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Istanbul is such a magical city; you'll love it! Definitely go to Cappadocia and do a hot air balloon ride, go to one of the underground cities, and check out the open air museum. If you have the time, go to Pamukkale too. Send me a PM if you want hotel recommendations!
Oooh, Turkey is one of my favourite places on earth!!! I LOVED it when I was there! It wasn't for my honeymoon but it was still awesome. There is so much to see in Istanbul - obviously don't miss the main attractions (Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Basilica Cisterns) and just spend some time wandering around the markets and trying food from various little hole in the wall places (if they're crowded with locals, they will have amazing food, guaranteed).
I didn't get to Cappadocia, although it looked pretty awesome. We went down the west coast, stopping to see Gallipoli (the Australian/New Zealand equivalent of our Normandy beaches, just from WWI though). It really is an interesting place and quite moving to see. I'd skip Troy, that was fairly boring and touristy. Pergamum has amazing ancient ruins - and as opposed to Troy, they're actually still in fairly good condition, especially the ampitheatre.
Further down the coast, Kusadasi is a lovely beachside city and a great jumping off point to get to Ephesus, home of the most amazing ancient ruins. The library at Ephesus is one of the wonders of the world if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, it's amazing and well worth a visit if you can get there.
From there, we headed off into the Greek Islands so I can't answer for any other parts of Turkey, but to sum it up - it's an AMAZING country! Fascinating culture, amazing history, gorgeous sites, lovely people, excellent food, and pretty cheap prices for most things. You're going to have an awesome time - enjoy!
I was going to say the same as a pp. We visited kusadasi and ephesus was amazing. Definitely rivaled many European cities for how we preserved it was and how before their time they were. They even depicted the world as round in 1bc!
ooh ooh me! We're not 100% sure, but we're leaning towards a 2-week trip to Greece and Turkey... right now I'm trying to reel in my itinerary a little bit so we're not jumping on a bus or ferry every stinking day. I'm definitely going to check back in on this thread!
I went to Ephasis, but I think that might not be in the same region you intend to hit up. But it was lovely!!!
Turkey is my favorite place on earth! I love Istanbul so, so much. I can't wait to go back someday. I second the other pp's who said the Mosques (like the Blue Mosque and Haggia Sophia) and Tokapi Palace. I also recommend doing a cruise along the sea during the day. There are some amazing buildings that you can see on the coast. Also, the food! So yummy!
Thanks for the recommendations everyone. I am getting so excited to go. My fiance looked into renting a private sailboat and crew for the day. Apparently it is only like $600 (US) per day. Thats not bad concidering it would be $600 per hour anywhere in the U.S. for a private sailboat. That way we can see all the islands and just tell them where we want to go. We are also concidering having Turkish inspired cuisine served at the wedding to sort of let everyone get a taste of our honeymoon. Of course my fiance wants an entire lamb triwling on a spit but I thought this might taint the photos LOL. It sounds like we definietely need to see Ephesus wich I had overlooked in previous planning. We are both interesed in historical ruins. Thank you again ladies. Happy travels.
I spent 2.5 weeks in Izmir back in 2005 and LOVED it. Ephesus was great. And the coastline is just beautiful.
@SuperKate: Yeah we really plan to hit up the coastline. Cities we are very interested in staying in are Bodrum, Anatalya, and Fethiye. But Izmir looks so beautiful too. Thanks!
All of the places you are planning to visit are great! There's so much to see here and I know it can be hard to whittle the list down!
Are you doing all of the planning yourselves? I ask because you can get really cheap domestic air tickets, especially if you book early. For example, there are a few direct Antalya - Kayseri (near Cappadocia) flights going for less than 20USD in June 2012. I depise travelling by bus because it takes so long (8 hours from Istanbul to Izmir or 12 hours to Fethiye or Antalya).
My top places from your list would be Istanbul, Izmir area (for historical Ephesus and the beaches at Çesme), Cappadocia region (worth renting a car to really explore because the area is so spread out; don't miss ones of the many underground cities, hiking the Ihlara Valley, seeing the Göreme Open Air Museum and staying in a cave hotel) and also a Blue Cruise (Mavi Tur).
The Blue Cruises are my favorite! You can spend a few days on a gulet, stopping at hidden swimming coves, tiny islands, cute towns on the shore and amazing historical sites. You can do the Mediterranean or Aegean or even both if you have a lot of time. Jumping into the middle of the sea, sunning and snoozing on the top of the boat, eating really yummy, fresh foods and just enjoying the beautiful backdrop of distant mountains are such wonderful experiences. If you charter for a day, it will be hard to visit many places. On the other hand, if you join a cruise with others you won't have complete privacy - but there will only be 6-10 others (depending on the boat size) with you.
http://www.bluecruisesturkey.com/Cabin_Charters/Fethiye-Olympos.html (this is a link to give an idea of a route; it's also a company I've used twice before - I'm sure there are better/cheaper ones but I had great communication and experiences with this one)
Sorry for the long post, but I love Turkey (I live here!) and wanted to chime in. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll be happy to help. :-)
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I am getting married to the most amazing man in the world on June 23rd, 2012 and then we are flying to Istanbul the next day. I was hoping to get some tips on honeymooning in Turkey from other bees who have done the same or are planning to. Both my fiance and I are looking to step a little outside of our comfort zone. We didn't want your average honeymoon so we chose Turkey. We will be spending three or four days in Istanbul doing all the museums and mosques but then wil spend the next two weeks exploring the Aegean rivieria and Cappadocia to the interior. Any places we absolutely must see....or should definitely avoid? Obviously we aren't planning on hiking at the Iraqi border or visiting near any pollitically unstable areas but we still want to see as much as we can. We are both learning Turkish right now to allow us to interact more with the culture and also to make traveling a little safer and easier.