Best Aegean Holiday 16 Days

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Arrival. Transfer to the hotel.Welcome to Europe!!!.  

Upon arriving at the airport we will be waiting to transfer you to your hotel. You can enjoy free time until your tour starts. Please, check the informative posters placed at the hotel reception area which have all the information about your upcoming services such as meeting place, time and the guide’s name.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Sighseeing tour. Cable car to Pierre Loti viewpoint. Topkapi Palace .Night transfer to Taksim.

A sightseeing tour of the city. We find ourselves in a city built in two continents.  On our tour, we will include a cable car ride up to the Pierre Loti viewpoint and we will lenter the Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent (the largest in Istanbul). We will see the walls, the Golden Horn, the fishing district, and we will admire the exterior of Hagia Sofia. After the visit, we will offer tickets and a visit to the Top Kapi Palace, which was the administrative centre of the Ottoman Empire, with its magnificent courtyards and its pavilions.  

At the end of the afternoon we will provide a transfer to the Taksim neighbourhood, the most commercialised and lively area of the city. There will be time to dine in one of its many restaurants, and you can also take the old tram that crosses the area or go to see the nearby Galata Tower. 

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Boat trip on the Bosphorus.

Today we include a boat trip on the Bosphorus that will last about two hours. We will undertake the trip on a boat exclusively for Europamundo travellers. The Bosphorus is a strait that connects the Black Sea with the Sea of ??Marmara, which separates Istanbul into two parts: the European part and the Asian one. We will enjoy seeing the liveliness of the strait with its multitude of boats. We will pass under the two bridges that unite Europe and Asia and we will admire the palaces of the sultans, the typical wooden houses and the Ottoman villas. 

Free time.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: High speed train. Arrival to the fantastic Cappadocia region. Dinner included.

Today we travel by train: from the station in the Asia district, we take the most modern and fast train in Turkey, a pleasant 4-hour trip through the Anatolian landscapes, perhaps having a coffee in the train café. Arrival in ANKARA. After a time to have lunch in the area of ??the station, travelling by bus, we will take you to discover the Mausoleum of Ataturk. After that, we will continue en route to Cappadocia. We will pass through the SALT LAKE, with its incredible landscapes. Arrival in AVANOS (CAPPADOCIA), dinner included.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: landscapes of spectacular shapes. Picturesque towns. Dinner included. 

Full day in the fantastic region of CAPPADOCIA, with its lunar landscapes, its churches and troglodyte villages. We will discover the GOREME Valley with its open air museum and its churches carved into the rocks, entry tickets included. We will visit UCHISAR, a natural fortress. In KAIMACLI we will visit the underground city that could house 30,000 people. Returning to Avanos we stop at PASABAG, the valley of the fairies, we will walk in this spectacular natural area. Free time and dinner included.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Ihlara Valley, Caravanserai, Konya. Dinner included. 

At the far end of Cappadocia, we will visit the IHLARA Valley; known for the freshness of its waters, its churches and villages excavated in the rock. Then we continue our route, with a stop in an old CARAVANSERAI from the 13th Century before arriving in KONYA where we visit the Mausoleum of Mevlana. Here we will learn about the sect of the Dervishes (entrance included). Dinner included.   At night, we suggest that you attend the dance performance of the whirling dervishes in the cultural centre.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Fantastic Cotton Castle at the end of the day. Dinner included. 

We take a scenic road between the lakes, and get to know EGRIDIR, a beautiful town next to a large lake, with its walls and mosques. There’s time to have lunch. We then continue to PAMUKKALE-Hierapolis, whose calcareous waters have created the Cotton Castle (entrance included). Dinner included. 

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Ephesus. Dinner included. 

We leave for EPHESUS, the best preserved ancient city of Asia Minor; 2000 years ago it had a quarter of a million inhabitants. We see the house of the Virgin Mary, the Basilica of Saint John and the impressive ruins of Ephesus (entrance included). We then go on to KUSADASI, a popular coastal town with a lot of atmosphere, commercial life and a small castle. Dinner included.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Views over the Aegean. Beautiful Bodrum. Dinner included. 

We leave for Bodrum, a very beautiful fortified city of Greek origin. You can visit its castle, stroll through its streets full of life and tourism or go around its sports marina. After lunch, we go on our way to MARMARIS, another very beautiful coastal tourist enclave with its castle, its marina and its fountains. Dinner and accommodation. 

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Ferry to Rhodes (Greece)- City tour of Rodhes- 

We will embark toward Greece first thing in the morning. Express ferry, the journey will last about an hour. Immigration checks. Arrival in Rhodes. City tour of this incredible walled city and the old quarter, which bears the imprints of the different cultures that shaped it (Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Knights of Saint John, Ottoman, Italian..). Free afternoon.- 

IMPORTANT NOTICE: The timetable for the ferry between Rhodes and Marmaris is frequently modified and doesn’t operate every day (except in the Summer months), this part of the trip’s itinerary may have to be modified accordingly. 

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS: Excursion in Rhodes. Night ferry-boat to Athens. 

Today,an excursion around the island of Rhodes is included. We will travel to FILERIMOS up on a hill where you will be able to visit its small monastery sitting amid amazing landscapes. Afterward we will travel to LINDOS where its medieval fort and Greek Acropolis own the sea. You will be able to take a stroll along the whitewashed and commercial downtown streets, rest up at one of its beaches or walk up (on a donkey if desired) to the Acropolis.  At the cited time, we will meet up at the port of Rhodes and embark on the ferry to Athens. 

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT: Peloponnese region. Corinth canal. Mycenae archaeological site. Dinner included. 

Arrival first thing in the morning. We leave for the Peloponnese region. We make a stop at the CORINTH CANAL. After this, we have time in the immense fortress of ACCRA CORINTH (entrance included). At the top of the settlement are the foundations of what was a temple to Aphrodite. We go on to MYCENAE, a colossal citadel from the eighteenth century BC, the birthplace of the first European civilisation (entrance included). We stop in TRIPOLI, the provincial capital of a region that produces excellent wines. In the middle of the afternoon, we go on our way to OLYMPIA. Dinner included.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT: Olympia archaeological site. Patras Castle. Dinner included.  

With a local guide, we visit OLYMPIA, where you can see the archaeological complex (entrance  included) which was the birthplace of the Olympic Games in antiquity. After this, we cross the mountainous interior of the Peloponnese on our way to PATRAS. We include tickets to its powerful castle built in the 6th century, followed by time for lunch and to get to know Greece´s third largest city.  We go on through inland Peloponnese to NAFPLIO, a delightful coastal city which takes its name from the Venetian Citadel and fortress. Dinner included.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT: Beautiful stage by land and sea. Epidaurus theatre. Aegean Sea boat crossing. 

Today we have a beautiful stage by land and sea. First of all we will see EPIDAURUS, its ancient theatre built 2400 ago is magnificently preserved and still used, and can accommodate up to 14,000 people (entrance included). After this, we go to the coast of the Aegean Sea to continue our trip on the water. A short boat crossing takes us to POROS, a charming place full of tourist life, where its ancient houses climb up to the clock tower and we have time for a stroll and lunch. After this we take the ferry to AEGINA, an island inhabited for more than 4000 years, where we can stroll around its ancient churches, its picturesque port and its typical districts of little houses. At around 18.00 PM we will go back on the ferry, which will take us back to ATHENS in around 45 minutes – Arrival in Piraeus - 

Note: The ferry timetable changes depending on the season and crossings are very limited between Poros and Aegina. In the low season, the island of Aegina may be replaced by the island of Hydra. 

TODAY´S HIGHLIGHTS: City tour in Athens. Evening transfer.

We will enjoy a panoramic tour of the city with a local guide which includes the Presidential Palace, the Panathinaikos stadium where the first modern Olympic games were held, the national library, the bustling squares of the center; the new neighborhoods that emerged after the 2004 Olympic games. The tour will end at the Acropolis site (entry not included). In the evening we include a transfer to the PLAKA quarter, a place full of small Greek taverns where you can also enjoy this country´s folklore. 

After breakfast, end of our services.