Istanbul to Antalya overland — Greek and Roman cities almost nobody visits, a stretch of the Lycian Way on foot, and a coast that had an entirely different civilisation on it.
Istanbul
Sultanahmet in the morning — Hagia Sophia, the Cistern — then across to Karaköy and up through Galata. Two nights minimum and it will not be enough.
Istanbul, the other side
A ferry to Kadıköy on the Asian shore for the market and the food, then back at dusk. The commuter ferry is the best two euros in the city.
To Selçuk
Overnight bus or a flight to İzmir and a train down. Selçuk is a small town at the gates of Ephesus and a far better base than Kuşadası.
Ephesus
At opening, before the cruise coaches from Kuşadası. Pay extra for the terrace houses — mosaic floors and frescoed walls under a modern roof, and almost empty.
Priene, Miletus, Didyma
Three Ionian cities in a day, with a fraction of the visitors. Priene is the one to linger in: a Hellenistic grid city on a terrace with the plain below.
To Pamukkale
Inland by bus. Go up to the travertines late in the afternoon when the day trips have gone, and walk barefoot up the terraces as required.
Hierapolis and Aphrodisias
The Roman city on top of the terraces in the morning, then Aphrodisias — a marble-carving city with a stadium for 30,000 that receives a rounding error of Ephesus' visitors.
To Fethiye
South-west to the coast. Fethiye is a working town with a good market and the ruins of Kayaköy above it — a Greek village emptied in the 1923 population exchange and never reoccupied.
Kayaköy and Ölüdeniz
Walk through the empty village, then over the hill to the lagoon. Paraglide off Babadağ if the idea appeals; it is one of the better places in the world for it.
Lycian Way: Faralya to Kabak
Onto the trail above Butterfly Valley. Waymarked in red and white, steep in places, and with the sea a long way down on the right.
Lycian Way: Kabak to Alınca
The high section, with the best views of the whole route. Carry water — there is little between villages.
To Kaş
Off the trail and along the coast. Kaş is a diving and kayaking town built over a Lycian necropolis, with sarcophagi standing in the middle of the streets.
Kekova
Kayak over the sunken city at Kekova — walls and stairways under three metres of clear water, drowned by an earthquake in the second century.
Olympos and out
East to the ruins in the trees at Olympos and the Chimaera flames above them, burning methane that has been alight since antiquity. Then Antalya airport.
Good to know
April–June and September–October are right; July and August on this coast are very hot and the Lycian Way sections become genuinely unpleasant. Intercity buses are the backbone — comfortable, frequent, with assigned seats and tea service; book through the company or an app rather than at the stand. The Lycian Way is waymarked but not signposted with distances; carry the Kate Clow guide or an offline GPX. A Museum Pass Turkey pays for itself within about four sites on this route.
Shorter or longer?
Fly or take a night bus inland for three or four days of rock churches and balloons. It is the other half of what people come to Türkiye for.
Give ten days to the Lycian Way from Fethiye to Kaş with village stays. The ruins will still be there next time.