A Guide to Visiting Cappadocia: The Most Magical Place On Earth
I’m writing this from an old mini bus that’s severely lacking in air-con and has gone about 2 hrs in the opposite direction of where we want to end up but the drive is undeniably beautiful, we’re surrounded by rocky mountains everywhere we look and the clear blue sky contrasted behind makes for an incredible backdrop, it is certainly safe to say Turkey is beautiful.
Plus, we get free coffee and snacks so it’s not all bad, right? Turkish buses are a vast improvement on English ones (sorry National Express) and normally offer WIFI and larger than you average seats (we just haven’t been so lucky on this one). But enough staring out the window at the landscape and onto Cappadocia.
Cappadocia is the closets place we’ve been to, to a real life fairy-tale.
The rocky area of Goreme is covered in ‘chimneys’ shaped over hundreds of years of volcanic eruptions, wind, rain and eventually human hands who turned the chimneys into their town, carving the insides out and building homes to live in.
Goreme is the main town within Cappadocia which is easily accessible by bus from a wide range of places, we took an overnight from Antalya which arrived just in time to see the balloons disappearing into the sky – a beautiful welcome to the town. The balloons rise every (weather dependent) morning and are the main reason visitors flock to the town throughout the year. 100’s of hot air balloons take lucky guests up into the sky every morning creating an absolutely stunning backdrop combined with a pink, hazy sunrise. To catch this view set your alarm for around 5am and head to your nearest rooftop or viewpoint.
We opted to stay in Cappadocia Stone Palace hotel. The hotel cost £58 for one night and included breakfast, but we justified this price because of the beautiful rooftop it offered.
The balloons might be the main reason the crowds flock to Cappadocia but it certainly isn’t the only one. If whizzing around a place exploring on an unusual mode of transport is your thing then you’ll have tons of options from RTV’s, dust buggy’s, old school cars and peds. If this isn’t your thing, there’s also a good old classic tour bus and car rental. We actually opted to up our steps and walk around. We headed over to the fairy chimneys, a busy area with some of the best preserved chimneys which you can climb inside and explore if you head to the right of the chimneys you’ll be faced with a larger mountainous area, proving you with an incredible view over the chimneys and away from the crowds.
In true English fashion we also managed to find the cutest wine bar stocked with homemade wine and snacks overlooking the chimneys. Closer to town and hidden amongst a sort of museum of a cave house. We escaped here for a while admiring the view and sipping on homemade wine, the perfect way to spend an afternoon the this fairy tale heaven.
