6 Nights / 7 Days
From Fairy Chimneys to Mesopotamia
6 Nights | 3 Cappadocia · 1 Gaziantep · 1 Şanlıurfa · 1 Diyarbakır — surreal landscapes and the cradle of civilization.
Turkey / City
Kahramanmaraş
Kahramanmaraş, at the foot of the Taurus foothills in southeastern Türkiye, is known for its ancient hilltop castle and a distinctive sticky ice cream made with salep.
Kahramanmaraş rises where the Amik Plain meets the lower reaches of the Taurus Mountains, a city whose roots run deep into antiquity. The hilltop castle, its massive stone walls softened by time, stands above the modern city below — on clear mornings the peaks to the north are sharp against the sky. Around its base, a market quarter of narrow lanes and covered bazaars has traded in textiles, spices, and crafts for centuries, its rhythms little changed from one generation to the next.
A city shaped by trade and terrain
Sitting at a crossroads of east-west trade routes, Kahramanmaraş absorbed influences from Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman periods. Stone facades from different eras stand alongside one another in the older quarters. Mosques with slender single minarets punctuate the skyline. The streets are quieter in the early morning when bread ovens are fired and the smell of fresh pide reaches the main road. You can walk from the covered market area to the outer neighbourhoods where low-rise stone houses line quieter streets.
Culinary traditions of the southeast
The city's most famous export is its dondurma — a thick, slightly chewy ice cream made with salep harvested from wild orchids that once grew on the surrounding hillsides. Vendors stretch and fold the frozen mass with long paddles before serving it. The texture is unlike commercial ice cream elsewhere, and the flavour carries a faint floral note. Beyond this, Kahramanmaraş is known for its tarhana — a dried, fermented soup base made from yoghurt, vegetables, and herbs — and for lamb dishes cooked over open coals. Local breads baked in wood-fired ovens appear at breakfast tables throughout the city.
What you walk past
A walk through the market quarter takes you past stalls selling copperware and hand-woven blankets, the city's two most recognised crafts. The streets here are paved with stone in places, sloping gently between the market and the lower residential areas. In the early evening, tea gardens fill with regulars and the call to prayer carries across the rooftops. The atmosphere is unhurried and familiar — a city that knows its own rhythms and keeps them.
On the map
Find it on the map
- Kahramanmaraş City
Tours that visit Kahramanmaraş
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14 Nights / 15 Days
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3 Nights Istanbul | 3 Nights Cappadocia | 1 Night Gaziantep | 1 Night Sanliurfa | 1 Night Diyarbakir | 3 Nights Mardin | 1 Night Van | 1 Night Kars
9 Nights / 10 Days
Turkey's Grand Cultural Journey
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Good to know
Before you book you should know
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
