Cappadocia

[apollo]

Fethiye-Isparta-Konya-Aksaray-Nevsehir. or possibly.Fethiye-Antalya-Manavgat-Akseki-Konya......The distances look similar

The road from Konya-Aksaray-Nevsehir is long, straight and boring.I remember a comment from Ataturk's biography. It talks about the endless steppe surrounding Konya.

The road signs are very good.

Accommodation is difficult to advise on. We have stayed twice in Goreme, in a backpackers cave pansyon. Clean,cheap, basic and friendly.

[Rimms]

Cheers Apollo

PS, Sorry all, just noticed that I have started this thread in the wrong place.

Rimms (should know better)

[Rimms]

Well we made it to Cappadocia and it was Fantastic !

Hired a nice new car from Cafe Pazar, it cost £20 per day and that included all insurance and mileage, set off at 6 am for the drive.
We took the Fethiye-Isparta-Konya-Aksaray-Nevsehir-Uchisar route which took us about 12 hours at a leisurly pace. En-Route we took plenty of stops, the best being at the lake just outside of Isparta, it was magnificent!

We arrived at Uchisar and booked into the Kilim Pansyion, it's a great hotel, built in a cave and Mehmet the owner was a brilliant. The hotel directly overlooks the Goreme Valley and is sittuated at the base of Ucisar castle, it is just to fantastic to describe. The cost was just £10 each per night which included breakfast.
See http://www.sisik.com/English/Scripts/Default.asp

I will post some pictures, but in short, it's a long drive but more than worth it. We went to the Goreme open air museum and saw all of the churches and fairy chimney houses, first lived in up to 300BC. We saw the underground city at Kaymakli  which used to be home for 5,000 people, let a guide show you round, this one is eight stories deep and fascinating. Don't worry if you miss Kaymakli, there are 200 underground city's in Cappadocia.

Avanos is fantastic for pottery and Urgup for wine, we will definately go back one day as the 3 days we spent there were harly enough.

The lake at Isparta

 

Kilim Pansyion and Uchisar Castle



The view from our room



The breakfast room at Kilim



Morning dawns from the roof terrace



I struggle to think of a name for this picture !



My less than confident mate, Sherpa Jim (left in shot)




   

[haino]

Great info and photos George. Been toying with the idea of visiting. Think you have convinced me.

Cheers, Gordon

[apollo]

I think that we will certainly consider the Kilim Pansyon the next time we go.

[PeteM]

Glad trip went well, we'll have to be brave and try it our selves - suspect spring or Sept is best time to go.  Sorry we missed you before you got back from C.  I hope your last few days at Serenkent were lovely.  I think we're planning our Turkey trips next year for end Mar/Apr, then early June, late July and 3 weeks in Sept so hopefully we'll catch up with you at one of those visits.
Ta for write up and piccies - really enjoyed it.
Pete

[Rimms]

One thing I forgot to mention, on the way back we decided that once we got to Konya (horrible place, avoid at all costs) we would head due South and pick up the coast road near Alanya. The plan was to find a nice beachside hotel and stop for a couple of nights, we did not see anything suitable up to Antalya so decided to head down to Kemer, that was even worse, you could not get on the beach as it was completely blocked by massive hotels. We carried on hearing of a place called Adrasan Beach
see http://freespace.virgin.net/david.newbury/adrasanda/adrasancoast.htm

It really is a nice place and really feels undiscovered by tourism, it's about a 3 hour drive from Calis and if you fancy a night or two in a really unspoilt setting, then this is the place for you.

Not only is it a fantastic beach lined with some small hotels, bars and restaurants but also has a clear water river running down to the beach lined with guest houses with their restaurants set out over the water, they look fantastic.

Anyway, last couple of pics.

Our hotel on the beach



The view from our breakfast table



I think maps list this as Cavus Bay



The Bay



Remember that River, don't look too closely !!!

[laffa]

 :)Been talking about going there for years but never got round to it, it looks lovely though, boss pictures too,  

[sting]

realy interesting ,a worthy post ,thanks

[pookie]

  :)A really useful thread as we are hoping to go to Cappadocia next easter for a few days in the middle of our two week trip.  But can anyone confirm whether or not you can fly from Dalaman to Kayseri ?  It would take up too much of our two weeks to drive.....