Flew from Istanbul to Cappadocia to visit the legendary caves and fairy chimneys. It is a magical place. We stayed in the town of Goreme and our hotel Roma cave suites was actually in a cave. It's low season right now so we got to choose whichever room we wanted. We ended up with a huge suite with a fireplace and full sized jacuzzi.
On the day we arrived we hiked to both sides of the canyon. Sunset point and Panorama. It’s mind blowing to see how many caves are carved into the mountains. Some are so high, it’s hard to imagine how they did it.
We went for a horseback ride through several of the beautiful valleys (sword, Rose and Red) and up to the city of Cavusin, where we explored a huge cave church dating back to the 5th century AD. After our horseback ride it started to rain, and we treated ourselves to a hamam. It’s a Turkish bath where men and women are in separate areas. It includes 15 minutes in the sauna, private pool and a soapy massage. Topped off with Turkish tea – wonderful.
Took a full day organized tour on day three with only five other travelers. We ended up having a really fun group of people. There were three Korean, one Turkish and one Japanese tourist. The first stop on the tour was an underground city called Derinkuyu, which is 85 meters deep. It was used to hide Christians during enemy attacks in the 5th through 10th centuries and was originally 16 floors deep. It has very narrow corridors and we were told not to go in if we were claustrophobic, had asthma or hypertension. Jason has discovered a new found fear of tight spaces…
Next, we drove to the Ihlara valley. It’s gorgeous with a river running through its deep canyon. The waters are supposed to be healing. We hiked down into the canyon passing a cave church, and had lunch along the river in Belisirma village.
On our way back to Goreme, we stopped at an amazing ancient cave monastery called Selime which really felt like being in another world. Then we ended up at the hilltop town of Uchisar, which had breathtaking views of Pigeon valley, caves and fairy chimneys.
We had a lovely final dinner of claypot chicken, tapped open at our table with delicious pickled vegetables, while sitting on floor cushions next to a cozy fire.
We woke up after our third night and took an adventurous hike (maybe 4-5 miles) up behind Goreme. It was totally desolate and beautiful with nothing but caves, fairy chimneys and snow capped mountains as far as you can see.
The one thing we didn’t see were the hot air balloons. Usually, it’s THE thing to do in Cappadocia but it was apparently too windy for balloon trips. Plus, it costs about $150 per person. It has been wonderful visiting all of these places in the off-season. We love the feeling of practically having complete privacy at all of these incredible destinations.