Need advice on Turkey Itinerary (Draft)

You are going to have a great time! You are giving yourself some good space between each destination, so thats good.

Konya could be added between Cappadocia and Pammukkale, if you wanted. It is a great city, easily filling one day.

If I were you, I would cut Rhodes and Fethiye, in favor of a beach near Kusadasi and Samos (maybe even on Samos).

Consider this:

Day 1- Leave USA

Day 2- Arrive Istanbul

Day 3- Istanbul

Day 4- Istanbul

Day 5- Istanbul, night train to Ankara

Day 6- Rent car in Ankara, drive Cappadocia

Day 7- Cappadocia

Day 8- Cappadocia

Day 9- Konya

Day 10- Pamukkale

Day 11- Drive to Kusadasi, short stops along the way, return rental car

Day 12- Kusadasi

Day 13- Samos

Day 14- Samos

Day 15- Samos

Day 16- Samos

Day 17- Bus to Izmir, Izmir

Day 18- Flight to Istanbul (and maybe to USA)

Day 19- Flight to USA

You might want to add a full day in Konya, since the drive from cappadocia is about 4 hours, you will not have too much time there.

That's just an idea, but it would work pretty well, I think. I want to go now!!!

Try to incorporate driving the torquoise coast, its fabulous.

I would absolutely fly from Istanbul to Cappadocia. It is very affordable. We flew to Cappadocia, rented car, drove along coast from Antalya to Ismir, flew to Istanbul, then back to States. The flights to Cappadocia (Kaysari) from Istanbul and from Izmir to Istanbul was only $75. We got a good nights sleep, short flight and an afternoon in the open air musuem outside of Goreme.

Consider a stop in Kas. It is a nice little town with an intersting harbor front and even more interesting pedestrian cobblestone streets just off the harbor. Otherwise, locations you mention are all worth seeing.

We flew from IST to Cappadoccia as well..cheap and very easy!! Make sure you have at least two full days for Cappadoccia and do the balloon ride, which is expensive, but well worth it.

I would allot more time to Istanbul, which is one of the most incredible cities around, and jettison a few of your one-day destinations (or shorten something). For example, I loved Fethiye, but I don't think you need to spend 5 days there to have a memorable experience. Istanbul is so big and has so much to offer, that you will miss a lot with only 3 days there. I spent 7 days in Istanbul and would have loved more time.

http://mardeeinturkey.wordpress.com

To Mike in Tampa: Your answer is pretty close to the RS Taste of Turkey tour. The great thing about the RS tour is that all of the transportation, lodging and tours are all arranged and we will be hassle-free. Ryan, you should check into the RS Turkey tour.

Kim, to me, that's one of the detriments of a tour (that it's "arranged" and "hassle-free"). :) I love to plan trips and it's part of the whole traveling experience. I even like the "hassle" - sometimes kinks and bumps in your trip can add up to a memorable experience.

I still tell stories of getting locked into a B&B in England and having to crawl out through a kitchen window (over a dumpster) to get out. Or getting on the wrong bus in Turkey (a local instead of the express) and spending the trip next to a little old lady who fed me trail mix and taught me Turkish during the ride.

Believe me, I'm not knocking tours - some people want it all planned out for them and like traveling in crowds. But I think that the original RS concept is closer to what I've experienced.

Ok, so after reading all of these wonderful responses (thank you all for your input!) we have revised the plan a bit. We wanted to minimize the amount of one night hotel stays that we had going on our first itinerary draft. So the revised plan is the following: Day 1 Arive in Istanbul most likely sometime in the late afternoon or evening. If it's early enough, take flight straight to the Turquoise coast. Otherwise, leave the next day;rent car and explore Turquoise coast and day trip to Rhodes-5 days; drive or bus to Ephesus and bus day trip to Pamukkale/Hierapolis-3 days; Fly to Capadocia-3 days; fly back to Istanbul-5 full days (not including day of departure).

How does that plan sound? Does the order of destination make sense? We wanted to enjoy the beach on the Turquoise coast when we're still getting over jet lag and still have warm weather (end of September).

Hi Ryan,

You've streamlined your trip and it looks less hectic. One thought is that you're going to be backtracking to go from Istanbul to the Coast and then to Rhodes and Ephesus but I understand your rationale. Did you look at flying into Athens to go to Rhodes? Then Ephesus, Cappadocia, and Istanbul. From the research I did for our trip, I decided to delete Pamukkale from our itinerary and add time to other destinations (possibly 1 more day each to the coast, Istanbul and Cappadocia.) Then fly home from Istanbul.

You might already have your tickets and in that case, I'd consider going directly to Selcuk, then the Coast, next Rhodes, then Cappadocia, and Istanbul. I'm not sure about the transportation connections to Rhodes--especially late September.

Just some thoughts...have a good trip!

Thanks Sharon! We haven't bought any tickets yet- still seems pretty expensive! Looking at $1400 per person from Calgary, Canada to Istanbul. Open to any suggestions that saves time & money. As for the day trip to Rhodes, we would most likely just take the 50 minute ferry from Marmais in the coast. If it's not convenient, then we'll just skip it.

Opps! I misread--I thought that you were spending 5 days in Rhodes! In that case, flying in and out of Istanbul is the best!

Do you use Kayak.com airfare alerts (daily e-mail messages) to track airfares? It's helpful!