5 Nights / 6 Days
Anatolia's Greatest Wonders
5 Nights | 3 Cappadocia · 1 Pamukkale · 1 Kuşadası — fairy chimneys, Pamukkale's white travertines and Ephesus.
Turkey / Region
Central Anatolia
The high steppe at the middle of the country — Cappadocia's valleys, Konya's dervishes, Hittite capitals.
Also part of Çatalhöyük
Central Anatolia is a broad, elevated plateau lying at the heart of Türkiye, ringed by mountains and marked by long, dry summers and cold winters. It is the country's agricultural heartland — vast wheat fields and vineyards stretch across the steppe — but also one of its most historically layered landscapes, where the geological and the human have shaped each other over thousands of years.
The landscape of Cappadocia
The most striking feature of the region is the area known as Cappadocia, where episodes of volcanic activity millions of years ago deposited thick layers of soft tuff across the plateau. Over time, wind and water eroded this rock into a maze of valleys, cones and ridgelines — formations often called fairy chimneys. But Cappadocia is not simply a natural wonder. Human beings have lived here since antiquity, carving dwellings, communal spaces and whole underground cities into the soft volcanic stone. The troglodyte villages, rock-cut churches and painted cave monasteries of Göreme Valley stand as one of the most sustained examples of human adaptation to landscape anywhere in the world.
Underground cities and ancient states
Deep beneath the surface of several Central Anatolian towns, extensive networks of tunnels and chambers extend many levels underground — chambers for storage, living quarters, churches and ventilation shafts, capable of sheltering entire populations. These underground cities were carved over centuries, likely from the Phrygian and Roman periods through to Byzantine times. Above ground, the Hittite capital of Hattusha — a short distance from modern Boğazkale — occupied a strategic ridge above the Marassantı River and remains one of the most significant Bronze Age sites in Anatolia, with its monumental city gates and cuneiform archive.
Lake Tuz and the Seljuk world
West of Cappadocia, the great salt lake that gives the region its Turkish name shrinks dramatically in summer, leaving a blinding white crust that has made the area one of the largest salt-production zones in the country. The regional capital of Konya carries a different layer of history: it was the capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in the 12th and 13th centuries, and its high-domed Seljuk mosques, madrasas and the tomb of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad — the poet and Sufi master known as Rumi — give the city a spiritual weight that still draws visitors today. Across the plateau, the landscape invites slow, attentive travel: walking through the valleys at dawn when the light is low and pale, pausing in a village where the sound is mainly wind and birdsong.
Places in Central Anatolia
Tours that visit Central Anatolia
2 Nights / 3 Days
Sacred Lands & Ancient Cities
2 Nights | 1 Pamukkale · 1 Kuşadası — Mevlana's Konya, Pamukkale's white travertines and Ephesus.
8 Nights / 9 Days
Turkey's Golden Triangle
8 Nights | 3 Istanbul · 3 Cappadocia · 1 Pamukkale · 1 Kuşadası — Hagia Sophia, fairy chimneys, white travertines and Ephesus.
Good to know
Before you book you should know
-
Is this trip right for you?
Our groups are capped at eight travellers, which is about a third of what the industry calls a small group. Eight people share one vehicle, one table at dinner and one guide's attention, and the day can change on the road without anybody being left behind. If you are looking for a coach, a fixed script and a microphone, this is not that.
Most days involve real walking, often on ground that was laid two thousand years before walking shoes: marble worn smooth, cobbles, uneven steps and long site paths with little shade. Bring shoes you can spend a morning in.
Some days move between regions and are largely a drive, with stops along the way. Summers are hot — well over 35°C inland — and winters are colder than most people expect, so layers, a hat and sunscreen earn their place in the bag whatever the month.
How demanding a particular trip is, is written on the trip itself: the physical rating in the header, and the day-by-day itinerary above.
-
Rooms, and travelling on your own
Trip prices are per person, sharing a twin room. Each traveller picks their own room while booking, so a party can mix the three:
- Twin share — two single beds, shared with someone you are travelling with or with a traveller of the same gender.
- Travelling as a couple — one double room.
- Individual room — a room of your own, for a single supplement on top of the trip price. Availability is limited, and the supplement for a given date is shown next to the option when you book.
Solo travellers are welcome on every departure, and most of our groups have one or two aboard.
-
Accommodation
The hotels named in an itinerary are a guideline rather than a guarantee. Where one is full, or has dropped below the standard we booked it for, we substitute a property of a similar standard in the same area — we would rather change the hotel than the trip.
Check-in is usually mid-afternoon. If you arrive early we will ask for the room, but no hotel can promise one before its own check-in time; luggage can normally be left at reception in the meantime. If you want the room from the night before, ask us and we will add the extra night to your booking.
-
Passports, visas and insurance
Entry requirements depend on your nationality and change without much notice, so the only reliable source is the official one: the government of the country you are travelling to, and your own foreign ministry's travel advice. Check both before you book a flight.
Many countries ask for a passport valid for at least six months beyond your travel dates, and for blank pages. It is worth looking at yours now rather than at the airport.
We ask every traveller to carry travel insurance covering medical treatment and repatriation, and we would strongly encourage cover for cancellation and for your luggage as well.
-
Your departure is guaranteed — the day can change
Once a departure is on the calendar it runs. We do not cancel a trip for want of a minimum number of bookings, so a booked date is one you can plan flights and leave around.
What can move is the shape of a day. Museums and archaeological sites change their hours, roads close, weather turns, a local holiday lands in the middle of the week. Where that happens your guide reorders the day, or swaps a stop for one of the same weight, and tells you why. Changes to a booked itinerary are covered by our Booking Terms & Conditions.
