Göreme: gateway to Cappadocia, 10 incredible things to do
Located on the central Anatolia plateau, in Turkey, surrounded by a volcanic landscape sculpted by erosion to form mountain ridges, valleys and pinnacles known as “fairy chimneys”, Göreme National Park covers the area between the cities of Nevşehir, Ürgüp and Avanos.
It is one of the most suggestive regions in Turkey and definitely one not to miss if travelling through the country.
Getting there
The Cappadocia region is served by two airports: Nevşehir (35 mins away by car) and Kayseri (1 hour away by car).
From Nevşehir airport, there are three options to reach Göreme : taxi, shuttle bus or car hire.
A taxi will cost around £30.
There are many companies that offer shuttle bus on demand; there is no standard timetable and shuttle buses only operate when they are prebooked.
From Kayseri airport, in addition to all of the above, there is also a bus that departs every four hours.
The town
Göreme town is the perfect base to explore the whole area and provides plenty of accommodation to suit any budget, plenty of restaurants and cafes, souvenirs shops and tours.
We stayed at the amazing Hidden Cave Hotel, a hotel dug into the rock, like several in the area, with sweeping views over the valley.
Göreme town is easily seen in one day, just stroll along the labyrinthine alleyways and stop for a drink or two.
We had dinner at the Topdeck Cave restaurant, with plenty of vegetarian options (and superb local wine).
Day Trips
But the highlight of our trip was the tour we took to visit the valley.
There are two routes offered, the North part (Red tour) and the South part (Green tour).
We took the Green tour and it was simply amazing!
Link here: https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Goreme/Green-Tour/d23271-73854P3
Our first stop was at the Göreme Panoramic Point, where there are magnificent views over Göreme Valley.
We continued on to visit Selime rock-art Monastery, which is the biggest rock-cut structure in all of Cappadocia;
then onwards to the stunning Ilhara Valley park and a very easy 3 km hike through a natural green canyon. There you will see cave churches with some unusual frescoes and enjoy lunch by the river, with vegetarian options.
Then we descended deep into Earth to visit one of my dreams, the underground city of Derinkuyu.
It reaches a depth of approximately 85 metres and it is large enough to have sheltered as many as 20,000 people together with their livestock and food stores. It is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey and is one of several underground complexes found throughout Cappadocia.
We then finished at Pigeon Valley for some beautiful photos.
If you don’t want to go on a tour, you can hire a car and follow any itinerary.
The roads are quite good and traffic is very low.
Another popular activity in the area is to go balloon flying. Link here: https://www.viator.com/en-GB/tours/Goreme/Cappadocia-Hot-Air-Balloon-Tour-Over-Fairychimneys/d23271-197702P1
If you don’t want to go ballooning, get up at dawn to watch the amazing show of hot air balloons flying up. It is simply magical.
For a sunset to remember, walk up to the Aşıklar Tepesi. The view is breath-taking.
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