Cappadocia is a place out of a dream. I have never been anywhere that feels more like the setting of a imaginative fairy tale. Between the underground cities and rock dwellings, I felt immediately inspired to want to write children’s books about these Seuss-like environs. 

EXPERIENCE

To get to Cappadocia, we flew into Kayseri and then again rented a car. This is a must do for exploring this region, it allowed us to see much more than we would have otherwise and saved tons of money in taxi fares.

The city of Kayseri lies below a giant snowcapped mountain, Mount Erciyes, the largest in central Anatolia, which makes a nice backdrop for Cappadocia as well. Once we arrived we first hit the underground cities. I believe there are nearly 36 of these strange refuges beneath the surface but we hit the two most famous, Derinkuyu Underground City and Kaymaklı Underground City. These were huge and mind bogglingly fascinating to explore- a must do while in the region! We watched sunset with a bottle of local wine and a picnic at Panoramic View Point. This was surprisingly secluded and a nice place to climb on the rocks and enjoy the spring wildflowers.

On our second day, we started at 3:45 AM with a Hot Air Balloon trip! This is very popular in Cappadocia and is a really cool way to see the unique landscape. We booked through Ürgüp Balloons with our hotel, which I would call average. We were slightly annoyed by the long waiting around portions, but I’m sure all of the companies are very similar. One recommendation I have on this is to spend a little extra to be in a smaller basket. Having 8-12 people on board makes for a much better trip than being packed in with nearly 30. Even though things felt slightly disorganized, once we were in the air, the experience was really special and worth splurging on.

After a nap, we hit the road to do a loop around the region, which is comprised of many small cities. Our stop at the Zelve Open Air Museum ended up being the highlight of the loop. This park is full of cave homes that were inhabited by monks and others until the mid-1950’s. The rock formations are other worldly and called Fairy Chimneys. From here we hiked Rose Valley from Pasabag and got some great views of the area. Move on to the Love Valley to see the most phallic rock columns if photo ops are of interest. We watched sunset that evening from a giant rock building, Uschisar Castle, which is in the small town of Uschisar. This was a great place to get a panoramic view of the area.

Not until our final day did we hit Genome Open Air Museum, the most famous of the Cappadocia attractions. We came and went super quickly from here, as it was packed with bus loads of tourists and we had enjoyed so much private time in Zelve exploring the day before. Unless you are extremely into cave frescos, I’d avoid this place if possible and opt for the less visited spots on the circut.

STAY

While in Cappadocia, we stayed at the Kemerhan Cave Suites in Ürgüp. While this town is slightly out of the way, it worked well for us since we had a car. This hotel ended up being another excellent choice! It is a cave hotel, which is a very popular thing to do here. Our room was incredibly romantic and quite spacious with a tunnel into the huge bathroom with a giant open shower and huge hot tub bath tub. The hotel owner, Mehmet is extremely engaged and proud of his property. In addition to free beverages, wine and a beautiful breakfast, he really took care of us. He helped us plan our days and was as hospitable as it gets, I highly recommend staying here. If you are looking for another great place to stay in the region, Uschisar seems like another good option. It looks a bit more mature, upscale and is away from the chaos of Genome. 

EAT

By this point in the trip we were completely burnt out on the unimpressive Turkish cuisine. We enjoyed our traditional Turkish breakfast at the hotel in the mornings on the open air deck, then got by on groceries for the rest of each day. We picked up loaves of bread, nutella, local wine, tons of olives (incredibly cheap at the grocery store), dried fruits, cheese, and a few tomatoes and cucumbers. Between meals we nibbled nutty, baklava style desserts and Turkish Delights. We got by very well on this picnic assortment and saved a ton of money by doing it this way.

Uschisar Castle

Ballooning Over Cappadocia

Wildflowers of Turkey