Hi - we are spending two days in Cappadocia (Day 1 morning to Day 2 evening) and I am wondering whether we should take a guided tour (around $150 per person for the entire two days) or rent a car and see the sights ourselves (with possibly a guide). We are flying in and out of Kayseri and staying overnight in Urgup. Any thoughts on one over the other would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Sen28,

While you are there please take a tourist guide registered by the ministry of tourism. If you want to hire a guide Chech the card because there are many people working as a guide and take you more shopping rather then beatiful sides. $75 per person per day is good price. If you want a name in cappadocia you can hire him He is the vise president of Cappadocia Tourist guide association. He was born in Cappadocia and he've been tourist guide since 1980. You will be in good hand if you hire him.

If you call to Tourism Office in Nevsehir or other town I am sure the officer will give you his phone number or if you ask the phone number of UCHISAR CASTLE you may contact him or his partner. Uchisar castle is the another beatiful place to visit when you climb up on the top of the castle you will see the whole FAMOUS cappadocia

Here is the name of him:
Ýrfan Ölmez

He is the best in cappadocia. If you mention my name you can get really good service.

Sinan Akdeniz
[email protected]

Sen28

Here is the Irfan Olmez e-mail:

[email protected]

If you want his phone number Please write me and e-mail

Sinan Akdeniz
[email protected]

Dear Sen28,Ofcourse you can explore Cappadocia on your own but my suggestion would be to do at least 1 day with a certified tour guide usually they bound with travel agencies. So you can familirise yourself better.

Unfortunately I wont be agreeing with Sinan to say xxx guide is the best to say. They are all trained guides and one can have plusses to eachother on different subjects.I wont say its the best for a person but Yes there are good guides and one he suggest might be also one of them.

If you are flexable try 3 full days at least in Cappadocia. I live here too. And I suggest everyone to get the best out of the area 3 days is the minimum.

Have a good time in Turkey.

When I was there last fall I drove, and easily found everything I was looking for. However, I was there three full days.
I strongly encourage you to consider a longer stay. There is no other place like it.

You can certainly visit the sites on your own, which I normally do, but I thought hiring a guide for a day or even for both was a great idea. We did one on our own and one with a guide. Our guide took us to out of the way places and seemed to really enjoying sharing information. We used him to book a hot air balloon ride and airline tickets but if we hadn't booked that, I think he quoted us $60 per day for the both of us, not per person (May 2002). We did have a rental car which we used the day we traveled with him, it might be more if he provides transportation.

The website is www.cappadociatours.com and the person I dealt with is Suleyman Cakir.

While traveling in most European cities & USA there are, 'daily/hourly, scheduled multi-person tours of the tourist areas available. The discussions about Turkey suggest these are not available. To me, $100.00/day for a private tours is more that I would like to pay. Are Multi-person tours available in most tourist areas? If so, what are the names of the companies?

When we were there two years ago, we also flew through Kayseri and stayed in Urgup. We took a tour group with 10 tourists, a guide, and a driver in a van and found it well worth the money. The guide can tell you so many things on top of the tour, like agriculture, industry, etc. of Turkiye. Plus if someone else drives you don't risk getting lost. We booked all (including air, hotel, and transfers) at a travel agency in Istanbul two days before leaving. I am pretty sure you can hire a group tour in Urgup also, but I recommend booking at least a couple of days ahead.

Our friends were there recently and drove themselves and didn't even go to the Goreme open air museum (the best part!) and they both loved it. He is a volcanic geologist so this was the highlight of their Turkiye trip. They said fuel was 4x what it is in Canada.

Do you have enough time for two days of tours though? The drive from Kayseri to Urgup are over an hour, so depending on when your flights are, you might just join a one-day tour to the Goreme sites.