Inclusions :
- Airfare tickets
- 8 nights hotel accommodation
- Meal arrangement : Full board basis
- English speaking tour guide throughout the entire tour.
- Entries on activities based on the itinerary
- Airport transfer to the hotel
Exclusions:
- Expenses of a personal nature.
- Any other item not mentioned above.
- Tips to guide (recommended tips US$5 per person) and driver (recommended tips $3 per person)
This young country offers a rich history thanks to the ancient Greek, Persian, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires which allows you to travel through time through its land steeped in history.
With Turkey one of the greatest Empires of all time, a ‘cradle of civilisation’ and whose history of Ottoman rule spans centuries, its resulting meld of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures is a huge attraction for any curious traveller.
Places to visit :
Istanbul : Basilique Sainte-Sophie, Mosquée Bleue, Hippodrome byzantin, Palais Topkapi, Grand bazar, Bazar Egyptien
Ankara : Mausolée d’Atatürk, ville souterraine byzantine
Cappadoce : Musée en plein air de Göreme, vallée Avcilar, Guvercinlik
Pamukkale : Site naturel
Bursa : Mosquée et Mausolée Vert
Day 1 – PARIS / ISTANBUL
- Presentation of participants at the airport.
- Check-in and boarding formalities then take off to Istanbul.
- Welcome on arrival by your French-speaking guide and transfer to your hotel.
- Free dinner.
- Night at the hotel.
Day 2 - ISTANBUL
-Breakfast at the hotel.
- Departure for the historic heart of Istanbul.
- You will visit the Hagia Sophia which marked the apogee of the Emperor’s reign Byzantine Justinian. Masterpiece of Byzantine art with its mosaics.
- The Blue Mosque with six minarets built between 1609 and 1616 for Sultan Ahmet I and decorated inside with 21,403 Iznik earthenware, predominantly blue.
- The Hippodrome where sporting, political and cultural activities were held during the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods.
- Lunch.
- Discovery of the Topkapi Palace, residence of the Ottoman sultans between the end of the 15th century and the first half of the 19th century.
- Dinner in an Istanbul restaurant.
- Night at the hotel.
Day 3 – ISTANBUL / ANKARA
- Breakfast at the hotel.
- Departure for a visit to the Grand Bazaar and a visit to the “Egyptian Bazaar”, the largest spice market where the colors and scents of the Silk Road still reign.
- Lunch.
- Departure for Ankara, located on the Anatolian highlands. Ancient Angora, chosen by Mustapha Kemal Atatürk as the center of national resistance, has been the Turkish capital since 1923.
- Dinner and overnight at the hotel.
Day 4 – ANKARA / CAPPADOCE
- Breakfast at the hotel.
- Visit to Anitkabir, the Mausoleum of Atatürk, father of modern Turkey. Built from 1944 to 1953, the mausoleum takes the form of a temple surrounded by porticos carved from amber-colored stone.
- Lunch.
- Continuation towards the volcanic region of Cappadocia located in the heart of Central Anatolia across a plain where the salt lake shimmers.
- You will also explore one of the many Byzantine underground cities, a refuge for the natives between the 7th and 10th centuries.
- Dinner and overnight at the hotel.
Day 5 – CAPPADOCE
- Breakfast at the hotel.
- Cappadocia offers one of the strangest and most spectacular landscapes in the world. In the bottom of the valleys, you will encounter cones, columns, towers, needles that can reach up to 30 meters high! The landscape what is available to you is simply unreal and changes every moment of the day. At sunrise, the rock turns red pale, at midday, the stone whitens and the evening light turns it yellow or ocher.
- Day dedicated to the discovery of this fantastic region with its landscapes lunar.
- Visit the Göreme Valley, “open-air” museum, with its rock churches
(7th – 10th centuries) decorated with superb frescoes: the Church of Saint Barbara,
the Church of the Serpent, the Church of the Sandal, the Church of the Buckle, the Apple Church...
- Discovery of the splendid Valleys of Avcilar and Guvercinlik where stand countless fairy chimneys with surprising human and animal aspects.
- Stop at a local jewelry boutique and carpet craft center where you will be won over by the creativity and patience of Anatolian women.
- Lunch during the visit.
- Dinner and overnight at the hotel.
Day 6 – CAPPADOCE / PAMUKKALE
- Breakfast at the hotel.
- Continue to Pamukkale.
- Lunch en route.
- Visit to the natural site of Pamukkale inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage list.
- Discoveries of the famous “Cotton Castles” of dazzling whiteness where the flow of hot water springs, saturated with limestone salts covered the cliff.
- Dinner and overnight at the hotel.
Day 7 – PAMUKKALE / EPHESE / IZMIR
- Breakfast at the hotel.
- Departure to the grandiose Ephesus, one of the most beautiful cities of the ancient world.
- Discovery of the site of Artemis, the most famous ancient site in all of Turkey, the rue des Courètes, the famous library of Celsius, the temple of Hadrian, the fountain of
Trajan, the splendid theater of 24,000 spectators and the remains of the temple of Artemis which is one of the seven wonders of the world. Furthermore, this city was dear to the apostle Paul, he stayed there for several years.
- Lunch in Selcuk.
- You will attend a leather fashion show where you will appreciate the quality of the items.
- Dinner and overnight at the hotel.
Day 8 – IZMIR / BUSRA / ISTANBUL
- Breakfast at the hotel.
- Departure for Bursa, the first capital of the Ottoman Empire located at the foot of the ancient Mount Olympus (Uludeg).
- Visit the Green Mosque and the Green Mausoleum, the tombs of the sultans of the dynasty Ottoman.
- Lunch.
- Continue to Istanbul crossing the famous Osmangazi Bridge.
- Dinner and overnight at the hotel.
Day 9 – ISTANBUL / FRANCE
- Breakfast.
- Depending on flight schedules, transfer to the airport.
- Registration formalities.
- Flight to France.
- Arrival in France.
