Where and what to do in Turkey

Welcome to the forum!You want to see everything...in 2 weeks?Dream on my friend dream on.Unless you want to spend 2 weeks in a helicopter just hovering for a few minutes over certain points of interest this simply is not possible.
To just see the most important points of Istanbul needs a minimum of 5 days,another2-3 around Selçuk Ephesus and Pamukkale,another 2-3 in Cappadocia,5-7 along the south coast,2 days for Ankara,3-5 days for the far north east corner and then 5-7 days for the southeast corner.And this is just to cover the very basics,no time to wander and enjoy.
So that is your reality check :)

Do some research on what there is to see and do here in this huge,culture-rich country and then narrow it down to a maximum of 6 places.For example 4 days Istanbul,2 days Selçuk and Pamukkale,2-3 days Cappadocia and 4 days in the southeast.This would give you a quick look at a few of Turkey's most important area's and is enough for 2 weekseven for those who like to move fast.

Even for one person your budget is rather low.You will have food,entrance fees,accomodation and transport costs to cover.Sometimes you'll be able to use use overnight buses to save on hotels but even so this is a very tight budget.Entrance fees vary from 10-30Tl with most falling 20-30TL.Long distance buses will be 50-70TL and expect to pay c.25TL and upwards for hostels where available and 30-40TL for B&B's and small guesthouses.

I hope this info helps you to work out a better plan and that perhaps you can get together a bit more money by October.

Hi! Thanks for the reply! Yeah i kinda mistyped, i meant to say that 35-45$-a-day per person. Hehe

I think were leaning on just visiting Istanbul, Ephesus, Cappadocia, Selçuk and Pamukkale and Ankara. Were kinda sticking to the touristy areas.

Hee hee,that itinery sounds better :) You can travel by intercity and local buses on this route and on some can use overnight buses to save on bed fee's.Ist>>Selçuk,Pamukkale>>Göreme and Ankara>>Istanbul can all be by overnight bus so that's 3 nights you won't have to pay for hostels.

In each of the places you'll visit there are a good number of hostels to choose from.These days most hostels provide both dorm and private room options and todays hostels are usually very modern and clean with lot's of great facilities.The days of dirty flea pit flop houses has long gone!

To give you an idea of daily expenses,especially entrance fee's....
Istanbul.
Hagia Sofia-30TL
Topkapı Palace -30TL(Harem section extra 15TL)
Galata Tower- 20TL
Basilica Cisterns -10TL.
Archeological Museum -15TL
All mosques are free to enter.

Selçuk.
Ephesus -30TL(Terrace Houses an extra 15TL)
Mary's House- 10TL
Museum -10TL

Pamukkale.
Hierapolis and travertines -20TL

Cappadocia.
Göreme Open Air Museum -15TL plus a cover charge for some of the churches.
Zelve Open Air Museum -8TL

Ankara.
Museum of Anatolian Civilisations-15TL

This just gives you an idea of the major must see's but there may be others you want to visit.On a tight budget you may need to just pick out a couple and skip others.

If you can manage to increase your budget a bit it would be better for you but now you need to sit down and work out how much you will need in total for transport,accomodation,entrance fee's and then allow a few dollars a day for simple food eating in the small lokanta's used by local people(these are clean,cheap and serve great food!)and see how much it works out at per day per person.
BTW,most hostels also include breakfast in the price so you can fill up on these in the morning.
You probably can do it on 35-45$ but...it is always useful to have a bit extra just in case of emergencies or unexpected expenses :)

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