Highlights of South Western Antolia, Pamukkale and Ephesus

Perhaps, the second most exciting thing for me to see in Turkey after Istanbul is the cotton castle. In turkish, Pamukkale means "cotton castle".   This wonder is located in the south western Denizli region of Turkey.  

I'm not really sure why they call it cotton castle.  But Pamukkale is actually a series of terraces made of travertine, a form of limestone deposited by the mineral springs.   They appear white due to the calcium deposits by the flowing water coming from the nearby hot springs.

To get to Pamukkale, we first flew to Denizli.  Denizli airport is located farther out from the town of Denizli.  Outside the Denizli airport, there are local buses, which took us to the Denizli bus station.  If you are going straight to Pamukkale, mention the bus driver and he will give the instructions for transfer to another bus which goes to the Pamukkale town.   We reached Pamukkale town, located at the foot of the cotton castle, about 9.30 am ( bus ride was 20 lira per person).  From the town, we hike through the famous cotton castle and to the top.

Hiking Through Travertine

On top of the cotton castle is the ancient town of Hierapolis.   We spent too much time at the cotton castle and did not get a chance to walk around Hierapolis.   But we did manage to take a look at Hierapolis pool ( an extra surcharge of 30 lira if you want to swim in the pool), which I personally don't think is worth the extra bucks.

Hierapolis Ruins

There are dolmus (local buses) which you can take to the top of the travertine, through Hierapolis.  If you are constraint on time, taking local buses will save some time and allow you to see both Hierapolis and the cotton castle.

After spending half day at Pamukkale, we headed our way down to the town and took a bus to Denizli train station.

Our next stop is Selcuk.  Train travel is very very cheap in Turkey and even cheaper than buses.   The price of a train ticket is 17 lira per person and the train ride is about ~4 hours to Selcuk.  The only complaint that I have about train travel is that it makes all the stops between Denzili and Selcuk.   

We stayed overnight at this amazing B&B called Amazon Petite Palace in Selcuk.  Selcuk is relatively small compared to Denizli.  The town is very quiet but so rich in history.   This is the town where John and Mary last lived after Christ's crucification.   Most people visit Selcuk due to Ephesus,  an ancient Greek city. We were originally debating a lot whether or not to go to Ephesus as our schedule was really tight.  But ruins in Ephesus were very memorable and I was very happy that we did.

Ephesus itself is about 10 minutes cab ride from Selcuk town.  There are two entrances to Ephesus, the top gate and the lower gate.  We took the cab to the top gate, as recommended by our host and made our way down to the lower gate.  This map is a very accurate description of the Ephesus.

The Curetes Street

Believe it or not - this is the brothel, right next to the public toilets

Library of Celsius

One can hike from Ephesus lower gate entrance back to the town of Selcuk.  On the hike back, one can also stop to see Temple of Artemis, which is only a site and definitely can be skipped.  You can also see the Temple of Artemis from the hills of St. John Basilica.  Since we had to catch the flight back to Istanbul from Izmir, we took the dolmus back to the guest house.  St. John Basilica is right across from our B&B, so we also stopped by to see the place where John the Baptist and Virgin Mary last lived.  Even though I’m not a Christian, I felt very special to have visited the place.    I would have loved to visit Virgin Mary house, but it was not near Selcuk and we had a plane to catch to be back to Istanbul.

If we had more time, I would have loved to visit Virgin Mary's house, which is a little bit farther away.  

12 hours in Cappadocia

Day3 

Today is the day trip to Cappadocia Region.  Cappadocia is a region in central Anatolia, famous for its cave dwellings, underground cities and the moon like landscape.  I have read it from somewhere that it is in this region where Star Trek movies were filmed, but this rumor was proclaimed to be not true. 

Since we are staying at the SAW airport hotel the previous night, we just walked to the airport in the morning and got on the flight to Kayseri.  

There are two major airports which serve Cappadocia region.  One is Kayseri airport (aiprot code:ASR) and the other one is Neveshir airport(airport code:NAV).   If you look at the Cappadocia map, Neveshir airport is closer to Goreme, where most of the attractions are.  But I have heard that Neveshir airport is actually located farther out.  So, in the end it does not really matter which airport you fly into.  

Map of Cappadocia. Courtesy of New Goreme Travel.

It was very hard to make a decision on whether or not to spend overnight at Cappadocia.  In the end, we decided not to because:

1.  Our next stop is Pamukkale  and there is no direct flight to Denizli from Cappadocia region.  So instead of having to go back to Istanbul for transit, we decided to save time and money by doing day trip.

2.  The only other reason to stay overnight at Cappadocia is to do the famous hot air ballon ride.   Almost all people who visited Cappadocia experienced the famous hot air balloon ride and watched the sun rise.  After intensive thinking, we opted not to do the hot air ballon ride as:

- it was very expensive; I was quoted that it is at least >$150 per person.

- I think we will still have the chance to do the hot air ballon ride in life

- Hot air ballon is really a touristy thing.
(A friend of mine also went to Cappadocia recently and they did the hot air balloon ride.  The sunrise view from the balloon was so beautiful that I had tiny bit of regrets of not doing it.  But I am sure I’ll have this opportunity next time again.)

We rented a car in Cappadocia.  Cappadocia roads are good and not hard to drive around by yourself. The car rental was not expensive, but it was a bit difficult to find a rental which has automatic cars.  Luckily in the end, I was able to rent an automatic car with a chauffeur for about 58 euros from Sixt car rental.  We had trouble communicating with our chauffeur as he doesn't speak English.  But he can understand the name of the attractions and were able to drive us to where we wanted.  

First stop is at Goreme open air museum.  Before going, I was not sure what to expect there.  I went there because it was recommended as a must see.  After visiting, I would say that this is a place which I would recommend to skip if you do not have enough time.  There are small rooms hollowed out into the cave, and some rooms are actually churches with cave paintings.

Cave Rooms and Churches with Cave Paintings - Goreme Open Air Museum

After Goreme, we drove to Pasabag, where the famous fair chimneys are.  Visiting fair chimney does not take more than 15 minutes.   But if you like to hike, there is a path behind the chimneys which leads to a hill, and from the hill's top, you can see a nice view of panoramic view of the Cappadocia.

Fair Chimneys - Pasabag valle

View from top of the hill next to Fairy Chimneys

I have read about the underground cities when doing research about Cappadocia, and was very intrigued by it.  People actually lived in those underground cities, which can go down to 8 stories. So, our next stop after lunch was the Derinkuyu Underground city.  There is another underground city called Kaymalki which is closer in distance.   

After Derinkuyu, our last stop for the day is Uchisar Castle.  It is a citadel situated in the highest point of the region, and the view from top is stunning.

View from Uchisar Castle

Uchisar Castle

We flew back to Istanbul and get ready for our next stop, the cotton castle and ancient ruins of Ephesus.

Istanbul First Day

Day1

We landed in Istanbul past midnight.   We hop on the shuttle bus operated by Havatas, which runs between IST airport and Taksim square for 10 lira(~$5) per person.   We planned our first night to spend near Taksim Square as we do not want to travel farther into the older town for the hotel after 10 hours flight and 30 mins bus ride.  So, as soon as we got out of Havatas bus, we walked across Taksim Square, down the famous Istiklal Street (Istiklal Caddesi) and to our hostel, which is a block off from the Istikal street.  

Taksim Square and Istiklal Street are similar to NYC's times square; they are very crowded with tourists, locals, street performers and shops.  When we arrived to Taksim, it was past midnight, yet Istiklal street was very busy.  Loud music are blasted from all the clubs and lounges from the floors above the ground in the buildings.  I read about the noise intensity of staying near Taksim, and even though our hostel was a little bit further outside from the main street, you can still hear the musics and the beats.    

Day2 

Since we only 3 full days in Istanbul, I wanted to cover as much sightseeing as possible for the first day.  So, for the first Day in Istanbul, we visited Old Town.  We also had a very nice Turkish breakfast at Van Kahvalti Evi in Chihanger, which is close to Taskim square.   (For a list of other recommended breakfast places in Istanbul, I recommend the following post).

Traditional Turkish Breakfast - honey and cotted cream (on the right side) were to die for.

Traditional Turkish breakfast normally includes some spread, a variety of cheeses and some boiled egg with tea.  We also ordered Menemen, Turkish omelet, which was extremely delicious.  

All the main tourist attractions are in the old town, within the walking distance of each other.  The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia are situated across from each other and the Basilica Cistern is nearby as well, within 5 minutes walking distance.

Blue Mosque

Entrance to Basilica Cistern

Hagia Sophia 

We spent the night at the airport hotel in SAW airport as we were visiting Cappadocia region the next day.  To get to SAW airport, we again take the bus from Taksim Square to SAW which costs about 13 lira per person.  I am so pleased with this airport shuttle service.  SAW airport is located on the Asian side of Istanbul, and it took about 45 minutes even without traffic!  So, can you imagine what the fare will be if we took a cab there?

Tips:  This is my first time staying at airport hotel and using the airport as the base.  Turkey is a big country and flying to other parts is relatively cheap.   But most of the local budget airlines fly out of SAW airport, which is located farther away from the Istanbul.   There is no direct flight between Cappadocia and Denizli, so the airlines make a transit stop at Istanbul.  So, instead of spending the night at Cappadocia, we came back to Istanbul and spend the night at the airport hotel.   This definitely saves us some time in our already jam-packed schedule.  

Next Stop: Cappadocia >>