After Side we hit the road heading into the inlands on our way to the Cappadocia. We left the coastal highway after Manavgat and drove over 150Km through a mountainous area with beautiful landscapes. The roads were still good, almost empty. When we were closer to Konya the road turned completely flat and straight, easy to drive although some bits of the road were not as good as before and under roadwork. This was the case during most of the drive from Konya to Göreme. From Side to Konya there are some 240Km, from Konya to Göreme roughly another 240Km. The whole journey was around 5:30-6hs, breaks included and not pushing the gas too much.
Göreme village: we decided to stay in Göreme and make it our operations base. What an amazing and unique place!! When we arrived we couldn’t stop looking around with our mouths opened.
Accommodation:
As a way of sightseeing we decided to see all the hotels and pansiyons in Göreme, as we were very curious about how the rooms would look in the caves. In the end we spent over 3 hours visiting quite a few hotels and rooms, it was really interesting, recommended.
Finally stayed at Arch Palace Hotel (mentioned in the LP guide):
http://archpalace.com/en/index.html
Gaferli Mah. No:14 – 50180 Goreme / TURKEY Tel: +90 384 271 2575 Fax: +90 384 271 2698
info@archpalace.com
We partially disagree with the comments in the LP guide. It was clean, the rooms were good (we didn’t feel that the place was worn out), the terrace was really nice and its best asset is the owner Mustafa Yelkalan, incredibly helpful, very knowledgeable, extremely nice…but it was dead at night, not much atmosphere. Still, good value for money (price was 80TL per night for 2 persons breakfast included).
Some other accommodation we saw:
– Kelebek Hotel: beautiful hotel, nice location and great views. They were full and offered us a room in another building, quite far from the main one and quite overpriced.
– Canyon View: good location and views, it was full
– Fairy Chimney Inn: average hotel, very overpriced
– also checked Legend Cave, Göreme House, Cappadocia Cave Suites (really beautiful, very expensive), Anatolian Houses Göreme (outstanding, too expensive, 200€ per night, although they accepted to bargain)
Eating:
Sedef Restaurant: in Bilal Eroglu Cadessi No3, in front of the Ottogar, not in the LP guide. It was recommended to us by locals. We did not like it very much. Also it was overpriced. We paid 49TL for 2 drinks and 2 dishes.
Orient Restaurant: (in the LP guide): the other one recommended by locals. Really good, best food we had in Cappadocia. Agree with the LP comments. Price was good value for money: 39TL 2 dishes and 2 drinks.
Cappadocia Kebap Center: mentioned in the LP. Great place for a quick good and cheap bite. 2 Kebaps and 2 drinks 17TL.
Apart of the visits once you are there, Göreme is a wonder in itself. Unique and different to any other thing I had seen, just walking around makes you feel you are in an amazing place.
Göreme Open Air museum: primitive caves turned into delicious churches with exquisite frescoes. Ticket was 15TL per person. No brochure or extra info, although the most important caves have background info on a panel outside. We went around 2pm and there were not that many tour groups, so the visit was pleasant. Do your best to avoid the crowds as when one group goes into one of the caves there is hardly space for anyone else! We spent there around 2hs, what is enough for a relaxed visit.
Hot air balloon ride: Mustafa from the Arch Palace arranged the hot air balloon ride for us. The company we did it with was Kaya Balloons (the anagram has a plane circled in red with the letter THK 1925)
Kaya Balloons, Kayseri Casddesi 20, 50400, ürgüp, +90 384 341 20 21, www.kayaballooning.com
Price was 150€ per person if paid in cash (650TL both).
We really liked them. We were picked up at the hotel around 6am. The day was cloudy and it was drizzling. When we arrived at the take off place they informed us that we were suppose to leave at 7am, but we were going to wait to see how the weather would develop. We finally departed at 8am when the weather had cleared and even some sun rays had showed up. By that time most of the other companies had their balloons in the air, some were starting to land, so they did the whole ride raining, what I think it is not ideal, they seemed more greedy than our company.
Our pilot was really skilled and he was able to circle around the chimneys and we could see all fantastically well. Also the ride lasted 1h15min and not the hour they said. We felt very satisfied with their professionalism and I recommend them.
The hot air balloon ride was one an absolute highlight of the trip. It was the first time for both of us on a hot air balloon. So smooth, so peaceful, so stunning…expensive but worth it!!
Ürgüp and Mustafapaşa: decided to take a drive around these 2 smaller and not so touristy cappadocian villages.
Ürgüp had a lively city centre full of shops, despite being a monday there were many people in the street, almost of all them locals. There were some remarkable old houses mixed with more modern ones. We went up to Temenni Wishing Hill and the views of the area were very nice.
Mustafapaşa was very laid back. We really liked the main square, surrounded by old greek houses, some of them crumbling down but still with their charm and pride intact. Compared with Ürgüp (and not to mention Göreme) it was really quiet, with no tourists at all, a totally different atmosphere, more like a still village.
The drive between both villages was also very beautiful. Parked the car and walked towards the churches mentioned in the LP. A lovely walk away from the crowds of Cappadocia
Underground cities: we visited 2 underground cities, Kaymakli and Derinkuyu. Entrance was 15TL per person for each of them. They were both very impressive and also very different.
Kaymakli was a never-ending maze of tunnels and chambers, narrow most of the time and opening up to full size rooms at some points.
Derinkuyu had much wider rooms and chambers, even with a big church. The second one was much more crowded at the time of our visit, being difficult to move around.
It is hard to believe that up to a few thousand people could live over 6 months in any of these cities, even taking their animals with them, waiting for the enemy to leave. It is worth stopping at some of the chambers and think how they could stay there and live daily. On the other hand, I found that to be a world heritage site everything was poorly informed and presented. They should have given a brochure with recreated images and even have some of the chambers with models showing how things could have been in the past. Definitely good and recommended, but could have been so much better.
Ihlara Valley: entrance was 5TL per person. I did not have time enough to hike all of it so I decided to go in through the middle entrance at Ihlara Vadisi Turistik Tesisleri, where most churches are.
I think it was a mistake. It is the main entrance and it was full of bus tours and literally packed with people, mostly families and tour groups. I found the valley stunningly beautiful but difficult to really enjoy it . Too busy, too noisy. I’d strongly recommend to visit some other part of it, or try to go during the week. When driving down the road by the valley it reinforced my opinion that it is a really beautiful place.





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