The “Express Train Tour Card,” which costs 150 Turkish Liras, is valid for one month on super-express trains such as Başkent, Cumhuriyet and Fatih, as well as the blue train, express, regional express, rail bus and normal urban trains. For 500 liras, the “Compartment Train Tour Card” is valid for all trains on the Express Train Tour Card and also allows free rides for three days on train compartments with beds, with everything included.

The “High Speed Train Travel Card,” which costs 200 liras for students and 300 liras for all other passengers, is valid for one month on all trains in Turkey, with the exception of sleeper compartments.

A ride from Kapıkule to Kars
There are 42 provinces in Turkey where one can travel by train. The Eskişehir Express, leaving from Haydarpaşa Station in Istanbul at 7:10 a.m., offers the chance to discover Eskişehir’s museums of aviation and archeology as well as the Odunpazarı, Kurşunlu and Alaaddin mosques. From Eskişehir, train routes continue on to İzmir, Afyon, Konya, Adana, Ankara, Kayseri, Sivas, Erzurum, Kars, Diyarbakır, Tatvan and Kurtalan.

Travelers who stop off in Ankara can visit Atatürk’s mausoleum, the Anatolian Civilizations Museum, the Ethnography Museum, Beypazarı and Kızılcahamam. From the capital, one can continue on to Zonguldak and Karabük, Adana, Malatya or Kars on the rails. The “Güney,” or Van Gölü Express, leaves early in the morning and reaches Kayseri after midday. It is possible to leave for Sivas late in the evening without spending the night in Kayseri. The central city’s sights include the Ulu Mosque, Kale Mosque, Meydan Mosque, the Madrassa with Twin Minarets, Gök Madrassa, the Congress Museum, bridges, Turkish baths and inns. The Erzurum Express leaving from Sivas leads to Erzincan, home to plenty of historical monuments, including artifacts dating back to the Neolithic Age.

The Eastern Express or Erzurum Express may be used to travel to Kars to visit the Ani excavation site 42 kilometers away. Both of the express trains to Kars go back to Sivas, from where Samsun may be reached via the regional express. After visiting the city of Samsun, which was founded in the 7th century B.C., Amasya makes a nice stop on the way back to Sivas.

The provinces that can be visited with the new train cards include Istanbul, Edirne, Eskişehir, Ankara, Zonguldak, Kayseri, İzmir, Manisa, Adana, Mersin, Hatay, Gaziantep, Konya, Diyarbakır and Mardin.

 International Istanbul Music Festival

The 37th International Istanbul Music Festival, which runs from tomorrow, June 5, through June 30, is bringing top international and Turkish classical musicians to the city’s stages and providing ticket holders with a rare chance to meet and greet some of the artists before the shows.

Among the big names participating this year are the German violin virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter, in concert with Lynn Harrell and Sir André Previn; the Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez, who The New York Times wrote is “fluent in scales, runs and fancywork far beyond Pavarotti’s comfort zone”; and, on the festival’s last night, the Argentine conductor and soloist Daniel Barenboim, leading La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra of Milan in Beethoven and Berlioz.

These concerts are a great opportunity to treat the eyes as well as the ears by getting a glimpse inside some of Istanbul’s most interesting musical venues, each with its own fascinating back story. There’s the Sureyya Opera House in Kadikoy, for example, built in the 1920s just after the birth of the modern Turkish Republic and inspired by the Champs-Elysee Theater in Paris, or the Aya Irini, commissioned in the fourth century as the first church built in Constantinople.

In the meet-the-artist series, ticket holders will have a chance to speak with some of the younger musical sensations, including the willowy Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta, or the former child prodigy Han-Na Chang of South Korea, also a cellist. Both sessions take place in the cloisters of the Aya Irini.

And if classical music isn’t your thing, be patient. Watch this site for the rundown on highlights for the city’s jazz festival, running from July 2 to 15 — as well as info on upcoming Istanbul gigs from Leonard Cohen, Santana and Loreena McKennitt.

Performances:
Opening Concert
Baroque Trumpet Gala
Concerts at the Palace – I
Festival Encounters – I
Voice of the Heart
Reflections on Bach
A Baroque Feast
Festival Encounters – II
Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra & Juan Diego Flórez
Mutter, Harrell, Previn
Young Legend Han-Na Chang
The English Concert
Concerts at the Palace – II
Play Bach 50th Anniversary
Dances of Centuries
Queens
Encounters Around Cello
Filarmonica Della Scala & Daniel Barenboim

[Source: NYTimes.com]

Four Seasons Istanbul

Virtually every guidebook and magazine article about Istanbul says the nightmarish prison depicted in the movie “Midnight Express” is now a Four Seasons Hotel. Almost, but not quite. The luxury hotel is indeed a former jail, and a notorious one at that, but not the one where Billy Hayes, the subject of “Midnight Express,” was incarcerated. And rather than hide from its past, the 65-room, neoclassical Four Seasons celebrates it. It will be the first to tell you that the courtyard is the jail’s old exercise yard. A former inmate’s scribbled pleadings remain on an old marble pillar, and the rooms – expanded former cells – retain their tiny windows and brass rings.

Details:
Four Seasons Istanbul at Sultanahmet
Address: Tevkifhane Sokak No. 1, Sultanahmet-Eminönü, Istanbul, Turkey, 34110
Tel: +90-212-402-30-00
Website: www.fourseasons.com/istanbul
Rates: May 1-Oct 31 begin at 400 euros (U.S. $540)

Source: SFGate.com

Cappadocia Elkep Evi

Cappadocia Elkep Evi Cave Hotel is a complex of three 7-room bed and breakfast pensions and a 2-bedroom suite clustered together and managed jointly to maintain the intimacy of a small hotel in Cappadocia. The hotel offers cave rooms with modern facilities ideally located near the top of Esbelli, the hill above the town of Urgup in Cappadocia.

Accomodation:
Prices include daily Turkish breakfast at Hilltop, in the garden or salon. Most rooms include a private terrace with panoramic views of Cappadocia overlooking the town of Urgup and the adjacent Goreme National Park. Hotel rooms are en suite, with wood floors, central heating and direct dial telephone. Boutique Hotel services include daily breakfast and housekeeping.

Free extras: CD-player, electric waterboiler with different teas and literature in different languages.
Laundry service, fax and internet access are available.

Hiltop Garden
Enjoy your daily breakfast and an unparalleled view of Cappadocia from the garden at Hilltop. The traditional Turkish breakfast includes home-made gozleme (a savoury Turkish pastry), olives, cheese, fresh bread, an assortment of jams, freshly squeezed orange juice and tea or coffee. Hotel Dinner can be served in the garden upon request.

Location:
The hotel is located in the town of Urgup on the edge of Goreme National Park in the central Anatolian tableland known as Cappadocia. Goreme National Park and the rock sites of Cappadocia were inscribed on the list of World Heritage Sites as a mixed property of both cultural and natural significance with the UNESCO World Heritage Center in 1985.

Getting there:
By air: One hour plane ride from Istanbul to Kayseri. Less than one hour drive to Urgup.

By car: Eight hours from Istanbul to Ürgüp or 3.5 hours from Ankara.

By bus: Overnight bus (10 hours) from Istanbul to Ürgüp or 4 hour bus ride from Ankara.

Coming from Ürgüp town centre and bus station (“Centrum”): Take the road to Nevsehir for 5 minutes, turn right after the Turasan Winery, 200 yards up the hill (bearing right) to Elkep Evi cave Hotel.

Urgup Map

 Contact Information:

Elkep Evi Cave Hotel, Eski Turban Oteli Arkasi No: 26
(P.K. 70)
50400 Urgup Cappadocia TURKEY
Phone: +90 384 341 6000
Fax: +90 384 341 8089
E-Mail: info@elkepevi.com

Things to do:
Guided walks and hikes:
Walk through vineyards and fruit orchards surrounded by the surreal Cappadocian landscape to centuries-old Christian monasteries, cave churches and chapels on your own or with a guide to explain the Byzantine iconography still found on many of the cave walls or Cappadocian legends and customs. Or stroll around the hilltop behind the hotel for a 360 degree panoramic view of Cappadocia. Excursions to the Goreme Open Air Museum, Ihlara Valley, Soganli, Zelve, Cavusin and Derinkuyu to name just a few of the more famous sights of Cappadocia, can be arranged by the hotel.

Hot air ballooning:
Glide silently over the Cappadocian landscape, including Love Valley, and skim the tops of apricot trees at dawn.You will be greeted with a glass a champagne upon your return to land after this most exhilarating experience.

Horseback riding:
“Cappadocia” is said to come from the Persian meaning “Land of the Beautiful Horses”. If you are not a walker or just prefer to ride, an hour or day on the back of a Cappadocian mare or stallion can be arranged.,

Hamam (Turkish bath):
The local hamam in Ürgüp serves both men and women in a historical building. Treat yourself to a luxurious soaping, steam bath and massage after a hard day of walking.

Snow skiing:
Cappadocia covered in snow presents a different landscape. If the snow is too deep for walking, we can arrange the 1.5 hour drive to the Mt. Erciyes (Mt. Argeus) ski resort outside Kayseri.

Rates for 2009:
Single Cave Room: 55 Euro
Double Cave Room: 75 Euro
Triple Cave Room: 95 Euro
Single Cave Room with jaccuzzi: 80 Euro
Double Cave Room with jaccuzzi: 100 Euro
Single Cave Room with jaccuzzi(Suite): 100 Euro
Double Cave Room with jaccuzzi(Suite): 120 Euro
Single Cave Room with Turkish Bath: 100 Euro
Double Cave Room with Turkish Bath: 120 Euro
Single Cave Room with Turkish Bath(Suite): 140 Euro
Double Cave Room with Turkish Bath(Suite): 160 Euro

Children less Than 6 years old are free of charge!

All rooms have en suite bathrooms, direct dial telephone, French or twin beds.
The above rates are on bed & breakfast basis per night and include applicable taxes and surcharges.

Click here for online reservation