After comparing several tour itineraries, packages and tours, I decided to explore the country of Turkey on my own with my family. The cost of the trip per person for 8 nights / 9 Days came upto 75K INR and this was inclusive of Flights, Visa, 3/4* Hotel stay (very close to all tourist places), vegetarian lunch & dinners, walking tours (Istanbul), ferry & Metro rides, taxi rides to airport and everything else (except shopping). So here’s a Turkey 9 day tour expense summary , that helps you budget a trip for your family at the lowest possible cost and also strictly avoid tour packages of any kind
Visa
India has 4 centres to apply for a Turkey tourist visa (Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkatta). However you have only option based on your jurisdiction and has to go through VFS who’ll internally send it across to the respective centre. Cost of Tourist Visa was around 4000 and Cost of VFS Processing Fees was 4500 . So totally 8500 INR . Allow yourself atleast 40-45 days to receive the visa from date of submission, esp for the Mumbai Jurisdiction.
Schedule an appointment by calling this no : 022 67866029
If you’re a US or a Schengen visa holder, the process becomes much more easier with just applying for a sticker visa online, else you need to opt in for the normal Tourist Visa, which is granted for three months from date of issue.
Currency & Exchange
Turkish’s national currency is Liras. 1 Lira is roughly 13.2 INR.
However Turkish Liras are not available directly in India and you have to get Euros and once you land in Istanbul convert it to Liras in a local foreign exchange store.
However be wise to convert only what you need as if you are left with a lot of Liras at the end of your trip, conversion back to Euros in a Forex shop might be at a loss for you.
Top Cities to Cover in Turkey
Turkey is a huge country with plenty of cities to cover. The top cities that you should definitely include in your itinerary would be as follows
- Istanbul (3 days / 3 nights)
- Cappadocia (3 nights/2 days)
- Antalya ( 1 night/ 2 days)
- Pamukkale (1 night/1 day) ( or can be done as a day tour from Antalya or Izmir )
- Izmir-Ephesus (1 night/1 day)
Total no of days needed: 9 nights / 9 days ( including the start and end day of travel). The no of days mentioned above is the least amount of time needed to cover the cities. Eg : 3 days is a bare minimum to cover a city as huge as Istanbul
To put it simply, start from Istanbul , go to Cappadoccia (flight), third go to Antalya(via Flight), and finally go to Izmir(Via flight) as a final stop. From Izmir , visit Epheseus on Day 1(train from Izmir) and Pamukkale on Day 2(train from Izmir) and return to Izmir on the same night. Fly back to Istanbul to Izmir for your flight back home.
Turkey Tour Itinerary
If you are looking for Turkey tour itinerary, you can check out the individual city itineraries here
Expense Summary
| Activity Description | Price in INR |
| Attraction Entrance Tickets & Walking Tours | 17,068 |
| Domestic Flights (4 flights overall) | 7,194 |
| Food (Lunch & Dinner) for 8 Nights | 3,352 |
| Hotel (8 Nights) | 10,273 |
| International Flights ( Return ticket from Blr) | 22,500 |
| Transportation (Tram,Taxi,Bus,Ferri,Metro) | 6,609 |
| Visa | 8,500 |
| Grand Total | 75,497 |
Turkey Cost of Living
(1 Turkish Lira = 13.2 INR)
| Item | Turkish Lira | INR |
| Tea | 4 | 52 |
| Coffee | 5 | 65 |
| Tshirt | 30 | 390 |
| Metro / Tram / Ferry Ride | 2.5 | 32.5 |
| Istanbul Kart | 6 | 78 |
| Water Bottle | 2 | 26 |
| Vegetarian Lunch/Dinner | 25 | 325 |
| 15 day All Museum Pass for Entire Turkey | 315 | 4095 |
| Simit (Bagel) | 5 | 65 |
Turkey Tour Packages Comparison
| Description | Self Tour | ThomasCook | SOTC | TripFactory & Other similar Tour Packages |
| Price | 75,000 | 1,50,000 | 1,44,000 | 134,000 |
| Incl of Intl Flights & Visa | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| # Nights | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| # Days in Istanbul | 3 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| Meals Included (Lunch & Dinner) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Internal Domestic Flights | Yes | Partly Bus/Partly Flights | Partly Bus/Partly Flights | No |
| Includes International Flight? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Stay in a Cave Room Suite in Cappadocia | Yes | No | No | No |
| Price includes all attractions & Leisure time activity costs | Yes | No | No | No |
| Enouh time to explore all important attractions | Yes | No | No | No |
| Cities Covered | Istanbul, Capadocia, Antalya, Izmir-Epheseus, Pamukkale | Istanbul, Capadocia, Antalya, Pamukkale | Istanbul, Capadocia, Antalya, Pamukkale | Istanbul, Capadocia, Epheseus, Pamukkale |
Disclaimer on above pricing comparison : The pricing for self is based on my actual expenses to Turkey travelled in the last month of October. The total price for a Turkey 9 Days tour may vary depending on the cost of Airfare which contributes to a significant chunk of the expense and the no of days you stay, the cities you want to cover
Price quotes from ThomasCook, SOTC and other tour operators were obtained, inclusive of GST, . These turkey tour itinerary was studied in detail compared only post that in Nov 2019. The price mentioned in the above table for other tour companies is the least price mentioned for their tours in their respective websites. The pricing was obtained from the below links:
If you have any queries requiring a Turkey tour itinerary for your family, do drop me a comment or mail me at hkmurali@gmail.com . Meanwhile, do check out my Istanbul 3 day itinerary here !
Thomas cook was counting on your buying package and you made them go bankrupt!
The Indian operations are going just fine i guess
Pretty informative article Karthik. Like I said earlier too, I’ve had a foreign trip yet, I’ll surely get in touch with you and Shrnidhi for my first one.
Awesome Atul