Driving from Kalkan to Cappadocia
Jul 13th, 2010, 12:57 PM
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Driving from Kalkan to Cappadocia
Has anyone driven from Kalkan to Goreme? We are thinking of driving to Antalya, Side, CatalHuyuk, Konya , Goreme and fly back to Istanbul. I would appreciate advice on the driving and on site seeing along the way.
Anyone who has stayed at Side?
Anyone who has stayed at Side?
Jul 13th, 2010, 02:05 PM
#2
Hello Marygordy78.
i hope |fodor's does not mind this copy of my posts on TA:
2. Re: Driving from Antalya to Cappadocia- suggestions?
May 25, 2010, 3:25 PM
The two scenic and less traveled routes with both historic sites and tremendous natural beauty are as follows:
-Drive the somewhat coastal road bypassing antalya and Alanya until Anamur. Visit Anemurium if you have time, and then go inland to Ermenek for your overnight at Selcuklu Hotel. Drive to wards Mut, the next day, visit Alahan monastery (close to the highway), Drive North and skirtink Karaman start going East towards nigde. About ten or so kilometers after Nigde take a right turn to drive through yesildere to taskale and the manazan caves. Continue on the road after you have discovered this little known gem to get back on the Ulukisla-Nigde highway.
You can then either take the main highway north from Nigde to Nevsehir, or take the winding scenic mountain route to Guzelyurt at Ihlara valley where you can have your first night of Cappadocia.
2. Continue on the coastal highway, as long as you can towards Silifke. Aydincik is an interesting and friendly small town for an Overnight. This town formerly a possibly large pirate port has a truly unique mosaic of the old port with the boats and some other remnants of old Kelenderis.
If you manage to drive further your first day (not easy), you can overnight at tasucu, before Silifke or at Kizkalesi after Silifke. Either way, you will have time to visit the Heaven and Hell sinkholes and/or the asthma Caverns.
From silifke to mersin is easy and Mersin Northward to pozanti is motorway and then divided highway to aksaray and from aksaray East Northeast to nevsehir.
Neither of the above routes is easy, but both are great deal of fun and almost virtually unknown by most tourists. As far as i can remember only David1 on TA Forums has done some of this route on his motorcycle and Buraksan, i think.
After Alanya and gazipasa on the coast you will be out of resorts and tourists and into locals, and friendly small towns.
please post a report if you do take this route. You can even blame me with impunity if you have some mishaps.
PS: If you take the ermenek route, you may need to reserve at Selcuklu hotel because there was no other decent lodging when we were there three years ago.
May 25, 2010, 5:10 PM
I think Otherchelebi meant the turn off for the Manazan Caves is just a little east (16km according to my map) of Karaman (not Niğde), they're about here (Taşkale) - maps.google.co.uk/maps…
If you're taking that route, there's a nicely carved Hittite relief between Karaman and Nigde near Ereğli - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivriz / http://www.hittitemonuments.com/ivriz/ - at Aydınkent (Ivriz) here - maps.google.co.uk/maps…
That's definitely an off-the-beaten-track route - great fun.
otherchelebi
istanbul
posts: 1,402
reviews: 14. Re: Driving from Antalya to Cappadocia- suggestions?
May 25, 2010, 5:41 PM
Thanks for the correction David. I am already wearing the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
And we had missed the hittite relief. we got lost in the middle of noman's land, because we had driven from aksaray to karapinar and then to Ayranci, trying to find Sidamoria, instead of the direct route to Nigde.
Side has good sandy beaches, aggressive shopkeepers, lots of Brits, germans and Russians, lodging to cater to every budget, lots of restaurants, and is partially built on the ruins of the antique city. Has some nice and some horrendous areas.
If you are not going to spend much time on visiting aspendos and Perge, you could drive all the way to Anamur and Overnight there. However, if you are going to tackle the route up over the mountains from Alanya, staying at Side makes good sense. (you lose about 30 minutes each way from the highway to Side and back, because it will be crowded in the Summer.)
i hope |fodor's does not mind this copy of my posts on TA:
2. Re: Driving from Antalya to Cappadocia- suggestions?
May 25, 2010, 3:25 PM
The two scenic and less traveled routes with both historic sites and tremendous natural beauty are as follows:
-Drive the somewhat coastal road bypassing antalya and Alanya until Anamur. Visit Anemurium if you have time, and then go inland to Ermenek for your overnight at Selcuklu Hotel. Drive to wards Mut, the next day, visit Alahan monastery (close to the highway), Drive North and skirtink Karaman start going East towards nigde. About ten or so kilometers after Nigde take a right turn to drive through yesildere to taskale and the manazan caves. Continue on the road after you have discovered this little known gem to get back on the Ulukisla-Nigde highway.
You can then either take the main highway north from Nigde to Nevsehir, or take the winding scenic mountain route to Guzelyurt at Ihlara valley where you can have your first night of Cappadocia.
2. Continue on the coastal highway, as long as you can towards Silifke. Aydincik is an interesting and friendly small town for an Overnight. This town formerly a possibly large pirate port has a truly unique mosaic of the old port with the boats and some other remnants of old Kelenderis.
If you manage to drive further your first day (not easy), you can overnight at tasucu, before Silifke or at Kizkalesi after Silifke. Either way, you will have time to visit the Heaven and Hell sinkholes and/or the asthma Caverns.
From silifke to mersin is easy and Mersin Northward to pozanti is motorway and then divided highway to aksaray and from aksaray East Northeast to nevsehir.
Neither of the above routes is easy, but both are great deal of fun and almost virtually unknown by most tourists. As far as i can remember only David1 on TA Forums has done some of this route on his motorcycle and Buraksan, i think.
After Alanya and gazipasa on the coast you will be out of resorts and tourists and into locals, and friendly small towns.
please post a report if you do take this route. You can even blame me with impunity if you have some mishaps.
PS: If you take the ermenek route, you may need to reserve at Selcuklu hotel because there was no other decent lodging when we were there three years ago.
May 25, 2010, 5:10 PM
I think Otherchelebi meant the turn off for the Manazan Caves is just a little east (16km according to my map) of Karaman (not Niğde), they're about here (Taşkale) - maps.google.co.uk/maps…
If you're taking that route, there's a nicely carved Hittite relief between Karaman and Nigde near Ereğli - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivriz / http://www.hittitemonuments.com/ivriz/ - at Aydınkent (Ivriz) here - maps.google.co.uk/maps…
That's definitely an off-the-beaten-track route - great fun.
otherchelebi
istanbul
posts: 1,402
reviews: 14. Re: Driving from Antalya to Cappadocia- suggestions?
May 25, 2010, 5:41 PM
Thanks for the correction David. I am already wearing the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
And we had missed the hittite relief. we got lost in the middle of noman's land, because we had driven from aksaray to karapinar and then to Ayranci, trying to find Sidamoria, instead of the direct route to Nigde.
Side has good sandy beaches, aggressive shopkeepers, lots of Brits, germans and Russians, lodging to cater to every budget, lots of restaurants, and is partially built on the ruins of the antique city. Has some nice and some horrendous areas.
If you are not going to spend much time on visiting aspendos and Perge, you could drive all the way to Anamur and Overnight there. However, if you are going to tackle the route up over the mountains from Alanya, staying at Side makes good sense. (you lose about 30 minutes each way from the highway to Side and back, because it will be crowded in the Summer.)
Jul 21st, 2010, 06:12 AM
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While the suggested route might be interesting, here is the short cut ;-)...I used to live in Kalkan and now in Cappadocia, done that do that many times and still doing it every year as I will do again next week for my vacation hopefully.... Kalkan- Antalya either through the coastal road or via mountain route via Korkuteli...If you want to break the road, stay overnight in Antalya, though Kalkan Antalya is a good 3 hours drive. From Antalya to Manavgat than turn right to Serik via mountain road - beautiful - reach Konya. After Konya you need to head to Aksaray and finally to Nevsehir.... Antalya to Nevsehir is about 570 Km's and I do it at 6 hours and little plus but calculate 7 hours with a small stop for tea break...
Have fun and safe travells,
Murat
Have fun and safe travells,
Murat
Aug 1st, 2010, 11:56 AM
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Thank you for your advice. I have been concerned about this part of our trip, and want to make the best choices. We would like to stop at Perge and Aspendos on our way from Kalkan. We have a reservation at a hotel in Side for one night. We have reservations in Goreme at the Kelebek for three nights. We are two couples and are thinking about the balloon ride in Cappadocia. We were thinking about Koyna, but decided we would rather have three nights in Goreme. What do you think of the above?
Mary King
Mary King
Aug 2nd, 2010, 10:10 AM
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We drove this route in the opposite direction. We originally planned for 3 nights in Cappedocia but were so impressed that we added a 4th; we stayed in Urgup. Even though we don't usually splurge on things like the balloon rides, we took one and it remains one of our best memories from our many trips.
From Urgup we wanted to hike the Ilhara Valley, so we set out there and hiked a part of it. After lunch (in retrospect this was too late of a departure for the amount of driving) we then drove down over the mountains to Side (a horrible place in our estimation) where we spent the night and then took several days along the coast to the Kalkan area. Along the coast we much preferred Cirali to the other coastal resort towns we saw.
Driving was fine and we had no problems. Our other favorite was a B & B on a historic farm north of Kalkan--Owlsland. This was only about 15 miles north of Kalkan but seemed like a different century. We wanted to see authentic Turkey, and this was it whereas much of the coastal resort area could have been any coastal area anywhere in the world.
From Urgup we wanted to hike the Ilhara Valley, so we set out there and hiked a part of it. After lunch (in retrospect this was too late of a departure for the amount of driving) we then drove down over the mountains to Side (a horrible place in our estimation) where we spent the night and then took several days along the coast to the Kalkan area. Along the coast we much preferred Cirali to the other coastal resort towns we saw.
Driving was fine and we had no problems. Our other favorite was a B & B on a historic farm north of Kalkan--Owlsland. This was only about 15 miles north of Kalkan but seemed like a different century. We wanted to see authentic Turkey, and this was it whereas much of the coastal resort area could have been any coastal area anywhere in the world.
Aug 2nd, 2010, 10:42 AM
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Thank you so much. I just wanted to make sure that we could drive it in one day. I'm not sure about Side now, but it seems to be the best stop for us. I'll check on the other cities around there.
Turkey is a wonderful country and we are anxious to return and to visit places we have never been.
Turkey is a wonderful country and we are anxious to return and to visit places we have never been.
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