Trip Costs Payment Schedule Travel Itinerary: Fill & Download for Free

Romantic trip to Turkey & GreeceWhat are some of the first thoughts that crop up when you have to decide upon your honeymoon destination?Lovely romantic destinations to get breathtaking photographs to bombard your social profiles!Couple friendly activities to help you bond with your spouse!Fantastic food options – for foodies to remain energetic!Opportunity to mingle with diverse cultures & learn from their history.A great shopping destination… esp. for the ladies!So, this is why we decided to travel to Turkey & Greece for our honeymoon trip. It had all the above-mentioned ingredients for a great honeymoon.Turkey: Modern, yet traditional destination. Mixture of European & Asian Culture. Istanbul is the world’s only city that spans across 2 continents. Turkey is naturally beautiful bestowed with multiple natural unique wonders like the limestone Pamukkale lake, natural caves of Cappadocia etc. It is culturally rich with existence of various diverse civilizations & dynasties.Greece: Cluster of multiple beautiful islands with ancient civilizations. Greece is about their culture and themed villages with (White & Blue) houses.After zeroing down on the destination, we researched more about what should the travel itinerary look like.We came across luxury cruising options in Greece. We booked a 3-night cruise so that we could enjoy other aspects of the trip as well. Cruise Link for reference.As per my experience, a larger share of fun in a travel experience is planning every bit by yourself esp. when it has to be made the most memorable for lifetime. Even if there is a mistake, it’s still a thrilling experience. So we did each & every planning and booking by ourselves. As we had to book our cruise starting and ending at Kusadasi (Turkey port) we had to take assistance from a local Turkish travel agency (Anker Travel) who helped us book the tickets. [The same cruise boarding from Athens can be booked online from the Cruise website]Planning & BookingsVisa planningBoth Turkey and Greece require separate visas for Indian Passport holders. If you have a valid Schengen visa, you can apply for Turkey E-visa, which is cheaper than stamp visa.Note: A single visit visa for turkey costs around Rs. 5000, but a multiple entry costs around Rs. 15000. So avoid making multiple entries to Turkey. We couldn’t avoid as per our itinerary.Flight and Hotel BookingsAll the bookings were made from Yatra, Cleartrip or Airbnb.Note: Flights for domestic travelling in turkey are very cheap.Day toursThere are plenty of local tourist agencies that organize day tours. Rates are usually standard. You can either connect with them to book before or after reaching for the next day's plan.Currency PlanningCard Payment is accepted at almost all major places such as restaurants, ticket counters, travel companies all over turkey. We carried NIYO card which came out to be really useful. There is no markup charges and even the currency exchange rates that one gets on the NIYO card is lower than any other place. The leftover money in the card can be easily withdrawn on returning back from the trip. To apply click here.Since getting Liras in India was quite expensive and we had to visit Greece as well so we carried Euros in cash worth Rs 50000. On reaching the Istanbul airport we got euros converted to Turkish lira. Get little amount converted at the airport as conversion rate is poor and the rest can be done at Grand Bazaar market for better rate of conversion. Advise: Carry both card and cash as it will be handy.Internet & Communication PlanningWe purchased a world sim from India itself, which was configured to function anywhere in Europe for 15 days. But the service was quite poor. It worked intermittently. Hence advising to explore other options.Indians crave for Indian foodWe had packed many packets of ready to eat food, which are readily available like – Pulav, Dal, Chola, Poha, Soups, Instant Tea, Maggie etc. for our flight and travel.Itinerary we followed (2019)Finally, it was time for all the implementation after the long & detailed planning.The TripDay 0: The Journey Begins - Arrival to IstanbulI was on cloud nine with my excitement for the first International trip. We had booked the Indigo direct flight from New Delhi to Istanbul, which was supposed to take around 7 hours initially. But due to unavoidable circumstances, it got rerouted and had a service layover at Doha, and eventually reaches the destination in around 12 hours. Still looking at the brighter side, we got to watch the famous “The Palm” of Dubai before landing at Doha.We got the opportunity to land on the world’s biggest airport – Istanbul airport. It was opened just 4-5 days before our trip commenced. We landed in Istanbul at around at around 6:30 pm. Completed our immigration formalities and converted the initial currency (Euros to Turkish Lira). It was indeed a big airport as we had to walk a long way to exit. (The airport also has an “Airport App” which can come in handy during your stay in Turkey)Most of the tourists spots & hotels are in the Sultanahmet area. For reaching the hotel, we had decided to take the Airport Bus service called – “havaIst”. (It is similar to KIAS buses as in Bangalore.) Public transportation is well advanced and planned in Turkey. Istanbul is well connected with Metros, Trains, Bus, Trams for intra-city commute using a single travelling smart card “Istanbul card”. Another interesting feature was, individual cards were not required for multiple passengers. We issued one card and credited it with sufficient amount for 2 passengers. [18 lira per passenger for Airport to Sultanahmet bus stand.] . IST 20 is the bus that travels to that route. Note: The bus attendants prefer passengers who wait in queue. So make sure you maintain that.Finally boarded the bus, and I had the first glimpse of a foreign city.And welcome to Istanbul city. As we de-boarded the bus at the Sultanahmet bus stand, the first thing that astonished me – beautifully architected Mosques. Istanbul is indeed a city of Mosques.The hotel was although walkable distance from the bus stand, but we took a taxi as it was nighttime. Taxis are easily available in the city, but they prefer cash. You can also book taxis through Uber app as well and pay online (Did not try but checked).We checked in the hotel. After resting for a while, walked out for dinner. Luckily the restaurants in that area are open 24*7 for the tourists. The locality was still hustling and bustling with tourists and vendors even at 10 pm.The shop vendors would smile back with Bollywood star names to attract Indian customers into their restaurant.Since we preferred vegetarian food, we tried the popular Turkish delicacy “Piddi” – pizza like food. And Turkish tea was a real delight in its cute little glasses.After dinner we walked on the streets for a while to explore the place and went back to our hotel to rest.The hotel reception had pamphlets of day tours and activities from multiple vendors. We planned to go to the Bosphorus cruise tour the next day hence asked the hotel reception to coordinate with the tour organizer and he booked it for us.After a long day, we signed off for the day, all prepped up for our tour.Day 1: Two Continents from one city - Golden Horn & Bosphorus Strait visitFor this day, we had a scheduled pickup at around 9 am for the Bosphorus cruise trip. We did not have a complimentary breakfast in the hotel. We had packed ready to eat Poha, which required only hot water for preparation. We ate that and were ready for the day. The day was cold and cloudy.This day tour for 5-6 hours cost was 25 Euros per person.It included hotel pickup and drop, cruise trip on the Bosphorus strait and view 9-10 historical landmarks of Istanbul from the cruise with an English speaking guide. And visit at 2 of the sites.The vehicle took us to the boarding point. We boarded the cruise (It's more like a ferry). As it was cloudy and cold, there were intermittent rainfall as well at times.Complimentary coffee and tea was provided.Why is Bosphorus strait so important? It is the water body that divides the two continents Asia and Europe. It was a pleasant experience watching famous istanbul landmarks on both sides of the strait.Everyone deboarded once for lunch and visited the luxurious Dolmabahce Palace. Make sure you carry your I-cards all the time, it can be required for tickets etc.After this great tour, we asked the manager to not drop us at the hotel. Instead we walked in one of the ancient marketplaces - Grand Bazar & Spice Bazar. Cute and beautiful artifacts were being sold everywhere. Especially the turkish lights and iconic turkish “Nazar” were very beautiful and tempting.After exploring the market and sultanahmet area we walked to an indian restaurant - “Dubb Indian Restaurant” for dinner. Post dinner we walked back to the hotel.Day 2: Istanbul - Archaeology & CultureEarly morning, as per plan we went to visit the main historical attractions, which included the Blue Mosque, Basilica cistern (If you’ve watched Inferno movie - you will be able to relate), Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace. Its mandatory for all females to cover the head and wear clothes below knee length at these places. Hence make you sure you carry the essentials. These places were walking distance from the hotel.After having a great time learning about the history and culture of the city, our first part of the Istanbul chapter came to an end. We had lunch in our hotel itself and left to catch the airport bus from Sultanahmet bus stand (Bus IST 20).On our way to the airport we booked the next day tours. Our next turkish destination was Kusadasi, a port city. In Turkish, Kus means bird and adasi means island - Bird Island.The nearest airport to reach Kusadasi is Izmir. We had booked seats in airport shuttle for traveling to hotel in Kusadasi from Izmir airport. It costs around 35 Lira each. (lastminuteturkey.com).We checked into the hotel. The sea view and port lightning from the room was amazing. We walked out for exploring the beautiful city and had pizza for dinner. We did not find any Indian restaurant at Kusadasi.All excited for the next day tour early in the morning, we went back to our hotel and rested for the day.Day 3: Ruins of Hierapolis & Beauty of Cotton CastleToday was the day tour from Kusadasi to Pamukkale. We had booked seats in a 12 seater coach each for 50 Euros. It included the visit to Hierapolis & cotton castle, lunch and English speaking guide.The day started early in the morning. After having breakfast in the hotel itself, we left for the tour. We met several other Indian tourists as well in the tour. Our guide was very interesting and explained about Kusadasi, Hierapolis, Pamukkale and Turkey overall in the vehicle itself.We were very excited for this tour as we were to explore one of the most intriguing natural formations in Turkey - the cotton castle - Pamukkale lake. It was a 3 hour drive to Hierapolis. We stopped in a cafe in between for snacks and refreshments. We saw beautiful ice capped mountains at places. After reaching, we first saw the ruins of Hierapolis, and the large ancient amphitheatre.Then we saw the stunning limestone lake at Pamukkale - meaning cotton castle in Turkish. It is really a breathtaking view of ice like white limestone with flowing warm water from natural hot springs.Post the sightseeing we went for lunch which was included in the tour. After lunch we set out for our return trip to Kusadasi. On our way back, the tour guide also took us to manufacturing unit where artefacts were made with onyx stone.After a having a beautiful experience for the day we returned to the hotel by around 7 pm. After resting for a while, we walked out for dinner. It was a Friday evening, and the city was hustling and bustling celebrating weekend it seems - watched the nightlife of Kusadasi.Got back to the hotel and signed off for the day.Day 4: The white & blue – Celestyal Cruise to GreeceWe were looking forward to this day since we began the planning of our trip. We had to board the cruise to greece. So what is “White & Blue” - It is not just the colours from the Greek flag. You will have to visit a greek village to fully understand how the Greeks celebrate these colours in their culture and day-to-day lives.Early in the morning, we were so glad to see the docked cruise at the port from the hotel room balcony. I had never seen such a big and beautiful ship. It felt like “Titanic” to me.We packed our stuff and checked out after having breakfast all set for cruising. We walked to boarding point of the cruise. The immigration process was also managed by the cruise itself seamlessly.We were welcomed by the cruise hospitality. We checked in our rooms and were greeted with some creative towel arts by the team. We explored all the sections of the cruise. Cruising is a once in a lifetime experience one should have. So I would not add much spoilers. This cruising package included 3 night stay, all day meals and unlimited drinks. We had activities planned throughout the day on the cruise itself. Activities and performances included entertainment, dancing & cooking classes, gaming, shopping, learning and casino to try your luck.After settling down, we had lunch. There was a bouquet of multiple cuisines available. Options for vegetarian food was limited though manageable.Each day we were given an itinerary of planned activities and tours.Note regarding tours from cruise: There would be 2 complimentary excursions provided in the cruise package (usually the day tour). Rest can be booked during the cruise itself (These extra excursions may be expensive). Booking includes -> first preference in deboarding the cruise, bus if required and tour guide in preferred language. If you have not booked then also the passengers can deboard and manage their excursion themselves or simply spend some time on the island and return to the ship. Most of the smaller destination islands (evenings) may not have a docking facility directly, hence smaller boats are used for helping passengers to deboard & board the cruise.This day we were to travel to Patmos. It is famous for its church and monastery of John the Baptist. This excursion was not included in our package. After deboarding we got into a public bus which cost us less than a Euro, explored the place on our own and discovered a shortcut route to walk back to the port. I had a great time viewing greek homes and marketplaces.After returning to the ship, we rested for a while and had dinner. In the night, magnificent shows were organised with wonderful dance and music performances.We enjoyed those with a couple of drinks. Our first happening day on the cruise ended. We prepped up for the next day morning excursion and slept.Day 5: Two sides of Greece – The ancient city & the romantic picturesque cityThis day we had a morning excursion to Heraklion. Luckily it was a bright and sunny day. After breakfast early in the morning, we deboarded the cruise. We were taken to the site by bus which were managed by the cruise and assigned to guides in groups as per preferred languages.Heraklion (Crete Island) is famous for the ruins of the Palace of Minos (Knossos) from the bronze age. Travelling back to history and learning about past culture has always amazed me.After spending time in history, we visited the city and marketplaces. This completed our Heraklion excursion and we got into the cruise bus to board the ship again.We had lunch and participated in the onboard scheduled events - dance and cooking classes (greek cuisines). Post that prepared for the evening excursion - Santorini, the most beautiful greek destination.After docking by small tender boats, we reached port of Fira. From here, we required to take a cable car to Fira town. We purchased tickets for the cable car, it was a long queue. The prettiest village of Santorini is Oia, which is half an hour drive from Fira town. We negotiated with a cab to drop us and bring back to the port town. We paid 50 euros but it was all worth it. We could capture the picturesque village Oia and watched the beautiful sunset.While returning to the port from Fira town, we took the walking path and travelled through the market area of Fira. We were able to make our way back well in advance of the deadline of the cruise.We were always delighted to see creative towel art in our room by room service team. This day was tiring but beautiful. We had dinner and attended the performances for some time and later signed off for the day.Day 6: Residence of the Greek Gods – AthensIt was still dark and cloudy. Early in the morning our ship docked at Piraeus, the port of Athens. It is one of the oldest known cities. After breakfast we deboarded the cruise and got into cruise managed bus with our guide. It was like a Hop on Hop off tour showing the major attractions of Athens. We saw the Panathenian Stadium - site of the first modern Olympic Games. Also, we got a glimpse of the Temple of Olympian Zeus.We reached the Acropolis and visited temple of Partheron. We purchased the entry tickets and explored the place. We wandered across the fun and lively place - Plaka.Post this, we boarded the cruise. The lunch and afternoon was spent in the cruise activities. This was our last day of the cruise. And the last destination was Mykonos Island. At Mykonos, after docking at the port, we had to travel by cruise bus for around (15-20 mins) to reach the town.The weather was not good. It rained heavily for about an hour. But post that we were able to get to walk around the village. We saw the iconic windmills and little Venice.Shopped for some greek souvenirs and returned to the cruise. We spent our last night watching the amazing performances by renowned groups on the cruise.With all the beautiful experience of the cruise went to sleep.Day 7: House of Mother Mary & Ancient civilizations of EphesusAs we were waiting to finally deboard the Cruise at Kusadasi, we packed our luggage and completed our immigration. We landed back to the bird Island. We had already booked a taxi which would take us to the House of Virgin Mary & Ephesus tour and drop us to Izmir airport. We bid our farewell to Kusadasi and reached the House of the Virgin Mary. After spending some time at the church, we went to view the remains of Ephesus. It is an ancient Greek city with substantial remains to uncover & understand the ancient cultural lifestyle.It was a vast campus and a lot to see. We spent around 3-4 hours walking around the place. Post that, we had lunch outside the campus and left for Izmir airport.We checked-In at the airport and rested. The flight was delayed by around 2 hours.We landed at the Kayseri airport. Goreme, which was the hometown of the cave mountains was around 1 hour drive from Kayseri. We had booked seats in an airport shuttle - Helios Transfer from Kayseri airport to hotel at Goreme.Cappadocia is known for its natural caves, a stay in cave house is advised here. It is a totally different experience. As the flight was delayed, it was too late when we reached the hotel.Our next day was planned for another most amazing part of our trip - The hot air balloon excursion. We had to be awake early morning for this, we just rested and slept for the next beautiful experience.Day 8: The fairy chimneys - CappadociaTo our disappointment, the Govt. cancelled the hot air balloon for this day due to bad weather. And, the next day bookings were already full so we could not experience the chimney view from the balloon ride.When we stepped out in the light, what we saw really felt like a place in fairy tale. The fairy chimney mountain view is magnificent. This natural formation is unique to this place, and I had never seen such a stunning natural view.In Cappadocia, there are two tours - > Red & Green. But we booked a private taxi and covered all the spots on a single day except the spots which were walking distance from the hotel. We covered the Uchisar Castle, Kaymakli underground city, Love Valley, Pasabag (3 headed Fairy Chimney), Goreme Panoramic view, pigeon valley, imagination valley etc. In between we had pizza for lunch.The trip ended with a place where we had a small Pottery making workshop. Beautiful artifacts made from pottery were also sold here.This place is so beautiful that I had my eyes gazed out of the car window throughout my ride. After reaching back to the goreme town, we walked around. We found an indian restaurant, and had dinner. This beautiful day ended and we rested for the day.Day 9: Open air Museum of fairy chimneyWe could view the beautiful picturesque sky of the city filled with colorful hot air balloons in the early morning hours.After enjoying the spectacular view, we got ready and had breakfast. We left for the open air museum. Open air museum has multiple historic churches inside the natural caves. Post visiting the place we explored the valley by walking. We booked an ATV safari and visited rose valley, red valley, love valley etc on the vehicle.This ride was very adventurous and got the opportunity to explore the miraculous valleys we had missed the day before.With these beautiful experience we ended our Cappadocia trip. Before leaving for the airport, we had food at the Indian Restaurant.Our flight to Istanbul was booked from Nevsehir airport. We had asked the hotel representative to book seats in the shuttle to the airport. We could view the beautiful cave valleys on our way back to the airport.This was a small airport and flight got delayed again. It was a tiring day. We dozed off as soon as we boarded the flight. We reached Istanbul hotel again the same way taking the bus to the Sultan Mehmet bus stand.We had dinner at the hotel itself and rested. Our second chapter of Istanbul started.Day 10: City Exploration – IstanbulThe second chapter of Istanbul trip was all about exploring the lesser known places in the city. Since were a bit tired from our long trip, this was a lazy day. After breakfast we wanted to explore the Taksim Square and market nearby. With Istanbul card we were able to travel at the desirable places by Metro. Walked across the market in Taksim Square. We wanted to visit inside the Galata tower and have a city view from the top, but the queue was too long, hence dropped the plan.We walked back by passing through the bridge. People were fishing on the bridge.As mentioned, it was a lazy day, we came back to the hotel and rested. Had dinner in hotel and signed off from the day.Day 11: Visit to world’s biggest themed aquariumToday was the last day of our trip. The day was a bit cloudy and rainy. I had researched that the Istanbul had the world’s largest thematic aquarium, so we planned for visiting the place for the first half of the day and then leave for the airport.After breakfast in the hotel we boarded the metro from Sultanahmet station. We had researched the Metro route to the place. It was a long way, but we managed to get there successfully.The place was worth visiting. It was much more than just an aquarium. It displayed marine life across all oceans, continents and forests. Even penguins from Antarctica, amazon rainforests etc.It also had themes around history of istanbul and turkey. It also had activities such as helicopter ride of Istanbul, etc.It was a fruitful day, we returned to Istanbul, had lunch in the Dubb Indian restaurant. We picked up our luggage from the hotel, and waited for the airport bus.On my way back to the airport, the beautiful memories from the trip flashbacked.We reached the airport, completed the immigration formalities and waited to board the flight. The flight gate changed twice and flight was delayed due to bad weather.Notes: Airlines in Turkey are usually not on time. And flight gates change frequently, hence keep checking the updated flight time and gates on the display screen.Day 12: The Journey Ends – Back to New DelhiBefore landing at New Delhi, we landed at Ahmedabad at around 6 am. Breakfast was served as the flight duration had exceeded due to change of flight routes. We completed our final immigrations at New Delhi airport. Our lovely trip ended with beautiful memories of Turkey and Istanbul to share.We had such a wonderful trip, I was so pleased that I had chosen these destinations for my Honeymoon. I am really overwhelmed by the place, beauty, culture and people of Turkey & Greece.To-dos still left : Somewhere down the line, I still dream to come back to this place again and complete tasks like the hot air balloon ride, visit to the Troy island and explore more of Turkey and Greece.