Captivating Cappadocia four days amid the cave dwellers

There’s so much to see and do here that even a week is barely long enough. Sadly, most visitors only get three or four days, so here’s how we suggest you make the most of them.

Day 1: Göreme Open-air Museum, Uçhisar and the Pigeon Valley

Start your day with a leisurely breakfast in your hotel, especially if it’s one of those with a spectacular view from its terrace. Then make your way to the Göreme Open-air Museum to get a taste of what first attracted the world’s attention to Cappadocia, namely its extraordinary heritage of early medieval rock-cut churches and chapels, many of them with frescoes on their walls. The Open-air Museum stands on the site of the original settlement near what is now called Göreme. It was a monastery complex where you can inspect a rock-cut dining room with a long stone table as well as the tiny churches. The two finest are the Karanlık Kilise (Dark Church), inside the main complex but requiring a separate ticket, and the Tokalı Kilise (Buckle Church) just outside the main gate.

The Open-air Museum is a pleasant one-kilometer walk away from the center of Göreme village. Stroll back admiring the stunning scenery on either side of the road, and divert along the path running in front of the Tourist Hotel to find the so-called Love Valley with its soaring phallic-shaped fairy chimneys, some of the finest in Cappadocia. Then stop for a gözleme (crepe) or börek (stuffed pastry) lunch at one of Göreme’s cute wooden kiosks -- Meeting Point, Nazar Boncuğu and Şafak -- that overhang the storm water drain. Lunch over, you can hop on to the half-hourly dolmuş to Uçhisar where Uçhisar Kalesi (castle), a gigantic plug of rock pierced with innumerable holes, dominates the landscape for miles around.

Climb right up inside the “castle” for a truly panoramic view of the surrounding scenery, although be careful at the top where there are no safety rails. As you look down don’t miss the frozen-sand-dune rock formation beside the main road, one of the curious quirks of the local scenery. Afterwards you can walk back to Göreme through the Pigeon Valley, a deep canyon the tops of whose walls are pierced with hundreds of pigeon houses where once locals used to keep the birds whose guano provided the fertilizer for their fields.

Day 2: Derinkuyu and the Ihlara Valley

Even if you don’t usually like organized excursions, the day trip to the Ihlara Valley offered by most local travel agencies is a must since it enables you to get to a remote corner of Cappadocia that it would be time-consuming to visit without your own car. Most tours stop first at Esentepe, a viewpoint overlooking the Pigeon Valley. They then drive to Derinkuyu (or possibly Kaymaklı) where you will be able to visit the deepest of the so-called underground cities.

Possibly dating back to Hittite times, the underground cities were mainly carved out in the early Middle Ages when local Christians needed somewhere to take refuge from Arab raids. It’s unlikely that they would have lived in these somewhat claustrophobic burrows for more than a month or so at a time, but the structures to be found in the various rooms such as mangers for the animals, wine presses and giant rolling stones to seal off the tunnels make it apparent that normal life had to have been conducted underground for more than the odd few hours at a time. Interestingly, many local people still live in troglodyte houses that contain many of the same features as the underground cities.

Tours then proceed to the Ihlara Gorge, a spectacular, steep-sided canyon with the tree-lined Melendiz River running along its bottom. This is a little piece of heaven, 16 kilometers long from end to end, with yet more frescoed churches punched into the sides of it. It’s possible to trek right along the gorge but most tours stick with descending the stairs midway along and walking for between three and seven kilometers towards Selime, stopping for a light lunch at a delightful spot by the river. After the walk minibuses usually continue to Selime, another giant plug of rock but this time completely hollowed out to serve as a monastery. Right inside it the soot-blackened two-storey church is more like a cathedral, and the kitchen with its soaring chimney makes a remarkable sight. The views are nothing short of spectacular.

Day 3: Ürgüp, Mustafapaşa and Avanos

Be up with the larks to take to the skies in a hot-air balloon, the ultimate way to appreciate the extraordinary landscape. At last count there were 70 balloons available, making every day Balloon Fiesta day, an incredible sight in its own right.

Like Uçhisar, the small town of Ürgüp is dominated by a plug of rock called Temenni Tepesi (Wishing Hill), this time topped with a plateau where you can grab a glass of tea in what was once a small Ottoman library. If you’ve never been inside a hamam (Turkish bath), you might want to try the one in the town center opposite the mosque that started life as a 19th-century church. It’s mixed bathing, which won’t suit everyone though. Infrequent buses run from Ürgüp to Mustafapaşa, once Sinasos and home before the Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1923 to a large Greek population, many of whose splendid mansions still survive. Head straight for The Old Greek House to have lunch in the courtyard of one such house. The simple local food is always beautifully prepared and presented and you’ll get the chance to eye up a very secular fresco on the landing that shows a young woman on a swing in complete contrast to all Cappadocia’s religious imagery.

After strolling round Mustafapaşa take a bus back to Ürgüp and then catch one of the infrequent dolmuşes to Avanos, the small town on the banks of Turkey’s longest river, the Kızılırmak (Red River), which is famous for a pottery made using red clay dredged from its bed. The back streets of old Avanos have recently been given a facelift, making them well worth a quick look too.

Day 4: Ortahisar, Zelve Open-air Museum, Çavuşin or Soğanlı

Only the lucky few manage a fourth day in Cappadocia, but there’s still plenty to see and do. You could head to Ortahisar, a relatively un-touristy village dominated by another great plug of rock and with a small museum featuring dioramas of traditional local life. Or to Zelve where a whole abandoned troglodyte village now makes an adventure playground of caves and tunnels. Or you could walk along the Rose Valley from Göreme to Çavüsin to explore an entire rock-face of abandoned houses and peek inside the church of St. John the Baptist, its frescoes exposed to the air by a landslide. Or you could take another tour to Soğanlı where yet more rock-cut churches, one of them with a dome, run alongside twin valleys. Even then you’ll only have scratched the surface of what Cappadocia has to offer.

WHERE TO STAY

Cappadocia boasts more boutique hotels than anywhere in the country apart from İstanbul, Bodrum and Alacatı.

Anatolian Houses, Göreme.

Tel: 0384-271 2463

Esbelli Evi, Ürgüp.

Tel: 0384-341 3395

Kelebek Hotel, Göreme.

Tel: 0384-271 2531

Kirkit Pansiyon, Avanos.

Tel: 0384-511 3148

Les Maisons de Cappadoce, Uçhisar.

Tel: 0384-219 2813

Sacred House, Urgüp.

Tel: 0384-341 7102

HOW TO GET THERE

The easiest and quickest way to get to Cappadocia from İstanbul is to fly to Nevşehir or Kayseri. Make sure to book a shuttle transfer to your hotel when you make your flight reservation or risk an expensive taxi fare. To save money, take the overnight bus from İstanbul. From Ankara it’s a five-hour bus ride.