This 6 day tour, starts from Van, Turkey, and ends at Istanbul, Turkey.
Day(s) : 6
Countries : Turkey
Start City : Van
End City : Istanbul
Meals : 5 Breakfast(s)
On arrival to Van Airport, you will meet with your tour guide. Before we go to our hotel, we will explore the Citadel with its three thousand Urartian fortress of Van and witness the extraordinary sunset.
Overnight : Van
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Van Life Hotel
After breakfast, we will travel by ferry stopping at Akdamar Island to see a spectacular 10th century church built by an Armenian king, if there is time swim in Lake Van.
Then, we will drive back to city centre to visit the largest Urartu Museum in the World. Artifacts from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Urartian, Persian, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic, Seljuk, Turkish-Islamic, and Ottoman Periods are exhibited in chronological order taking our visitors on a unique historical journey.
After the museum visit Van Cat House. Van cats are relatively large, have a chalky white coat, sometimes with ruddy coloration on the head and hindquarters, and have blue, amber eyes or one eye of each colour. This variety has been referred to as "the swimming cat", and has been observed to swim in Lake Van.
Overnight : Van
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Van Life Hotel
Today we leave for Dogubayazit via Muradiye and the Bendimaahi Falls. In Dogubayazit, we visit the spectacular Ishak Pasha Palace, 1685 - 1784, which has a unique fusion of architecture from Seljuk, Ottoman, Georgian, and Armenian - Persian styles.
We continue our journey north, skirting around the western edge of Mt Ararat. Mt. Ararat is one of the great natural spectacles of the world,. The name Ararat derives from the Bible (Jeremiah 51:27) and is a transliteration of 'Urartu' the name foreigners gave to this region and its inhabitants in Biblical times.
Overnight : Kars
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Kars Beylerbeyi Palace
This morning we journey to the site of Ani, the former capital of the Armenian kingdom. In the mid 10th century, nothing in Europe could rival this capital of the Armenian kingdom in terms of either size or magnificence. The remains of the ruined city include several churches as well as the shell of the Cathedral of Ani, the citadel and a mosque. There are also some exciting remains of frescoes in the Church of St Gregory (Tigran Honentz) despite having been exposed to the elements for centuries.
Afternoon, we will visit 12 Aposotles Church and Kars Castle.
Overnight : Kars
Category : Boutique
Hotel : Kars Beylerbeyi Palace
Transfer to Kars Airport for your onward flight back to Istanbul. On arrival to Istanbul Airport, you will be transferred to your hotel.
Overnight : Istanbul
Category : 4 star
Hotel : Nidya Hotel Galataport
After breakfast our tour concludes and we say goodbye to our new friends and are transferred to the airport for your onward flight.
This is intended to give an idea of the type of accommodation that may be expected. The actual hotels used for any given tour may change due to many reasons such as group size, availability, time of year, hotel standard has dropped or simply we found a better hotel. We update the website immediately if and when any changes take place. If and when we do change hotels it will be to a hotel of equal or higher standard and will be at no extra cost.
Where more than one hotel is shown for a given an overnight stop this means that one of those hotels will be used.
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