We were going to skip Cappadocia on an upcoming trip to Turkey but are now considering a few nights there as friends and family are recommending that we include it. Are there any hotels that offer non-cave rooms? We had a less than pleasant experience on Santorini in a luxury cave hotel and don't care to repeat it( little light, dank, claustrophobic, great view from it's outside balcony though) Thanks for any suggestions.

If you like a doting owner then you probably will enjoy Elysee Pension ( www.elyseegoreme.com ).

If you're the more independent type that just need a place to stay and do your own thing then the owner can come across as indifferent.

Many. Check tripadvisor or booking.com to find highly-reviewed ones.

Many hotels have both cave and non-cave rooms. You can check for Taskonaklar, it has a nice view and many different rooms www.taskonaklar.com

From my trip report:

From there we drove to Mustafapasa (5 km. from Ürgüp) and found the recommended B&B (Hotel Pacha - Ancienne maison grecque (http://www.pachahotel.com/index.htm), not to be confused with The Old Greek House), which was the best place we stayed at during our stay in Turkey--my wife found the laundry service (20 TRY) a little steep. The room cost us 60 TRY per night and the one dinner we had there--good family style Turkish food--cost 20 TRY per person without wine. It was the only time that the breakfast egg was other than hard-boiled. We stayed there 4 nights. The host was an interesting character. He started is life as a stone mason, eventually purchased the ruin of a Greek house, found an old photograph of the house in the town's archives and rebuilt the house as it was. It also owned one of the shops on the main street between the upper and the lower square which is now run by his son. He loved his job as hotelier: schmoozing with the guests (particularly young women), providing van tours for them (for a price), buying and selling rugs as an occasional activity. His French was fairly fluent, his English very limited. His wife was a very overweight traditionally dressed woman who did the cooking and cleaning with the help of one other woman and spoke no foreign language. For the most part she stayed in the kitchen. Mustafapasa is an interesting town. It was predominantly Greek before the population exchange and has quite a few mansions remaining from that time. Some of them are in ruins and some of them are being converted into hotels. It may be unrecognizable in ten years.


Photographs of the hotel can be found among these pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...57622933537559 and the next three

Thanks everyone. Still checking them out. I am finding myself to be very ambivalent about going to Cappadocia, almost forcing myself. It appears to look like Monument Valley, Sedona, and Bryce Canyon. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
I live in the SW.

It does not look like Monument Valley and Bryce Canyon. For one thing, the culture is different.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...th/4208740319/

HappyTrvlr--

You are wrong. It was one of our highlights of out trip to Turkey. Do you hike or do any active pursuits? There are some great early Christian church type places one can see by hiking into the valley (much better than the ones that the tour buses can drive up to). We are the last people in the world who would normally spend money on something like a hot air balloon trip; it was fabulous. This is the one place in the world I'd recommend doing it. There are some fascinating small villages that provide you a glimpse into a completely different culture than most of us are used to. Go for it! You won't regret it. This was MUCH more interesting area of Turkey, in our opinion, than some of the coastal areas, many of which seemed to have sold their soul for tourism and development.

Thanks for your encouragement. We'll go!