Merhaba! Mediterranean Tour
Turkish Delight Tours presents our fourteen-day land and sea adventure that is uniquely inspired to provide the visitor with days of stunning photographic potential as we journey in our private minivan along the southern perimeter of the Turkish coastline. We will explore the charming villages of Antalya, hike through sweet pine forests scented with oregano under a canopy of brilliant blue skies, discover ancient Lycian tombs, Roman baths, gape in wonderment a the majestic and intact Greek and Roman amphitheaters and mighty Ottoman castles. After a week of vehicular travel and luxurious hotel accommodations, we will leave the land and prepare to embark upon the Turquoise Coast for our final four days in our private motor-yacht (gulet), with spacious cabins, private baths and ample deck space to take in the sun, read or nap as we ply the peaceful waters and frequently poke into sheltered harbors to go ashore and mingle with the town-folk. Everyday there will be ample opportunity to swim and snorkel in secluded coves of our own choosing, while at the same time, be regaled with al fresco cuisine prepared and served by our own chef on deck. Although Bodrum is our final port of call, Turkish Delight Tours promises that the eleven days land and sea excursion, will stimulate all of our senses due to the genuine attention and pampering that you will receive from İnan, hotel staff and boat crew. Your newly acquired acquaintance with past cultures and civilizations will haunt you thereafter and the memories of the luscious sun, carefree days and warm Turkish hospitality will linger in your heart for a lifetime…
Quick Itinerary of this tour program
ARRIVAL DAY ANTALYA
Turkish Delight Tours welcomes you with the most friendly and useful word of our Mediterranean tour: “Merhaba!” which means “Hello!”. MERHABA! MEDITERRANEAN TOUR....HELLO! MEDITERRANEAN...Click here for the itinerary Itiny
İnan, your guide, will pick you up at the busy Antalya International Airport and meet your domestic flight from İstanbul, İzmir or Ankara. Please plan to arrive as early as is convenient for you. Certainly, no later than 5 p.m. so that you may attend the “welcome” dinner at our imposing IC Hotel just minutes away from the airport in suburban Antalya City. A good night’s sleep will be the most important thing on the menu as our ambitious and active program begins early in the following morning!
DAY 1
Breakfast is at 7 a.m. at our IC Hotel dining room. Dress casually and prepare for some walking activities. Put a new card in your digital camera as this day will be packed with photographic delights beginning with our early morning arrival at Kursunlu waterfall and its lush weeping draperies of water that emanate from the lush greenery. Our comfortable minivan proceeds to truly one of the greatest archeological splendors on our very first day in Türkiye, surpassed only by the grandeur of Ephesus on our final day of the tour. Behold the almost perfectly intact Roman amphitheater of Aspendos built around AD 162. It possesses a rare, enclosed stage and seating for 12,000 that today is utilized for opera and ballet productions. The ruins of Aspendos encompass a large area and contain a remarkable aqueduct and marble temples. We will have box lunches after we do our exploration. In the afternoon we travel to view the fluted minaret in Antalya dating from the 13th-century that has become a symbol of Antalya. There is also a fine arts gallery here. Our next scheduled stop, depending on the day it is open, is the Antalya Archeological Museum that is a “must-see” because of its rare assemblage of Roman marble sculptures and friezes dating from the 2nd-century AD, Bronze-Age burial urns, relics from St. Nicholas an early Byzantine silver and sarcophagi all displayed in a new gallery of green marble. For a refreshing change of pace, we then go down to the yacht harbor at 5 p.m. and delight in a late afternoon cruise around the colorful Antalya harbor and then dine al fresco at The Big Man Restaurant that commands a spectacular panorama of the entire harbor and coastal region. We retire back to our IC Hotel at 8 p.m.
DAY 2
Collect and pack your luggage. We checkout of the classy IC Hotel after our breakfast. Bring along sunscreen and a warm sweater!! Today we have, perhaps, our most diverse adventure. Very few locales on the globe can boast of being able to ski in the morning and swim in the sea by the afternoon! But you can in Antalya! In the morning we will take a spectacular cable car ride to Thatali Dagi in the high Taurus Mountains. We will be at the snowline in the brilliant sun and seemingly be able to see to infinity from this lofty aerie. We descent from the chilly but refreshing heights and fill our water bottles and begin a two mile, rugged seacoast hike to the ruined city of Phaselis. This will be a primo trek to the ancient past! We encounter gorgeous, raw and wild beach scenery scattered with submerged sarcophagi as we head toward this Lycian port city with its three harbors around an acropolis on a headland. It was here that Alexander the Great wintered in 333 BC. Phaselis was a rival city to Antalya but was eclipsed during the Seljuk times. Most of the ruins we will see date from the Roman period. They include a theater, two baths, a marketplace an aquaduct, and a marble gateway erected in honor of Emperor Hadrian. We continue on this heady historical hike to the King’s Road where we will stoop and devour our prepared lunchbox from our friend and chef from the IC Hotel. We continue and are relieved to find our mini-van waiting to retrieve and whisk us to the opulent modern splendor of the Rixos Hotel and its waiting grand buffet!
DAY 3
Breakfast is at 7 a.m. We have another unforgettable experience this morning! In our mini-van we head up to Çıralı Mountain where at an altitude of about 1,000 feet there are two outcrops of volcanic rock from which escaping natural gas flames spew from vents called “burning stone.” In ancient times, the fire was used to light a beacon to warm ships of danger. Our personal friend and chef will cook eggs and pancakes for a midmorning brunch surprise! We linger the remainder of the morning in the Mt. Olympos region before dining on fresh trout back on the coast for our luncheon meal. Early in the afternoon we spend our day scuba diving, snorkeling and swimming. If you like to get scuba-certified from PADI, please mention it on your reservation form so İnan can reserve a spot for you in the scuba school. We return to rest and dine at the Rixos Hotel at 7 p.m.
DAY 4
Breakfast is at 7 a.m. at the Rixos and we prepare reluctantly to checkout. We are driving the coast road this morning and make our first official stop at the ancient city of Myra that became wealthy in the 5th century B.C. supplying incense to Egypt and Constantinople. The big draw at Myra is the theater and two cliff faces carved with spectacular house tombs that were probably copies of domestic architecture, intended as houses for the dead. Most have carved doors, beam-ends, pitched roofs and prominent lintels-typical of construction in wood. A stone’s throw away is the modern city of Demre and the charming church of St. Nicholas. The little Byzantine church is spiritually and architecturally divine and frescos there are being restored. Yes, this is, indeed, where the legend of Santa Claus originated! He was the 4th century Bishop of Myra who was famed for his unfailing generosity and piety. He is known as Noel Baba in Türkiye. We will have lunch at a local beach café and then proceed to uninhabited Kekova Island, an idyllic locale of sunshine, swimming and fascinating ruins. Along the edge of the island lie intriguing half-submerged remains of a Lycian sunken city. Some of the city can even be explored at ease by swimming with a mask and snorkel. An array of chest-like tombs is spread out along the coastline on the mainland across from Kekova as part of a Lycian necropolis. Nearby, is an old Byzantine church and Roman fort. After such a stimulating but refreshing day, we will retire to our hotel in Kaş City. Dinner at 7:30 p.m.
DAY 5
Breakfast is an 8 a.m. in our hotel. After our ample Turkish breakfast we will tour the bustling harbor town of Kaş, once an ancient port noted for its cork oak trees. The town has many unusual and original handicraft stores and this is an excellent shopping opportunity to acquire some special and unique items for your chosen souvenir of the Blue Coast. The pier is full of scuba-diving boats and yachts. We will select one of our own and then take a leisurely, short hop to a close by island to view the Blue Cave and then return to Kas for a difficult choice of prime luncheon restaurants. Early in the afternoon we head to the coastal village of Kalkan that looks similar to Greece and then on to Patara once a major Lycian port before two great earthquakes in AD 141 and AD 240. From here, we enter Saklıkent Gorge where we walk for several hundred meters into the gorge on platforms built over the torrent. When we return we will have dinner at one of the many trout farms that proliferate in this area. We eat on low tables placed over the limestone-filtered water and enjoy the cool, refreshing experience before returning to the warm sea coast and our hotel in Kaş.
DAY 6
Breakfast is at 8 a.m. We head out this morning for Ölüdeniz, made famous in the 1970’s by visitors from Britain. It is simply a little bit of beach paradise on earth with its tranquil, cobalt blue lagoon set beneath a pine-forested 6,000’ mountain. A fabulous bird’s eye view of this gem can be had from atop Baba Dagi where paragliders soar over the site. There are many restaurants in close proximity, so we will have lunch nearby. In the afternoon, we will inspect the ghost town of Kayaköy. This was a thriving Greek town until it was abandoned in the exchange of populations that took place during the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and the founding of the modern Turkish Republic in 1923. About 400 roofless houses with gaping windows molder on a hillside overlooking a fertile plain. Recently designated a Unesco World Heritage Site, Kayaköy is being preserved. After our exploration we head for the market town of Fethiye and its large harbor and thriving Friday market. Here we will stroll and visit another group of 4th Century B.C. Lycian cliff house tombs before continuing on to Dalyan. This is a pretty resort town on the meandering Dalyan River. Fishing is the mainstay of the local economy. We may enjoy a sample of delicious red roe caviar sealed in beeswax, but seriously partake of the delectable crabs for which Dalyan is also famous. We will have an early dinner because we have some haste in meeting our chartered gulet waiting for us in the large port of Marmaris where we will leave our minivan and sleep on the bobbing boat docked at its mooring until the captain guides his craft out into the Mediterranean very early the following morning.
DAYS 7, 8, 9
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Day 10
Lamentably, we will terminate our Blue Coast portion of our tour today, although we will NOT be abandoning our yacht and crew! It will be our accommodations for tonight, moored snuggly to the Bodrum pier. We will leisurely enjoy our triumphant arrival to the beautiful marina of Bodrum around noon passing by the impressive Castle of St. Peter in the harbor.
Bodrum, with its sophisticated nightlife and international reputation for its tolerant and Western ambiance, is sure to seduce you!
One of the wonders of the ancient world that was built here by the Greeks has sadly disappeared, most noticeably the Colossal Mausoleum of Halicarnas. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in the 4th century BC. The 134 foot high tower stood for about 1,500 years but had fallen into ruin by 1402, when the Knights of St. John arrived and conveniently used many of the stones for constructing the Castle in the harbor that we passed in the morning.
Because Bodrum was one of the first Turkish towns to experience a tourist boom it exudes a pan-Mediterranean demeanor. You are free the remainder of the day and night to experience it for yourself. It has a bustling vehicle-free eastern sector with beaches and a quieter western hub which borders the yacht harbor. Dolmuşes make transport easy and stop at all major points around the inner city. You may want to experience having a real Turkish bath, and the Bodrum Hamam is very authentic. It is very clean and masseurs are highly professional.
There are many archeological sites, but the most unique and pleasant afternoon attraction would be to visit the distinctive Castle of St. Peter. There is no other castle like it on this tour and it has been beautifully restored and now houses a spectacular collection of the undersea treasures found around Turkey. The views from the two towers that are open to the public offer wonderful view over the harbor and city.
Save your energy for the delicious Mediterranean evening! The open-air Halikarnas Disco at the water’s edge is one of the most famous nightclubs in Turkey and the epitome of hedonistic expression! With a capacity of 5,000, the club offers an awesome laser light show and the best DJs, pop music, and cabaret acts. Smart dress is required. Be mindful that you must make your way back to the marina and your cabin on our yacht for your sleeping accommodations!
Day 11
A delicious breakfast will be our last meal on our yacht. You will have the morning to complete your shopping/sightseeing in Bodrum. You might as well like to go scuba diving for an unforgettable Bodrum submarine experience or decide to relax on the beach, take a dip in the sea if you have not had enough already! We will reconvene as a group for lunch and transfer our luggage from the boat to the public bus station where a ultra-modern express bus will transport us in comfort to our last multi-starred hotel in Kuşadası just a couple of hours away. We will use the remainder of the day to settle in, relax and have dinner at our select 5 star hotel.
Day 12
The GRAND EPHESUS TOUR Day.
We will have an early 7 a.m. breakfast at our hotel in order to be the “early” birds to arrive at the gates of Ephesus when it opens. To date our understanding and appreciation for the civilizations on modern Turkish soil have been, in their own way, a “teaser” for the grand finale of our historical education on this topic during our days of sightseeing. Few ancient metropolises of their time eclipse the city of Ephesus in the Western World.
A Greek city was first built on the site around 1,000 BC and it was not long before it became famed as a center for the worship of the Anatolian Mother Goddess. The city you will see today was founded in the 4th century BC by Alexander the Great’s successor. But, it was under Roman dominance when Ephesus became the chief port of the Aegean, with a population the exceeded 200,000 inhabitants. As the harbor silted up over the centuries, the city declined but continued to play an important role in the spread of Christianity. Two great Councils of the early Church were convened here in AD 431 and AD 449. It is said that the Virgin Mary spent her last days nearby and that the crucified Jesus asked Saint John to look after her in AD 37. Her simple stone house is about five miles from the center of Ephesus, perched on top of a wooden mountain overlooking the city. Pilgrims of all faiths visit the shrine today, as we will.
Although only a small portion of the city has been unearthed, it stands as one of the world’s best examples of Greco-Roman antiquity. However, in the area that has been excavated, it seems like a complete city with theaters, gymnasium, market places, baths, temples, library, marble streets, brothels and man other splendid structures. Although heavily damaged by an earthquake in 17 AD, the Roman Emperors Tiberius and Hadrian assisted in the city’s restoration.
Perhaps the only detraction to viewing this grand site today is its universal popularity. Of all the haunting, unspoiled, and isolated ruins we have had the pleasure of visiting, Ephesus will seem like a tourist circus. Prepare yourself for daunting crowds and the sun to be unmerciful. For your personal comfort and well-being, bring plenty of bottled water and be aware that public restrooms are practically non-existent and the 2,000 year-old Roman toilets may even seem tempting! Your personal walkie-talkie will be most helpful here as exploration can be done independently. Thusly, you will always be able to remain informed of Inan’s location and assistance and he be aware of where you are, as well.
Obviously, the most advantageous time for maximum enjoyment, atmosphere, comfort and serious photography is at both extremes of the tour day—early morning before the buses from the cruise boats arrive and shortly before closing time. This may be the best time to do break away from the group and then rejoin it later to study and learn what you can about the complex.
Since the location of our hotel is only 20 minutes away, we will all return there and enjoy the comforts of modern civilization before we have dinner at our hotel at 7:30 p.m.
Day 13
Breakfast is at 8 a.m. in our hotel. Today we will make excursions to three other impressive archeological treasures: Priene, Miletus, and Didyma. We sincerely hope that you will not be totally satiated from yesterday’s exposure to magnificent ruins. But, if you would prefer to remain at our hotel and partake in its amenities on the last day of the tour, it is understandable. The city center of Kuşadası is less than 2 kilometers distant and is just a few minutes taxi driver away.
At 9 a.m. our minivan will head out to Priene. It has a breathtaking setting between the river and the mountains. Like Ephesus, it belonged to a group of city-states believed to have been settled by Greek colonists before 1000 BC. Designed by the same architect as the city of Miletus in 450 BC, Priene is in a good state of preservation. It contains a superb example of the Ionian style in its Temple of Athena who was the city’s patron goddess. Alexander the Great supervised work on the temple when he occupied the city. Because of its strong Greek affiliations, the Romans did not look it upon with favor and, thusly, its prominence waned and by Byzantine times it had been abandoned. The benign neglect is the principle reason why it has remained as one of the most intact Hellenic cities that can be seen. It has a 5,000-seat theater and a stadium as well, complete with starting blocks for the runners and sanctuaries to the gods. The lower gymnasium walls are adorned with schoolboy graffiti from 2,000 years ago!
Although less impressive than Priene, Miletus was more renown for its art, politics and trade than many other Greek settlements. It was once the principle port of the Ionian League as a center for art and industry. During the Roman era it flourished as an exporter of wool and textile dyes to the far corners of the empire. Of the surviving structures, the finest is the 15,000-seat theater, dating from AD 100 but with additions and alterations from other succeeding civilizations. The baths were a model for the development of the Turkish bath, or hamam. Also, of interest are the stadium, reservoir and shrine of Apollo. Strangely enough, a mosque squats amid the ruins of ancient Miletus, built in 1403 to celebrate the Mongol invasion of Anatolia in the prior year. The mosque is constructed of brick and colored marble taken from the ancient city. The detail of the facade is impressive and the intact dome is 45 feet in diameter and was the largest constructed during this era and was a prototype for other grandeur Ottoman mosques built during the 16th century.
The prime reason to visit Didyma is to envision what the Temple of Apollo built in the 7th century BC must have been like as one of the great magnets of prophecy of the entire Greek world in Asia Minor. Priests associated with the Oracle in Delphi were in charge of the shrine. In its prominence, the Temple of Apollo featured 108 columns. Sadly, only three stumps are still intact as mute testimony to what once was a magnificent edifice. The Temple was destroyed by the Persians in the 6th century BC, but was restored again by the ambitious Alexander. Upon the advent of Christianity, the temple was converted into a church. In 1493, an earthquake destroyed the temple and Didyma was abandoned.
After our final day of exploration, we will return to our hotel at an early hour and spend our final time together reflecting on our experiences and adventures at our Farewell Dinner at 7:30 p.m. in our hotel.
Day 14
Breakfast is at 8 a.m. in our hotel. Checkout for everyone is at noon. This completes the official Merhaba! Mediterranean Tour, although you may have other personalized plans or have arranged an optional extension trip with Inan. Inan will provide transport to the İzmir International Airport that is the closest facility to access for your return trip home or another destination in Türkiye.
Quick Itinerary of this tour program
Photo Gallery: Pictures of The Tour
PRIVATELY GUIDED BOUTIQUE TDT PACKAGE
"Asea and Afoot Along The Blue Coast" Private Tour Cost:............................$8,375
Price is per person, double occupancy. For a single room, add $831. Airfare is not included in the price. Please call for information about international airfare between the U.S. and Istanbul. Round-trip economy airfare between New York and Istanbul is not included and is estimated at $800.
ABOUT YOUR JOURNEY
Throughout your journey, you'll be accompanied by Inan, your private tour leader as noted in the itinerary. The Hotel accomodations are ideally situated in the visited towns. Select Hotels have their own unique architectural features and characteristics reflecting different eras in the visited region's history. Paragliding is offered at an additional cost in Antalya; all other activities noted in the itinerary are included in the price.
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