Turkey 8 Day Itinerary: Istanbul and Cappadocia, with a Balloon Ride

About 30 euros, 1 hour, open until late. It is the first plan after check-in: go up late in the afternoon and stay until the sun sets behind the mosques of the historic peninsula.

The Genoese built the tower in 1348, when Galata was an Italian colony across the Golden Horn. From the circular balcony, 51 metres up, you see the domes and minarets of Sultanahmet, the Bosphorus and the Asian side. There is a queue late in the day; buy tickets on the official museums platform.

Free, 1 hour including dinner, a 10 minute walk down from the tower. It is the end of the first evening.

On the upper level, dozens of fishermen line their rods along the railing at all hours; on the lower level, fish restaurants. Cross to Eminönü at the southern end, where boats rocking at the quay grill balık ekmek, the fish sandwich in bread with onion and lettuce: it is the city’s most traditional street food.

About 25 euros for foreigners, 75 minutes. Arrive at opening time: in the afternoon in high season the gallery is packed and queues soar.

Built by Emperor Justinian in 537, it was the largest church in the world for almost a thousand years, became a mosque in 1453, a museum in 1934 and a mosque again in 2020. Since 2024 tourists enter through the upper gallery with a ticket, while the ground floor is reserved for prayer. From up there you see the gold Byzantine mosaics beside the great medallions of Arabic calligraphy. Women cover their hair; everyone covers shoulders and knees.

About 38 euros for foreigners, 45 minutes, 150 metres from Hagia Sophia. It is pricey for the length of the visit, but it is one of the few things that exist only here.

Justinian had the reservoir built in 532 to supply the palace, with 336 columns recycled from ancient temples. At the far end, two of them rest on Medusa heads, one on its side and one upside down, and nobody knows for sure why. The lighting and the shallow water on the floor do the rest.

Free, with an optional donation, 45 minutes, 400 metres from the Cistern. It closes to tourists during the five daily prayers, so go before the midday prayer.

Built between 1609 and 1616 facing Hagia Sophia, deliberately, it is the only imperial mosque in Istanbul with six minarets. The name comes from the more than 20,000 blue Iznik tiles lining the interior. Take off your shoes at the entrance, where plastic bags are provided, and stay in the area reserved for visitors.

About 55 euros for foreigners, 3 hours, opens at 9am and closes on Tuesdays. Start here early, because it is the biggest and most tiring visit of the day.

For almost four centuries this was the heart of the Ottoman Empire. The palace is not one building but a sequence of courtyards and pavilions: the Harem, with more than 300 rooms, the Treasury, with the Topkapi dagger and the 86 carat Spoonmaker’s Diamond, and the last courtyard, overlooking the meeting of the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara.

Free, 90 minutes, a 20 minute walk from Topkapi along the tram avenue. Closed on Sundays.

One of the oldest covered markets in the world, dating from 1461, with more than 60 streets and around 4,000 shops. Today it is more touristy than it was, so use it for looking and for buying things you will not find elsewhere: mosaic lamps, rugs and ceramics. Haggling is expected: start at half the asking price and accept the tea the sellers offer, without feeling obliged to buy.

Free, 1 hour, 700 metres uphill from the Grand Bazaar. It is the city’s most beautiful mosque and the least crowded of the big three.

Commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent and completed in 1557 by the architect Mimar Sinan, it has a lighter, brighter interior than the Blue Mosque. Both men are buried in mausoleums in the garden. From the rear terrace you see the whole Golden Horn with Galata on the far side: it is the best free viewpoint on the peninsula.

Free, 90 minutes. Go on a weekday morning, when the slopes are empty and photos come without queues.

For centuries Balat and neighbouring Fener were home to the city’s Jewish and Greek communities. Today the brightly painted timber and masonry houses have become a photo backdrop, but the district still has the Ahrida synagogue, the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate and the Church of St Stephen of the Bulgars, made entirely of cast iron shipped in pieces from Vienna in 1898.

Free, 45 minutes, in Eminönü, 15 minutes by taxi from Balat and next to the ferry pier for the Asian side.

The L shaped bazaar, from 1664, is smaller and easier than the Grand Bazaar, and it is where you buy the souvenirs that fit in your suitcase: Urfa pepper, sumac, apple tea, Antep pistachios and lokum, Turkish delight. Ask to taste first and buy it vacuum packed.

The public ferry from Eminönü to Kadıköy takes 25 minutes and costs the same as a metro ride with the Istanbulkart. Set aside the whole afternoon.

Across the Bosphorus, Kadıköy is where Istanbul’s residents go shopping and go out at night. The market streets have fishmongers, cheese shops, olive stores and lokanta, restaurants serving home style food from a display counter. Late in the afternoon, walk to Moda pier to watch the sun set over the historic peninsula across the water.

Free, 45 minutes at the viewpoint. The flight from Istanbul to Nevşehir or Kayseri takes 1h15, plus 40 minutes to an hour to Göreme; it is the first stop after check-in.

These are the region’s tallest fairy chimneys: columns of volcanic tuff up to 40 metres high, carved by erosion over millions of years. From the viewpoint on the road between Göreme and Uçhisar you see the whole valley; to walk down among them, the trail takes about an hour.

Paid entry, 1 hour, 3 kilometres from Love Valley. Go up an hour before sunset.

The rock was hollowed into dozens of rooms over the centuries and served as a fortress and refuge for the village around it. From the top, the highest point in the region, you see Pigeon Valley, Göreme and, in the distance, the Erciyes volcano, which covered Cappadocia in ash and created this whole landscape.

150 to 280 euros per person in a shared basket, 1 hour in the air, with hotel pickup around 5am. Book as soon as you set your dates and schedule the flight for your first morning: if wind cancels it, you still have the next one.

Every morning with good weather, up to a hundred balloons rise together at sunrise over Göreme, and the sky fills with dots of colour above the valleys. Even if you do not fly, you can watch: the terraces of the cave hotels and the village viewpoints fill up at dawn.

About 20 euros, plus 6 for the Dark Church; 2 hours; opens at 8am. It is 1.5 kilometres from the village, and after the balloon you arrive at opening time, before the tour groups.

Between the 10th and 12th centuries, monks carved churches, refectories and cells into the rocks of this valley and covered them in frescoes. The best preserved are in the Dark Church, which went centuries with almost no light, which is why the colours still look fresh. It is worth the separate ticket.

Free, two and a half hours of easy walking, 2 kilometres from Göreme. Set off two hours before sunset and bring a torch for the way back.

The rocks of this valley turn pink in the late afternoon, and the trail passes little visited rock cut churches, such as the Column Church, and apricot orchards and vines. The viewpoint at the top, where the trail ends, is the region’s most popular sunset spot, with stalls selling freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.

About 13 euros, 90 minutes, 40 minutes by car from Göreme. Arrive at opening time, before the tour groups, because the tunnels are narrow and the queue jams.

The city descends about 85 metres over several levels, with stables, wine cellars, kitchens, a chapel and ventilation shafts, and it once sheltered thousands of people and their animals during raids and persecutions. The doors are round millstones that rolled to seal the corridors from inside. If you are claustrophobic, think twice: some stretches are walked crouching.

About 15 euros, 4 hours including lunch, 1 hour from Derinkuyu. Go down the Ihlara stairway and walk the 4 kilometres to Belisırma, the most beautiful stretch.

The Melendiz River carved a canyon 14 kilometres long and up to 150 metres deep, and Byzantine monks cut dozens of churches into its walls, some with frescoes. Unlike the rest of Cappadocia, it is green and cool here. In Belisırma, restaurants serve trout at tables on platforms set in the river.

Free, 45 minutes, 3 kilometres from Göreme on the road to Avanos. It is the easy walk of the last morning.

The old village was carved into the cliff and abandoned in the 1960s after rockfalls, when residents moved to new houses below. Climb through the ruins to the 5th century Church of St John the Baptist, one of the oldest in Cappadocia, with a view across the plain to Avanos.

Paid entry, 1 hour, 1.5 kilometres from Çavuşin. After it, Avanos is 10 minutes away: stop at a pottery workshop on the Kızılırmak River before heading to the airport.

Monks Valley has fairy chimneys with two and even three basalt caps, and inside several of them Christian hermits carved cells to live in isolation, among them followers of St Simeon Stylites. It is the landscape closest to the Cappadocia postcards, and the easiest to walk.