Pamukkale (which I had honestly first seen on Pinterest and decided I must visit) was our destination. However, it did not prove to be the highlight of this jaunt of our trip. This little region in the Denizli Province of southwestern Turkey is a great addition to any itinerary if you want to get off the beaten track a bit.

The Travertines

EXPERIENCE

To explore this region of Turkey, we flew into Denizli (initially shocked to be landing in farm fields), from here, we rented a car. This was not our original intent, but it proved to be by far the best way to explore. This allowed us the freedom to check out Pamukkale and the Hieraopolis in the morning and then be on our way to check out more distant sites for the rest of the day.

Pamukkale is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a great place to spend a morning swimming. The travertines are hot springs with strong carbonate mineral deposits, which make really beautiful terraces to swim in. This attraction is close to the Hierapolis which are ancient ruins. These are very badly damaged from hotels that went up over them in recent decades, so we decided to skip the hot spring here and went on our way. Wear your suit but plan to be barefoot if you visit the travertines, it is a lot of walking up strange terrain, but well worth making a morning of. I would suggest getting here as early as possible to beat the tour busses that seemed to roll in later in the day.

Cruising the Countryside

From here we checked out the alleged Karahayhit Hot Springs. We didn’t find much of this or many mud baths in this abandon feeling neighboring town. We did strike luck however, with a journey to the ancient ruins of Aphrodisias. These are Turkey’s second most popular ruins. They are much more difficult to reach than the famed Ephesus, which meant we had the place to ourselves to hike and explore. The place boasts the largest preserved stadium from the time period and also had a beautiful arch, amphitheater, and arena. The drive out here was long and windy but allowed us to view the vineyards and rural farm culture which comprises much of Turkish living. 

Aphrodisias

STAY

Pammukale is a very, very small resort town outside of Denzali. It has a bit of a run down and abandon feel.  I feel like I really lucked out with choosing the Venus Hotel for our stay. I booked this venue online and was surprised to find that they had built an entirely new sister hotel next door (that had only opened two weeks before) and entirely new pool. We got to stay in the new facility and were really thrilled with the pool despite an overwhelming manure waft that floated in from the barn right next to it. Hopefully they work this kink out because it is a really nice cozy place in the region to stay. 

Walking on the “Cotton Castle”

EAT

Despite several attempts to try places that ranked high on TripAdvisor or in Fodor’s, we only found one somewhat decent restaurant in this small town-Kayaş. We ate there both nights and sipped ice cold Efes draft beers out of icy mugs. We stuck to the chicken stir fry over a Sterno type special. No complaints. 

Our hotel included breakfast, which was quite extensive and handled buffet style. We were really pleased with it and managed to even pocket a few pieces of fruit to take with us for our day of explorations on the road.

Wildflowers of Pamukkale