Getting to/from Cappadocia, Turkey

Here's how to get to Cappadocia from other parts of Turkey. In general, bus and plane are the best ways.
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Ankara—CappadociaBus and car are the easiest way, train longer and less convenient. Forget the plane—there are no direct flights:

There are no non-stop flights between Ankara and Cappadocia, the trains (see below) are slow and run mostly at inconvenient times, so the best way to go is by road: bus or car.
By BusNevtur buses depart Ankara's ASTI main bus terminal about every two hours for Nevsehir (and vice-versa). The journey takes 4 hours, including a 25-minute stop about 1-1/4 hours into the journey to stretch your legs, use the toilet, have a glass of tea, a meal or a smoke (no smoking on the bus). The fare is YTL20.
When you arrive at Nevsehir's bus terminal, you'll be transferred to a minibus for the final part of your journey to one of Cappadocia's towns such as Göreme, Uçhisar or Ürgüp. The cost of the minibus trip is usually included in your bus ticket fare.
Buy your ticket at Nevtur, ASTI ticket counter no. 50. It's best to buy yor ticket in advance if you can, but most of the time you can just show up at ASTI, buy your ticket, and be on your way on the next bus. (That's what I do.)
If you're going to travel during a national holiday or religious holiday period, you should reserve your bus seat in advance to avoid delay or disappointment.
By CarFight your way through Ankara traffic to the E-90 highway south, following signs for Aksaray, 219 km (136 miles, 3 hours). At Aksaray, turn left (east) following signs for Nevsehir, 73 km (45 miles, 1 hour).
Just at the junction of E-90 and the Nevsehir highway in Aksaray is the Orhan Agaçli Tesisleri, an elaborate commercial highway rest stop with a motel, restaurant, cafeteria, snack stands, toilets, souvenir shops, fuel and service stations, even a small mosque.
By TrainThe main railway line runs from Ankara to Kayseri, then splits, one line running east to Sivas, the other south to Nigde, Karaman and Adana, skirting Cappadocia to the east and south.
Express trains take about seven hours to cover the distance between Ankara and Kayseri. (Compare this to the bus's four hours from Ankara to Nevsehir.)
Erzurum Ekspresi leaves Ankara in early afternoon and arrives at Kayseri in the evening. Güney Ekspresi departs Ankara early in the morning, and arrives at Kayseri in mid-afteroon. Çukurova Mavi Tren and Dogu Ekspresi depart Ankara in the evening and arrive at Kayseri in the middle of the night.
A taxi between Ankara Gar (railway station) and ASTI (main bus terminal) takes about 10 minutes in light traffic, and costs about YTL10.
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Antalya—CappadociaThere may be a direct flight soon, but right now you must fly via Istanbul, or (better) go by bus or car:

By BusOvernight buses run between Antalya and Nevsehir, about 9 or 10 hours. From Nevsehir, you continue to your Cappadocian town by minibus. You might also decide to take a bus to Konya, see the sights there, spend the night, and continue to your destination the next day.
By CarThe 586-km (364-mile) drive takes between 8 and 9 hours, depending on how you drive, how often you stop, and whether you're going north uphill to Konya or south down the mountains to Antalya.
It's an interesting ride, along the ancient Silk Road past the Sultanhani and other Seljuk Turkish caravanserais to Konya (good for a meal or overnight stop), then through mountain country down to the Mediterranean coast.
By PlaneTo fly between Antalya and Cappadocia you must go via Istanbul. The flights take about 90 minutes each, but getting to the airport, checking in, passing through security, boarding, transferring, waiting again, flying again, collecting your luggage and transferring from the airport can add up almost to the time it takes to go by bus or car.
There are flights between Antalya and Ankara. Then you must take a bus or drive from Ankara to Cappadocia. More...
Check with one of my recommended travel agencies to see if there is a nonstop flight between Kayseri and Antalya yet.
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Istanbul—CappadociaSeveral options: daily nonstop flights to Kayseri (and a few weekly to Nevsehir), direct overnight buses, or sleeper train-and-bus via Ankara or Konya:

You have a choice of ways to travel from Istanbul to Cappadocia, in central Anatolia.
By PlaneFastest, though not easiest or cheapest, there are daily (morning and afternoon) nonstop flights from Istanbul to Kayseri on Turkish Airlines and Onur Air, and occasional flights from Istanbul to Nevsehir's airport at Tuzköy.
Shuttle vans can take you from Kayseri airport directly to your Cappadocian hotel. The entire journey from your Istanbul hotel to your Cappadocian hotel can be done in 4 to 5 hours, if all goes well. More...
If you're arriving from abroad and you plan to visit both Istanbul and Cappadocia, consider leaving your Istanbul visit until the end of your trip. Arrive at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport International Terminal on your international flight, walk to the Domestic terminal, and catch a flight directly to Cappadocia (if the connection timing works.) You'll save yourself a back-and-forth transfer from the airport and an unpacking and repacking at your Istanbul hotel.
Turkish domestic flights are often much more expensive if purchased outside of Turkey, so you should consider having a good Turkish travel agent make your internal flight reservations. They can help with any other arrangements (private guides, hotels, rental cars, yacht cruises) you may need as well. More...
By BusA night bus from Istanbul to Cappadocia is the cheapest way to go, but it's a long ride—730 km (454 miles, about 12 hours). Still, if you can sleep on buses, this may be your favored way.
The most efficient way is to ask your hotel to help you reserve your seat. Leaving from Istanbul, board your bus at the Harem Bus Terminal if possible. Your journey will be almost an hour shorter than if you board at the main bus terminal (Büyük Otogar) in Esenler.
By Train & BusIt takes a bit longer, but it's more comfortable and fun: board the Ankara Ekspresi sleeping car train at Istanbul's Haydarpasa Station in the late evening, arrive at Ankara Gar the next morning, take a short taxi ride (10 minutes, YTL10) to ASTI, Ankara's main bus terminal, and buy a ticket for the 4-hour ride to Nevsehir in Cappadocia. (Here's more on taking the bus.)
It's a longer trip, but more comfortable and enjoyable, and not expensive considering that you save a night's hotel expense by taking the sleeper train.
An alternative is to ride the nightly Meram Ekspresi sleeper train from Istanbul to Konya, then take a bus for the 3-hour ride east to Nevsehir.
By CarIt's a long drive (730 km/454 miles, 11 or 12 hours), and it only makes economic sense if several people share the car and the fuel expense. Use the otoyol (expressway) between Istanbul and Ankara to save time, then follow the E-90 highway south from Ankara to Aksaray, then go east along the ancient Silk Road to Nevsehir.
Leaving Istanbul is a traffic nightmare, but the otoyol then goes through some mountain scenery. The countryside south of Ankara is more monotonous.
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Izmir & Ephesus—Cappadocia Several Kayseri-Izmir flights weekly, direct buses, and an interesting (if long) drive, or sleeper train-and-bus via Ankara.:

Many travelers in Turkey want go between the Ephesus region south of Izmir, and Cappadocia in Central Anatolia.
It's 720 km (447 miles), a drive of nearly 12 hours, so most people going by car or bus break their journey with an overnight in Pamukkale or Konya, or both.
By BusYou may find a direct bus all the way from Nevsehir to Izmir, but it's also possible you'll have to change buses enroute—not a big problem. From Izmir there are frequent minibuses south to Selçuk, Ephesus and Kusadasi.
If you plan to spend a night in Konya or Pamukkale along the way, you may have direct buses for both segments of your journey.
By CarMost travelers choose to drive via the Meander River valley, from Selçuk via Aydin to Denizli and Pamukkale, so they can detour to ancient Aphrodisias along the way, then spend the night at Pamukkale. This makes a good first day of travel (190 km, 118 miles, about 3 hours, not counting the detour to Aphrodisias).
On the second day, it's 306 km (190 miles, 5 to 6 hours) from Pamukkale to Konya through Turkey's lake country. Stop at Egirdir for lunch, and enjoy the scenery. Stay the night at Konya to see its great Seljuk Turkish buildings (especially the Mevlana [Rumi] Museum). The next day, continue east along the ancient Silk Road via Sultanhani to Nevsehir, Cappadocia (221 km, 137 miles, 3 hours) on Day 3.
For details, see my 5-Day Ephesus—Cappadocia Driving Itinerary.
By PlaneSun Express has Izmir-Kayseri and Kayseri-Izmir flights several times weekly from April through October. It's worth planning your Cappadocia visit around these flights, because if you don't fly directly, you must fly via Istanbul, which takes more time and expense. See my 5-Day Fly-Drive Itinerary.
By Train & Bus If you're not in a great hurry, one of my favorite ways to do this journey is by sleeper train from Izmir to Ankara, then bus from Ankara to Cappadocia. You board the train in late afternoon, dine aboard, bed down in your private sleeping compartment, breakfast on the train, and arrive in Ankara in the morning. A quick taxi ride (10 minutes, YTL10) takes you from the Ankara Gar to Ankara's ASTI main bus terminal, where you buy a bus ticket for the 4-hour ride to Nevsehir

Ürgüp, Cappadocia, Turkey

Ürgüp has traditionally been the tourism center of Central Anatolia's Cappadocia region (map), though nowadays nearby Göreme Town has become an equally important touring base.
It used to be that Ürgüp was for upscale visitors and tour groups, and Göreme for backpackers, but that has changed. There are now excellent boutique hotels and inns in both towns, although Ürgüp does have many more of these.
The center of Ürgüp (EWR-gewp, pop. 15,000) boasts many fine old houses of carved Cappadocian stone. The soft volcanic tufa lends itself to carving for decoration and to expansion: if the house needs a new room, the residents merely hollow one out of the hillside into which the house is built.
Like most Cappadocian towns, Ürgüp clings to the walls of a valley and tumbles down along the valley floor for some distance.
The town has many fine inns with cave rooms such as the Esbelli Evi, as well as cheaper pensions. On the outskirts of the town toward Kayseri are large modern hotels designed for tour groups.
The best restaurants in Ürgüp are Sömine (shur-mee-NEH, "fireplace") right in the center atop the shopping complex, and Ziggy's out of the center up the hill toward Esbelli district. More...
The center of Ürgüp has shops, a historic hamam (Turkish bath), and the Temenni Hill, a high rock ledge looming above the very center of town, with a saint's tomb at its edge. Temenni was a favorite place to go for the fine view, and to watch the sunset, but in spring 2007 a section of the rock collapsed on several buildings in the town, so the viewing terrace is being reconstructed.
If you plan to take a hot-air balloon flight, and you're staying in Ürgüp, your ballooning company will pick you up from your Ürgüp hotel and drive you to the launch site.
Argeus Travel is a good tour and travel agency in Ürgüp. In fact, they run the Turkish Airlines shuttle buses between Ürgüp and Kayseri's Erkilet Airport. and also run the best restaurant: the Sömine, right in the center of town.

Churches of Cappadocia

It is estimated that there are more than 600 rock-cut churches in Cappadocia. These churches that people carved were similar in plan to the ones in the capital. Walls were covered with beautiful frescoes and they were also influenced by the Iconoclast period in the 8C and 9C. Most of the frescoes date from the 11C and 12C.
Two different techniques were employed for the frescoes, they were either painted directly on the rock or on a very thin coat of plaster. In churches where it was not plastered over, the painting became extensive. The predominant color of this style was red ocher.
In many pictures it is noted that eyes or faces of people are obliterated as it was believed that this action killed the painted subject in the Islamic period. In addition to this there are also many scratches of vandals’ initials which is strictly forbidden today. The visitor should be reminded that the use of flash with cameras inside the churches is not allowed.
The simplest church had a rectangular vaulted nave with an apse covered by a projecting arch. There are many variations of the churches, some with triple apse and a dome, cross-planned and so on. Because the churches were carved into the rock, they did not need to be supported by columns. Therefore columns and vaults are only structural symbols. Names of the churches are based on their archeological style or decoration, for instance the Buckle or Sandal Church. The apses of the churches face different directions as they are carved in accordance with the natural formations and availability of suitable rock pieces.
In most churches there are many grave pits which are thought to have probably belonged to donors or the church dignitaries as this was the tradition.

CARPETS

In recent years there has been a rapidly increasing interest in carpets. Many books, catalogues, introductory texts and more specialised works have appeared and yet despite all the research put into these publications, the subject of carpets still bewilders and confuses some people. Despite this carpets are still highly sought after, with their rich warm tones, and extraordinary patterns and motifs. Each hand made carpet is a totally individual work of art representing a level of craftsmanship seldom surpassed.
In this brief introduction we hope to give you a greater insight into the history, traditions and wonderful uniqueness of artistry, that ensures the continued demand for high quality hand made carpets throught out the world.

Lifestyle Walking Tour

Enjoy a highly specialized ‘Lifestyle Walking Tour’ that takes you into traditional village family life of Central Cappadocia visiting local homes and rock-hewn villages and exploring many spectacular lesser-known valleys such as the Pigeon’s valley, the White valley, and other unspoiled sights of the Central Anatolia plateau. (app 14 kms hiking) In the late afternoon, enjoy a kilim weaving demonstration and educational session on the centuries’ old craft of carpet weaving.

Rocks & RuIns Tour

This tour is specially designed to discover the hidden treasures of many out of the way, spectacular, interesting and realistic sights of Cappadocia. Our first stop is at the fascinating multilevel underground city of Kaymakli. Continue to Soganli Valley, also known as the ‘Valley of Dolls’ with its many Byzantine period rock tombs, enjoying a leisurely hike and exploring the Greek style churches and monastery ruins. Then we pass through the remote villages of Guzeloz, Ortakoy, Baskoy and Sahinefendi. We visit Taskinpasa Caravanserai, before arriving at Cemil village, a typical small Cappadocian village. Following a brief stop, we continue to Mustafa pasha (Sinasos) for lunch. After which we visit the village, renowned for its excellent Ottoman and Greek architecture. Then we continue to the Pancarlik valley and enjoy a easygoing stroll before returning to your hotel.

Remote Canyons Tour

Your journey starts by a visit to the Uchisar castle. Then we continue across the fertile plains of Cappadocia to the multilevel underground city of Derinkuyu. After lunch near the Canyon of Ihlara, we enter the sheer-sided canyon of Ihlara, in which there runs a stream, and on.both sides there are rock hewn churches. We enjoy a 4 km hike through the Ihlara valley to to arrive in the Belisirma village. Then we leave for Selime to visit this surreal ancient monastic site and several rock hewn churches. We continue along the Silk Road back to Cappadocian natural park, en route we stop at the well-preserved Agzikarahan Caravanserai, before returning to your hotel.

CappadocIa Complete tour

A full day tour of Cappadocia (the land of beautiful horses) view some of the fascinating frescoed and rock carved churches of the Göreme open-air museum, Visit the historic village of Cavusin, continue to Avanos for lunch, and visit the pottery artisans in the traditional rock carved village of Avanos. Stop at the majestic fairy-chimneys of Pasabag, take a gentle stroll among the naturally sculptured rock shapes of Devrent Valley. Continue to Urgup to sample some of the wine produced in the area. Enjoy a panoramic view over Göreme from the Red and Rose Valleys, before returning to your hotel.

Maps of Cappadocia (Kapadokya), Turkey

Here's a map of the region called Cappadocia (Kapadokya) in Central Anatolia, including the towns of Aksaray, Avanos, Derinkuyu, Göreme, Güzelyurt (near Ihlara), Hacibektas, Kaymakli, Kayseri, Kirsehir, Nevsehir, Nigde and Ürgüp.

Live Diary Page about Cappadocia

After having aged 5 years in 14 hours, we arrived in Goreme in Cappadocia.Quote of the day (from fellow traveler): "I'd rather take a donkey back to Istanbul than take this damn bus again!!" Spoke with a helpful travel agent who met the bus (he was unrelated to our tour operator, was looking for people without prior arrangements). He called the tour company to let them know we were finally there. Dora was looking forward to finally seeing a usable toilet in our wonderful hotel room. Some 15 minutes later, the tour van showed up. Seems we didn't have time to go to the hotel since it had gotten late, other people were in the van, etc.. Our helpful tour guide said "don't worry" but his solution was stopping at a Shell station. Now, if you think gas station bathrooms in the U.S. are questionable, well...Seems the travel agent had been a little too rosy with his description of how this trip would play out. Had a wonderful breakfast of clif-bars and red bull, and we were on our way!Cappadocia is known for its extensive cave-dwellings some dating back to 1200 b.c. to the Hittites. Toured an underground city, a monastery, and an above-ground cave city. The tour was worthwhile, but the obvious better choice would have been plane and then car rental.Dropped off at the SOS cave hotel - not very luxurious, but clean. Built somewhat in a cave, but not as much as other hotels. Seems there are so many caves, the locals will use them for anything.Decided we would pull the plug on "Touring Turkey by Bus" and went to one of the myriad travel agents and bought a plane ticket to Izmir on the coast. Evidently in Turkey it is polite to offer your guests tea. We've also noticed that when you are about to be horribly ripped off, they will suddenly remember to offer you tea. So the travel agent offered us some tea...(btw, Lonely Planet vouches for the integrity of "Rose Tour" which is the aforementioned travel agent)Cappadocia Day 2Van promptly picked us up and began the tour. Since we had no accommodations, we asked the tour operator to arrange something in Izmir for us. They were helpful, and once again, the tea...Went and saw some unusual formations in the shape of cones, a cave village inhabited until the 1950's when it was damaged by an earthquake, the valley of the "fairy chimneys" (Ted thought they looked like mushrooms, Dora thought they were phallic - check out the pictures and you decide!), and another settlement outside of Goreme.Had another stop on the tour, the infamous "ceramics cultural demonstration". Saw some talented locals making pots, but began to worry after everyone was offered tea. Sure enough, Dora fell in love with an admittedly beautiful bowl, but the price was 1750 Lira = 1400 USD. After extensive negotiations, the price had dropped to 400 Lira = 300 USD. Decided against buying it since although this might have been an excellent value, we're not really in the market for a $300 bowl.Brought out to the airport immediately after the tour and flew to Izmir. Met a couple from Puerto Rico (Alison and Joel) on the tour and coincidently they were heading to Izmir on the same flight. Flight was an hour late, but still quicker than the bus.Our friend the travel agent had helpfully booked us in a hotel some 1 hour from the airport in a sea-side town. Turned out the hotel was an absolute dump and although they had refunded the second bus trip from the package, we still paid way more than was appropriate.At this point, we have 2 rules for traveling in Turkey:1) no buses2) no travel agents

Land of the Fairy Chimneys

I took an overnight bus from Istanbul to Cappadocia the night of the 26th after 2 late nights in Istanbul which was fun.... to check out the night life there. Went to see a Turkish cover band, that night was Funk and Soul night or something like that. It was quite interesting considering he beat boxed too. The night before that we happened across an 80's cover band, I don't know, I guess the Turks like cover bands.So, I arrivied rather tired, cold and not knowing where I was going to stay. Luckily it didn't take me too long. It's quite a facinating place here. All the rocks are natural volcanic rock formations and the caves are pretty cool too. I'm taking a tour tomorrow and will be checking out the underground cities. This town also used to be a Christian town and all the cave churches have these really cool frescos dating back a couple thousand years. It's been quite busy for this town since everyone is here for the solar eclipse. Loads of Japanese passing through on their way to Antalya for the huge eclipse trance festival. Anyways, just wanted to give you guys a brief update on my where abouts. Off to Olympos and the tree houses the night of the 29th; that's another over night bus (12 hours). I'll be checking in then.