Discovering the Beauty of Turkey in 6 Days: A Comprehensive Itinerary to Uncover the Best of the Country
Do you want to know what to do in 6 days in Turkey? Then stay, because in this post we are going to describe which is, in our opinion, the best itinerary of 6 days in Turkey.
Obviously, visita a country in a week can be stressful and oppressive as you would want to see everything and you have not enough days. In this itinerary of 6 days in Turkey, we have selected what, for us, you must know in a week in the country, divided in 4 days in Istanbul and 2 in the Capadoccia.
The distribution do the visits, specially in Istanbul, can be complicated, so it’s basic to do a smart distribution of the areas by days to save some time when you move from one place to another.
With that being said, let’s go with our daily planning of 6 days in Turkey!
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The first day of this itinerary of 6 days in Turkey, was dedicated to the most touristic area, where many of the must visit places of Istambul, Sultanahmet and Emionu.
In our case, the first day we use to do a free tour to have an idea of the most important historial events of the city. In this tour, we visited the Sultanahmet square, Hagia Sophia Mosque, the Blue Mosque, the external garden of Topkapi palace, the Constantinoplan Hipodrom square and the Constantino column. We did this free tour of Civitatis.
As usual, it’s a guided visit, so you must repeat some of the places you visit in the tour on your own, as they require to spend more time to admire them.
After the tour and having some lunch, we kept our route of must visit in Istanbul in the Sultanahmet and Emionu area. We visited the
Grand Bazaar of Istanbul and the Spices Bazaar. After that, we went to the Rüstem Pasa and Suleymaniye mosque.
To finish our day, we had a quiet walk through the Galata bridge to see the Bosphorus river and have a night view of all the mosques of Sultanahment and Emiounu. We return to our hotel crossing the Atatürk bridge.
Advices
- Buy a transportation card. You can find it in the underground or the kiosks. In our case, we get lost in a area of Istanbul, and we had to buy it in a fuel station for 30 liras each. The approximate price of it is 10 Liras, so don’t let them cheat on you.
- Avoid taking taxis, it’s a big problem in Istanbul. If you decide to take it, force them to activate the taximeter, don’t agree any price as it will always be more expensive than the real one.
- Take always physical money as many places don’t accept credit card (specially Bazaars).
DAY 2: ISTANBUL (GALATA, KARAKÖY, BESIKTAS AND ORKATOY)
Get ready for this second day of this itinerary of 6 days in Turkey as it was really intense. In our case, most of the trips in the city were done by foot, as it’s the best way to discover places and feel the city and country environment and understand how the people is living there.
In this second day, we started going to Galata, to see the famous Galata tower and walk in the area streets. After admiring Galata, we went to the Dolmabahçe palace. On our way to this amazing palace, we saw some interesting streets in Karakoy, a very animated area, where you can sit in one of their many cafes and restaurants.
The Dolmabahçe palace is another of the must visit of Istanbul, You must pay a ticket to go inside, but it is worth it to visit this 1823 palace and the impressive royal events room. It will have you speechless!
The next destiny on this day was Orkatoy. We walked to this part of the city, from which you can observe the photogenic Orkatoy mosque and the busy streets around. You can take the opportunity to taste the famous stuffed potato (you will see many shops selling it). Lots of local Turkish people go to this area to lunch this potato with Bosphorus views.
To finish our day, we did a cruise in the Bosphorus at the sunset. If you have time, we strongly recommend this activity, as you can see in a relaxed way all the surroundings of the city, taking you to key places as Orkatöy mosque, Bosphorus bridge or the Kiz Kulesi. You can do it with an exclusive 50€ tour with all kinds of food and drink or do it in a more economical way from Kabatas port.
Advices
- Rise early to go to Dolmabahçe. If you go at 10 or earlier, you will be able to access with no queue and you can visit the palace calmly. We went at 10 and when we went out at 12, the queue was crazy!
- Go from Galata to Besiktas by foot. You will see lots of interesting streets and curious places.
DAY 3: ISTANBUL (TOPKAPI PALACE AND ASIAN ZONE)
In this third day of this itinerary of 6 days in Turkey, we visited one of the most emblematic places of Istanbul, the Topkapi palace. In This palace is a World Heritage, was built in 1465 and it was the administrative center of the Otoman empire for almost 4 centuries. You have to pay a ticket for the visit, but it is completely worth it. In this visit, you could see different palace rooms, admire the incredible mosaics, see the impressive weapons collection, visit the old kitchens and finish in the Harem, one of the most impressive things.
After spending all the morning visiting the Topkapi palace and having lunch in the same area, we went to the asian part of the city. As you might know, the city has one part in the European continent and the other in the Asian one.
To reach the Asian part, you can take a ship from the Karakoy area or in the subway from Emionu/Sultanahmet to Usküdar Marmaray. In this area, we could walk through the Bosphorus bank, to the place near to Kiz Kulesi, a very photogenic place.
If you still have time, you can walk through Uskudar and Kadikoy, that will show you a less touristic Istanbul and more authentic. In our case, when we went to visit this areas, it started to rain a lot and we didn’t had the chance of knowing that place in detail so we have a reason to go back!
Advices
- Wake up early to go to Topkapi. As we mentioned with Dolmabahçe, the queue are terrible at midday.
- Use the subway to go to the Asian part if you are in Sultanahmet. It’s fast and it leaves you in Uchisar.
DAY 4: ISTANBUL (BALAT, FENER AND EYÜPI)
In our last day in Istanbul, we had to get up early to visit the last area of Istanbul in our itinerary of 6 days in Turkey. The flight departed at night to Cappadocia, so we should start early.
Firstly, we went to Balat and Fener neighborhoods. This is one of the more authentic places of Istanbul. Colorful streets, hanging clothes in the balconies, steep slopes with stone floors, kids playing in the streets, souvenir shops, cafes… It is totally worth it to visit this place in a morning and walk through the streets. In addition, if you like photography, you can take great photos in that place.
After visiting Balat and Fener, we went to the last place of our stay in Istanbul, Eyüp area. Firstly, a curiosity that we didn’t know before our trip. In this area, you can find one of the most important mosques for Islam, the Eyüp Sultan Mosque. Eyup Sultan was a warlord of Mahoma, and as his tomb is there, it has converted into one of the most important places for the religion. We recommend to go into the mosque as you could see all the crowd and the devotion they have.
After crossing this mosque, we visited the Pierre Loti hill. This visit can be done by taking the cableway or by foot (15 min). We recommend to go to the top of the hill as you can have one of the best views of the Bosphorus and have a coffee in the café Pierre Loti.
Finally, we went to the Istanbul airport to take our flight to Cappadocia.
DAY 5: CAPADOCIA (BALLOON FLIGHT AND RED ROUTE VISITS)
You can’t even imagine the excitation we had to discover Cappadocia! This arid region, presents one of the most mysterious and beautiful landscapes we have ever seen. The cave houses and curious structures in chimney shapes make this place a region with a very characteristic mysticism that make you fall in love during your whole stay there. Obviously, this is another of our must visit places in this itinerary of 6 days in Turkey.
In this first day, we woke up at 5 am to fulfill one of our dreams, to make a balloon flight. I guess you already know that sunrise in Cappadocia is one of the more characteristic in the world due to the amount of balloons that are in the sky each morning to give a panoramic view. For us, it was incredible and one of the best experiences we have ever had in our life. The landscape is crazy, and if you are lucky like us and you can see the sun shining, it’s priceless.
After doing our balloon flight of 1 hour and have our breakfast, we went to do a guided visit of the area. Due to our schedule and availability, we did a private tour that, despite it was more expensive, it gave us more freedom. In this tour, we visited the Göreme outdoor museum, the underground city of Kaymakli, Uchisar castle views, and Devrent and Pasabaglari valleys, all in the red route. In addition, we had a pottery demonstration and we could even try ourselves.
To end our day, we went to the hotel to rest and have our dinner and be able to face the next day with energy.
Advices
- You must have cash with you.
- If you have doubts about the Balloon flight, do it. It is a really unforgettable experience and it’s safe. Obviously, there are moments in which you are very high, but the movements are very soft.
- If you want freedom hire a car from the beginning of your stay.
DAY 6: CAPADOCIA (JEEP ROUTE AND BACK TO ISTANBUL)
The last day of our trip was dedicated to do a jeep tour in Cappadocia. We had two options at this point, rent a car or doing the tour. We finally decided to do the second option as it was easier and safer for us. We did a very funny jeep tour that rides you through mysterious and not very accessible places, and it covers part of the red route and the green route. It was a great experience and we could also take photos of some less crowded places, a really nice aspect.
In the afternoon, we decided to visit Göreme and we visited the sunset viewpoint. It has some tables and a bar where you can relax and have some drinks and food while you see the sun falling.
We finally went back to Istanbul to go back to Barcelona in the next day.
Istanbul map
This is our map with the must visit places in Istanbul:
Cappadocia Map
Obviously, in Turkey there are many other places to visit, but if you just have a few days to visit this amazing country, we believe that this itinerary of 6 days in Turkey has all the must visit places you can find. As you can see, it is an intense itinerary and it requires that you can’t stop moving during all the days, but it’s our way of traveling!
If you have any doubts, don’t hesitate on contacting us through comments or in social media!
