Göreme – The Gateway to Cappadocia
If there is one place that we recommend you visit in Turkey (and the world for that matter), it’s Cappadocia and the Göreme Valley. Its peculiar rock formations, colourful canyons and magical fairy chimney’s make this tourist hotspot unlike any other place on earth – literally.
Check out these photos of Cappadocia to see what we’re talking about.
The historical region of Cappadocia has become famous for it’s hot air balloon tours, eccentric cave hotels, underground cities, ancient cave churches and the extraordinary terrain in the Göreme National Park (proudly added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985).
There are several towns in the Göreme Valley that offer tourist accommodations, but Göreme is the most popular because of its wide variety of hotels, restaurants, tour operators and stores that cater to foreigners. That, and because it’s one of the world’s most unusual cities!
Many travelers that book cheap holidays to Turkey will arrive and depart from Göreme when touring Cappadocia, making it a popular stop on the backpacker trail. Budget travelers can find good deals in Göreme and luxury travelers will find spectacular cave hotels that are truly one of kind.
Here is a photo of the cave hotel that we stayed at.
The town of Göreme, located in the Nevşehir Province of Central Anatolia, is also conveniently situated within walking distance to the Göreme Open-Air Museum (pictured below), one of the top tourist attractions in Cappadocia.
Helpful travel tip: Most people that travel to Cappadocia arrive via bus (typically from Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir or Antakya). Even if you book your ticket directly to Göreme, confirm with the bus driver/tour operator that the bus drops you off directly at the Göreme bus station (even if the bus ticket says Göreme). Like many other travelers, we were dropped off in Nevşehir, which is located about 20 minutes outside of Göreme. It was very confusing but fortunately other passengers guided us to the appropriate transfer bus (which was actually a small tourist bus – not your standard coach).
Read more from our travels to Cappadocia, Turkey:
- Photo Essay: The Magical Landscapes of Cappadocia, Turkey
- Video: Hiking the Goreme Valley in Cappadocia
- Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Tour in Cappadocia, Turkey
- The Cave Churches of Göreme in Cappadocia, Turkey
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Have you visited the town of Göreme in Cappadocia?
Share your experience and travel tips in the comments section below, our readers will thank you!
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A long, long time since we were in Cappadocia but we loved it. We stayed in Göreme too and travelled around from there. A good base. Hmm, think we need a revisit soon…
Julia
I was in Cappadocia a bit more than a month ago. It was glorious in the spring!
Fantastic timing! We leave for Turkey today, and this is definitely on our list of places not to miss.
I am completely enamored. Tell me, do people still live in those caves or are they empty?
Thanks for the wonderful coffee break tour of a faraway place!!!
Aweome photos! Cappadocia is on my short list for travelling later in the year, this may have gotten it to jump up a few places in the list…
I miss my cave hotel in Cappadocia. If I ever win the lottery, I am going back to buy it!
What an interesting looking place. I’d love to stay in a cave hotel!
I stayed in Göreme last year and loved it! The only thing that I found that I didn’t like was the food. There isn’t much selection and I ended up getting terribly sick from something I ate there. Another tip I would give to people going to Cappadocia is to skip the open-air museum. It was full of tour buses – thus, not very atmospheric. I ended up really having a much better time wandering around the countryside beyond the museum. There were hardly any people and the landscapes were beautiful. Thanks for this post!
This is great timing! We are in Turkey now and going there next week!
Do you think October is still a best shot to visit the Cappadocia for hot air balloon experience?
Göreme Open-Air Museum would be also on top of my travel list in Turkey – it looks like ant houses.