I arrived in Cappadocia on Turkish Airways from Istanbul. I wanted to take the train, but all rail services have been suspended from Istanbul due to them upgrading to high speed lines. Even if you book a flight last minute in high season (which is what I did), you are unlikely to pay more than 130 Lira.
I arranged a shuttle from the airport to the hotel, but it was dark by the time I got there. Apparently this made for a cool picture of Göreme town.
It’s a fairly small place, but it’s in the centre of everything and all the hiking routes radiate from here. The open air museum, which showcases several churches built into the sandstone rock, is nearby.
Before I hiked love valley, I hiked up to see Üçisar castle, about a 3km hike from here.
You can see the word castle does not really do it justice. It is a natural structure with rooms carved out inside it. You can climb to the top for 6 lira (as of Summer 2014). The view at the top is great. You can see as far as Mount Erciyes, which is 3950 metres and still has snow at the top right now at the end of June.
The hiking around this area is really good. With a decent map the trails are relatively easy to follow with a few of them cut through the rock.
