The mykonos to istanbul tour links the Greek islands with Turkey in fourteen days, from the white lanes of Mykonos to the Bosphorus. Travellers who want a different route can look at the other tours in Greece on the home page.
This page walks through the fourteen days, the islands of Mykonos and Samos, the sea crossing to Kusadasi, Ephesus and Pamukkale, Cappadocia, Istanbul and the questions travellers ask.
What is the mykonos to istanbul tour, and how does the route run?
The mykonos to istanbul tour is a fourteen-day trip that starts in Athens and ends in Istanbul. It moves from the Greek islands to Turkey by ferry, bus and plane. It links Mykonos, Samos, Ephesus, Pamukkale, Cappadocia and Istanbul in one plan, from the Aegean Sea to the Bosphorus.
The route has two halves. The first half is Greek: Athens, then the islands of Mykonos and Samos by sea. The second half is Turkish: Kusadasi, Ephesus, Pamukkale, Cappadocia and Istanbul. A traveller who searches for a mykonos to istanbul tour wants this island-to-city trip, not a flight page. The plan below lists all fourteen days.
- Day 1: Arrive in Athens, free day
- Day 2: Full-day tour of ancient Athens
- Day 3: Ferry from Piraeus to Mykonos
- Day 4: Day at leisure on Mykonos
- Day 5: Overnight ferry from Mykonos to Samos
- Day 6: Arrive on Samos, day at leisure
- Day 7: Ferry from Samos to Kusadasi
- Day 8: Ephesus tour, drive to Pamukkale
- Day 9: Pamukkale tour, overnight bus to Cappadocia
- Day 10: North Cappadocia, touring all day
- Day 11: South Cappadocia, then flight to Istanbul
- Day 12: Full-day Istanbul city tour
- Day 13: Bosphorus cruise, Turkish evening show
- Day 14: Airport transfer, flight home
Day seven, when the boat crosses from Samos to Kusadasi, is the hinge of the mykonos to istanbul tour. Before it, the plan stays in Greek waters. After it, every stop lies in Turkey. Wikipedia places Samos off the coast of western Turkey. That closeness lets one short sea leg join two countries.
Athens takes up days one and two. Day one is for arrival and rest. On day two, a full-day tour covers the ancient side of the city. In the Ancient Agora, Wikipedia says, builders added the Odeon of Agrippa and a gymnasium in the centre. The mykonos to istanbul tour begins among these ruins, before the sea days start.
What do Mykonos and Samos add to the mykonos to istanbul tour?
Mykonos and Samos add the island half of the mykonos to istanbul tour on days three to six. Mykonos gives a whitewashed harbour town with windmills. Samos gives an old Greek capital, a temple of Hera and the home island of Pythagoras. An overnight ferry joins the two.
Wikivoyage names two mainland ports with daily sailings to Mykonos, Piraeus and Rafina, and day three uses Piraeus. The boat arrives at Mykonos Town, called Chora, the island’s port and capital. Wikivoyage lists Byzantine churches and the thirteenth-century Mykonos Castle among the sites that remain. The mykonos to istanbul tour spends two days around this town.
Wikivoyage says the windmills have been landmarks as far back as the sixteenth century. The Agricultural Museum, with its traditional farm tools, stands near them. Little Venice lies below them. A sign for it stands across the square from the Fabrika bus station. Delos lies 2 km away, and Wikipedia links the growth of tourism to digs there.
On day five the mykonos to istanbul tour reaches Samos by overnight ferry. Wikivoyage lists a daily overnight service between Samos and Piraeus, Syros, Mykonos and Ikaria. It calls at Vathy and Karlovassi. On its page about Mediterranean ferries, Wikivoyage says overnight ships carry restaurants, bars and cabins, cramped but clean. The sea crossing fills the night.
Wikivoyage calls Vathy the principal port of Samos. The same page lists the Samian Parliament among the town’s buildings of interest. A marble lion, taller than 2 metres, stands on the square near the waterfront. It copies the lion of Amphipolis. Day six of the mykonos to istanbul tour is a day at leisure.
Pythagoreio is the old capital of Samos. Wikipedia calls the Heraion an archaic temple of the Ionic order, built for Hera. Myth names King Ancaeus as builder of the first wooden temple. Pythagoras was born on Samos. A cave near Marathokampos is tied to his student tests. The mykonos to istanbul tour leaves a free day for them.
How does the crossing from Samos to Kusadasi work on the mykonos to istanbul tour?
The sea leg from Samos to Kusadasi is one short hop between two ports on the mykonos to istanbul tour. Wikivoyage calls the Mycale Strait less than two kilometres across. It lists daily ferries for foot passengers on the Samos line, with no cars carried. Day seven of the plan uses this link.
Wikivoyage names two Samos landings for the Kusadasi boats, Vathy and Pythagorio. Vathy has two docks about three kilometres apart. Domestic ferries use the west dock. The east dock, called Vathy Port, holds the customs controls and is where the Turkey boats dock. For the mykonos to istanbul tour, the boarding dock matters.
Two distances describe the water. According to Wikipedia, the Mycale Strait is 1.6 kilometres wide at its narrowest. The Kusadasi article places Samos about sixteen kilometres offshore from the town. Neither figure is a sailing time. The sources read for this page state no ferry duration, so none appears here.
Timetables follow the season. Wikivoyage lists the Vathy sailings for April to October. It gives the Pythagorio sailings a shorter season that ends in mid-October. The list names no sailing outside those months. For the mykonos to istanbul tour, the official ferry page for your own dates is the timetable to trust.
A sea crossing is also a border crossing. Your home government publishes the official entry rules for it, so read them before you travel. On the Turkish side, Wikivoyage describes the harbour of Kusadasi as a regular stop for cruise ships. Their guests continue by bus to Ephesus. The mykonos to istanbul tour lists a transfer to the hotel.
Kusadasi is a large resort town, and Wikipedia names tourism its primary industry. The name joins kus, bird, and ada, island, because, seen from the water, Pigeon Island resembles a bird’s head. A causeway of 200 metres links the island to town, and its castle is a restored museum. Day seven of the mykonos to istanbul tour ends here.
What do Ephesus and Pamukkale add to the mykonos to istanbul tour?
Ephesus and Pamukkale fill Days eight and nine of the mykonos to istanbul tour. Ephesus is a Roman city beside the town of Selcuk. Pamukkale is a ridge of white terraces built by hot springs. UNESCO lists both sites, and a drive east joins them. Day eight ends on that drive.
On the mykonos to istanbul tour, Ephesus begins as a sea port. Wikivoyage says visitors and goods landed at the foot of Harbour Street. They cleared customs there until at least the second century AD. Silt then closed the harbour, and the city spent 500 years dredging channels. Today fields and highways lie between the ruins and an unseen Aegean.
The Library of Celsus has four statues with Greek names: Sophia, Episteme, Ennoia and Arete. They mean wisdom, knowledge, intelligence and excellence, says Wikivoyage. Further on stands the Great Theatre. A speaker on its focal flagstone is heard clearly, the same page says, and one metre aside the effect fades. The mykonos to istanbul tour has time for both.
For the mykonos to istanbul tour, Selcuk is the nearest town, four kilometres east of the ruins. Ephesus first began on its ground. Wikivoyage says the town is named for the Seljuk dynasty, which held the area from the tenth century. At its edge, one rebuilt column marks the Temple of Artemis, the fifth known structure on a swampy site.
Pamukkale means cotton castle in Turkish. Wikivoyage explains the white stone in plain steps. Slightly acid water dissolves limestone underground, then loses its gas at the surface and leaves the mineral behind as travertine. The word comes from Tivoli, a district of Rome where people quarried the rock. The mykonos to istanbul tour gives Day nine to these terraces.
Hierapolis, the Roman spa town beside the terraces, had a monumental fountain. Wikipedia describes the Nymphaeum on a U-shaped plan, built in the second century. It fed the houses through a network of pipes. On the terraces, Wikivoyage says shoes stay off the travertine. That night the mykonos to istanbul tour takes the overnight bus to Cappadocia.
What does Cappadocia add to the mykonos to istanbul tour?
Cappadocia adds a landscape of volcanic ash turned to soft rock to the mykonos to istanbul tour. The ash came from the volcanoes Erciyes and Hasan. Their eruptions ran from nine million years back to three million years back. Wikivoyage says the ash welded together and settled into a deep layer of tuff.
The mykonos to istanbul tour reaches this rock on Day 10, after the night bus. Tuff wears away easily, so rain and wind carve it into domes, cones and columns at a plateau rim. Where a cap of harder stone survives, the column twists into a fairy chimney. Wikivoyage names pink, green and yellow among the colours.
Day 10 then tours north Cappadocia. At Uchisar, pinnacles are carved out as castles, and a canyon runs down to Goreme. Tiny dwellings with doors under 10 cm high on the cliffs were pigeon coops. Their guano was gathered as fertiliser and whitewash. Avanos makes pottery, and the hoodoo field begins in Pasabag valley, south of it.
The frescoed churches of the Open Air Museum east of Goreme give the mykonos to istanbul tour its UNESCO stop. Wikivoyage adds that churches in Cappadocia commonly have an underground crypt. A Goreme mansion from the eighteenth century shows painted mosques of Constantinople, a preview of Day 12.
Day 11 of the mykonos to istanbul tour turns south, to the underground cities. Wikivoyage knows of 40, and more keep being found. Kaymakli opens four floors, with lower and steeper tunnels than Derinkuyu. Its third floor holds a stone with 57 holes, used to shape copper. At Derinkuyu, a 55-metre shaft seems to have served as a well.
Cappadocia has two airports. Nevsehir Kapadokya Airport is 30 km north of the town of Nevsehir. Kayseri Erkilet Airport is 70 km east of Goreme. Both have flights from Istanbul. Balloons launch at sunrise, when the winds are lightest. The mykonos to istanbul tour ends Day 11 with the airport drive and the flight to Istanbul.
What do the old city and the Bosphorus add to the mykonos to istanbul tour?
The old city and the Bosphorus put Europe and Asia into one city on the mykonos to istanbul tour. Wikipedia puts about two-thirds of the population in Europe and the remainder in Asia. The Bosphorus, a north-south strait, divides the city, with the Sea of Marmara at its southern end.
On the mykonos to istanbul tour, Day 12 is a city day, and Sultanahmet Square lies on the old Hippodrome. Its stands had room for about 100,000 people. Nearby, Hagia Sophia replaced two earlier churches on the same ground. Justinian I had it built in about five years. Its length is 82 metres and its maximum height 55 metres.
The Blue Mosque rose on ground that held the palaces of viziers, among them Sokollu Mehmet Pasha. Ahmed I was the first sultan since Selim II to build an imperial mosque. Topkapi Palace began as the Imperial New Palace. Its present name, Cannon Gate, came from a seaside palace that burned down.
The Grand Bazaar is the market of the old city. It grew round two halls called bedestens: the Cevahir Bedesten, meaning Bedesten of Gems, and the Sandal Bedesten. Sandal names a thread woven in Bursa, with the colour of sandalwood. Textile trade moved to the Sandal hall, while luxury goods stayed in the Cevahir hall.
The mykonos to istanbul tour spends Day 13 on the water. The name Bosphorus, read as cattle passage, recalls the myth of Io, turned into a cow, who crossed it. Wikivoyage lists palaces, parks and waterfront mansions on both banks. The European bank runs from Besiktas to Sariyer, the Asian bank from Uskudar to Beykoz.
The Turkish evening show ends Day 13, and this page names no programme or venue. Off Kurucesme lies one very small island, now called Galatasaray Island. The mykonos to istanbul tour closes on Day 14 with the flight home. Istanbul has two international airports, so the transfer depends on the airport of the flight.
What else do travellers ask about the mykonos to istanbul tour?
The Mykonos to Istanbul tour runs fourteen days and holds two nights on the move. Day five is a ferry from Mykonos to Samos. Day nine is a bus from Pamukkale to Cappadocia. The four answers below cover those nights, bags and borders, dress rules and extra nights.
What does the night on the ferry hold on the Mykonos to Istanbul tour?
The night crosses the Icarian Sea, which Wikipedia places between the Cyclades and Asia Minor. Samos is one of its islands, along with Patmos, Leros, Kos and Icaria. Myth has Icarus fall into this water after flying near the sun. The Mykonos to Istanbul tour ends this sailing at Samos.
Tickets set the sleeping place. Wikivoyage names deck class for the Cyclades, where a passenger can sleep outside on the deck. For one ship it adds a saloon that only holders of an upper-class ticket can enter. A seat, a cabin and a spot on deck are three different things, so check what yours covers.
Wikivoyage lists Vathy and Karlovassi as the Samos ports where the overnight line lands. Vathy has two docks, three kilometres apart, and a walk between them takes about half an hour. Karlovasi lies in the northwest, Vathy in the northeast. So on the Mykonos to Istanbul tour, ask which dock the boat uses.
How do bags and the sea border work on the Mykonos to Istanbul tour?
Bags move between a hotel, a ferry, a bus and a plane on the Mykonos to Istanbul tour. Pack one soft bag per person, plus a small day bag for the two nights on the move. Passports, medicine and a charger travel with you, not under the coach.
Turkish buses can swap passengers midway, says Wikivoyage. At a stop, you can be asked off the bus, with your luggage beside it, and moved to another. Watch your bag at every stop. Wikivoyage adds that a company vehicle can carry passengers from an edge-of-city bus station to the centre.
The sea border meets the Mykonos to Istanbul tour at the port on day seven. In Vathy, the eastern dock is the one with customs desks, says Wikivoyage, and it serves the Turkey ferries. For entry rules and border formalities, check the travel advice that your own government publishes before you book.
What do travellers wear at mosques and rock churches on the Mykonos to Istanbul tour?
Dress is only half of mosque manners. Wikivoyage Turkey lists eating, smoking, loud talk and sleeping inside a mosque as frowned upon. It adds that mosques in tourist areas are more relaxed, yet conservative dress still shows respect. That advice fits the Istanbul days of the Mykonos to Istanbul tour.
Plan the mosque outfit in layers: a sleeved shirt, long trousers or a long skirt, and a thin scarf. Women cover their hair, and everyone keeps shoulders and legs covered, as Wikivoyage Turkey puts it. A loose wrap on the hair is all it takes. Shoes stay at the entrance, so socks help on cool stone.
Wikivoyage Turkey adds that churches set clothing rules by denomination. An outfit made for a mosque is the safe choice. That suits the Goreme Open Air Museum on the Cappadocia days. UNESCO dates Tokali and El Nazar to the tenth century. It places the Dark Church in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.
How do the bus and the flight fit the Mykonos to Istanbul tour, and what does an extra night change?
The bus covers the long road, and the flight covers the next one. On day nine the night bus takes the Mykonos to Istanbul tour from Pamukkale to Cappadocia. Wikivoyage Turkey compares vehicle sizes: a 48-seat coach is more comfortable than a 15-seat minibus. A soft layer and a neck pillow help sleep.
Day eleven swaps the road for the air on the Mykonos to Istanbul tour. After the second touring day, the plan drives to the airport and flies to Istanbul. The two long legs sit two days apart. Two touring days fall between them, so no tiring leg follows another.
An extra night changes the pace, not the route. Wikivoyage Cappadocia names cave hotels as a regional specialty. The added night can be spent in a room cut into the rock. On Samos, its Greek islands page lists the island as good for walking. Either night opens a morning with no transfer in it.