Cappadocia, Turkey

Many travelers seem to choose from among the following Cappadocian attractions: Uchisar rock castle, underground city, Goreme open air museum, hot air balloon ride, hike in one of the colorful valleys surrounding Goreme, and whirling dervish ceremony. Two days would allow for a sampling of these attractions, three days would allow for a more relaxed pace.

I'd suggest two very busy days or three more relaxed days. There are five main types of sites here – underground cities, Byzantine-era churches, ruined villages/castles, caravansaries, and fairy chimneys. To get the full experience you should try to see some of each. Here are some recommendations and the amount of time it will take for a decent visit (not including travel time). An underground city will take a couple of hours. I like Derikyu and Kamakli. If you're in good enough shape and want a quicker experience without any other tourists there is a nice underground village near Guzelyurt. Goreme is the best place to see churches and will take about a half a day. Along with the open air museum in Goreme, be sure to look at the buckle church and church of the evil eye (El Nazar) nearby. It will take an hour to see both. The second best place to see churches is the Ilhara Valley. Allow a day to hike through the woods and visit the churches built up along the cliff walls. There are lots of other stand-alone churches I really like. My top two are the Church of St. John in Gulsehir and the Eski Gumusler monastery near Nigde. Both are outstanding and thinly visited. Allow an hour for each. Uchisar castle is worth a quick visit (less than an hour) for the nice views from the top. Sarihan near Avanos is the easiest caravansary to visit and has been fully reconstructed. It's a nice setting for an afternoon tea break and will take about an hour. Avanos is also a nice village nearby to stop in for a meal and to shop for pottery. It will take a couple of hours to eat and visit a few of the shops. Some good fairy chimneys are near Uchisar, Goreme, and the Deverent Valley (Zelve). There are plenty of pull-offs along the road near these. Allow a couple of hours to drive around and pull off for pictures. Have fun.

We are taking a Gray Line tour from Istanbul to the Cappodochia area in September. It involves a plane ride, two nights at a hotel, a hot air balloon ride and the plane ride back to Istanbul. Gray Line is based in the U.S. They do a great job on their tours in many countries. We decided to sign up for the optinal ballon ride as three friends of ours have gone to Cappodochia and were very impressed with the area and the hot air ballon rides.