Turkey: Istanbul & Cappadocia
SILK THREAD
This journey travels through Turkey using one of its oldest languages: textile art, as a way to understand the world, the land, and everyday life.
September 19 to 27, 2026
This journey travels through Turkey using one of its oldest languages: textile art, as a way to understand the world, the land, and everyday life.
The experience begins in Cappadocia, a region where wool, weaving and woven symbols have accompanied communities for centuries. Here, the journey visits family workshops and cooperatives where carpets and kilims remain a living archive of local culture. Each visit and workshop allows you to see how colors, knots, and patterns tell stories of origin, protection, identity, and belonging.
The route continues in Istanbul, a city shaped by the meeting of civilizations. In its bazaars, museums, and neighborhoods, the central role of traditional crafts in the trade, spiritual, and cultural routes that shaped Turkey comes to life. Here, tradition and the present coexist, showing how ancestral knowledge continues to adapt and be passed down.
Joining this journey means taking part in this cultural continuity: observing, learning, and understanding how textile crafts have sustained communities, economies, and memories —and why they remain essential today.
Itinerary
Day 1: CAPPADOCIA
- Arrival at Kayseri Erkilet Airport (ASR), Cappadocia, Turkey
- Transfer to central Cappadocia
- Check-in at the hotel
- Welcome lunch
- Group integration activity
- Dinner on your own
Day 2: CAPPADOCIA
- Breakfast
- Local carpet workshop (kilim technique)
- Love Valley
- Visit to Avanos
- Dinner on your own
Day 3: CAPPADOCIA
- Breakfast
- Carpet workshop
- Historical Saruhan Caravansaries on the Silk Road
- Kaymaklı Underground City
- Pigeon Valley
- Dinner on your own
Day 4: CAPPADOCIA
- Sunrise hot air balloon ride
- Breakfast
- Mini traditional embroidery workshop
- Rest of the day free
- Dinner on your own
Day 5: CAPPADOCIA / ISTAMBUL
- Breakfast in Cappadocia
- Flight to Istanbul
- Hotel check-in
- Walking tour of the Grand Bazaar
- Dinner on your own
Day 6: ISTANBUL
- Breakfast
- Ebru (marbling) workshop
- Explore the other side of Istanbul—the parts off the usual tourist path: Kadıköy / Moda, discovering contemporary textile design shops
- Visit Üsküdar / Kuzguncuk (artistic neighborhood)
- Dinner on your own
Day 7: ISTANBUL
- Breakfast
- Surprise workshop (a Turkish specialty)
- Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts
- Visit to the mosques
- Dinner on your own
Day 8: ISTANBUL / BURSA
- Travel by ferry or fast bus to Bursa (1.5–2 hours from Istanbul)
- Visit Koza Han (Silk Caravanserai)
- Cumalıkızık (historic village, UNESCO World Heritage site)
- Return to Istanbul
- Dinner on your own
Day 9: ISTANBUL
- Breakfast
- Morning at the Spice Bazaar
- Farewell lunch
- End of the journey
TURKEY TRIPS DETAILS
COST INCLUDES
- 8 nights of accommodation
- Meals (Breakfasts and Lunches)
- Ground transfers as per the program
- Domestic flights required for the itinerary
- Workshops mentioned in the program (textile techniques)
- Historical visits and tours mentioned in the program
- Museum visits mentioned in the program
- Experiences mentioned in the program
- Activities mentioned in the program
- Visits to the most iconic Silk Road cities in Turkey
ADDITIONAL EXPENSES
- International flights to and from Turkey
- Alcoholic beverages
- Activities not mentioned or described in the program
- Travel insurance
CARBON EMISSIONS OFFSET
We’ve partnered with Saving the Amazon to plant 8 trees on your behalf to offset the carbon emissions from your trip to Turkey.
EXPERIENCE LEVEL
No prior experience is required to join this trip. No knowledge of language is necessary, as our team of hosts will provide translation to english and spanish as needed. We will provide support for all guests.
GROUP
This trip is limited to 12 guests and will be accompanied by 2 Puntos de Conexión trip facilitators.
PRICING AND PAYMENT
Private room: €4,500 per person
Shared room: €3,800 per person
A non-refundable deposit of 30% of your accommodation cost is required to reserve your space. The remaining balance can be paid at your convenience, at least 60 days before the trip start date. Custom payment plans are available upon request. Please contact us if you would like to set one up.
KILIM WEAVING
CARPET WEAVING - LOCAL TECHNIQUE
A Kilim is an ancient flatwoven textile technique, made without knots, unlike knotted carpets. It is woven on a vertical or horizontal loom by interlacing weft and warp threads, creating a lightweight, reversible, and structurally stable surface. Color changes are achieved by stopping and restarting the weft in different areas, resulting in the sharp-edged, geometric, and colorful forms characteristic of kilim weaving.
Kilim motifs are not purely decorative; they function as a symbolic language developed over centuries. Shapes such as diamonds, hooks, stars, and lines can represent protection, fertility, journeys, unity, or family identity. Traditionally woven for everyday use—floors, walls, coverings, or bags—kilims carry personal and communal stories. Learning Kilim weaving in Turkey means engaging with a living heritage rooted in daily life and collective knowledge. The practice cultivates patience and respect for process, revealing kilims as vessels of history and cultural continuity.
EBRU MARBLING
WHIT LOCAL ARTIST NILÜFER MUTLU
Ebru is an ancient Turkish marbling technique in which color pigments float on the surface of prepared water and are gently guided by hand into patterns before being transferred onto paper or fabric. Rather than being imposed, each design results from the movement, timing, and balance of the maker’s hand, producing fluid, organic, non-reproducible forms.
Practicing Ebru introduces a different relationship with making—one grounded in stillness, attention, embodiment and the acceptance of chance. Because the interaction between water and color cannot be fully controlled, the process teaches restraint and presence, where each gesture must be intentional yet open. Learning Ebru in Turkey allows participants to experience marbling not as a fixed outcome, but as a practice shaped by time, rhythm, and the quiet dialogue between hand, body, water, and color.
CAPPADOCIA
Cappadocia is one of Anatolia’s oldest continuously inhabited regions. Its distinctive landscape was formed over millions of years through volcanic eruptions and erosion. This terrain influenced how civilizations—from the Hittites and Persians to the Romans, Byzantines, and Ottomans—lived and moved through the area. Under Roman and Byzantine rule, Cappadocia developed as an important crossroad, and many of its rock formations were carved into homes, churches, monasteries, and underground cities used for daily life and protection. During early Christianity, the region became a major spiritual center, with rock-cut churches and frescoes that reflect its role as a place of retreat, thought, and artistic expression.
Today, Cappadocia’s relevance lies in the deep connection between land, culture and tradition. Rural life, agriculture, and craft practices— weaving and wool—have shaped local identity for centuries and continue to be practiced today. As dawn breaks, hot air balloons rise over the valleys, offering a unique perspective of the landscape and symbolizing the region’s relationship between earth and sky.
Cappadocia is a living landscape where adaptation, memory, and cultural continuity are woven into everyday life, revealing how communities have learned to live in close dialogue with their environment.
Book your spot today
Choose how to secure your spot in our exclusive residences. Choose private or shared room and make the payment.