Goreme Travel Forum

Hi fellow travellers,

My husband and I are plannning to visit cappadoccia in early May for 2 full days. We are on budget so I need some advice on the most affordable way to visit the best bit of cappadoccia. I am contemplating either to take 2 full days tour (blue & red) or hire a car.

If I decided on tours:
Is it possible to arrive before the tour start (930 am) if we take bus from Istanbul? I got some conflicting info re hours taken on bus journey, ranging from 10-12 hrs. What bus should I take to arrive at Goreme latest by around 830ish?

Is 50YTL ok for each tour per person? So far, we shy away from joining tour coz we would like the flexibilty of spending time on what we like most. However, due to limited time & information as well as tight budget, we might consider this option.

On car hire:
Can any of you recommend good, trusted & affordable car hire company? Should we book in advance or on the spot?
How much is car hire for a day?
Can someone suggested good driving itinerary coz I can;t find cappa's road map so I don't know what to expect with regards to distance in between the places of interest. I am not doing the balloon thing.
Is driving in Goreme safe?
How far is the Goreme open air museum from goreme town? is it walkable?

Sorry for long entry but thanks for your help.

Ara, Glasgow

there are 2 night buses to Nevsehir from Istanbul EU Part
departure: 20:30 Arrival: 08:00
departure: 21:00 Arrival 08.30

PS arrival time is given under good weather and road conditions. The bus company is Nevtur or in other words Nevsehirliler Seyahat
Telefone:İstanbul Esenler 0-212-4445050 Esenler Otogarı
They have everywhre ticket offices.

The bus will be at 08:00 in Nevsehir. Then they will take you to Goreme after 10 minutes of interval at the main bus station at Nevsehir with shuttle or with the same bus. If everything goes on time you will be there just before 09:30 It is too risky. There are many tour agency in Nevsehir And Goreme. You can surely hire a car but ı advice you to join a tour. There will be parking problems because of many tourists. I advice you blooning also. visit the following page
www.turkeytravelplanner.com

I took the overnight bus and a local tour with the Yama tour agency.
The bus dropped me in Goreme - seems to me that it was earlier than 08.30... The local agency was there at the hotel to pick me up with an already loaded van (10 people only).

Write to Yama and ask them about the possibilities.
http://www.yamatour.com/

The bus makes a long stop for a meal and they serve coffee and cake for breakfast on the bus.

Full details on my Turkey page and on the To Do ("Take a walk") tip.

Hi, I am in the same boat, take a look at the sight urgup travel I may also have another contact for you. Renting a car is very expensive and also they will charge everything extra, you can try www.autoeurope.com, the gas is extremely expensive, try www.viamichelina.it and do some searches there and it will calculate the gas for you. For that price I was told hiring a cab driver for a day is much cheaper and you save time cause, 1) you don't have to get the car and 2) the driver will know where you should go.

From instanbul to Kayseri, I got a flight with Pegasus for less than 50 US for 2 and a baby.. The bus is TOO long.

You can do everything by bus but I recommend tours, and if you do book a tour, book it in Cappadocia not Istanbul, because they will PUSH you and scare you in Istanbul to book or there is no more room, it is at least 1/3 more. Try Nese travel or Urgup travel. Someone will get in touch with me tomorrow for teh same thing, I will try to find some prices for you.

Good luck.

Thanks to all feedback, I am still contemplating on doing tours/ hire pvt driver as joanna said.

F_joanna, Do you planning to hire privt driver for a day? How much is the cost for private driver for a day? I'll take bus coz it's comfortable and I could see the sight along the way (plus we are postgrad students-tight budget!!) We took bus last year, from istanbul to selcuk & pamukkale, love it. Anyway, do share information re hiring private driver in goreme if you got it.

I have seen tours that I quite like, from yamatour or capadociatour.com., cost 50ytl perperson per tour. Any of you have taken tour from them, are they ok?

thanks a million people.

I used Yamatour for short 1 day and 1/2 day tours in the Goreme/Cappadocia area and for the hot air balloon ride. I was more than satisfied.

Hi Unas,

Can you explain the half day tour that you took from yamatour? how much is for half day, and where did you go for half day? how many in group? It might be a better idea to take half day tour so we could spend the rest of the day wandering around goreme.

Thanks for your information!

Ara

Sorry I don't remember the exact cost. All was arranged in advance, so I never did have the details on each separate item, except for the balloon ride. What I can tell you is that I am a budget traveller and opt for the cheapest :) The occasional splurge, like for the balloon ride is something else again.

The half day tour, as I remember it (this was in 2004, 5 years ago) was:
Urgup, the Caravan Saray, Uchisar and Cavusin. the Open-Air museum in Goreme, Aksaray and the mushroom chimneys, a short walk in rock valley. The guide was an historian. He gave us a synopsis of 5,000 years of history in 1/2 an hour; an amazing feat.

Full details on my Turkey pages.

Oh yes - the group was small 8 people, a minivan. And the underground city was in Urgup as I remember it.

Hello, I will be in Cappadocia in mid june. I am also planning to rent a car for five days. The advantages to have a car are bigger than the choice of taking tours, although it is cheaper.

At the moment I have not find rates for hiring a car but i will share when I found them. Please let us know what you get before the travel and how it went when you come back.

Thanks

suggest you take a cab with driver (though I think the road is very easy to drive, not sure if the hiring company is good), I joined a tour[Green tour], it's nice but very very rush, you won't have enough time if you love taking photos. The second day I chose to ride on bicycle, the views are great and lovely and I can enjoy a lot, but it's a bit harsh by bicycle.... u may take a scooter if you know how to drive (but I dont so I dont' have choice)
U can have a look at my pics if you want at the following link:

http://www.amybbb.com/SiteL2_Travel/TravelGallery_TurkeyOct07/2_Cappadocia1/2_Cappadocia1.html
The first page under Cappadocia is the Green tour, the 2nd to 5th page are either on foot or bicycle

Thanks for everyone's input. We'll be leaving tomorrow 01/5/09 to Istanbul. Can't wait! Decided to take tours as it is too much headache to think and arrange. Hope we are going to get a very good time there, though I see the weather forecasts are not excitng at the moment.

Thanks again!
Ara

Have fun!

Just back from Turkey. Spent 2 gloriously wet & cold days in Goreme. Other than that, I would say that we have really terrific time. We joined tour for both days, the tour is not rush but manage to cover all of the itineraries and we are given time of our own to take pics (and walking leisurely through Ihlara Valley). The guides are really knowledgeable in History, spoken good English and other languages as well - not surprising as they have degrees in history & several foreign languages.
It would be better if we could see Goreme during its clear sunny days, but we still enjoyed the sights very much.

Sorry to hear that you ran in to bad weather, but good to hear that you enjoyed yourselves anyway.

Goreme and Cappadocia are beautiful. You must try it again someday later in the year for better weather ;)