How to Travel Turkey in 14 Days (Road Trip Itinerary)

Welcome to Turkey! With beautiful natural wonders like thermal pools of Pamukkale, rainbows of hot air balloons in Cappadocia, turquoise waters of Mediterranean, vibrant and colorful melting pot called Istanbul and so much more, it's no wonder that Turkey is sixth most visited country in the world and a place that should be definitely on your list. My name is Christy and recently I fell in love with Turkey. Let me show you how to travel Turkey in 14 days while sharing my itinerary and all my travel tips. Let's do this! Here is the itinerary to make your planning easier. You can take a screenshot or you can find it down below. The best way to get around Turkey is to rent a car that can be picked up right at the airport. In total your road trip will be around 3 000 kilometers long. Yep, Turkey is a big country. You will be most likely landing in Istanbul either on European or Asian side. As a first-time visitor you will probably spend most of the time on European side so I recommend to stay around the Galata Tower. Places you should absolutely visit while staying in Istanbul are definitely the Galata Tower, Istiklal Street, Taksim Square, Grand Bazaar, Spice Market, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia Mosque, Topkapi Palace. Don't forget to take the Bosporus Cruise where Asia and Europe meet. Food that you absolutely have to try is the famous Iskender Kebap and the Founder's Restaurant and also the famous San Sebastian Cheesecake at the Yana Kahvesi by the Galata Tower. We are now going to move on from Istanbul but don't worry we will be back our last day to explore the Asian side. We are going to start our road trip by going to Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey with a beautiful seaside. But before checking into our accommodation in Izmir we are going to do a little detour to Cesme. It's such a beautiful neighborhood. There are beautiful beautiful streets and beautiful houses. I feel like I'm in Malibu or in LA in front of Venice beach. It's amazing. The beaches here are just perfect. Stunning blue water, white sand. We just had the best swim. We just arrived to Izmir and I must say that it's way less busy than Istanbul was which is kind of nice. And now we're heading for dinner. Good morning. We just spent the night in Izmir and now we are all packed and we are moving to Ephesus which is going to be one hour long drive. Ephesus used to be one of the most important ancient Greek cities and right now it's UNESCO world heritage and we are going to explore its well-preserved ruins. The Asian city is very cool, it's very beautiful but it's so hot here and we had a lovely morning and I kind of regret it. If I could do it all over again I would just get up early in the morning, come here, the temperature wouldn't be so high and there wouldn't be that many people. So a tip for you. And right here we have the ancient temple of Artemis which is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Right now it's only a column left and there are four storks that have a nest on the column of the temple. Only 15 minutes away from Ephesus is a little town called and there are very little cute restaurants, shops, streets and we just had a lunch here and we had the best time. Definitely don't miss this place. And the last thing for today is to move on to Pamukkale which is going to be two and a half hours long drive. Pamukkale is one of my favorite places in Turkey. Good morning, it's 7 a.m and today we are doing something that I'm super excited about. Pamukkale literally means cotton castles and it's so white because of the calcium that is contained in the water. Pamukkale was so much fun. Some of the pools were artificial, some of the pools are natural and I recommend coming here early in the morning to avoid the crowds and also when the temperature is pleasant. The next destination from Pamukkale is Fethiye and it's about three hours long drive. We're gonna do something crazy today. I am so excited and super scared, terrified at the same time. I don't know why we are doing this but too late to say no and we are safely back on earth. The flight was absolutely breathtaking and I think this is one of the best places you can do this because just flying above the blue lagoon is so beautiful. Once we took off I felt very safe and my pilot Attila was the best. After watching the blue lagoon from the top we will go swim in there. Good morning, it's our day two in Fethiye and today we are going canyoning and after that we will go check out the turtle beach. The water is freezing, so cold. We are here almost alone, this is unbelievable. The waterfall is the best advice you get if you last till the end. On the way there we had this completely for ourselves and this is two hours later. After three beautiful days spent in Fethiye we will now move on to Antalya. This is going to be drive long two hours 45 minutes. Welcome to Antalya! So far the city has made an incredible first impression. Have you ever seen a waterfall that goes straight to the ocean? From Antalya you can take a day trip to one of the most beautiful places in Mediterranean that I have seen. You will go by a double-decker boat and sail to this one-of-a-kind island. We just arrived in the most beautiful island of Sulawada which is also called the Maldives of Turkey and you can see why. There are so many tourists on the other side of the island but we managed to find a little cute beach that we had for ourselves. In the middle of the day a fresh fish will be served for lunch with the best view. You will then move on to another beach. Today we are going to spend the day at Mermerbe beach. It's one of the best rated beaches here in Antalya. It's very close to the old town so this location is perfect. We came here at eight in the morning to take sunbeds and umbrellas. If you want the best views, you want to be in the front, come early. After spending the whole day at the beach we are now hitting the streets of Antalya. You can see that tourism took all over the place but the old town is super cute. You cannot enter here by car only if you have a hotel here. We are right now in front of Hadrian's Gate which was built as a tribute to Roman Emperor Hadrian. It's the only remaining entrance to the wall that used to surround the whole city. If you find yourself here in Antalya, I recommend to stay here in the old town center because your experience will be completely different. Tonight we decided to have some seafood so we went to a restaurant called Ayar Mayhanesi and we are starting the night with Atom which became my favorite appetizer. It's a Turkish yogurt with some Turkish pepper and also some garlic and olive oil. I absolutely love it. As someone coming from a country without sea, I really appreciate fresh sea. What I love about Turkish dining is that in the end you always get their typical Turkish flag. We have a visitor. How do you know that you are in Turkey? Today we are moving on from Antalya to Cappadocia and this is actually going to be the longest drive. The trip is going to be seven hours. We are super excited. It's been on our bucket list for a long time. Cappadocia is one of the best places in the world to be explored from a hot air balloon. Make sure to stay here at least for three days because hot air balloons might not take off due to the weather conditions. Good morning. It's 4 a.m and hot air balloons are ready for us. We have a champagne party at six in the morning. Besides the hot air balloon ride, make sure to explore Uchisar castle, which used to be the main point of defense for the Cappadocia region. We've made it to the top. Okay, it wasn't that hard. It was just a couple of stairs, but there are beautiful panoramic views. Next thing on the list is the love valley, which earned its name because of the penis-shaped fairy chimney formations. And our next stop is different valley, which is also called the imagination valley and that's because of all these rocks that have different shapes. So it's up to your imagination if you see an animal or any other figure in them. And my favorite viewpoint can be found in the red valley with red colored fairy chimneys spread through the valley. A great way to explore some of these places is from the back of a horse. During your stay in Cappadocia, you should visit at least one underground city, which were built to protect people from foreign invasion, allowing thousands of people to live in total secrecy. This is so small, but so exciting. Always when you see your home, just go in. That's the rule here. Also, you shouldn't miss the Goreme open air museum, a UNESCO world heritage site with beautiful churches from the 10th century cut into the volcanic rock with stunning wall paintings. Our bags are packed and we are heading to Ankara, to the capital of Turkey. In Ankara, you should definitely visit Anitkabir, which is the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the leader of the Turkish war of independence and the founder and the first president of the Republic of Turkey. You can watch the change of guards that are selected from volunteers of the units of Turkey's land, air and naval forces. We are right now on the top of Ankara's castle, which is one of the most important monuments here in Ankara and there is absolutely beautiful panoramic view all over the city. Once you enter the gates of this castle, you will see so many huge little streets and shops so you can just wander around. The last drive of this road trip is going to be back to Istanbul to catch your flight back home. Before heading to the airport, I recommend to stay one night on the Asian side of Istanbul. The Asian side of Istanbul is less populated, less crowded, it's calmer. Some of the places you should definitely visit is Baghdad street, the vibing seaside and my favorite Morda district. Right now we are at the airport and this is it for our Turkey adventure. Turkey was wonderful, thank you for having us. It was absolutely amazing and epic trip. If you guys did enjoy this video, I'm also gonna be sharing one more regarding Cappadocia, so stay tuned and hit the subscribe button. See you in the next video!