I knew I had to go.
Flying in from Istanbul into Kayseri Airport, we drove through dessert landscape for over an hour, until we reached the foothills of the mars-like terrain. A destination like Kapadokya (aka Cappadocia) has such breathtaking landscape making it so memorable on it's own, but staying in cave accommodation certainly adds to this experience.
Cappadocia Cave Resort and Spa (5*) ~ approx EUR400 / night for a Deluxe Suite room with breakfast
http://www.ccr-hotels.com/en
I love staying in accommodation that reminds you as soon as you wake up, where you are. Whether you're at a beach destination and you wake up to the sound of waves lapping at your door, or in a historical city staying in a heritage hotel with original stone walls…when you wake up in a cool, quiet cave you know you're somewhere special.
- the caves naturally maintain a comfortable temperate, so if you visit in the summer time like I did, they're invitingly cool and in the winter time cosy and warm
- the staff were so friendly and helpful with arranging a private car and English-speaking guide for the duration of our stay (notably, a young lady named Selen Türk, assisted us through the whole booking process before we arrived and during our stay)
- great location; walking distance from the main 'castle'
- the hotel's outdoor restaurant offers fantastic views at sunset
- spacious suite rooms with an indoor jacuzzi, separate living room area and private balcony
Room for improvement
The shower drainage in our room was quite bad, almost flooded (perhaps older drainage systems and poorly designed shower doors that leaked). The general bathroom set up was quite cramped and hard to move around.
My tip
Do not book the dinner with the Turkish dance evening show. We should have known better! The dancing itself was a lot of fun to watch, but the food was awful. One of those tourist traps where busloads of people pile into a room to watch some traditional dancing and are served food cooked hours ago in big vats and reheated. Tasteless and terrible. However, the dancing and free-flow local red wine did make up for it.
Some of the dancing styles definitely had influences or perhaps influenced other types of dancing. The belly dancing with beautiful colourful fabrics sensually and almost hypnotically moving, reminded me of forms of traditional Indian dancing, and the men's dancing, arms-linked all in a row almost seemed Greek or even like an Irish jig.
Cappadocia, in the ancient persian language Katpatuka, means 'land of the good-breed horses'. 60 millions years ago, the two volcanoes Erciyes and Hasan alongside the Göllü mountain erupted depositing ash and basalt. Over time different climate conditions and the natural wind, rain and erosions sculpted these ashes leaving these interesting peaks, cones and obelisks which the locals call "Fairy Chimneys".
Don't miss the Derinkuyu underground city in Neveshir, which housed up to 20,000 people and their livestock. Thought to have been used by early Christians hiding from Roman persecution and even earlier civilisations to escape the freezing winters, this intricate network of tunnels, rooms, and an incredibly clever ventilation system is a wonderful piece of history but certainly not for the claustrophobic.
I'm only 5"3 and had to almost crouch in half to shuffle through some of the tunnels that went down 200m below the ground!
For the foodies, there was a fantastic little cafe near our hotel were a very helpful local who was also dining there (and luckily for us spoke good English) helped us order a few of her favourite local dishes. One to note was the manta, like a ravioli with minced meat and a yoghurt garlic sauce.
The best meal was in the neighbouring Goreme. The pide bread was freshly baked from the oven, the lamb testi kebab, stewed in the clay pot was juicy and tender, and the baklava deliciously sweet. I can't remember the restaurant name but it's on the main street in Goreme and has an undercover but outdoor patio seating at the front of the restaurant.
You can't come all the way to Cappadocia and not see this incredible landscape from the sky. At 4am a coach full of other bleary-eyed tourists turned up at our hotel. We drove about 15 minutes to the main registration area where we were divided into smaller groups whilst nursing a hot cup of coffee and pastry. Being in the middle of the dessert, at night time it gets quite chilly. So even if you go in the summer months, wear something warm for the balloon ride as it'a also quite windy 3000 ft above the ground. With around 100 balloons up in the sky every morning during the summer months, there are a large number of balloon company's. We booked http://www.kapadokyaballoons.com due to their safety record and price. You can pay extra for a longer 90-min ride or your own private balloon / less people. We had 10 people in our basket for a 60-min ride which was ideal.
Our pilot, Deniz Akasoy, was professional, friendly and extremely skilled weaving between the cone structures jutting out of the ground, then taking us sky high above all the other balloons, and finishing with a perfect bump-free landing.
A toast with bubbles was a nice finishing touch.
This is one of those destinations that you need to see for yourself. No photo, no travel show, no travel blog can really put into words how spectacular this scenery is.
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