7 Days Accessible Istanbul & Cappadocia Tour: Cooking, Dance & Ceramics Private Tour

Your journey begins at Istanbul Airport, where your private transfer is waiting to take you to the hotel. Once you have checked in, take time to rest after the journey and settle into the city. In the evening you gather for a welcome dinner, meet your guide and crew, and enjoy traditional Turkish dishes in a relaxed setting. It is a gentle first night that lets you feel the atmosphere of Istanbul after dark before the sightseeing and workshops begin. You spend the night in Istanbul, with the arrangements designed around wheelchair-friendly vehicles, hotels and restaurants.

After breakfast and a short orientation, you begin the city tour and then take part in your first Turkish cooking lesson, preparing the lunch you will eat together. In the afternoon you visit Topkapi Palace, the residence of the Ottoman sultans from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century, where displays include crystal, silver and Chinese porcelain, imperial robes, miniatures, the Imperial Treasury jewels and the Holy Mantle with sacred relics. Next comes the Sultanahmet Mosque, better known as the Blue Mosque, famous for its interior of blue Iznik tiles. You also see the ancient Hippodrome, once the stage for chariot races, with the Obelisk of Theodosius, the bronze Serpent Column and the Column of Constantine. Dinner is served at a local restaurant before your overnight stay in Istanbul.

Your guide collects you from the hotel at 08:30 for a tour of the old city. The first stop is Hagia Sophia, the great domed basilica raised under Emperor Justinian in the sixth century and still regarded as one of the architectural marvels of the world. From there you move to the Spice Bazaar, where cinnamon, caraway, saffron, mint, thyme and countless other herbs fill the air with scent. After the tour you return to the hotel to rest. In the evening you head out for a belly dancing and folklore class, learning traditional movements and techniques and discovering how dancers hold the attention of an audience. You spend the night in Istanbul.

After breakfast you transfer to Istanbul Airport for the domestic flight to Cappadocia. On arrival at Kayseri airport you are driven to your cave hotel in the heart of the region. The rest of the day is free for you to settle in, enjoy the unusual surroundings and explore Cappadocia at your own pace, whether you prefer a quiet rest or a first look at the landscape around the hotel. Dinner is included, and you spend the night in the cave hotel. The domestic flight itself is arranged separately and is not part of the tour price.

After breakfast you set out for the local markets, stopping to taste artisanal foods and wine that will go into your lunch. You then join village women for a cooking class based on traditional recipes and sit down to enjoy what you have prepared together. In the afternoon you visit the Goreme Open-Air Museum, a group of rock churches carved by early Christians and decorated with frescoes that illustrate the life of Jesus, a place closely tied to the beginnings of religious teaching in the valley. You also climb to Uchisar Castle, a rock citadel that once served as a watchtower and a village settlement. Dinner and the overnight stay are in your Cappadocia cave hotel.

After breakfast you travel to a ceramics class, where professional ceramic artists guide you in making a piece of your own. Pottery is the best-known craft of the Cappadocia region, and your finished work becomes a personal keepsake of the trip to take home. In the afternoon a guided tour leads you to the Derinkuyu Underground City, a multi-level refuge dug into the rock that sheltered communities across many centuries and shows how people adapted to life beneath the surface. Back in the evening you have dinner and spend your final night in Cappadocia.

After a final breakfast you transfer to Kayseri airport for the domestic flight back to Istanbul, where your tour comes to an end and you continue your onward journey home. The return flight is arranged separately, so it is worth planning your onward connection with enough margin after landing. Before you leave, take a last look at the Cappadocia landscape and the ceramic piece you shaped by hand. We hope the cooking lessons, dance class, pottery workshop and historic sites leave you with lasting memories of Turkey, and that this accessible journey is only the first of many.