Today, I am traveling to the most magical place on Earth. This place is very popular even from biblical times. It has the weirdest-looking hills and valleys. It is the most popular hot air balloon spot in the world. Let’s go to Cappadocia!
After about one and a half hours of journey in flight from Baku, I landed in the capital city Ankara. This is my second time to Turkey. This time, I came prepared to explore new places, most importantly the magical land of Cappadocia. I arrived in Ankara Otogar to take the bus to the town of Goreme.
Ankara Otogar is a very huge bus station with hundreds of beautiful dresses at any given moment. This time, I am traveling in the bus of Nevsehir. The bus arrived on time and we started our journey. I have a pretty high opinion about the bus service in Turkey. It is very impressive. The drivers and the crew look very professional. The buses are clean and beautifully maintained. The roads are amazing and the ride is quite comfortable. You also get free snacks. Most importantly, they run on time. In fact, you will reach your destination faster in a bus than in train in Turkey.
This journey to Goreme was the best bus ride I ever had in my life. The endless plain lands and the mountains at the distance is what made me fall in love with turkey’s land.
After about 6 hours of ride, we descended into the Goreme Valley. I was literally jaw-dropped as I saw the amazing landscape made of chimneys. Goreme is a small beautiful town, very close to the Cappadocia valley. It is packed with hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops for the never stopping flow of tourists. The place is truly amazing and the vibe is much more beautiful than what I expected.
I checked into my hotel to get some rest. The hotel room was very small but it had a great view of the Cappadocia hills.
You can see the Goreme fairy chimneys over there and it’s quite a nice view especially in the morning when the sun is rising and the hotel balloons are rising up. It’s an amazing view. The best part is that you can just lay in this bed and enjoy the view of the Goreme hot air balloons in the morning. It’s an amazing view to wake up to.
After some rest, I headed to the town for my activity of the day. I had booked an ATV ride covering some of the popular sports in the Cappadocia valley.
I expected the ATV ride to be a pretty adrenaline-rushing experience, but unfortunately, it was nothing like that. The ATV guide was riding it super slow, maybe less than 20 kilometers per hour. It was pretty boring to ride like that in this amazing off-road landscape in Cappadocia.
It was so dusty there with the ATV ride. You should really bring the masks. I’m glad I brought mine.
About two hours into our ride, we reached our final stop. An amazing spot called Sunset Valley to view the sunset. We arrived there a bit late and had missed the sunset. But there were some abandoned cave rooms there to explore. It was very dark and it was quite an adventure to be in that cave room alone.
After spending some time there, it was time to return to the ATV rental shop. On the return journey, I was amazed by an unexpected view. Hundreds and hundreds of ATVs from different tours were returning at the same time. My camera was not able to capture this magnificent view properly. You have to be there to really experience the beauty. The noise and the dust generated by those ATVs were of the likes of the Great Migration of the wild animals in Africa.
It was the perfect sight to wrap up this ride that we had in the amazing valleys of Cappadocia.