The turkey and greek islands tour spans eleven days and two countries: it starts in Istanbul, follows the Turkish Aegean coast to Kusadasi, then crosses by sea to Samos and island-hops through Paros and Mykonos to Athens. It sits beside the tours in Greece that already run on this site, and it adds the one leg those plans lack, the sea crossing between the two coasts.
The page covers the route, the season and the crossing, then Istanbul, the Gallipoli peninsula, Troy and Canakkale, Pergamon, Ephesus and Kusadasi, Samos, the sea leg to Paros, Paros itself, Mykonos, the final leg to Athens, the Athens stops and the free day, and it points to the greece and turkey tour packages that cover both countries in other shapes, the mykonos paros santorini tour for the Cyclades side and the 11 day turkey tour that stays on Turkish soil.
What is the turkey and greek islands tour, and how does the route run?
Eleven days, from Istanbul to Athens, make up the turkey and greek islands tour. It runs south along the Turkish Aegean coast and crosses the sea from Kusadasi to Samos on day six. Ferries then carry it through Paros and Mykonos.
The plan has three parts. Days one to five stay on the Turkish mainland, from Istanbul to Ephesus. Days six to nine run through the islands, and days ten and eleven belong to Athens. This gives the turkey and greek islands tour a clear beat: ruins first, then the sea. The days run in this order:
- Istanbul arrival and welcome evening
- Topkapi, Blue Mosque, Hippodrome, Grand Bazaar
- Gallipoli, then Canakkale for the night
- Troy and Pergamon, night in Kusadasi
- Ephesus, then the Virgin Mary’s house
- Ferry from Kusadasi to Samos
- Samos, then the ferry to Paros
- Paros, then the afternoon ferry to Mykonos
- Mykonos, then the ferry to Athens
- A free day in Athens
- The plan ends after breakfast
The turn from land to sea comes on day six, where the road meets the water. Wikipedia notes that in ancient times the sea was an easier road than the rough ground of the Greek mainland. In part, the same holds for the Anatolian coast. After Ephesus, the turkey and greek islands tour follows that logic and takes a boat.
The three islands belong to two worlds. Samos lies close to the Turkish coast. Wikivoyage places Paros in the Cyclades, and Wikipedia lists Mykonos in the same group. So the turkey and greek islands tour moves from an island by the mainland to a group of its own. Each stop is reached by a separate sea leg.
The route also follows the water from north to south. According to Wikipedia, the Dardanelles link the Aegean to the Sea of Marmara. The Bosphorus then links that sea to the Black Sea. Istanbul lies on the Bosphorus. The turkey and greek islands tour starts at one strait and crosses the other on day three.
Free time grows as the days pass. Samos gets a free day on day six, and the evenings on Paros and Mykonos stay open. The last full day in Athens has no fixed plan at all. So the turkey and greek islands tour opens with a firm list of sites and ends with room to choose.
Which season suits the turkey and greek islands tour?
Two periods fit the turkey and greek islands tour: late spring, then early autumn. Istanbul is pleasant in both, as Wikivoyage states. Wikipedia describes Kusadasi and Samos as hot and dry in summer, then mild and rainy in winter. So the calmer weeks around the heat suit the ruins and the sea together.
Spring is mild in the northern cities. Wikivoyage says Istanbul turns pleasantly warm in late spring, with less rain than in winter. Nights stay a little chilly, and a shower cannot be ruled out. Canakkale is mild too. The turkey and greek islands tour spends its first three days in those two places.
Summer brings the heat. Wikipedia calls the summers at Kusadasi very hot and dry. It names July as the hottest and driest month on Samos, with August next. Wikivoyage puts summer highs at Canakkale around 30 degrees Celsius. A July start for the turkey and greek islands tour needs early mornings on the ruins.
A dry north wind, the meltemi, crosses this sea each summer. Wikipedia links it to low pressure reaching the Eastern Mediterranean, and no opposite wind returns in winter. At force 7 or 8, Wikipedia adds, ferries between the islands are among the craft that stay in port. Sea days on the turkey and greek islands tour feel it.
Early autumn repeats the calm of spring. Wikivoyage rates the end of September and the start of October as pleasant in Istanbul. On Samos, Wikipedia reports that humidity peaks at the end of autumn, and that December has the highest rainfall. So early autumn suits the turkey and greek islands tour better than the late weeks.
Winter is the weaker fit. Wikivoyage gives Istanbul winter days around 8 degrees Celsius and Canakkale winter highs just below 10. It adds that the Lodos windstorms tend to cancel ferries at Canakkale. Check the sailing lists before you pick a winter date for the turkey and greek islands tour.
How does the turkey and greek islands tour cross from Turkey to Greece?
On day six, a short ferry from Kusadasi to Samos takes the turkey and greek islands tour across the Aegean. Wikipedia places Samos about 16 km offshore. Wikivoyage calls the island an easy day trip from the Turkish port, with daily ferries for foot passengers only.
Wikipedia lists more than one origin for the name Aegean. One is a Greek phrase meaning that land is always in sight. The thought fits this crossing. The shore and the island stay close. The turkey and greek islands tour makes a short hop, not a long voyage.
The plan puts the ferry in the morning and leaves the rest of day six free. Wikivoyage says the ferries carry no cars. So the road part of the Turkish days ends at the quay in Kusadasi. The traveller steps aboard on foot, with the bags in hand. The turkey and greek islands tour goes on by sea.
The ferry leaves a gulf and enters open water. Wikipedia names the Gulf of Kusadasi among the gulfs of the Turkish Aegean coast, beside the Gulf of Izmir. Beyond it lies the strip of sea that divides the coast from Samos. The turkey and greek islands tour crosses that strip in one short sailing.
Day six moves the traveller from Turkey into Greece, so a passport check follows. Pack the passport where a hand can reach it. Wikivoyage lists Samos as an EU island within the Schengen Area. For entry rules, read the travel pages of your own government. Do this check before the turkey and greek islands tour starts.
Wikipedia and Wikivoyage both list daily ferries to the island. Sailing days and times differ by season, so check the current timetable before the sea day. The plan then needs only the early start. Once the ferry docks, the plan turns to its island days, beginning with Samos.
What does Istanbul add to the turkey and greek islands tour?
The turkey and greek islands tour starts in Istanbul, which Wikivoyage says antiquity lauded as the second Rome. Day one is for arrival and a welcome evening. Day two covers Topkapi Palace and its Treasury, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome and free time in the Grand Bazaar.
From the first night, the turkey and greek islands tour points west. Wikivoyage translates the Turkish name of the Bosphorus as the strait of Istanbul. It calls the strait the dividing line between Europe and Asia. The old city, with every site of day two, lies on the western bank. Each later stop lies closer to the Aegean.
Topkapi Palace began as a project of Sultan Mehmed II. The historian Critobulus wrote that the sultan summoned masons, stonecutters and carpenters from everywhere. Silence ruled the inner courtyards, and grilled windows and secret passages kept the sultan’s family private. In the Treasury, called hazine, the turkey and greek islands tour finds the Topkapi Dagger beside the Spoonmaker’s Diamond.
After the Peace of Zsitvatorok, Sultan Ahmed I resolved to raise a great mosque in the city. Scholars of Islamic law protested the use of treasury funds. In time its grandeur and public ceremonies swayed opinion. The mosque also names the Sultanahmet district around it. The turkey and greek islands tour stops here on day two.
The Hippodrome was the chariot-racing arena and meeting place of Constantinople, and it is a square today. Four gilded copper horses once stood above its starting gates. The Fourth Crusade carried them off, and they now stand on the facade of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice. The turkey and greek islands tour visits a place whose horses already went west.
The Grand Bazaar grew from a bedesten, a word from the Persian bezestan meaning a bazaar of cloth sellers. The Sandal Bedesten lay north of the first and took its name from a Bursa thread. The old book market later moved near the Beyazid Mosque. The turkey and greek islands tour leaves free time here on day two.
What does the Gallipoli peninsula add to the turkey and greek islands tour?
Day three of the turkey and greek islands tour takes place on the Gallipoli peninsula, inside a historical national park. The park protects battlefields, cemeteries and memorials on the European shore of the Dardanelles. To the west the land meets the Aegean Sea, and to the east it meets the strait.
In antiquity the peninsula sat on the route between Europe and Asia. Sestos was the main crossing point on the Hellespont. A strong earthquake struck the town of Gallipoli one March night in the fourteenth century. Within a month Ottoman forces captured it as their first stronghold in Europe. The plan crosses ground with a long record.
A forest fire near Anzac Cove led the government to list the peninsula’s natural and cultural resources. Planners from a Turkish university then argued for a Peace Park, with gentler building. A design competition followed, but the winning project was never completed. So the park that the route crosses is shaped by long planning.
Anzac Cove comes first on day three, a small cove between two headlands. Turkey’s government officially recognised that name in the nineteen-eighties. Two cemeteries stand at the ends of the cove, Ariburnu Cemetery and Beach Cemetery. A coast road from Kabatepe to Suvla now runs beside the sand. The turkey and greek islands tour then moves inland.
On a plateau inside the old beachhead, Lone Pine serves as the principal commemoration site and cemetery for Australians. Johnston’s Jolly lies north of it, on the old Ottoman line. The Nek is a narrow saddle. Chunuk Bair is a ridge with an Anzac memorial and a cemetery called The Farm. The turkey and greek islands tour keeps that order.
Kabatepe is a headland on the Aegean coast, where an Ottoman gun battery once stood. Within the park boundaries, the Kabatepe Museum commemorates the campaign. Its cases hold weapons, uniforms and photographs. Letters home from the front lie beside private items such as shaving tools and leather flasks. The turkey and greek islands tour adds the museum on day three.
What do Troy and Canakkale add to the turkey and greek islands tour?
Canakkale gives the turkey and greek islands tour its night stop, a seaport where the Dardanelles are narrowest. Wikipedia states that trips to the Troy ruins and the Gallipoli war cemeteries start from the town. Troy lies in the same province and opens day four, with nine layers of ruined cities.
A short ferry crossing links the Gallipoli peninsula with Canakkale. Wikivoyage lists two ferry routes, a 25-minute sailing from Eceabat and a 15-minute one from Kilitbahir. Kilitbahir Castle was built together with Cimenlik Castle across the strait, and visitors can enter it. The turkey and greek islands tour crosses after the Gallipoli day and sleeps in Canakkale.
A cannon from the First World War guards the boulevard by the ferry pier. The waterfront promenade is the evening spot, with cafes facing the strait. In summer a ferry runs to Gokceada, an inhabited island in the Aegean that is part of Turkey. The turkey and greek islands tour sleeps in a port with its own island link.
Troy stands on the hill of Hisarlik, near Canakkale. Archaeologists number the nine layers in Roman numerals, with Troy I the oldest and Troy IX the youngest. The last two layers were Greek and Roman cities that served as visitor attractions and religious centres. So the turkey and greek islands tour follows a very old visitor route.
The Iliad tells the story of the last year of the Trojan War. A later Greek epic by Quintus of Smyrna covers the fall of the city and the wooden horse. The Roman poet Virgil then elaborated the legend in the Aeneid. The turkey and greek islands tour meets the legend on the ground where it is set.
Early modern travellers wrongly placed Troy at Alexandria Troas, a ruined town about 20 kilometres south of Hisarlik. Later a French scholar favoured a mound at Pinarbasi, about 5 kilometres south of Hisarlik. Scholars favoured that mound for almost a century. Excavations at Hisarlik began in the nineteenth century. UNESCO lists the ruins that the plan visits.
What does Pergamon add to the turkey and greek islands tour?
Pergamon hands the turkey and greek islands tour a royal capital on a hill, on day four, straight after Troy. A myth links the two places. The hero Pergamus, who gave the city its name, was said to be a grandson of Achilles.
The tale says Pergamus fled to Mysia with his mother Andromache. There he killed Teuthrania’s ruler and named the city after himself. These myths are late, and sources do not record them before the third century BC. One Trojan story thus runs through the turkey and greek islands tour, from Troy to Pergamon.
Pergamon first appears in literary sources in the Anabasis of Xenophon. His march of the Ten Thousand ended there about 400 BC, and Hellas, the widow of Gongylos, hosted him. A coin type linked to Gongylos, from about 450 BC, carries the earliest evidence of the city’s name.
Eumenes II and his brother Attalus II took Pergamon to its peak. The two lived without rivalry or intrigue, a rare family bond among Hellenistic dynasties. Attalus II took the title Philadelphos, meaning he who loves his brother. The turkey and greek islands tour therefore climbs a hill with a family story.
The upper agora was redesigned to look up at two showpieces, the sanctuary of Athena and the altar. The altar stood on its terrace, visible from below. The designers had left out the usual stoa around it. Further down, a gymnasium rose in three terraces, and the upper one measured 150 by 70 metres.
Dionysus became the chief god of the Attalid dynasty in the last third of the third century BC. Eumenes II probably gave him a marble temple in the second century BC. A staircase of twenty-five steps leads up to its porch. On the turkey and greek islands tour, the standing temple is largely a Roman rebuild, probably under Caracalla.
The Asclepieion grew into a lavish spa in Roman times. Its main temple honoured a joined god, Zeus Asclepius Soter, whose last name means saviour. A donor named Rufinus built it. The sanctuary also held a library and an underground passage. From here the turkey and greek islands tour drives on to Kusadasi for the night.
What do Ephesus and Kusadasi add to the turkey and greek islands tour?
Kusadasi and Ephesus fill days four and five of the turkey and greek islands tour. The resort town has little ancient stone of its own. Wikivoyage places Ephesus 15 km north-east of it and calls the trip easy. The harbour of Kusadasi also starts the ferry to Samos.
Kusadasi is a beach resort in central Aegean Turkey, and the turkey and greek islands tour spends two nights here. Its big growth began in the nineteen seventies, once the Aegean coast lay within a non-stop flight of northern Europe. The town now sprawls along 25 km of shore, says Wikivoyage.
Ephesus moved once. Silt from the Cayster river turned the old harbour into marsh. King Lysimachus then moved the people about 2 kilometres to a new site. He named it Arsinoea for his second wife. Day five of the turkey and greek islands tour walks the city on that second site.
The Temple of Artemis gave Ephesus the title Servant of the Goddess. According to legend, a man named Herostratus burned it down in 356 BC. After years of searching, John Turtle Wood found the temple’s pavement in the nineteenth century. The turkey and greek islands tour passes that site near Selcuk.
Behind the Library of Celsus facade, wall niches held the scrolls. Wikipedia suggests that the double walls behind them helped control humidity. On the turkey and greek islands tour, only the facade stands again, rebuilt from fragments in the twentieth century. A later Aegean earthquake tested it, and it performed well.
The Temple of Hadrian goes back to the second century and was repaired in the fourth. Its upper reliefs are copies. The Ephesus Archaeological Museum shows the originals. About AD 150, Publius Vedius Antoninus and his wife raised the Odeon. On the turkey and greek islands tour, the Great Theatre began with drama before gladiator fights were added.
The House of the Virgin Mary belongs to a tradition of Ephesus that dates from the twelfth century. The nineteenth-century find of a small stone building revived that tradition. Water is said to have run through the smaller room where Mary rested, and a drinking fountain stands outside. The turkey and greek islands tour then returns to Kusadasi.
What does Samos add to the turkey and greek islands tour?
Samos adds the first Greek island to the turkey and greek islands tour on day six. The Mycale Strait, less than 2 km wide, separates it from the Dilek Peninsula of Turkey. UNESCO lists its ancient town and the Heraion together as one World Heritage Site.
Samos reached its peak about 535 BC, when the tyrant Polycrates took power. His navy ruled supreme in Aegean waters. Its sculptors, metal-workers and engineers earned high repute. The Samians are credited as the first Greeks to reach the Strait of Gibraltar. That sea story opens day six on the turkey and greek islands tour.
Pythagoreio stands on the ancient city of Samos, and ruins of that city are built into modern houses. The older name of the town, Tigani, came from the Italian word dogana, which means customs. A renaming in the mid-twentieth century honoured Pythagoras, the philosopher born there about 580 BC. At the harbour, a statue shows him.
The Heraion lies about 6 km south-west of Pythagoreio, near where the Imbrasos river meets the sea. A long, narrow hall of mudbrick from the eighth century BC was its first temple. The architects Rhoikos and Theodoros later built a vast temple, the first of the huge Ionian temples. It stood only about a decade.
The Great Temple that followed was never wholly finished. Strabo, writing at the start of the first century AD, called the Heraion a picture gallery. Worship of Hera ended in AD 391. Byzantine builders used the temple as a quarry, taking it down to its foundations. A single column shaft survived, apparently as a navigation point for ships.
Mount Kastro hides a water tunnel 1,036 metres long, generally 1.8 metres wide and high. Its job was to bring fresh water to ancient Samos. Underground, the aqueduct was hard for enemies to find and cut off. The engineer Eupalinos of Megara led two teams, one at each end. It is the second known tunnel dug that way.
The spring behind the tunnel lay under a covered reservoir held up by fifteen stone pillars. Water ran in a terracotta pipe of around 5,000 sections. The top quarter of each section was cut open to clear mud. Parts of the tunnel are open, so it suits a free day on the turkey and greek islands tour.
How does the turkey and greek islands tour reach Paros?
Day seven brings the turkey and greek islands tour to Paros by ferry, and the evening there is free. The crossing moves from one administrative region to another. On Wikipedia’s map, Samos belongs to the North Aegean. Paros belongs to the South Aegean, so the sea leg also crosses a regional line.
A ferry leaves Samos from one of three ports. Wikivoyage names Vathy, also called Samos, plus Karlovassi and Pythagoreio. Samos covers 477.4 square kilometres in Wikipedia’s infobox, more than twice the 196.3 of Paros. Day seven carries the turkey and greek islands tour away from it.
The sea leg runs west and a little south, judging by the coordinates in Wikipedia. Hydrofoils for the Dodecanese also leave Samos, from Vathy and Pythagoreio. Wikivoyage counts Samos among the East Aegean Islands, while Paros belongs to the Cyclades. This puts the turkey and greek islands tour across two island groups.
Wikivoyage lists Naxos, Ios, Sifnos and Syros as the neighbours of Paros, which sits mid-group in the Cyclades. A narrow channel separates it from Naxos, and Piraeus is about 150 kilometres away, says Wikipedia. Wikivoyage adds that the majority of boats to Naxos and Santorini stop at Paros first, so sea routes meet here.
Parikia, on the north-west coast, is the main port of Paros. Ferries and catamarans of the Aegean meet at its harbour, which Wikipedia describes as a major hub. Daily sailings run to Piraeus and Heraklion, and to Naxos, Ios, Mykonos and Santorini. Mykonos on that list is the next stop after Paros, in the turkey and greek islands tour.
A sea day also teaches a word. Wikipedia’s Aegean Islands page notes that Archipelago began as the ancient Greek name for the Aegean Sea. It was later applied to the islands inside the sea, and it now names any island group. That word becomes real on day seven of this turkey and greek islands tour.
After landing, the evening is free. Wikivoyage recommends walking within the resorts of Paros, and it adds that buses link the towns. So the free evening suits a slow walk. Nothing else is booked that evening in the turkey and greek islands tour.
What does Paros add to the turkey and greek islands tour?
Paros offers the turkey and greek islands tour an island of ancient marble. According to Wikipedia, exports of Parian marble began in the sixth century BC. Praxiteles was among the sculptors who used it. The celebrated quarries are on the north flank of the mountain once called Marathi.
The old quarries went underground. Wikipedia describes tunnels driven into the rock, level or sloping down. Workers cut the marble by lamplight, so it was named Lychnites, after the Greek word for a lamp. Tunnels from that work survive, and one entrance carries a relief carving for Pan and the nymphs.
Wikipedia’s marble page lists the Venus de Milo among the masterpieces carved from Parian stone. A caption on the Paros page says its marble is believed to come from a quarry there. The turkey and greek islands tour lands on the island that gave the stone.
Parikia keeps old stone in plain sight. Wikipedia describes a medieval castle above the seafront road. Its walls reuse, almost entirely, the marble of a temple that once honoured Apollo. The remains of a temple of Asclepius lie on a hillside south of town. Traces of an ancient cemetery show near the modern harbour.
The Archaeological Museum of Paros is small, yet notable. It keeps a piece of the Parian Chronicle, a timeline of ancient Greece cut into marble. Each entry counts the years between key events, running from a far distant past to 264 BC. Marble keeps the record that this turkey and greek islands tour touches on day eight.
Wikipedia puts Panagia Ekatontapiliani 400 metres to the left of Parikia’s main square. Its name translates as the church with 100 gates. Naoussa, on the north coast, has a spacious natural harbour, and a chain or boom once closed its bay. Paros gets an evening and part of a day on the plan.
Lefkes is a mountain village inland, 10 kilometres from Parikia. In the late nineteenth century it led the municipality of Iria, which took an ancient name of Paros. At Aliki, Wikivoyage says, an ancient town lies under the water, and divers can look at its ruins. Stone and sea fill the Paros stop of this turkey and greek islands tour.
What does Mykonos add to the turkey and greek islands tour?
Mykonos adds windmills, an old waterfront and a working lighthouse to this turkey and greek islands tour. The plan reaches the island on day eight by an afternoon ferry from Paros. The evening that follows is free. Wikipedia places Chora, the island’s main town, along the west coast. Chora is simply the Greek word for town.
Wikivoyage notes that Paros has boats to Mykonos twice a day or more. Mykonos has two ports: the old one in town and a new one at Tourlos, 2 kilometres north. The new port serves the majority of ferries, and fast catamarans use the old port. Read the port on the ticket first.
The windmills stand on a hill above the harbour of Alefkandra. Wikipedia calls them the first thing seen when a boat comes in. Wikivoyage dates them from the sixteenth century, and Wikipedia says they mainly milled wheat. For this turkey and greek islands tour, the hill is a landmark, not a working mill.
Little Venice lies in the western part of town. Wikivoyage describes medieval houses of two and three floors with colourful wooden balconies, lined up along the shore. Stairs lead down to it from the windmills. The free evening of day eight suits this walk in the turkey and greek islands tour.
Out at Fanari, 6.5 kilometres beyond Chora, the Armenistis Lighthouse still works as a lighthouse. Fanari is the Greek word for lantern. Wikipedia presents the light as a reminder of seafaring on Mykonos. Moving by boat, the turkey and greek islands tour joins that sea story.
Delos lies only 2 kilometres away, according to Wikipedia. UNESCO cites Callimachus, who named Delos the holiest of all islands in the third century BC. In legend, Apollo and Artemis were born there. The turkey and greek islands tour keeps to Mykonos itself, so Delos is a reason to come back.
UNESCO states that Delos has been uninhabited since the seventh century AD. No village or town was built over its ruins, and the site covers the entire island. Staff houses, the museum and a refectory are the only new buildings. Wikivoyage calls Mykonos Town crowded, so both extremes sit within the turkey and greek islands tour.
How does the turkey and greek islands tour reach Athens?
The turkey and greek islands tour reaches Athens by sea on day nine. The ferry leaves Mykonos for the port of the capital. The island is dry, with water only in winter streams, and the capital lies across the sea to the west. The sea leg closes the island chain of the plan.
A traveller on the turkey and greek islands tour checks which harbour the boat uses, because Mykonos has two. Wikivoyage places the old port close to the centre, so travellers reach it on foot. Tourlos, the newer harbour, sits two kilometres out, and the larger ferries call there.
Athens has two main sea gates to the Cyclades. The turkey and greek islands tour ends its ferry leg at one of them. Piraeus holds the largest harbour in Greece. Rafina lies north-east of the Mesogaia plain, 25 kilometres from the city. It ranks as the second port of Athens, behind Piraeus.
Sea time depends on the boat. Wikivoyage lists the Piraeus run from 3 hours 30 minutes to 5 hours 15 minutes. A crossing to Rafina starts at 2 hours 10 minutes and tops out at 5 hours 30 minutes. For the turkey and greek islands tour, the crossing fills part of day nine. Timetables change, so check the official page.
Ferry lines run from the central harbour of Piraeus to almost all the islands of eastern Greece. A metro station and a suburban railway station both stand beside the seaport. Themistocles began fortification works at Piraeus. Long walls once tied ancient Athens to this harbour and secured the route between them.
On day nine the sea leg ends at the Athens port, and a transfer leads to the hotel. The turkey and greek islands tour then holds one evening in the capital and a whole free day to follow. The plan sets no visit for the evening, so a traveller can rest after the crossing.
What does Athens add to the turkey and greek islands tour?
Athens adds the ancient and the modern capital to the turkey and greek islands tour. Its recorded past reaches back more than 3,400 years, according to Wikipedia. The plan closes there with one evening, one free day and a last morning.
In its classical age, Athens ranked among the strongest city-states of the ancient Greek world. Its later chapter began after Greek independence, when Athens replaced Nafplio as the capital. King Otto of Bavaria then asked architects to draw a modern city plan, and neoclassicism set the style. The turkey and greek islands tour meets both eras in one city.
The Acropolis is a rock with a level summit of about 3 hectares, standing 150 metres above the sea. Mnesicles began its gateway, the Propylaia, in 437 BC. Restorers worked on 2,675 tons of architectural members. They added new Pentelic marble, 530 cubic metres in all.
The Parthenon was dedicated to the goddess Athena. Building began in 447 BC and was substantially complete by 432 BC. The temple held 92 metopes. Each short side held 14, and each long side held 32. The turkey and greek islands tour leaves day ten free for a climb to the temple.
Between the Parthenon and the Acropolis Museum lie 280 metres. An earlier museum stood on the rock and was finished in the nineteenth century. The newer museum received the Keck Award for its conservation and restoration of the Caryatids. A traveller on the turkey and greek islands tour can see the finds first and the rock after.
From the rock, the Ancient Agora lies to the northwest. People first used it to trade, to assemble and to live. The dig ranks among the largest archaeological projects in Greece. The financier John D. Rockefeller Jr. largely funded the work. The turkey and greek islands tour can spend part of the free day here.
What does the free day in Athens add to the turkey and greek islands tour?
The free day in Athens adds a loose last day to the turkey and greek islands tour. Old districts, a hill and a marble stadium all lie inside one city. A traveller chooses what fits the day and walks between them.
Plaka is the old quarter of Athens, with labyrinthine streets and neoclassical architecture. Athenians once knew the area by other names, among them Alikokkou, Kontito and Kandili. The district stands on top of the homes of the ancient town. It lies between Syntagma and Monastiraki squares, so the turkey and greek islands tour gains a loose walk.
In the old town, Monastiraki is known for its flea market. The district takes its name from the square. The Church of the Pantanassa stands inside it and lends a name that means little monastery. Two metro lines, the first and the third, meet at the square.
The National Archaeological Museum opens onto Patission Street, and its neighbourhood is Exarcheia. Ludwig Lange drew the first plan of the neo-classical building. Its prehistoric rooms include Cycladic finds, and Paros and Mykonos both belong to the Cyclades. The turkey and greek islands tour can give one morning to this link.
Lycabettus is a hill of limestone from the Cretaceous period. Its summit reaches 277 metres above sea level. Below the hill on its east side lies a residential area with the same name. A funicular railway starts in Kolonaki, at a station on Aristippou Street. The theatre near the top reopened after being closed for 15 years.
The Panathenaic Stadium has marble from top to bottom. Wikipedia names it the single stadium in the world built wholly of marble. Herodes Atticus replaced an older stadium with a marble one by AD 144, with room for 50,000 seats. The Athens Classic Marathon ends here. The turkey and greek islands tour can add it to the free day.
For a longer outing, the Athens Riviera is a coastal strip of the southern suburbs. The strip measures about 70 kilometres, with Piraeus at one end and Sounio and Lavrio at the other. A free day on the turkey and greek islands tour fits one outing or a slow walk. The plan ends after breakfast on day eleven.
What else do travellers ask about the turkey and greek islands tour?
Does the turkey and greek islands tour need a passport for both countries?
Yes, the turkey and greek islands tour crosses a border at sea on day six, so the passport stays close. The ferry leaves Kusadasi in Turkey and lands on Samos in Greece. The travel pages that your own state publishes list the entry rules for your passport.
Wikivoyage Greece adds that a ferry operator can ask for identity before boarding, even between two Schengen countries. On Samos, Wikivoyage places the customs controls at the eastern harbour of Vathy, the dock for Turkish boats. Have the document ready at both ends of the crossing, at the quay and on arrival.
Wikivoyage Greece lists four sea links from Turkey: Marmaris to Rhodes, Cesme to Chios, Bodrum to Kos, Kusadasi to Samos. The hop of the turkey and greek islands tour is the one that ends that list. Carry the passport in a day bag, never buried in the suitcase.
Do the clocks change when the turkey and greek islands tour crosses the Aegean?
In the colder months, the turkey and greek islands tour sets the watch back one hour on day six. Wikipedia gives Turkey the clock UTC+03:00 all year. Greece keeps UTC+02:00 as its standard time. It moves one hour ahead during daylight saving, from late March to late October.
In summer the two countries show the same hour, so nothing changes at the quay. Wikipedia notes that Turkey Time matches Eastern European Summer Time from March to October. A watch set by hand needs one turn on the winter morning of the crossing.
Old Turkish time worked in a different way. Wikipedia states that it set the clocks to twelve at sunset, so they needed a change every day. A postcard from Istanbul shows two clocks, one in each style. Today the turkey and greek islands tour needs only one check of the hour, on day six.
How does luggage work on a ferry day of the turkey and greek islands tour?
Four days of the turkey and greek islands tour include a ferry, so light bags help on each of them. Wikivoyage says the Kusadasi boats carry foot passengers only, so there is no car to hold the bags. A small day bag keeps the papers and a warm layer close.
The walks at the other end add weight. Wikivoyage Mykonos puts the new port around 45 minutes on foot from town, along a busy road without a sidewalk. Wikivoyage Samos puts the two docks of Vathy 3 km apart, about half an hour on foot. Check which dock your boat uses.
Quays are busy places. Wikivoyage Paros calls the ferry landing manic, with dozens of room-hawkers, people who offer rooms to new arrivals. Wikivoyage Greece says Greek ferries leave on time, so be prompt. A light bag makes every quay of the turkey and greek islands tour easier.
What does seasickness mean on the ferry days of the turkey and greek islands tour?
Seasickness comes from a clash between expected and actual motion. The ferry days of the turkey and greek islands tour can bring it on. Loss of appetite and extra saliva join the nausea and cold sweat that Wikipedia lists.
Wikipedia adds that a look at the sea does not calm the eyes. Waves give them nothing steady to judge. In a cabin without portholes, the inner ear feels motion while the eyes see none. Seasickness is much like carsickness, which a book or a small screen can bring on. Keeping the head still helps.
Wikipedia puts the peak of the problem between ages seven and twelve, while children under two do not feel it. It names poor sleep and alcohol among the things that make it worse. Wikivoyage Mykonos calls the Cyclades notoriously choppy, yet weather cancellations are very rare in summer. Medicine is a question for a doctor or pharmacist.
What do the Turkish lira and the euro mean for the turkey and greek islands tour?
The turkey and greek islands tour uses two currencies: the Turkish lira in Turkey and the euro in Greece. Wikipedia gives the lira the abbreviation TL and the code TRY. The change of money falls on day six, when the ferry reaches Samos.
Wikipedia notes that every current Turkish banknote carries a portrait of Ataturk on its front. Wikivoyage Turkey adds that a seller can legally ask for a photo ID when you pay by card. A photo ID is worth carrying on shopping days.
Wikivoyage Greece says euro coins have a common side and a national side. The national design does not change whether a coin is accepted. The small Greek coins show ships, and one large coin shows Zeus carrying off Europa as a bull. The island days of the turkey and greek islands tour put these coins in your hand.