Türkiye by Air 7 Days

You land in Istanbul, where your driver is waiting for the private transfer to your hotel in the historic district. The rest of the day is free to settle in properly: a stroll around Sultanahmet at dusk, when the monuments light up, is the best possible prologue. Tomorrow the journey begins, linking the country's great icons by air, without a single full day on the road.

One single day, the essence of two empires: the Roman Hippodrome, the Blue Mosque with its İznik tiles, Hagia Sophia — the 6th-century Byzantine masterpiece — Topkapı Palace with the Harem and the enigmatic Basilica Cistern. We finish at the Grand Bazaar, the most famous covered market in the world, before the transfer to the airport and the evening flight to Cappadocia (1 h 15). Dinner and overnight at the hotel, already among the fairy chimneys.

The panoramic side of Cappadocia: the Pigeon Valley viewpoint at the foot of Uçhisar, Kaymaklı Underground City — eight excavated levels; we visit the upper ones, and anyone who prefers can wait above ground — and Love Valley with its impossible rock formations. In the late afternoon, tea in a cave house with a local family: the Cappadocia you won't find on postcards. Dinner at the hotel.

The monumental heart: the Göreme Open-Air Museum and its rock-cut churches with Byzantine frescoes, the fairy chimneys of Paşabağ, Devrent Valley with its stone menagerie and Uçhisar Castle from its esplanade. In Avanos, on the banks of the Red River, a pottery workshop using the Hittite technique of the kick wheel. At sunrise, the star optional extra: a balloon flight over the valleys. Dinner at the hotel.

Direct flight from Kayseri to Izmir — the advantage of this route: no going back to Istanbul — and a visit to Ephesus, the great Roman city of Asia Minor: the Library of Celsus, the Great Theatre for 25,000 spectators and the marble streets once walked by St Paul. Then the House of the Virgin Mary, in a peaceful pine forest on Mount Bülbül. Dinner and overnight in the Kuşadası area.

A three-hour drive to the "cotton castle": the white travertine terraces of Pamukkale and, above them, Hierapolis, the Roman spa city with its great necropolis and theatre. We enter through the upper gate to see everything on the way down, and anyone who wishes can take their shoes off and step into the pools. In the evening, flight from Denizli to Istanbul and transfer to the hotel.

The morning of farewell, on the water: a cruise along the Bosphorus past Ottoman palaces, fortresses and wooden mansions, with Europe on one side and Asia on the other. A last stop at the Spice Bazaar to fill your suitcase with saffron, Turkish delight and pomegranate tea. Transfer to the airport in good time, and the end of the trip.