All Around Turkey with Gulet Cruise: 17 days, the whole country and a week at sea
The All Around Turkey with Gulet Cruise is everything we do in one booking: the west-coast bus leg, the full gulet week and the inland bus leg, back to back. Seventeen days, ten hotel nights, six nights in a cabin, one group from the first evening in Istanbul to the last.
The three legs
Days 1 to 5 - the west coast by bus. Two nights in Istanbul with the old-city day and a Bosphorus cruise, then Gallipoli, Troy and Pergamon, Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis, ending in Fethiye. This is the Istanbul to Fethiye Tour.
Days 6 to 12 - the gulet. Saturday to Friday on the Lycian coast: the Blue Lagoon, St. Nicholas Island, Kas, the Sunken City of Kekova, Simena Castle, Demre's turtle bays, Firnaz Bay, Butterfly Valley. The week is described in our gulet cruise guide. Friday night is in a Fethiye hotel.
Days 13 to 17 - inland by bus. Saklikent Gorge and Pamukkale, the drive to Cappadocia, a full Cappadocia day with the optional balloon flight, the Derinkuyu underground city and the Salt Lake, and Istanbul on the last morning. This is the Fethiye to Istanbul Tour.
Departures are on Mondays, April to October, and every published date is guaranteed to run.
Why it works as one trip
Because it is a circle with the sea in the middle. Five days of sights, then a week where the only decision is which bay to swim in, then five more days of sights with the energy to enjoy them. The pace changes exactly when you need it to. You also keep the same guide on both land legs and, usually, the same travelling companions throughout - by the end of the cruise the group feels like friends.
Where you sleep
Istanbul (2 nights), Canakkale, Kusadasi / Selcuk, Fethiye (2 nights, before and after the cruise), Pamukkale, Cappadocia (2 nights), Istanbul - all boutique or 4-star hotels - plus six nights in a double or triple cabin on the gulet. Single rooms and cabins are available for a supplement; solo travellers who share pay none.
What is included, and what is not
Included: all hotel nights, the gulet with full board, breakfast and dinner on land, all transport, a licensed guide on every land day and the entrance fees on the bus legs. Not included: flights, insurance, drinks, lunches on land, the cruise-day entrance fees (paid on board) and the optional activities - tavern night, paragliding, diving, balloon flights in Pamukkale and Cappadocia, Turkish night, quad safari, hammam.
If 17 days is too long
Drop the cruise and do the loop in ten days with the All Around Turkey Tour. Keep the cruise and drop one half of the land route with the two 12-day options: Istanbul to Fethiye with Gulet Cruise or Gulet Cruise & Cappadocia to Istanbul.
See dates and prices for All Around Turkey with Gulet Cruise