How to spend 2 Days in Cappadocia — Life of Ada-venture

The flight from Istanbul to Cappadocia is only an hour and a half long, but once you exit the plane you feel like you’re in a completely different planet. Gone are the boxy buildings and bustling streets of busyness, and enter a colorful landscape with sweeping valleys, enchanting rock formations, and charming cave homes.

Brief History

The first inhabitants of Cappadocia settled here because of the natural geological formations. The formations came about when the three volcanoes at the edge of the region were active and erupting, driving the ash and lava across the landscape, softening the rocks. Earthquakes and further erosions contributed to creating the multiple sprawling valleys. Meanwhile wind and rain eroded the lower soft rocks while leaving the hard rock cap on top, forming the fairy chimneys we see today.

With softer volcanic tuff rocks formed, the first settlers of Cappadocia took advantage of them by chiseling homes for themselves and their animals. It’s actually quite extraordinary that while living inside the tuff rock, it stays cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Where to Stay

We stayed in Göreme, a small town in Cappadocia with a population of around 2,000 people. After living in luxury for the past few days at the St. Regis, we weren’t even the least bit disappointed with our cave dwellings at The Vineyard Cave Hotel. We were able to experience living inside a cave like the inhabitants centuries before us, but still with the modern comfort of soft beds and plumbing. We can also confirm that living inside that rock naturally kept our room cool during the day and warm at night, eliminating the use of AC and thick blankets.

Service was phenomenal, the hotel manager, Osman, was beyond accommodating in every aspect. On the night we arrived, Osman sat down with us and a map of Cappadocia and outlined every nook and cranny of the region, pointing out all the major tourist sites, advising us on the most convenient transportation routes, and recommending nearby restaurants that serve local cuisine.

What to Do

Go for a hot air balloon ride

We signed up for a hot air balloon ride with Kapadokya Balloons, the first company that started the hot air ballooning business in Cappadocia. The company was very organized and we were picked up exactly at 4:30am and driven to the office for a light breakfast of simit and Turkish tea and coffee while we waited for the wind forecast.

The manager was really impressive. After explaining the instructions to all of us in English, he proceeded to explain it all again in Mandarin, and then again in Japanese to the other tourists. It’s actually pretty common for everyone in Cappadocia to speak at least two languages fluently. It definitely speaks to their tourism effort and how beneficial it is to have locals learn the languages of the common tourists who visit. We encountered many locals who spoke English, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish very fluently.

Unfortunately for us, both of the days we were in Cappadocia we attempted the hot air balloon rides but both days proved to be too windy. We seem to have bad luck with windy days and hot air balloon rides as this is our third time trying with no luck. Instead, both days we were refunded our money and driven back to our hotel to sleep for a couple more hours before starting the day again.

July and August are usually the best months to try for a hot air balloon ride successfully in Cappadocia. It was actually unheard of that the days we were there were unfortunately cancelled 3 days in a row. However, this is definitely a reason for me to return to Cappadocia, and if you intend on visiting, I would highly recommend this hot air balloon ride. Just google some photos or videos of hot air ballooning in Cappadocia and you’ll be convinced.

Join a Tour

The map and scribbles Osman provided us with

For visiting the major sites in Cappadocia there are essentially two tours, the green tour or the red tour, named for the routes they follow on the map. In both tours you’ll experience underground cities, castles, and of course arts and crafts demonstrations where you’re also persuaded to buy finished products. You can choose to join a big tour group where you'll be shuttled around the various sites on a big bus, hire a taxi driver for the day who will drive you around and also give you a brief overview, rent your own car and follow the route on the map, or set up a private tour.

We decided to sign up for the private tour so we could choose the sites we wanted to see as well as run the day on our own pace. We set up a private tour with our hotel and agreed to loosely follow the sites on the red tour. Osman’s father, Hasan, became our tour guide for the day. Hasan was a very informative guide and he provided both humor and history to entertain us.

What to see

Open Air Museum

One of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Göreme Open Air Museum is a complex of cave churches and settlements carved out by medieval orthodox Christian monks as early as the 10th century. The monks decorated the insides of the cave churches with colorfully elaborate Byzantine frescoes. The multiple churches depict different scenes in Christian lore such as the last supper, the crucifixion, the transfiguration, and so much more.

Many of the frescoes have been damaged or faded by weather conditions or earthquakes but it’s amazing to see the remnants and architecture of the cave churches centuries later. The most preserved frescoes are in Karanlık Kilise, or the Dark Church, named so because little natural light actually penetrates the interior of the church, thus reducing light damage to the fresco. The Dark Church charges an additional fee of ₺10 so only those who are truly interested will enter and it reduces the amount of foot traffic and human exposure.

One of the frescoes inside the cave churches

Besides the cave churches, there’s also an enormous 6-7 story mass of rock to the left of the museum entrance called the nunnery. This is where the nuns and monks lived and inside you can see their kitchen, dining hall, and other rooms.

Overall the Göreme Open-Air Museum is a must-see in Cappadocia and you should set aside at least 2 hours to visit. The Dark Church is also worth the price as you get to observe the true vibrancy of the colors and see the entire ceiling covered in art. In addition, there's one more church (The Buckle Church) that's actually located outside of the main area, just a few minutes walk from the entrance so be sure to save your ticket so you can reenter the last church on your way out.

Carved in dining table that can seat up to 30 people

Underground Cities

Underneath the rocky landscape of Cappadocia are enormous underground cities; some of which run 85 meters below the earth, some of which can house up to 20,000 people, and some of which have yet to be discovered. As recent as 2014, massive underground cities are still being discovered underneath the earth, one of which may surpass all the currently discovered ones in terms of width and depth by at least 3 times.

These underground cities were used by Christians as a place of hiding to escape invasion and persecution first by the Romans in as early as the 4th century, and then by the Muslim Arabs during the Byzantine era, and finally by the Turkish Muslim during the Ottoman rule.

The two most popular underground cities on the Green Tour are Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı. Since we were following the red tour, we opted to visit the less popular but equally as impressive underground city of Özkonak.

Özkonak has multiple levels of rooms including a kitchen, winery, barn, water wells, and ventilation system. It differs from the other underground cities of Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı in terms of its communication system and vast network of traps. There are a series of long narrow holes and tunnels installed on each level in order for people to communicate with one another on different levels. In regards to its traps, there are numerous shortcut passageways as well as misleading passageways to misdirect invaders. Near entrance tunnels are gigantic stone doors similar to millstones that can be pushed to block the opening. Just above the entrance are little holes for citizens to spear attackers or pour hot oil on them.

Özkonak is smaller than the other underground cities, but it’s a great glimpse into seeing what life was like living in an underground city. There are at least ten levels to the city but only four are open to the public for safety reasons. The narrow passageways will require you to hunch over as you tunnel to neighboring chambers, but there’s also a cool shortcut you can climb through to get to the upper level. Don’t forget, the caves stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter, so it can actually get pretty chilly down there!

Ortahisar Castle

Another natural geological phenomenon, Ortahisar Castle towers above the little picturesque town that was named after it. Ortahisar was used during Byzantine times by the military as a defense fortress. Now, after years of restoration, it’s open to the public and offers and amazing panoramic view of the region. Climbing up the steep stairways with chains installed on the rocks as railing can be pretty intimidating, but the view is worth it when you reach the top.

Paşabağ Valley

Paşabağ Valley or Monk’s Valley is a great location to view the enormous mushroom shaped fairy chimneys up close. It’s also called Monk’s Valley because monks used to take refuge here and carve homes for themselves inside some of the fairy chimneys. The valley is completely free to visit and you can spend a good chunk of time hiking around and exploring.

If the fairy chimneys don’t excite you enough, there are also camels hanging around and you can pay to take a photograph with them or ride them around in a circle.

What to eat

Testi Kebap

Testi Kebap or, Turkish Pottery Kebab, is one of the most popular dishes served in Cappadocia. It's served in a clay pot bursting with your choice of lamb or beef, vegetables, and spices with a side of flavored rice on the side. When you order it at a restaurant, it's served still sealed in the pot. Your waiter will then tap the pot and crack open the top to reveal the overflowing ingredients inside.

The taste and appearance of the dish reminded me of beef stew and it paired very well with the rice. You can find Turkish Pottery Kebab on the menu of pretty much any restaurant in Cappadocia. The two restaurants we enjoyed this dish at were Cappadocia Cuisine and Orient Restaurant.