Pilgrimage to Turkey 2027 from Germany: Paul's Route for Parish Groups, Services and Prices

A pilgrimage to Turkey in the footsteps of Paul usually takes a parish group 8 to 12 days and runs via Istanbul, Cappadocia, Iconium (Konya) and Pisidian Antioch to Ephesus. Our biblical tour packages start at $2,050 (about €1,842) per person for 7 days to the Seven Churches of Revelation; the 10-day Paul route costs from $2,750 (about €2,471), with hotels, domestic flights, coach and a German-speaking guide. Parish groups receive a net group quote within 24 hours. Just message us on WhatsApp.

We are a licensed A Group agency in the Turkish travel agents' association TÜRSAB (No. 15751) with an office in Istanbul, and have organised private tours since 2010. Catholic parishes, Protestant congregations and adult education groups from Germany ask us the same things every year: where can the group hold a service, which Pauline sites are worth it, how long are the coach legs, is an ID card enough? We answer here with our real programmes and prices. How we work with groups is described on our page for group tours and travel agencies.

Which places did Paul visit in Turkey?

Istanbul, Cappadocia, Paul and the Seven Churches, 10 days, from $2,750 per person

Most of the Acts of the Apostles takes place on the soil of today's Turkey. Paul came from Tarsus (Acts 22:3). From Antioch on the Orontes, today's Antakya, where the disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:26), he set out on his missionary journeys. On the first journey he came with Barnabas to Perge, preached in the synagogue of Pisidian Antioch (Acts 13), went on to Iconium, Lystra and Derbe (Acts 14) and sailed again from Attalia, today's Antalya.

He stayed longest in Ephesus: more than two years, until the silversmiths' riot in the theatre drove him out (Acts 19). In Troas he had the vision of the man from Macedonia (Acts 16), and in Miletus he said farewell to the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20). The theatre of Ephesus still stands, and many groups read Acts 19 together there.

Not every site is equally rewarding. Little more than settlement mounds remains of Lystra and Derbe, which are hard to understand without a specialist guide. Pisidian Antioch near Yalvaç, by contrast, shows the foundations of an early church, and Perge has broad colonnaded streets. Our 10-day programme links Iconium and Pisidian Antioch with Ephesus. We add Tarsus and Antakya as an extension on request.

What does an 8 to 12-day parish trip look like?

Seven Churches of Revelation, 7 days, from $2,050 per person

The basic shape is our 10-day Istanbul, Cappadocia, Paul and the Seven Churches package. Driving distances in the table are approximate road kilometres; on long days we plan breaks and a devotion along the way.

Day 5 is the hardest: a full coach needs a good six hours of pure driving for this stretch. For older groups we split it and stay overnight in Konya, which makes the trip 11 days long. For a 12-day Paul journey we also fly to Adana, visit Tarsus with St Paul's Well and St Paul's Church and, if conditions allow, Antakya. Antakya was badly damaged in the February 2023 earthquake; we check the state of every site again before quoting.

If you have less time, take the Seven Churches of Revelation in 7 days. It starts and ends in Istanbul and leaves out Cappadocia. The best time to travel is April to June and September to October. In July and August Ephesus and Laodicea get very hot, and around 15 August the House of the Virgin Mary is crowded. In winter the days are short, but flights and hotels are cheaper.

Services on the road: House of the Virgin Mary, Istanbul and Ephesus

Paul route with Mass at the House of the Virgin Mary, 10 days, from $2,750 per person

The House of the Virgin Mary (Meryem Ana Evi) stands on Mount Koressos, about 7 km from Ephesus. Lazarist priests from Izmir found the building in 1891, Pope John Paul II visited in 1979, and Benedict XVI celebrated Mass there in 2006. Mass is said daily in the chapel. A group that wants to celebrate Mass with its own priest must register with the shrine in advance. We submit the request with your preferred date and build the day around it. We only learn the exact time once it is confirmed.

Istanbul has two German-speaking Catholic parishes: the Austrian parish of St. George in Karaköy, run by the Lazarists and home to an Austrian school, and the German parish of St. Paul in Nişantaşı. The German-speaking Protestant Church in Turkey worships in the Kreuzkirche in Aynalıçeşme, consecrated in 1861. We ask the parishes directly about service times and visits for you, because lists online are often out of date.

For ecumenically mixed groups, a visit to the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Fener and a day in Iznik, ancient Nicaea, are worthwhile. There Pope Leo XIV prayed with Patriarch Bartholomew on 28 November 2025 for the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of 325. The Hagia Sophia of Nicaea stands in the middle of town and is a mosque today.

Istanbul for parishes: Hagia Sophia, Chora and the Patriarchate

Churches of Istanbul, full-day private tour, from $180

Hagia Sophia has been a mosque again since 2020. Foreign visitors use the gallery, women cover their hair, and it closes at prayer times, especially at Friday noon. The Deësis mosaic and the Komnenos imperial family mosaics are easy to see from above. The Chora Church, now the Kariye Mosque, is similar: the mosaics and frescoes are visible, but a devotion is not possible there.

Living Christianity shows itself in Fener, Balat and along İstiklal Street. Our full-day churches tour of Istanbul costs from $180 and visits the Church of St George at the Patriarchate, the Bulgarian iron church of St Stephen in Balat and St Anthony of Padua, the city's largest Catholic church. In its garden stands the statue of John XXIII, who lived in Istanbul as Apostolic Delegate before he was elected pope.

A parish needs at least two full days in Istanbul. The old city on the first day, the living churches on the second and, on Sunday if possible, a service in one of the German-speaking parishes.

Cappadocia: rock churches and the Cappadocian Fathers

Biblical tour packages in Turkey, from $720 per person

Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus worked in Cappadocia in the 4th century. Later, monks carved hundreds of churches into the soft tuff. The Göreme Open-Air Museum preserves frescoes from the 10th and 11th centuries; the Dark Church costs extra and is narrow, so a group of 40 will queue. Selime Monastery at the end of the Ihlara Valley shows how a community lived inside the rock.

For many groups the underground city is the most striking place, but not for everyone: the passages are low, and anyone with claustrophobia is better off waiting above. The sunrise balloon flight is not included in the package price. With us it costs from $199, starts before sunrise and is cancelled in wind. Those who would rather not fly can watch from a viewpoint.

The Seven Churches of Revelation on one route

Seven Churches of Revelation, 7 days, from $2,050 per person

The seven letters in Revelation 2 and 3 went to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. All seven lie in western Turkey and can be visited from Izmir in three to four days. In Pergamon the group takes the cable car up to the acropolis; in Laodicea churches and streets have been excavated for years.

To be honest, not every site is impressive. In Thyatira, today's Akhisar, a small field of ruins sits in the middle of town, and in Philadelphia (Alaşehir) the piers of a Byzantine church stand between houses. For the group, the reading and prayer count for more there than the stones. How these places fit into a longer trip is explained in our overview of Christian tours of Turkey.

How much does a pilgrimage to Turkey cost in 2027?

Biblical tour packages in Turkey, from $720 per person

Our prices are per person in a double room and include hotels, domestic flights, transfers, coach, guide and the programme as described in the tour.

Converted at the ECB reference rate of 29 October 2026 (€1 = $1.1130) and rounded. Prices change with season, hotel and services; ask us for the price for your dates. Not included: flights from Germany, tips, drinks and the balloon flight.

For groups of about 20 or more we recalculate the programmes, because the coach and guide are then shared among more people. We only give a per-head package price once the number of participants, dates and hotel category are fixed. The net group quote arrives within 24 hours, item by item, with free places for the priest and tour leader if you wish. Travel agencies booking for the parish will find the procedures under group quotes for travel agencies.

Getting there from Germany, ID card and coach

Biblical tour packages in Turkey, from $720 per person

Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa fly to Istanbul from Frankfurt and Munich, Turkish Airlines and Pegasus from many other German airports; from Frankfurt the flight takes about three hours. For Paul journeys we often recommend an open-jaw ticket: out to Istanbul, back from Izmir. SunExpress and Pegasus fly direct to Izmir from several German cities. The parish usually books the group flight itself or through its local travel agency; we build the programme around it.

For entry, according to the German Federal Foreign Office (as of 30 October 2026), Germans need only an ID card, passport or children's passport; up to 90 days within 180 days are allowed without a visa. The Foreign Office does not recommend the temporary ID card. It advises against travel to the border areas with Syria and Iraq, such as Şanlıurfa and Mardin; the places on this route are far away from them.

For 20 to 27 people we use a midibus, above that a 46-seat coach. The guide speaks German and stays with the group for the whole trip. On request we provide a guide with a theological or archaeological background; we confirm this in writing, by name, before payment. When a parish that invites and invoices participants itself counts legally as a tour operator is explained on our page about group trips for clubs and associations.

How your parish gets a quote

Send us your preferred dates, approximate number of participants, the places you want and whether services should be planned in. We reply with route, hotels and net price. All fixed programmes are under biblical tour packages. You can enquire through the contact form or directly on WhatsApp.

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