Footsteps of St. Paul in Asia Minor Tour (17 nights/18 days)
Key Information
Tour Duration: 17 nights / 18 days
Days of Operation: Private Tour - Regular Tour
Destination's: Turkey
Hotel's Class: 5, 4, 3 Stars Hotel or Tourist Class
Season: All Years 2026
Scheduled / Operates on: Jan 1st 2026 - Dec 31st 2026. All years Biblical Tours Turkey
Domestic Flight Included: Yes
Tour Customizable: Yes
*Overnight Place:
4 nights Istanbul, 1 night Ankara, 2 nights Cappadocia, 2 nights
Adana, 1 night Konya,
2 nights Antalya, 1 night Pamukkale, 1 night Kusadasi, 2 night Izmir,
1 night Canakkale
Tour Itinerary:
Day 1: Istanbul.
Arrival and transfer from the airport to your hotel. Brief tour
outline and city orientation
given.
Free day at your own leisure. Overnight in Istanbul.
Day 2: Istanbul.
Pick up from your hotel to visit Topkapi Palace, with royal treasury
and elegant four courts. After lunch, proceed to the Hagia Sophia, a
great Byzantine architectural masterpiece, whose interior is
resplendent with golden mosaics. Then admire the delicate design and
Iznik tiles of the Blue Mosque. Explore the ancient Roman Hippodrome
with Egyptian Obelisk and Serpentine Column. Finally, stop off at
the dazzling Grand Bazaar with over 4000 shops. Drop off to hotel.
Overnight in Istanbul. Including: Breakfast
Day 3: Istanbul.
Pick up from your hotel to visit the bustling Spice Market - a
colourful bazaar heaped with various sweets and spices. Stop into
the beautifully tiled tiny Rustem Pasha Mosque before taking a
relaxing Bosphorus boat cruise between the continents of Europe and
Asia - gliding past Dolmabahce and Beylerbeyi Palaces, ornate wooden
Ottoman mansions and mosques, Rumeli Fortress and the Bosphorus
Bridge. Free afternoon at your leisure. Drop off to hotel.
Overnight
in Istanbul. Including: Breakfast
Day 4: Ankara.
Pick up in the morning and drive to Ankara, where you can stroll the
streets of the old quarter and the Ankara Citadel, before visiting
the Mausoleum of Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic in 1923.
Later you will have time to admire the magnificent treasures of the
Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, where Neolithic frescoes, Bronze
Age emblems, Hittite objects and the remains of the fabled Phrygian
King Midas are exhibited. Overnight in Ankara. Including: Breakfast.
Day 5: Cappadocia.
Pick up in the morning for Cappadocia. Explore Devrent and Monk's
Valley, to see the extraordinary mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles or
'fairy chimneys'. Continue on to the small village of Avanos, famous
for clay pottery design. After lunch, proceed to the Goreme Open Air
Museum, featuring the most impressive rock-carved churches and
Byzantine frescoes in all Cappadocia. Finally enjoy a view of the
moonscape valleys from the rock-perched natural citadel at Uchisar.
Drop off to hotel.
Overnight in Cappadocia. Including: Breakfast.
Day 6: Cappadocia.
Pick up from your hotel to and start with a gentle hike through
orchards, unusual volcanic rock formations and rock-cut houses at
Red & Rose Valley, (approx. 5km). Visit the old Christian Village of
Cavusin, followed by lunch and then an excursion to Pigeon Valley.
In the afternoon, visit Kaymakli Underground City, which hid local
Christians from Arab invaders, Ortahisar Castle and Mustafapasa
Greek village. Drop off to hotel. Overnight in Cappadocia.
Includes: Including: Breakfast.
Day 7: Adana.
Pick up in the morning and drive to Tarsus, the birthplace of St.
Paul, and cultural centre of the Roman and Byzantine Empires, later
controlled by Arabs, Crusaders and Mamelukes. Drive through the
Taurus Mountains and visit St. Paul's Arch, the Well of the Blessed
Water (said to be on the site of St. Pauls house) and Cleopatra's
Gate (built in 2 AD after the Egyptian queen who met the Roman Mark
Anthony here). Overnight in Adana. 
Including: Breakfast.
Day 8: Adana.
Antakya Region Tour Biblical Antioch-on-Orantes and third largest
city in the old Roman Empire. Here Barnabas brought Paul to join in
the congregation's ministry for the first sustained efforts to bring
non-Jews into the Christian community, calling the first converts
Christians. Visit the town of Samandag, once the ancient biblical
port of Seleucia ad Piera serving Antioch. See the Grotto of St.
Peter - a little cave church where early Christians secretly met for
prayer, the Titus Water Tunnel and the exquisite Roman mosaics on
display at the Mosaic Museum. Overnight in Adana. Including: Breakfast.
Day 9: Konya.
Pick up in the morning for Konya, from which St. Paul and St.
Barnabas were forced to flee due
to
persecution. Centuries later, it became the focus for the Whirling
Dervishes' mystical order, under the founding Mevlana or master
Sufi philosopher. Visit the Whirling Dervish Museum and Monastery,
which houses the sacred silver and gold decorated Tomb of the
Mevlana. Nearby, you will visit the beautiful hill-perched Syrian
and Selcuk style Alaeddin Mosque and its unique medrese with tiled
dome of stars, hunting friezes and ceramic collection. Overnight in
Konya. Including: Breakfast.
Day 10: Antalya.
Pick up in the morning for Yalvac, site of the ancient city
Antioch-in-Pisidia near the foothills of the snow capped Sultan
Mountains. It was here in a local synagogue that St. Pauls sermon
presenting Jesus in light of Israel's history to a mixed audience
was recorded. See the ruins of the paved and colonnaded streets,
theatre and aqueduct. In the afternoon, drive to Antalya, a coastal
resort town with picturesque old quarter, shopping bazaars and
natural yachting harbour. Overnight in Antalya. Including: Breakfast.
Day 11: Antalya.
Pick up in the morning for an excursion to the ancient city of Perge
- a Pamphylian city where St. Paul later preached after arriving
from Cyprus. Walk through the Roman Gate and down the Colonnaded
Avenue past the Agora, Baths, Hippodrome and Aqueduct terminating at
the Nymphaeum or
great
fountain. This is followed by a visit to the Aspendos Theatre, a
gigantic 2nd century Roman design so well preserved that it is still
in use today. Continue on to the ancient city of Side and the Temple
of Apollo, at whose ancient port landed St. Paul, Barnabas & Mark
during their missionary journeys, en route to Antioch. Overnight in
Antalya. Including: Breakfast.
Day 12: Pamukkale.
Pick up in the morning for Pamukkale or 'Cotton Castle', famous for
the healing propertie
s
of its thermal mineral baths and beautiful cascading snow-white
terraced cliff side basins and waterfalls. After lunch, visit the
ancient Roman city ruins of Hierapolis, where St. Philip the Apostle
was martyred in 1AD. See the magnificently preserved Necropolis,
Avenue of Tombs, Gates, Thermal Baths, Devil's Hole and the
Masterpiece Theatre. Drop off to hotel for a leisurely bath in the
hot spring pool of your hotel. Overnight in Pamukkale. Including: Breakfast.
Day 13: Kusadasi.
Pick up in the morning to visit Eskihisar, site of the ancient city
of Laodicea. It ranked among
the Seven Churches of Asia, to which St. John addressed his letter
concerning the citys faith and its waning progress. This is
followed by a tour of one of Turkey's most beautiful ancient cities
- Aphrodisias, renowned for its intricate stone friezes and
aesthetic architecture. See the Temple of Aphrodite, the monumental
Tetra Pylon Gateway, the ancient Gladiator Stadium and many delicate
carvings and sculptures in the onsite museum. Overnight in Kusadasi.
Including: Breakfast.
Day 14: Izmir.
Pick up from your hotel. Visit the House of Virgin Mary, where she
is said to have spent her final years. Continue on to the marble
white ancient city of Ephesus, where St. Paul's Third Jo
urney
involved a long ministry. See spectacularly restored monuments such
as the great Library of Celsus, Agora, Odeon, Trajan Fountain,
Domitianus Temple, Roman Latrines, Theatre and Stadium in which St.
Paul preached the gospel. Following a lunch break in Selcuk, visit
the Archaeology Museum and St. John's Basilica, a Byzantine church
ruin marking his burial place. Also stop-off at the picturesque
Sirince village. Drop off to hotel. Overnight in Izmir. Including: Breakfast.
Day 15: Izmir.
Pick up in the morning for an excursion to the Church of St.
Policarp in Izmir, one of the Seven Churches of the Apocalypse. This
is followed by a visit to Sardis - the capital of the ancient
kingdom of Lydia. Walk the Royal Avenue and see the site of one of
the Seven Churches built on the foundations of the Temple of
Artemis. Then proceed to the ancient Philadelphia Church at Alasehir
and one of the last cities to fall to the Ottomans. Overnight in
Izmir. Including: Breakfast.
Day 16: Canakkale.
Pick up in the morning for Akhisar to visit the Church of ancient
Thyatira, one of the Seven Churches, set in an ancient commercial
town with strong ties to Troy and Sardes. This is followed by a
visit to the hill-perched Acropolis, Asclepion (hospital), Altar of
Zeus and other pagan temples of ancient Pergamum at Bergama. Also
see the church ruins at the site of ancient Serapium and the Red
Court of St. John. Drive to Canakkale. Overnight in Canakkale.
Including: Breakfast.
Day 17: Istanbul.
Pick up in the morning for the ancient city of Troy. Following a
lunch break en-route, visit the archaeological site of this 5000
years old city, scene of the legendary Trojan War as described in
Homer's Iliad. See a reconstruction of the fabled Wooden Horse, the
city ruins from a succession of 9 civilizations, the Roman
Bouletarion, Theatre and onsite Museum. St. Paul travelled through
the southern city of Troas nearby here several times. After the
tour, continue to drive back to
Istanbul.
Overnight in Istanbul. Including: Breakfast
Day 18: Departure.
Free Day. Depart from Istanbul / Additional nights in Istanbul.
Including: Breakfast
INCLUDING
- 17
Nights, 4 Star or 5 Star Hotel Accommodation including breakfast.
- All sightseeing tours as described in the
itinerary.
- Travel Insurance.
- All Entrance Fees.
- All admission fees to the visited sites.
- Biblical expert English speaking professional tour guide.
- All meals as stated in the itinerary. Breakfast.
-
Transportation with New brand Mercedes Luxury Van.
- All Taxes
and service fees.
EXCLUDING
- Any
tips to guide.
- Driver or staff at hotels.
- Items of a
personal nature.
- Drinks with meals (except the drinks served
with breakfast) and medical services.