Themed tour
Archaeological Turkey in 11 days, from Aspendos to Troy
From Aspendos to Troy through the great sites of the Mediterranean and the Aegean, with Ephesus in full, Pergamon, Assos and the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
Private, tailor-made The vehicle and the guide are for your passengers only, and you choose the starting day.
Key facts
- Duration 11 days / 10 nights
- Route Antalya → Istanbul 11 destinations
- Quotation Quotation within 24 business hours (72 business hours for groups and MICE)
- Recommended months April–June, September, October
- Departure type Private, tailor-made
The cavea and stage front of the Roman theatre at Aspendos, with visitors in the orchestra: the circuit’s first site visit, on day 2.
Overview
An eleven-day private circuit for travellers who come for the sites rather than the photograph: it enters through Antalya, works up the coast and the Aegean and ends in Istanbul, linking eleven archaeological complexes with their museums and giving each the time it needs. The thread is both chronological and geographical: the theatre at Aspendos, Hierapolis above the travertines, the Selçuk museum and the Basilica of St John, the whole of Ephesus — Terrace Houses included — the Temple of Artemis, Pergamon with its Asclepion, Assos and its temple of Athena, Troy with its museum and, at the end, the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
It runs by private vehicle with driver and a licensed Spanish- or English-speaking guide, with the entrance fees for every site in the itinerary included, five dinners outside Istanbul and 24/7 assistance in Spanish throughout the stay. The road legs are spread so that none exceeds four and a half hours.
The start date is the agency’s to choose. Quoted to order, in net rates.
It runs by private vehicle with driver and a licensed Spanish- or English-speaking guide, with the entrance fees for every site in the itinerary included, five dinners outside Istanbul and 24/7 assistance in Spanish throughout the stay. The road legs are spread so that none exceeds four and a half hours.
The start date is the agency’s to choose. Quoted to order, in net rates.
Route: AntalyaAspendosPamukkaleSelçukEphesusPergamonAliağaAssosTroyÇanakkaleIstanbul
- Physical level: Moderate
- Languages of the guided visits: Spanish, English
Highlights
- Ephesus in full, with the Terrace Houses ticket included, plus the Selçuk museum the day before so the site’s finds are seen first.
- The Roman theatre of Aspendos, one of the best preserved in the ancient world, with its stage building intact.
- Pergamon and its Asclepion, one of the earliest hospitals of the ancient world.
- Assos and the Doric temple of Athena above the Aegean, with a night in the village.
- Troy with its museum: the nine superimposed cities explained layer by layer.
- The Istanbul Archaeology Museum, with the Alexander Sarcophagus and the Treaty of Kadesh, as the close of the circuit.
- Five included dinners outside Istanbul and 24/7 assistance in Spanish throughout the stay.
What is included and what is not
Included
- 10 nights’ accommodation with breakfast at the hotels listed: Antalya, Pamukkale (2 nights, thermal hotel), Selçuk, Aliağa, Assos, Çanakkale and Istanbul (3 nights).
- A licensed Spanish- or English-speaking guide throughout the circuit.
- Private vehicle with driver for all the visits and journeys in the itinerary.
- All airport – hotel – airport transfers.
- Entrance fees to the monuments, museums and sites listed in the itinerary: Aspendos, Hierapolis and Pamukkale, Selçuk Archaeological Museum, the Basilica of St John, Ephesus with the Terrace Houses, the Temple of Artemis, Pergamon and the Asclepion, Assos, the museum and site of Troy, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern and the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
- 5 dinners outside Istanbul: Pamukkale (2), Aliağa, Assos and Çanakkale.
- 24/7 assistance in Spanish throughout the stay in Turkey.
Not included
- International air tickets and domestic flights.
- Lunches: not included on any day. Dinners not stated as included.
- All drinks, with and outside meals.
- Optional activities: balloon flight at Pamukkale, a traditional cookery class with dinner in Selçuk and a visit to a vineyard in Tekirdağ.
- Entrance fees not listed in the itinerary.
- Personal expenses (shopping, minibar, laundry, room service).
- Tips for the guide, the driver and hotel and restaurant staff.
- Visa fees and visa handling services, if required.
- Travel and health insurance (recommended).
- Any service not expressly mentioned as included.
Day by day itinerary
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Day 1
Arrival in Antalya
Welcome at Antalya airport and transfer to the hotel. Antalya is the natural gateway to this circuit because it sits at its southern end, and from here the route always moves north, never doubling back. Depending on arrival time, the rest of the day is free. If you have hours to spare, the old town of Kaleiçi can be walked from the centre: narrow streets of Ottoman houses, Hadrian’s Gate, the fluted minaret and the Roman harbour at the foot of the cliff. The guide meets the group in the evening to go through the programme, explain how the road legs are spread and answer the practical questions: what shoes work on the sites, how much water to carry and what to do with luggage at the hotel changes, of which there are six on this circuit. It is worth knowing from the first day that this is a trip about archaeological sites: there is walking every day on uneven ground with little shade, and closed shoes and a refillable water bottle solve half the problems. Accommodation in Antalya.Notes for the day: The free time on the first day depends on the arrival flight’s schedule.
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Day 2
Antalya, Aspendos and on to Pamukkale
A panoramic tour of Antalya between historic fabric and Mediterranean setting, then east to visit Aspendos, whose second-century Roman theatre is one of the best preserved in the ancient world: the stage building survives complete, with its two orders of columns and the upper gallery, and you can climb to the top tier to see why the acoustics of the building are still a textbook argument. The visit takes about an hour and a half. Then comes the day’s long leg, some three hundred and thirty kilometres and four and a half hours to Pamukkale, with the necessary stops; the road crosses the Taurus mountains and the landscape changes from coast to high plateau in under two hours. Arrival at the thermal hotel in Pamukkale, where the next two nights are spent, and dinner included. The hotel’s thermal pool is the most sensible way to end a day in the car.Notes for the day: Road leg of about 330 km, approximately 4 h 30 with stops.
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Day 3
Hierapolis and the Pamukkale travertines
A full day at the Pamukkale complex, which is at once an archaeological site and a geological phenomenon. The guided visit to Hierapolis takes in the great necropolis — more than twelve hundred tombs of different types, which read like a catalogue of funerary architecture — the Frontinus arch and the colonnaded street, the baths now turned into a museum and the Roman theatre, with its stage building carved in relief. Afterwards there is free time on the travertine terraces of the Cotton Castle, walked barefoot by rule of the site: the water runs warm and is ankle-deep in the pools, so a small towel and a bag for your shoes are worth having. The day is spent outdoors with little shade, so in summer it starts early. Anyone who wishes can book an optional dawn balloon flight over the archaeological setting, which is not included and depends on the day’s weather clearance. Dinner included at the hotel.Optional activities
- Dawn balloon flight over the archaeological setting of Pamukkale
Notes for the day: The travertine terraces are walked barefoot by rule of the site.
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Day 4
Pamukkale to Selçuk: the museum and the Basilica of St John
West for one hundred and ninety kilometres and about three hours to Selçuk, the town that today serves as the gateway to Ephesus. The day is about the museum and the context, and it is placed before the visit to the site deliberately: the Selçuk Archaeological Museum holds the pieces that came out of Ephesus and are no longer visible there, among them the two many-breasted Artemises, the friezes of the temple of Hadrian and the household objects from the Terrace Houses, so that the next day the ruins read with those pieces already seen. Then we climb to the Basilica of St John, the great church Justinian raised over the tomb tradition assigns to the apostle, with the Byzantine citadel behind it and the view over the plain and the İsa Bey mosque. Free afternoon in Selçuk. Anyone who wishes can add a traditional cookery class with dinner at a local restaurant, which is optional and not included.Optional activities
- Traditional cookery class with dinner at a local restaurant
Notes for the day: Road leg of about 190 km, approximately 3 h.
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Day 5
Ephesus in full, then on towards Pergamon
A full archaeological visit to Ephesus, the longest day of the circuit inside a single site. You enter by the upper gate and walk down Curetes Street: the odeon, the prytaneion, the temple of Hadrian, the public latrines, the baths and the Library of Celsus, and from there Marble Street as far as the great theatre. This leg includes the Terrace Houses, the complex of élite dwellings protected under a canopy, with mosaics and wall painting in place and walkways crossing above the excavations: it is the part that explains how the city was lived in, it carries a separate ticket, and here that ticket is included. Afterwards we visit the House of the Virgin Mary on Mount Bülbül, and stop at the Temple of Artemis, of which a single re-erected column stands in a waterlogged meadow, enough to measure what it once was. Transfer to the Aliağa area, near Pergamon, and dinner included at the hotel.Notes for the day: Road leg of about 190 km, approximately 3 h. The Terrace Houses ticket is included.
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Day 6
Pergamon, the Asclepion and Assos
A guided visit to the ancient city of Pergamon, high on its acropolis: the steepest theatre in the Greek world, wedged into the hillside; the terrace of the temple of Trajan; the library that rivalled Alexandria’s and the platform of the altar of Zeus, whose frieze is now in Berlin. Then down to the Asclepion, the healing sanctuary where treatment involved water, sleep, diet and theatre and which is one of the earliest hospitals of the ancient world: it is visited along the sacred way, the courtyard and the tunnel that led to the spring. In the afternoon, two hundred and twenty kilometres and about three and a half hours north to Assos, on the Aegean coast facing Lesbos. Assos was Aristotle’s city for three years and keeps the Doric temple of Athena on its summit, with views of open sea; the village of Behramkale below is built of stone with steep lanes. Accommodation in Assos and dinner included.Notes for the day: Road leg of about 220 km, approximately 3 h 30. The acropolis of Pergamon has steep stretches and uneven ground.
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Day 7
Troy: the museum and the site
A hundred kilometres, an hour and a half, to Troy. The day starts at the Troy Museum, a rusted steel cube sunk into the ground beside the site, which arranges the excavation finds over four floors and explains, with plans and models, the thing that is hardest to grasp on the ground: that there is no single Troy but nine superimposed cities, each raised on the rubble of the last across three thousand years. With that settled, the visit to the site makes sense: the guide points out the layers, the stone ramp of the earliest city, the walls of Troy VI usually identified with Homer’s, the Roman sanctuary and theatre, and the trench Schliemann cut. Free afternoon in Çanakkale, on the shore of the Dardanelles, where the seafront and the wooden horse from the film are the day’s light counterpoint. From the quay you watch the freighters coming down from the Black Sea, through a strait little more than a kilometre wide at its narrowest, and it becomes clear why this corner of Anatolia has been fought over since the Bronze Age. Accommodation in Çanakkale and dinner included.Notes for the day: Road leg of about 100 km, approximately 1 h 30.
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Day 8
Çanakkale and on to Istanbul
Free morning in Çanakkale to draw breath after the pace of the sites, walk along the quay or see the Ottoman clock tower and the city market. Mid-morning, departure for Istanbul: three hundred and twenty kilometres and about four hours along the European shore of the Sea of Marmara, with a stop on the way. The drive crosses Thrace, a region of sunflower fields and vineyards that looks like nothing else seen so far on the trip. Anyone who wishes can add the optional visit to a vineyard in Tekirdağ along the way, which is not included and is arranged in advance because it needs a booking. Arrival in Istanbul in the afternoon and transfer to the hotel, where the last three nights of the circuit are spent. Coming into the city from the west can take longer depending on traffic, so the arrival time is approximate. The rest of the day is free for a first walk around the neighbourhood and for unpacking after six hotels in a row.Optional activities
- Visit to a vineyard in Tekirdağ along the way
Notes for the day: Road leg of about 320 km, approximately 4 h.
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Day 9
Classic Istanbul
A day on the historic peninsula with the guide. Hagia Sophia opens the morning: the largest dome in the Christian world for nine centuries, with the Byzantine mosaics that survived its conversion into a mosque and its period as a museum. Then the Blue Mosque, with six minarets and more than twenty thousand İznik tiles, and the day closes underground in the Basilica Cistern, Justinian’s reservoir held up by three hundred and thirty-six reused columns, two of them with Medusa heads set sideways and upside down. For an archaeological trip, this trio works as the summary of the last stretch of history the circuit has been following since Aspendos. The three monuments are minutes apart on foot, so the morning is not lost to transfers, but the crowds do govern the order: the guide decides where to start according to the day’s queues. Free afternoon: the Grand Bazaar and the Sultanahmet district are on the route, and the guide advises what can be added with the afternoon that is left.Notes for the day: The visiting arrangements at Hagia Sophia depend on current regulations; see the operating notes.
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Day 10
Archaeological Istanbul
The day that closes the circuit is the one that puts it in order: the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, in the first courtyard of Topkapı, with one of the most important collections in the Mediterranean. Here are the so-called Alexander Sarcophagus, brought from Sidon and carved with a battle on which traces of paint still survive; the Treaty of Kadesh, the oldest known between two states; the lions from Babylon’s processional way; and pieces from the very sites the group has been visiting, from Troy to Ephesus. The museum is spread over three buildings — the main one, the Museum of the Ancient Orient and the Tiled Kiosk — and the guided visit takes two to three hours. It is the place where the eleven stages of the trip are seen together for the first time. Free afternoon in Istanbul for shopping or for whatever is still outstanding; if the group still has an appetite for archaeology, the guide says which other museums in the city are worth the hours that remain.Notes for the day: A gallery of the museum may be closed for works; the route follows the galleries open that day.
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Day 11
Departure
Breakfast at the hotel and free time until the transfer, whose time is worked out from the return flight and from the traffic to be expected between the hotel and the airport: in Istanbul a wide margin is advisable, because both airports are far from the centre and journey times vary a great deal by time of day. Luggage can be left at the desk after check-out if the morning is free. Transfer to the airport and assistance as far as the check-in area. End of our services. If the circuit is to be extended, the extensions that fit best after this itinerary are Cappadocia and south-eastern Anatolia, with a domestic flight from Istanbul; they are quoted together with the programme and add between three and five days. An extra night in Istanbul can also be added when the international flight leaves in the small hours, which is the way not to lose the last morning at the airport.
Expected hotels
| City | Nights | Category | Hotel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antalya | 1 | 3* / 4* | Puding Hotel · 7 Inn Hotelor similar |
| Pamukkale | 2 | 4* / 5* | Richmond Thermal Hotel · Pam Thermal Hotel · Hierapark Thermal Hotel · Adem Pira Termal & Spaor similar |
| Selçuk | 1 | 4* | Cenka Hotelor similar |
| Aliağa | 1 | 4* | Radisson Blu İzmir Aliağa · Hampton by Hilton Aliağa İzmiror similar |
| Assos | 1 | 4* | Assos Troy Port Hotelor similar |
| Çanakkale | 1 | 4* | Truva Hotel · Iris Hotelor similar |
| Istanbul | 3 | 4* / 5* | Nippon Hotel Taksim · Elite World Hotel Taksim · Taksim Gönen Hotel · Ramada by Wyndham Hotel Taksim · Point Hotel · Ramada Grand Bazaar Laleli · Byzantium Hotel · 10 Karaköyor similar |
Hotels as listed or similar; the final confirmation is given in the quotation.
How the rate is calculated
Rate tailored to the season, the hotel category and the number of travellers. Request a quotation.
Departures
Private, tailor-made
The vehicle and the guide are for your passengers only, and you choose the starting day.
The exact dates of each departure are confirmed in the quotation, together with hotel and domestic-flight availability.
Operational notes
- The order of the visits may change according to opening hours, traffic and the day’s operation. The content of the programme stays the same.
- The circuit involves six transfers between cities, from 100 to 330 km. The legs are driven with stops and the longest, on day 2, takes about four and a half hours. Luggage travels in the group’s private vehicle.
- The sites are visited on foot, on uneven ground and with little shade. The acropolis of Pergamon has steep stretches; the descent through Ephesus is over polished marble, which is slippery in the rain, and the approach to the temple of Athena at Assos ends on a cobbled slope.
- The Pamukkale travertine terraces are walked barefoot by rule of the site, on ground that is uneven and slippery in places.
- Hagia Sophia is a working mosque. Foreign visitors follow a dedicated tourist route along the upper galleries, which is suspended during the five daily prayers and, on Friday at midday, for a longer period. The visiting rules and hours depend on current regulations and may change without notice; if access is restricted on the day of the visit, the monument is explained from outside.
- To enter mosques, shoes must be removed and shoulders and knees covered; women must cover their hair. At the House of the Virgin Mary and the Basilica of St John the same discretion in dress is requested, with silence during services.
- Museums and sites may have a weekly closing day and different summer and winter hours, and a gallery or sector may be closed temporarily for excavation or works. The final itinerary follows the opening calendar in force on the dates of travel.
- During the religious holidays (Ramazan Bayramı and Kurban Bayramı, whose dates move because they follow the lunar calendar) museum and shop hours change, the monuments are busier and the roads fill up.
- The optional activities in the itinerary — the balloon at Pamukkale, the cookery class in Selçuk and the Tekirdağ vineyard — are booked in advance and are not included. The balloon also depends on each morning’s weather clearance.
- A valid passport, the visa or electronic authorisation and compliance with entry requirements are the traveller’s responsibility. They should be checked in advance, as they depend on nationality.
Best time to travel
Recommended months: April, May, June, September, October
Spring and autumn are the seasons for this circuit. The sites — Aspendos, Hierapolis, Ephesus, Pergamon, Assos and Troy — are open-air visits of two to three hours with little shade, and from June to August the inland Aegean often exceeds 35 °C at midday; in those months the visits are moved to first thing. From December to February the programme runs normally, with shorter days, a chance of rain and of strong wind on the northern Aegean coast, and fewer visitors at Ephesus and Pamukkale.
Gallery
Frequently asked questions
Are the Terrace Houses at Ephesus included?
Yes. It is a separate ticket from the site’s, and on this programme it is included, along with those for Aspendos, Hierapolis, the Selçuk museum, the Basilica of St John, the Temple of Artemis, Pergamon and the Asclepion, Assos, the museum and site of Troy, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Basilica Cistern and the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.
What are the road legs like?
There are six transfers between cities. The longest is on day 2, about 330 kilometres and four and a half hours to Pamukkale; the rest run from 100 to 320 kilometres, between an hour and a half and four hours, always with stops. The whole circuit is by private vehicle with driver.
Is Troy itself visited, or only the museum?
Both, on the same day: first the Troy Museum, which sets out the city’s nine layers, and then the site, where the guide points them out on the ground. Both tickets are included.
When is the best time to do it?
April to June and September to October. Almost the whole circuit consists of open-air visits of two to three hours with little shade, and in July and August the inland Aegean frequently exceeds 35 °C at midday; in those months the visits are moved to first thing.
What level of fitness does it require?
Moderate. You walk between two and four hours a day on uneven ground; the most demanding stages are the acropolis of Pergamon, the descent through Ephesus over marble and the Pamukkale terraces, which are walked barefoot. The pace adapts to the group; if anyone travelling has reduced mobility, mention it when requesting the quote.
Is the guide an archaeologist?
The circuit runs with a licensed Spanish- or English-speaking guide holding a Ministry of Culture and Tourism licence, which is what the law requires to guide visits in Turkey. If your group needs an archaeology specialist, say so in the request and we confirm who accompanies before the services are issued.
Can it start in Istanbul instead of Antalya?
The itinerary is built south to north so as not to repeat any road, so the natural entry point is Antalya and the exit Istanbul. If your group arrives in Istanbul, the connecting domestic flight is added and the whole thing is quoted.
How is it requested?
With approximate dates, the number of passengers and the hotel category required, through the quote form. Agencies receive net rates.
Booking conditions
- Deposit
- 30% of the total when the booking is confirmed. For bookings made 30 days or less before departure, the full amount at confirmation.
- Balance
- The remaining 70%, no later than 31 days before departure.
- Payment methods
- Bank transfer or credit card. Card payments carry a 3% surcharge; charges applied by the issuing bank are borne by the client.
- Cancellations
- More than 90 days before departure: handling fee only, plus penalties on services already issued · 89–61 days: 25% · 60–31 days: 50% · 30 days or less and no-show: 100%. Reductions in places follow the same scale. Refunds within 10–14 business days of written cancellation.
Credentials
- Legal name
- Colorido Tours Turkey Turizm Ticaret Ltd. Şti.
- TÜRSAB licence
- A-12116
- Office
- Istanbul
- Operating scope
- Turkey only. Egypt, Jordan and the Greek islands only as extensions of a Turkey itinerary.
- Guides
- Licensed guides in Spanish and English
- 24/7 emergency line during the trip
- +90 544 533 53 55
- Who handles your request
- Your request is handled by our reservations team, and the same person follows the file from quotation through to operation on the ground.
