belongs in that written offer rather than on this page.