Gallipoli Tour From Istanbul: 2 Days With Troy and Canakkale

Included and Not Included

The listing includes hotel pickup and drop-off, one night of accommodation with breakfast (BB), a professional guide, lunch and breakfast. That is the whole list. Drinks are not included at meals.

Gratuities are not included, and Turkish guides commonly receive about 10 to 15 percent of the tour cost if you choose to tip. Asian-side hotel pickups and drop-offs are excluded, so if you sleep in Kadikoy or somewhere east of the Bosphorus you should ask the operator how to join, since only European-side hotels are covered, and the Marmaray rail tunnel under the Bosphorus is one way to cross. There is no balloon flight on this tour, no domestic flights, and the listing states no entrance fees as included.

Bring comfortable walking shoes for the battlefields.

Rooms and Free Time

Accommodation is double or twin share for 2 people. If you travel alone you book a single room separately, and the listing does not state a single supplement amount, so confirm it with the operator before booking. The half day of free time in Canakkale is your own: the Troy Museum, which opened in 2018, and the Canakkale waterfront are the usual ways to spend it.

The Troy ruins and the museum are sold on separate tickets and sources disagree on the museum price, so check current prices before you go.

Day 1, Istanbul to the Battlefields

Pickup starts roughly 30 to 60 minutes before the listed departure time at your European-side Istanbul hotel. From there the drive runs west by road. One source puts Istanbul to Canakkale at 318 km and about 5 hours including the ferry crossing, and other estimates differ, so plan on a long day on the road either way.

The route crosses the Dardanelles by ferry. The listing does not name the crossing, but the Eceabat to Canakkale ferry takes about 25 minutes, with boats sailing hourly from 07:00 to midnight and extra summer sailings every half hour. Lunch is included in the price.

The guide walks you through the landing beaches, Lone Pine, Chunuk Bair, the 57th Regiment Memorial and the intact WW1 tunnels and trenches. The Gallipoli campaign ran from 19 February 1915 to 9 January 1916, and Allied casualties were 252,000 to 300,000 against Ottoman losses of 255,268 to 289,160. The night stops at a hotel in Canakkale with breakfast included.

Day 2, Canakkale, Troy and Back

Day 2 holds Troy and half a day of free time in Canakkale, and the listing does not fix their order. The Troy site lies about 30 km south of Canakkale, roughly 35 minutes by road, and excavations began there in 1871 under Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann. UNESCO inscribed Troy in 1998.

The ruins open 08:30 to 17:30 daily with the box office closing at 17:00. The return trip runs east by road with the Dardanelles crossing in reverse, and the tour ends with drop-off at your Istanbul hotel. The listing does not state a return time and notes that transfer durations are approximate and depend on traffic.

Asian-side Travellers and Single Rooms

If your hotel is on the Asian side of Istanbul, this listing excludes your pickup and drop-off, so either move to a European-side hotel for the night before or book a different arrangement. Solo travellers must book a single room separately, and the supplement amount is not stated. The listing groups travellers as infants 0 to 2, children 3 to 6 and adults 7 to 99 and states no minimum age.

Infants must sit on an adult's lap and small children can ride in a pram or stroller.

The Road, the Group and the Weather

There are no flights. You spend about 5 hours on the road to Canakkale including the ferry, plus a long road leg back, so if a long coach day rules this out, look instead at a fly-in route such as the 2-day private Pamukkale and Ephesus tour, which uses domestic flights to reach the Aegean. The shared group takes up to 30 people, so this is not a private trip, and the exact duration of transfers depends on traffic.

The operator can cancel the tour for bad weather, and you can cancel free up to 24 hours before departure. Anyone wanting Cappadocia, cave hotels or a balloon should read the 2-day Cappadocia trip with flights and cave hotel instead, because this tour never goes there.

Reaching Istanbul

Istanbul Airport opened in 2019 and is the Turkish Airlines hub, serving the European side where this tour picks up. Sabiha Gokcen Airport opened in 2001 and serves the Asian side, which is exactly the side this tour does not collect from, so land at Istanbul Airport if you can and stay in a European-side hotel. The listing does not state distances or transfer times from either airport to the city centre.

An Istanbulkart works on buses, metro, trams and ferries if you explore on your own, and domestic carriers including Turkish Airlines and Pegasus cover most routes in Turkey if you extend the trip.

Adding Days Around the Tour

The tour is only 2 days, so you may want to add Istanbul sightseeing before or after. The private 1 to 3 day Istanbul tour with a licensed guide covers the old city, palaces and bazaars with a flexible pickup point, and you can read the guide to the best time to visit Turkey before fixing dates. For more ruins after Gallipoli, the 2-day private Pamukkale and Ephesus trip linked above flies to the Aegean and covers Hierapolis and Ephesus, which this tour skips entirely.

Istanbul mean highs are about 19.9 C in October against 28.0 C in July, and Turkish school holidays from mid-June to mid-September add coastal crowds. Spring and autumn are also the recommended months for Pamukkale if you pair the trips.

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