Stay in Uchisar or Urgup for Cappadocia visit?
 

We have narrowed down our choices to either Urgup or Uchisar for our upcoming visit. Is one more charming? Easier to walk around for dinners and such in the evening? We will have a driver for day touring.
Thanks!!

Consider Esbelli Esi. We splurged for the stay and we were glad. Suha, the owner, is the perfect host and he does not use any on-line service but his own. If he does not like the tone of the inquiry, he will refuse a guest. He only wants people who will be good guests.

http://www.esbelli.com/

Thanks! That is one of the properties on our list. Trying to get a feel for the towns themselves...was Esbelli well-located for walking around in the evenings, dinners, etc..? Did you like being in Urgup as your base? :-)

We based in Göreme, so I might not be too helpful. From the shuttle, Ürgüp seemed larger & more built up than other towns around. We walked some of Uşhisar & it was a pretty sleepy small town. Very atmospheric with a lot of uphill hikes involved . . .

Ian

Just got back last week. Uchisar was dead the two times we stopped through. Goreme seemed too touristy. You will be happy with Urgup since there's a good selection of restaurants and things to do. It is still a real Turkish town and caters to tourist. We had delicious homemade dinner at Ailanpa. Wasn't crazy about the red velvet chairs and a sparkly Marilyn Monroe on the wall, but the food was in the top 5 of our trip. We had the manta and chicken special of the day. We were also planning to visit the Hamam that only charges 25TL for bath and 20 minute massage, but ran out of time. We paid 99TL for this in Istanbul.

There was one restaurant to which we walked. We just liked Esbelli. Suha, the owner has purchased something like 20 different properties and cobbled them together to make a most interesting hotel. If you have trouble negotiating steps, however, I would not stay there becasue everything is somehwere else, even if it is a close somewhere else.

In fact to get to our room Suha created a passage way through the porous rock.

Here is an excerpt from our trip report:

Our hotel room is a cave. The high vaulted ceiling with ornamental ribs and an open clothes closet in the wall are all carved from stone. We are careful not to fall out of bed and crack our skulls even though the floors are covered with a wood veneer. The bathroom is thankfully modern and commodious. (I like using that word to describe bathrooms.) The owner of the Esbelli, Suha has purchased 23 abandoned buildings over the years and converted them into a hotel with a refined but a most congenial atmosphere. To get to the room we must walk up and down stairs, around turns, and through a tunnel been carved from stone. It is not for the disabled, seniors with limited movement, or Americans without a GPS.

Suha is a slight man, who resembles Salman Rushdie. When I mention this to him he says he will avoid Iran. He is justly proud of his establishment and plays classical music and jazz during all the waking hours. He fondly remembers our Stu Tower and has read his book The Wayfarers. (Stu you me something for the plug.)

Suha’s assistant is the effusive Esin which means inspiration in Turkish. She has an easy laugh and is immediately likeable. She attended Marshall in West Virginia where she received her masters in musical composition and will be attending SUNY Buffalo next year for her PhD. She is a composer and a jazz singer. We tell her that we will show her New York and give her all sorts of hints on how to save money. She is the daughter we never wanted and I am afraid we will end up paying for her education, if we are not careful.
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We are supposed to see Esin in August when she stops in NYC.

Hey Nicci

You must have just followed us. Had the weather improved? It was unseasonably cool while we were there. Sunny & nice in the day but cool & sometimes windy at night.

Ian

Hi Ian,

I am working on a trip report that will probably take a couple of weeks. We did so much! Just thought I would pass it forward to other travelers seeking advice since it's fresh.

We had wonderful weather in the high 60's for Istanbul and Cappadocia. The coast was warm and a little balmy in the high 70's. Out of 15 days, we probably only had 3 days without some sort of rain shower. Most were only an hour or two and not a problem, except the day we were in the middle of Aphrodisias without any shelter in a hail storm. Also the one day we had for Bafa Lake Park was rained out, so we stayed on the other side and enjoyed the lake view.

NIcci

I look forward to reading your report, Nicci. I pounded mine out quickly, before I forgot all of the little details. The hail in Aphrodisias doesn't sound too fun . . . we missed it & Pamukkale on this trip due to my final 'wife-friendly' itinerary. Next time, I guess.

Ian