Cappadocia
Overview
The Cappadocia is an area in Central Turkey 5 hours by bus from Ankara, the capital. It is visited due to the special landscape it has. It is like being in another planet and it is well worth the trip.
Its biggest city is Nevsehir, although Göreme is the main town and which you want to use as a base to explore the area. There is plenty of accomodation, restaurants, bars and a useful tourist information office which will help you with any questions you may have. You can also book any kind of tour in Göreme, from quad bikes, to horse-riding, balloon tours...
Its biggest city is Nevsehir, although Göreme is the main town and which you want to use as a base to explore the area. There is plenty of accomodation, restaurants, bars and a useful tourist information office which will help you with any questions you may have. You can also book any kind of tour in Göreme, from quad bikes, to horse-riding, balloon tours...
Sightseeing
Cappadocia is quite big, so if you want to see everything, allow at least 5 days to do it on your own, or else join one of the tours offerred in Göreme or in the surroundings, although I reccommend you to explore the area on your own instead of taking one of the expensive tours.
There are plenty of valleys, small villages, two open-air museums, two underground cities... We stayed there 3 days and this was what we did:
- Göreme open-air museum: 1km far from Göreme. You can get there on foot. Entrance ticket costs 20 TL. It is nice to see. It is an old city carved in the rocks. You can see houses, churches, even graveyards. Worth the price you pay.
- Rose Valley: You can get there on foot from Göreme museum, it is about 2 hours walking until you get to Cavusin. It is a really impressive valley where you can witness the typical Cappadocian landscape. When you get to Cavusin, make sure you climb up to the castle carved in the rock and admire the views from there. Worth the trip.
- Pigeon Valley: You can as well get there on foot from Göreme in about one hour until you reach the village of Uchisar. In spite of being one of the most famous valleys in the Cappadocia, it was quite disappointing. It has nothing special, so you can choose another hiking to one of the other valleys. There's a castle in Uchisar you can visit, but we didn't.
- Kaymakli underground city: you need public transportation to get there. First get to Nevsehir, and from there take a Dolmus to Kaymakli. It takes like half an hour to get there. You pay 20 TL to visit the underground city. It is a whole city carved in the rock, but unlike Göreme open-air museum, this one is totally underground, consisting of 5 different levels. It is reccomendable to visit, but be aware that you have to go through narrow and really low tunnels, so if you are tall you will end up with destroyed legs.
- Love Valley: Beautiful valley reachable on foot from Göreme after one hour hike. Just head towards Cavusin and after 500 m take one path on the left. You can see the famous fairy chimneys here, and there are a lot of them. Don't miss it!
- Viewpoint in Göreme: There's a viewpoint right in the middle of town. Turn left after the mosque and in less than 10 minutes you'll be there. Beautiful views of Göreme and the surrounding valleys. Really worth the effort.
In Cappadocia you can also visit Ilhara valley, the village of Urgup or take a balloon tour. We didn't, but if you're not ballooning make sure one day you wake up at 6am and go somewhere up in Göreme to see how the balloons are filling up the sky.
There are plenty of valleys, small villages, two open-air museums, two underground cities... We stayed there 3 days and this was what we did:
- Göreme open-air museum: 1km far from Göreme. You can get there on foot. Entrance ticket costs 20 TL. It is nice to see. It is an old city carved in the rocks. You can see houses, churches, even graveyards. Worth the price you pay.
- Rose Valley: You can get there on foot from Göreme museum, it is about 2 hours walking until you get to Cavusin. It is a really impressive valley where you can witness the typical Cappadocian landscape. When you get to Cavusin, make sure you climb up to the castle carved in the rock and admire the views from there. Worth the trip.
- Pigeon Valley: You can as well get there on foot from Göreme in about one hour until you reach the village of Uchisar. In spite of being one of the most famous valleys in the Cappadocia, it was quite disappointing. It has nothing special, so you can choose another hiking to one of the other valleys. There's a castle in Uchisar you can visit, but we didn't.
- Kaymakli underground city: you need public transportation to get there. First get to Nevsehir, and from there take a Dolmus to Kaymakli. It takes like half an hour to get there. You pay 20 TL to visit the underground city. It is a whole city carved in the rock, but unlike Göreme open-air museum, this one is totally underground, consisting of 5 different levels. It is reccomendable to visit, but be aware that you have to go through narrow and really low tunnels, so if you are tall you will end up with destroyed legs.
- Love Valley: Beautiful valley reachable on foot from Göreme after one hour hike. Just head towards Cavusin and after 500 m take one path on the left. You can see the famous fairy chimneys here, and there are a lot of them. Don't miss it!
- Viewpoint in Göreme: There's a viewpoint right in the middle of town. Turn left after the mosque and in less than 10 minutes you'll be there. Beautiful views of Göreme and the surrounding valleys. Really worth the effort.
In Cappadocia you can also visit Ilhara valley, the village of Urgup or take a balloon tour. We didn't, but if you're not ballooning make sure one day you wake up at 6am and go somewhere up in Göreme to see how the balloons are filling up the sky.
Accomodation
There's plenty of cheap accomodation in Göreme. We stayed at Coco Cave Pension for some 20€ per night. It is a really beautiful hotel where rooms are carved in the rock, so it feels you are sleeping in a cave but with all commodities. The only problem is that they had some problems with humidity and the room was quite smelly.
Food & Drink
Plenty of options here. Göreme is fully prepared for tourists so no problem at all to eat and drink for all budgets. You can find beer almost everywhere and to eat one of the best places we found was Anatolian Kitchen, where Turkish pizzas were delicious. You can also enjoy a beer and a narghile in The Silk Road Cafe.
Transportation
To get in from Ankara there are plenty of buses and it takes 5 hours. Ticket price: 40TL To get out to Ankara, same procedure. There are also buses going to and from Istanbul and to and from multiple destinations in Turkey.
Safety
Totally safe area. The only annoyance can be wild dogs. There are quite a lot of them in the valleys, but we had no bad experience with them.
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