from $7,150* per person	14 Days	May, June, September
Boutique accommodations		Exertion level: 4
Operator: Geographic Expeditions		18 people max

“Alone and tremendous,” Sacherville Sitwell called Istanbul, “No water city can compare . . . it must be the most wonderful site for a great capital there has ever been.” Our days in Turkey’s most important and spellbinding city (though Ankara has been the country’s capital since 1923) will be busy (we’ll have ample time to relax as we cruise the Aegean in a few days). Our Turkey crew is dedicated to “delving deeply into this fabulous city, exploring it from all sides.” We’ll cruise the Bosphorus, seeing intimately for ourselves why Sitwell was so enchanted. We’ll visit the lyrically gargantuan Hagia Sophia, which went from being “the best kirk of the world, and the fairest,” to John Mandeville in 1360 to “the rustiest old barn in heathendom” to Mark Twain in 1869, to today’s proudly maintained marvel, one of humanity’s architectural triumphs. In short, we’ll do full, admiring, and innovative justice to this grandest of metropolises.

And then we’ll fly south, to the lovely hilltop town of Sirince and the great and evocative ruins of Ephesus, probably the Mediterranean’s most beautifully preserved classic city. We board our gulet in Bodrum and commence a five-day Aegean cruise, stopping to snorkel, wander in seaside forests, poke about in small, vivacious markets, meet with local chefs and families, dine under piercingly bright stars, and hike in sweet forests up to almost hidden ruins. We have been cruising these parts for many years, and we and our partners in Turkey know the best boats, the best places to find solitude or vital company, and we know what Lord Byron was getting at when he wrote in a letter to a friend, “I still sigh for the Aegean. Shall you not always love its bluest of waves & brightest of skies?”