Legendary Turkey: Istanbul to the Turquoise Coast

Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus, Istanbul / Days 2-5 / Deluxe

Overlooking the River Bosphorus and surrounded by gardens, the Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus is situated in the heart of the city’s European side within easy walking distance from the shops and restaurants of Taksim Square and Nisantasi.  The hotel offers seven dining options including a Chinese restaurant, Indian restaurant, and pool bar; fitness center; spa with Turkish bath, two saunas, two steam rooms, and massage treatments; outdoor and indoor pool; tennis court; complimentary Wi-Fi internet access; laundry and dry cleaning services (for a fee).  Air-conditioned guest rooms feature a balcony, private bath with hair dryer, minibar, in-room safe, tea- and coffee-making facilities, TV, and phone.

Doubletree by Hilton Canakkale

Doubletree by Hilton Canakkale enjoys a location on the shores of the Dardanelles Strait, close to shopping, entertainment, and dining in the center of Canakkale.  The 155-room hotel offers amenities such as a restaurant and bar, patio, indoor and seasonal outdoor pool, spa with massage services (for a fee), sauna, fitness center, and complimentary Wi-Fi internet access.  Modern, well-equipped guest rooms include private bath with hair dryer, minibar, tea- and coffee-making facilities, in-room safe, TV, and phone.

Charisma Hotel, Kusadasi / Days 7-9 / Deluxe

Located a 15-minute walk from Kusadasi’s shopping and entertainment areas, the hotel features a private beach and infinity pool with views of the Aegean Sea. The Charisma’s amenities include a Turkish bath, sauna, beauty center, and fitness facilities, along with water sports at the hotel’s beach.  Complimentary Wi-Fi access is available in public areas.  Each air-conditioned room has a balcony, private bath, a phone, TV with satellite channels, and minibar.

Alesta Yacht Hotel, Fethiye / Days 10-11 / First Class

The modernly designed Alesta Yacht Hotel sits where the Mediterranean and Aegean seas merge, and is only a 5-minute walk from Fethiye Center.  Featuring a bar, restaurant, and pool, the hotel also boasts a spa and wellness center, sauna, and Turkish bath. Complimentary Wi-Fi access is available in the hotel’s public areas.  All 52 air-conditioned rooms are individually decorated and have a TV with satellite channels, phone, private bath, and seating area with a desk.

Akra Barut, Antalya / Days 12-14 / Deluxe

Located just outside of Antalya’s city center, the Akra Barut is set on the Mediterranean, overlooking both the sea and the Taurus Mountains in the distance. The hotel is fully equipped with three restaurants and two cocktail lounges; internet access; laundry and dry cleaning services; market; fitness center; spa; outdoor pools; tennis courts; and private platform beach. Air-conditioned guest rooms have private bath with hair dryer, in-room safe, mini-bar, TV, coffee- and tea-making facilities, balcony, and phone.

Hilton Garden Inn Konya, Konya / Extension / First Class

The Hilton Garden Inn Konya sits in the heart of Konya, a city which has seen continuous human habitation since the 3^rd millennium BCE.  The hotel sits close to the Mevlana Museum and adjacent to the Mevlana Cultural Centre.  The hotel’s amenities include a restaurant and bar, 24-hour fitness center, 24-hour mini-mart, complimentary Wi-Fi internet access, and laundry service (for a fee).  Air-conditioned guest rooms have private bath with hair dryer, in-room safe, coffee-making facilities, TV, and phone.

Yunak Evleri Hotel, Cappadocia / Extension / Superior First Class

The Yunak Evleri Hotel perfectly embodies its destination, as it is built into the side of a mountain, with rock-hewn corridors and sleeping quarters that date from the 5^th century.  In addition to these original living spaces, the hotel also boasts a 19^th-century Greek mansion that now houses the main lobby and common areas.  Hotel amenities include a restaurant, two outdoor swimming pools, full spa with a range of treatments (for a fee), and complimentary Wi-Fi internet access in public areas.  Climate-controlled guest rooms have natural rock walls and ceilings and feature private bath with hair dryer, in-room safe, minibar, tea- and coffee-making facilities, TV, and phone.

Cappadocia & Konya
We visit ancient Konya then explore in depth the bizarre rock formations and underground cities of Cappadocia and the Goreme Valley.

• Private motorcoach transportation Antalya/Konya/Cappadocia
• 4 nights’ accommodations: one night in Konya at Hilton Garden Inn (First Class); 3 nights in Cappadocia at Yunak Evleri Hotel (Superior First Class)
• 11 meals: 4 breakfasts, 4 lunches, 3 dinners
• Extensive included sightseeing: Mevlana (Whirling Dervish) Museum in Konya, rock churches of Goreme Valley (including open-air museum), Kaymakli’s underground city, Zelve Valley, Avanos and Troglodyte villages of Cavusin and Uchisar
• Services of an Odysseys Unlimited Tour Director
• Gratuities for dining room servers, airport and hotel porters, and all drivers

Flexible Travel Options

We are pleased to announce that for departures starting in 2026, we are offering a new Flexible Travel Option (FTO) program. This program will allow guests who book their airfare through Odysseys Unlimited to customize their travel experience in several ways:

1. Arrive at your destination up to three days before the tour’s scheduled start date
2. Extend your travel beyond the tour’s end date
3. Purchase transfers from the arrival airport to the tour’s first hotel, and/or from the tour’s final hotel to the departure airport, to coincide with your alternate travel dates
4. Reserve extra nights at the first and/or final hotel on your tour to coincide with your alternate travel dates

Should you elect to use our FTO program, a one-time fee of $50 per person would be added to your reservation. Your Travel Counselor would advise you of pricing and availability for airport transfer(s) and/or additional hotel night(s) at the time of booking.  For more information, please call our Customer Service department at the number(s) below.

Land-Only Transfer Policy
Airport transfers to and from the first and last hotels, as always, are not included in the land-only price of a tour.  That said, should you wish to join an airport transfer through Odysseys Unlimited, you may purchase them after arranging your own airfare by calling our Customer Service department no later than 30 days prior to your departure.

It is important to note that guests will no longer be able to join an airport transfer that has not been purchased in advance; additionally, transfers may not be available for purchase on all tours. You can find this updated policy information detailed in our new Airport Transfers document now available to view on our MyOdyssey Portal.

Questions
Should you have any questions about either of updates, please don’t hesitate to contact us by email or by calling our Customer Service department, toll-free at (888) 370-6765, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET.

Orhan Pamuk
Istanbul, Memories and the City
Nobel Prize-winner Pamuk writes with dazzling grace of the city of his birth, a magical place of crumbling mansions and Ottoman riches.

Richard Stoneman
A Traveller’s History of Turkey
An accessible, well-written overview of Turkish history from the Paleolithic to the present.

Eyewitness Guides
Eyewitness Guide Turkey
Gorgeously illustrated and filled with excellent maps, this compact book provides a thorough overview of history, traditions and sights.

Freytag & Berndt
Turkey Map
This shaded relief map includes a detailed map of Western Turkey (1:800,000) on the reverse.

Fodor’s Istanbul’s 25 Best
This slim guide with a pullout map covers with style what to see, where to go and what to do.

John Freely
The Western Shores of Turkey, Discovering the Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts
An excellent overview of the ancient sites of the Turkish coast from Istanbul to Gallipoli, Antioch, Pergamum, Ephesus and Halicarnassus.

Ayla Esen Algar
Classical Turkish Cooking
Algar’s enchanting cookbook includes easy-to-follow Turkish recipes and delightful vignettes about their traditional origins. Everything we’ve made has been fantastic!

Robyn Eckhardt
Istanbul and Beyond, Exploring the Diverse Cuisines of Turkey
The most extensive Turkish cookbook to date. Beginning in Istanbul, journalist Robyn Eckhardt and her husband take a culinary adventure through Turkey’s lesser-known provinces, plus Syria, Iran, Iraq, Armenia and Georgia.

Roger Crowley
1453, The Holy War For Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West
In this well-paced history, Crowley recounts the dramatic events leading up to and surrounding the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks.

John Julius Norwich
A Short History of Byzantium
A richly detailed and evocative history of the span of the great empire from the 4th to the 15th century, brimming with intrigue, palace revolution and treachery.

Seton Lloyd
Ancient Turkey, A Traveller’s History
A lively tale of cultures and conquest, from the Hittites to St. Paul, that illuminates the living past of Turkey’s archaeological treasures. This classic by Professor Lloyd, first director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara is now in a 25th anniversary edition.

Stephen Kinzer
Crescent and Star
This insightful, anecdotal report on contemporary life, culture and politics in Turkey comes from a former New York Times Istanbul bureau chief who is especially attuned to the powerful geographic position of Turkey and its multiple identities in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Jason Goodwin
Lords of the Horizons
Goodwin artfully combines his modern travels with scholarship, history and reflection, capturing the outrageous personalities, events and vagaries of the ancient Ottoman Empire.

Lyn Rodley
Cave Monasteries of Byzantine Cappadocia
A professor of Byzantine Studies, Lyn Rodley puts the rock-cut monasteries, hermitages and complexes of Cappadocia into historical context in this scholarly account, first published in 1985.

Freya Stark
The Lycian Shore
The Lycian coast and hinterlands are thoroughly explored in this reprint of a classic account of a 1950s journey by the stalwart Freya Stark, one of our heroines. Heading south from Smyrna, Stark explores rock tombs of Xanthus, shores of the Dalyan River, Hellenic cities of Termessos and Perge and other sites along the Aegean.

Louis De Bernieres
Birds Without Wings
De Bernieres offers sweeping historical scope, memorable characters, drama and many new vocabulary words in this stupendous novel set in Anatolia during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Angie Brenner, Joy Stocke
Anatolian Days & Nights
When Joy Stocke and Angie Brenner meet on the balcony of a guesthouse in a small resort town on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, they think they have only a mutual friend and a summer dream in common. Soon, they discover a shared love of travel, history, culture, cuisine and literature – and begin a ten-year odyssey through Turkey.

Mary Lee Settle
Turkish Reflections, A Biography of a Place
Settle’s captivating travelogue is a richly detailed portrait of contemporary Turkey, its people, monasteries, myths, archaeological treasures and living traditions. Exemplary.

Jason Goodwin
The Janissary Tree
With beautiful descriptions of Istanbul and its palaces, this engaging and bizarre historical mystery will keep you reading. The Ottoman Empire mysteries continue with The Snake Stone and The Bellini Card, set in 1840s Venice.

Rose MacAulay, Jan Morris (Introduction)
The Towers of Trebizond
Mixing high farce, archaeology, history and lively travel writing, Rose MacAulay’s impossibly witty short novel is back in a new edition. Originally published in 1956, the book follows the adventures of English missionaries traipsing across Turkey from Istanbul to Trebizond.

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