6 Days Kirikkale & Ankara Tour: Weapons Museum, Anitkabir, Cooking Lesson and Hammam Private Tour

Your tour starts at Ankara Airport, where you are met and taken by air-conditioned vehicle to your hotel in Kirikkale. Once you have your room key, the day is yours: rest after the flight, unpack for the five nights ahead, or set out to discover the neighbourhood around the hotel independently before the guided days begin.

After breakfast the guide picks you up at the hotel. First stop is the Nur Mosque, a 2007 building in classical Ottoman form noted for its tiles and its capacity of around ten thousand worshippers. On foot through the centre you see the traditional Ottoman mansions and the Clock Tower. After lunch you tour the MKE Weapons Industry Museum, where arms from many Turkish cities illustrate developments from the 14th century to today. In the afternoon you walk the 285-metre path through the galleries of the Watery Cave, once a quarry, and visit the Ceritkale Rock Tombs of the Iron Age before heading back to the hotel.

A drive of about an hour and a half brings you to Ankara. At the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, founded in 1921 and arranged in its present form in 1968, finds from the Palaeolithic and Neolithic through the Chalcolithic and later periods tell the story of Anatolia, with outstanding Hittite, Phrygian and Urartian displays. You continue to Ankara Castle, whose origins are thought to reach back to Hittite times and which was used by Romans, Seljuks and Ottomans; inside its walls lies a small quarter of historic houses and a local market. Next are the Temple of Augustus, a Roman monument of 25–20 BC famous for its inscriptions and later turned into a church, and the adjoining Haci Bayram Mosque. After a lunch break you visit Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic, with its Hall of Honour, Road of Lions, symbolic towers, ceremonial ground and museum, and where the changing of the guard can be seen. A walk in the lively Kizilay district ends the day before the drive back to Kirikkale.

After breakfast you are taken to a local restaurant for a professional Turkish cooking lesson featuring the tastes of the Kirikkale region. Together you prepare and try dishes such as Tarhana soup, made from a sun-dried blend of tomato and flour, Tuvalak, a soup-like combination of bulgur and meat, and Sizgit, a local fried meat. Lunch is the result of your efforts. In the afternoon you have free time for shopping in the city centre before the transfer back to your hotel.

After breakfast you are collected for the hammam, scheduled according to your preference and the opening hours of the bath. Bathing in a Turkish bath remains a popular custom across the country, which makes it a rewarding experience to try for yourself. Afterwards you go to the city centre for free time and shopping, then return to the hotel, with the remainder of the day at leisure.

After breakfast you are free until your departure transfer. You are then driven back to Ankara Airport for your flight home, concluding six days that brought together the sights and kitchen of Kirikkale with the great museums and monuments of the Turkish capital.