Cappadocia

High summer is low season, but increasing numbers of visitors put up with the heat and volcanic dust to combine Cappadocia with a Turkish beach holiday.

Despite an outside chance of rain, spring and autumn are excellent times to visit; October can be particularly busy. Don’t rule out mid-winter, when high pressure can bring crisp blue skies and Cappadocia can be at its uncrowded best.

There are daily flights from Istanbul to Cappadocia’s main airport at Kayseri and also to smaller Nevsehir. It’s roughly a 45-minute drive from the airports to central Cappadocia, and taxi transfers can be arranged through your hotel.

Taxis are easily available in larger towns such as Goreme and Urgup. Most destinations are served by frequent, cheap dolmus (minibuses), which pick up or drop off passengers at any point along their route.

On the back roads lifts are commonly offered, though it’s normal to make a contribution in such cases. Car hire is easy and cheap. Roads are generally in good condition and traffic mostly light.

With a few exceptions accommodation is in towns or villages rather than in the countryside. The majority of hotels in the region are ‘cave’ hotels – often, in fact, a mix of rock-cut and 19th-century freestanding masonry. Hugely characterful, most have only a small number of rooms and offer a unique insight into these historic dwellings.

Most visitors stay in the three main towns – Uchisar, Urgup and Goreme. Uchisar offers a superb central setting, a lovely low-key atmosphere, good shops and restaurants, great views and easy access to some of the region’s best walking trails.

Goreme is Cappadocia’s original tourist centre, set among the region’s signature ‘fairy chimneys’. It is a little busier than Uchisar and Urgup, but has bags of charm. Urgup is more of a proper town, rather than a tourist destination, with more in the way of markets and shops, but still feels nicely low-key.