Goreme

I ended my trip to Turkey in Goreme. It took a 12 hours night bus to get there, but it was so very worth it. Goreme is a great little town, where tourism mixes quite nicely with friendly village theehouses and restaurants. You’ll sleep in rooms carved our of the soft stone pillars. The village is surrounded by gorgeous valleys with strange rock formations,. And of course there is the open air museum, with beautiful fresco’s. It’s absolutely stunning and an absolute must when you visit Turkey. Take a balloon trip there, if you have the chance and the money. I’m pretty sure it’s one of the best places for it.

This is one of the most amazing places in the world! Astonishingly unique and beautiful scenery with unbelievable systems of connected cave dwellings carved out like an ant tunnels by ancient people both above ground and underground. Frescoes and relief carvings have been damaged but still are amazing. It gets swarmed with tourists in the high season, but I’ve also been there in the late fall when there was almost no one around.

Hi,
Shots of our trip are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/waxydan/sets/72157594291256107/

Just a short note to recommend Middle Earth Travel (http://www.middleearthtravel.com/) to anyone who plans to go to Turkey or Cappodocia anytime soon.

We did a oneday trip through the Ilhara Valley with them and found them very friendly, amiable, well informed and happy to tailor the trip for anything we wanted to do.

Our guide had fantastic local knowledge about the area including a wondeful small mosque carved out of a mountain face that went unmentioned in guidebooks.

Well worth the few extra euro to have a personal guide with experience and enthusiasm.

lived in Goreme from 2001 to 2003, go back every year and will for the rest of my life!!! feel free to ask me anything!