One-Day Private Tours in Turkey

Our one-day tours give one subject a whole day: one architect, one valley, one Roman spa town. Every trip below is private, so the day runs at your pace. We have sorted them by where you sleep the night before.

One-day tours with Istanbul as your base

In the city, a themed day works better than a checklist. The Byzantine Istanbul tour looks beyond Hagia Sophia to Hagia Irene, the Great Palace mosaics, the Valens Aqueduct and the Chora. Our Mimar Sinan tour follows one architect instead, from the Şehzade Mosque to the Süleymaniye and Sinan’s tomb. Then it ends with the tiles of Rüstem Pasha. For a slower day, the Princes’ Islands tour takes the ferry across the Marmara to Büyükada and Heybeliada.

One-day tours by plane from Istanbul

Three of our day trips start with a morning flight out of Istanbul. The Cappadocia day tour covers the Göreme Open-Air Museum, an underground city, Paşabağ and Uçhisar. The Ephesus day tour lands in İzmir for the Library of Celsus, the Terrace Houses, the House of the Virgin Mary and Şirince. Then the Pamukkale day tour flies to Denizli for the white terraces, Hierapolis, the Antique Pool and Laodicea.

One-day tours from a regional base

Once you sleep in the region, the same day can go much deeper.

Cappadocia, north and south

The North Cappadocia tour takes in Göreme, the chimneys of Paşabağ, the cliff village of Zelve and Uçhisar. It also stops in Avanos on the Kızılırmak, where the clay turns the pots red. The South Cappadocia tour goes underground first. After that, it walks the river in the Ihlara Valley, a canyon about 14 km (9 miles) long that the Melendiz River cut. Lunch at Belisırma and Selime Monastery round out the day.

Mardin, Midyat and Göbeklitepe

The Mardin and Midyat tour begins in the old town and madrasas of Mardin, on a hill above the Mesopotamian plain. Next come the Saffron Monastery and the mansions of Midyat, at the center of the Tur Abdin limestone plateau. Mor Gabriel, whose foundations date to 397, stands on an oak-covered hill 23 km (14 miles) southeast of Midyat. From Şanlıurfa, the Göbeklitepe and Şanlıurfa tour pairs the Urfa Man in the museum with Göbeklitepe. This Neolithic cult center is about 12,000 years old. Afterward, the fish pools of Balıklıgöl and the bazaar finish the day.

Our suggestion

With one spare day in an Istanbul stay, fly to Cappadocia, because it is the sharpest contrast with the city. With two nights there, take the north and south one-day tours back to back. In the southeast, give Mardin and Şanlıurfa a day each instead of one rushed loop. Finally, plan a themed Istanbul day before a flight day, not after it. To string several one-day tours into one route, ask us for a tailor-made trip.