Welcome to another post of helping a reader travel! This weekly post is to help readers get a slew of travel advice from thousand of Deals We Like blog readers. Thus far, we’ve been able to help other readers travel to Maui, The Greek Islands, Pacific Coast Highway, Argentina /Buenos Aires, Costa Rica, Cape Cod & The Islands, Iceland, Geneva, Canadian Rockies, Israel, Peru / Inca Trail, Stockholm, Chicago, Paris, Hanoi, Austin, Puerto Rico, Bruges, Salzburg, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Jamaica, India/Golden Triangle, Auckland, Singapore, Moscow, The Oregon Coast, Seattle, Portland, Hawaii Islands, Alaska Skiing, Brazil, Prague, Budapest, Paraguay, Cabo San Lucas, Edinburgh, San Diego, Hilton Head, Dubrovnik, Tanzania, The Seychelles, Belize, Miami, Vienna, London, Tahiti, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Burgundy, Charleston, Savannah, and Italy (includingRome, Venice, Florence, Milan, Bologna, Sicily)
A few weeks ago I covered Turkey as a few readers reached out wanting some guidance on how to plan out a 1-2 week trip traveling around the country. While I already did a post dedicated to Istanbul two years ago, I wanted to hit on the other major tourist cities in Turkey. This will include Cappadocia, Izmir, Bodrum, and Antalya (let me know if there are any other cities you want me to cover).
This week is going to be dedicated on Cappadocia. Here are some things I am sure readers will want suggestions on:
- Where to stay?
- How many days to stay
- How to get there from Istanbul
- Sites to see
- Anything else you might think is valuable!
Also, if you have any upcoming travel where you need some help, feel free to email me at dealswelike@gmail.com to be a featured “Help a Reader Travel” Monday special. Thanks!
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I went to Cappadocia a couple of years ago and it was amazing! You MUST stay in one of the luxury cave hotels. Very different experience, and totally cool. I would say 2-3 days is more than enough to see the underground cities. Seeing one of the underground cities is enough..I did two (don’t remember the names) and they were quite similar. And of course must do a fairy chimney tour as well. Hot hair balloons seem popular, but I didn’t do that myself.
BTDT last fall. Do a hot air balloon ride as this is one of the best places for it. Also check into the caravanserai show.
From Istanbul fly via Sabiha Gokcen airport instead of attaturk to save serious money ( you can take the airport bus from taksim sq for cheap). Also make sure you set your location to turkey (with english) on the Turkish Airlines Website (much better pricing vs international buyers). Once in Cappadocia take Royal Balloon tours and if you have an amex get them to book it for you as they have a pretty good deal compared to regular prices. Royal is also the best company offering tours. 2-3 days is enough. As above do the underground city tour (i think we did green).
Amazing place to visit! (I went there in2011) You have 2 airport options Nevsehir (closer) or Kayseri. I recommend 3 days to see the are and highly recommend staying in a luxury cave hotel as well. A morning hot air balloon ride is a must as well. We organized our tours with Rock Valley Travel. They are based in Cappadocia and are wonderful! My mother in law owns a travel agency and they organize tours to Turkey and Cappadocia each year, and Rock Valley is the only tour operator they deal with.
U need atleast 2 days for Cappadocia.
Getting There:
We flew into Kayseri via Atlasjet. Atlasjet has free shuttle to Goreme which takes upto 90mins to get there. Cabs charge 180 TL one way, so flying Atlasjet saves u the cab fare. Though Nevsehir is the closest airport the ticket prices were higher when flying from Istanbul.
Stay:
Must stay in a cave hotel. We stayed in Arif Pension on the uppermost cave and had excellent panoramic views.
To Do:
Visit Underground city – Hire a cab or go adventurous by taking the local bus (u change buses in Nevsehir). Hire a guide for this tour. We hired a cab on the return & stopped by Pigeon Valley & the Open Air museum.
Early morning hot air balloon ride – bit pricey… Even if u dont ride the balloon dont miss the views of ~50 colorful balloons taking off from the valley. Our hotel had excellent views from roof top…
I also saw people climb up the hill nearby to catch the balloons take off and also for sunset…
Eat:
Shouldn’t miss the Pottery Chicken or the Pottery veg version too.
The gelato was tastier too…
The town of Goreme is awesome and filled with great hotels, some of them “cave” hotels. It’s an easy walk from town to the open air cave museum, and all the hotels can book you onto the early-morning balloon rides.
I flew from Istanbul to a nearby town (can’t recall the name) and took a cheap shuttle to Goreme.
The balloon rides are not cheap (US$200/person) but are well worth it.
Go to the open-air museum early in the morning, before the hordes of Chinese arrive to ruin it.
Here’s a link (if the blog site lets there be) to my album from Turkey. Scroll down to the baloon & Goreme shots..
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We used Euphrates Tours for hotel and very good 2 days of tours of everything interesting in the area. http://www.cappadociatours.com Email: info@cappadociatours.com. They took very good care of us when Turkish Air went on strike during our return trip. Put us on Pegasus Airlines (http://www.flypgs.com/en/) and arranged cancellation of our Turkish Air ticket. This actually saved us money, but:
*The airline flies to S. Gokcen airport, about 1 hour east of Istanbul. There is cheap bus shuttle service to Taksim square or Atakurk International airport, but it is not obvious how to find it. Our flight attendant gave us good directions and a good description of the bus.
*One at Taksim, we had to get to our hotel. Nice if it is one of the hotels near the square; not so nice if your hotel is in the old town area. There is no good public transportation to the old town from Taksim. There is rail public transit to that area from Atakurk. Slow, but cheap.
*Pegasus has serious weight restriction for your luggage.
Euphrates Toursbooked us into Gamirasu Cave Hotel at Ayvali Koyu 50400 Urgup
Phone: (+90) 384 354 5815 and (+90) 384 341 7485. Wonderful food, small but interesting room in a pretty setting. Recommended.
Be very careful with Taxi’s. Insist on use of the meter, and have your travel partner witness how much money you give the taxi. We gave ours 50 – he claimed it was 5. And get up front agreement that he will drive carefully. Ours almost killed us with a near head on collision driving on the wrong side of the road.
Taxi and shuttle drivers (and pretty much everyone else in Turkey) pay only cursory attention to the lines on the road. Most of the ones I’ve been in drive in the very middle of the road until there is an oncoming vehicle, and then they only dodge to the right at the last moment. That’s just the way it works.
When I was in my rental car I was 100% certain I was the only person in the country using turn signals. 🙂
We stayed in 3 places in Cappadocia, and by far our favorite was Esbelli Evi (http://www.esbelli.com/) – great rooms and the best service. One of our favorite hotels anywhere. We booked last minute and got the honeymoon suite which was incredible.
We used Credo Tours which we would not recommend. Basically they make their money off very expensive airport transfers and large markups on tour guides. Do yourself a favor and ask your hotel for transfers.
The churches start to look the same after a while, so I would recommend 3 days or so. Don’t miss the underground city Kaymakli.