Depart Home for Istanbul, Turkey
Arrive in Istanbul, Turkey
Airport Transfer
Check-In & Refresh
Orientation Walking Tour - The group will become oriented with their neighborhood, the public transportation systems, nearby pharmacies, markets, ATMs, etc. Additionally, an in-depth safety briefing will be provided for what to do incase of an emergency.
Welcome Dinner - The group will be taken for an authentic dinner with a wide variety of menu options to cater all diets.
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Tour of Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque -The Blue Mosque in Istanbul, also known by its official name, the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, is an Ottoman-era historical imperial mosque located in Istanbul, Turkey. It was constructed between 1609 and 1617 during the rule of Ahmed I and remains a functioning mosque today.
Group Lunch at the Hippodrome
Visit to Basilica Cistern -The Basilica Cistern, or Cisterna Basilica, is the largest of several hundred ancient cisterns that lie beneath the city of Istanbul, Turkey.
Walk to Old City Wall through Historic Sultanahmet
Free Time, Explore the Grand Bazaar
Group Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Istanbul Archaeology Museums -The Istanbul Archaeology Museums are a group of three archaeological museums located in the Eminönü quarter of Istanbul, Turkey, near Gülhane Park and Topkapı Palace. These museums house over one million objects from nearly all periods and civilizations in world history.
Group Lunch at Gülhane Park
Topkapi Palace Museum -The Topkapı Palace, or the Seraglio, is a large museum and library in the east of the Fatih district of Istanbul in Turkey. From the 1460s to the completion of Dolmabahçe Palace in 1856, it served as the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire, and was the main residence of its sultans.
Afternoon Walk: Galata Bridge, Galata Tower, Galata Mevlevi House Museum, tea by the Bosphorus-The focal point of lively Galata is the 14th-century Galata Tower, which has expansive views of the Bosphorus from its balcony. Below, the area's narrow streets are home to chic bars, old-school restaurants, and small shops that sell odds and ends. Centuries-old synagogues, churches, and mosques dot the neighborhood, while Galata Mevlevi House museum and cultural center has performances by whirling dervishes.
Concert or Performance
Group Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Visit to Istanbul Technical University, Center of Advanced Music Studies
Workshops on Makam Music
Lunch Break
Free Time
Independent Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Watching the Whirling Derwishes: Visiting Galata Mevlevihanesi
Lunch Break
Free Time or Discipline-Specific Activities (TBD)
Independent Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Ferry to Bursa (approx 3 hrs)
Stay in Bursa (University Accommodations TBD)
Lunch Break
Evening Visit to Thermal Baths - located in İnegöl district of Bursa, is considered among the most important thermal springs of the Marmara Region. The hot springs are within the borders of Saadet neighborhood, 27 kilometers from İnegöl town center.
Group Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Student Performance in Uludağ University (co-performance or performance by our students TBD) - Bursa Uludağ University is a public research university in Bursa, Turkey. The research and education conducted by the university have an emphasis on International Relations, Medicine, Engineering, Natural & Social sciences and Arts.
Free Time to Explore or Uludag (TBD)
Independent Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Travel to Izmir ( Approx 4 hrs)
Check-In & Refresh
Afternoon Information Session and Extended Discussion (Week 2 Synthesis)
Group Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Transfer to Selçuk/Ephesus - Ephesus is an ancient city in Turkey’s Central Aegean region, near modern-day Selçuk. Its excavated remains reflect centuries of history, from classical Greece to the Roman Empire – when it was the Mediterranean’s main commercial center – to the spread of Christianity. Paved streets wind past squares, baths and monumental ruins. The Temple of Hadrian was built before 138 A.D. for Emperor Hadrian’s visit.
Free Afternoon to Explore the Beach
Transfer Selçuk/İzmir
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Flight Izmir to Ankara (Approx 4 hrs)
Transfer to Accommodations
Check-In & Refresh
Free Evening to Explore
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Museum of Anatolian Civilization- The Museum of Anatolian Civilizations is located on the south side of Ankara Castle in the Atpazarı area in Ankara, Turkey. It consists of the old Ottoman Mahmut Paşa bazaar storage building, and the Kurşunlu Han.
Lunch on the Historic Kale - Ankara Castle is a historic fortification in the city of Ankara, Turkey, constructed in or after the 7th century.
Walking Tour of the Historic Kale
Free Time
Group Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Anitkabir Site Visit- Anıtkabir is a mausoleum complex located in the Çankaya district of Ankara, Turkey. It serves as the resting place of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first President of the Turkish Republic. Designed by architects Emin Onat and Orhan Arda, the construction of Anıtkabir began in 1944 and was completed in 1953
Lunch Break
Bilkent or Başkent University Campus: Musical Performance/Workshop
Independent Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Transfer to Train Station
High Speed Train Train to Konya (approx 1,30 hrs)
Check-In & refresh
Lunch Break
Archaeological Museum - Konya Archaeological Museum is a state archaeological museum in Konya, Turkey. Established in 1901, it had been relocated twice before moving to its present location in 1962.
Group Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Transfer to Küçükköy (approx 6 hrs) - Küçükköy is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Ayvalık, Balıkesir Province, Turkey. Its population is 11,405. It includes the beach area Sarımsaklı.
Tour Çatalhöyük - Çatalhöyük is a tell of a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from approximately 7500 BC to 6400 BC and flourished around 7000 BC. In July 2012, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Return to Konya
Evening Performance (TBD)
Independent Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Mevlana Museum - The Mevlâna Museum, in Konya, Turkey, started life as the dervish lodge of the Mevlevi order, better known as the whirling dervishes. It houses the mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian Sufi mystic.
Lunch Break
Free Evening to Explore
Evening Performance
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Bus to Cappadocia, Göreme (approx 3.20 hrs)
Check-In & Refresh
Group Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Day Trip to Avanos - It is a nice village with a beautiful river, many pottery workshops, and interesting places like the hair museum.
Return to Göreme
Independent Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Explore Cave Churches - Cappadocia has hundreds of cave churches with beautiful fresco paintings from the 9th and 10th centuries. Byzantine Christians carved these monasteries and churches as sacred spaces to worship Jesus.
Lunch Break
Free Evening to Explore
Independent Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Free Time OR Trip to Ihlara Valley (TBD)
Independent Dinner
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Bus Transfer from Cappadocia to Cadir Höyük (approx 4 hrs)
Site Tour - Çadır Höyük is an important ancient settlement and archaeological site in Yozgat Province, Turkey 16 kilometers south of Sorgun. It lies around 70 kilometers from the Hittite capital of Hattuša.
Lunch Break
Van Transfer from Peyniryemez to Yozgat or Ankara (approx 2.19 hrs)
Flight to Istanbul
Breakfast & Day Briefing
Depart Istanbul, Turkey for Home