10-Day Istanbul & Beyond: Byzantine, Ottoman and Ancient Heritage Tour

On arrival at Istanbul Airport your guide meets you and transfers you privately to your hotel in the heart of the old city. The capital of the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires in turn, Istanbul is the only city in the world to straddle two continents. The rest of the day is free to rest and settle in, and this evening you enjoy a welcome dinner. Overnight in Istanbul.

A full day among the imperial monuments of Sultanahmet. You begin at Hagia Sophia, Justinian's sixth-century masterpiece that was the largest cathedral in the world for a thousand years, then tour Topkapı Palace, the residence of the Ottoman sultans, and the Byzantine church of Hagia Irene in its grounds. After lunch you walk the ancient Hippodrome to see the Serpentine Column, the Egyptian Obelisk and the German Fountain, visit the six-minaret Blue Mosque with its blue İznik tiles, and lose yourself in the four thousand shops of the Grand Bazaar. This evening you sail on a Bosphorus dinner cruise with live music, a folklore show and whirling dervishes. Overnight in Istanbul.

The day begins at the Istanbul Archaeology Museum and the colourful Spice (Egyptian) Bazaar beside the tiled Rüstem Pasha Mosque. You then board a boat on the Golden Horn for a two-hour cruise along the Bosphorus, passing Dolmabahçe, Çırağan and Beylerbeyi palaces, Rumeli Fortress, the Maiden's Tower and the Bosphorus Bridge that links Europe and Asia. Afterwards you tour the opulent Dolmabahçe Palace, home to a 4.5-tonne English crystal chandelier, and cross to the Asian shore to climb Çamlıca Hill for panoramic views. Overnight in Istanbul.

You set out early for the Gallipoli peninsula, one of the most moving sites of the First World War. After lunch you tour the battlefields and memorials, including Anzac Cove, the Lone Pine Australian Memorial, the Chunuk Bair Atatürk Monument and Johnston's Jolly Cemetery, where Allied and Ottoman soldiers fell side by side in 1915. In the evening you cross to the southern shore of the Dardanelles for dinner and an overnight stay in Çanakkale.

This morning you explore the legendary city of Troy, immortalised in Homer's Iliad and revealed in nine superimposed settlements, where a wooden-horse replica marks the fabled siege. Travelling south you reach Bergama to climb the dramatic acropolis of Pergamon, with its vertiginous theatre, the Temple of Trajan and the foundations of one of antiquity's greatest libraries, and visit the Asclepion, an ancient centre of healing. You continue along the coast to the resort town of Kuşadası for dinner and overnight.

A full day at the greatest classical city of Asia Minor. You first visit the House of the Virgin Mary, a place of pilgrimage set in pine woods above Ephesus, then walk the marble length of Curetes Street past the Great Theatre, the State Agora, the Odeon and the magnificent Library of Celsus. You also see the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and have free time to relax on the beach at Kuşadası in summer. Overnight in Kuşadası.

Today you discover the Ionian heartland. At Priene you see streets laid out on a grid and the Temple of Athena endowed by Alexander the Great; at Miletus the vast fifteen-thousand-seat theatre and Faustina baths; and at Didyma the colossal Temple of Apollo with its forest of marble columns. The road then leads to Aphrodisias, dedicated to the goddess of love, with its thirty-thousand-seat stadium, Tetrapylon gateway and sculpture school. You arrive in the evening at a thermal hotel in Pamukkale. Overnight in Pamukkale.

You begin at Hierapolis, the Roman spa city above the terraces, exploring the Grand Theatre, the Temple of Apollo, the Plutonium, the colonnaded street and one of the largest necropolises of the ancient world; there is free time to bathe in Cleopatra's antique pool. Below spread the gleaming white travertines of Pamukkale, formed by mineral-rich thermal waters. In the afternoon you visit Sardis, capital of the Lydian kingdom where the world's first coins were struck, with its synagogue, gymnasium and Temple of Artemis, before continuing to Izmir on the Aegean coast. Overnight in Izmir.

After a short tour of Izmir you drive north to Bursa, the first capital of the Ottoman Empire, nestled beneath Mount Uludağ. You visit the twenty-domed Great Mosque (Ulu Camii), the exquisitely tiled Green Mosque and the historic Koza Han silk market, with a tea break among its courtyards. In the late afternoon you continue to Istanbul for your final night. Overnight in Istanbul.

After breakfast and hotel check-out you are transferred privately to Istanbul Airport in good time for your onward flight, where your ten-day journey through Byzantine, Ottoman and ancient Turkey comes to an end.