Uçhisar

A lovely little town on a hill, built around a huge fairy chimney known as Uçhisar Castle, Uçhisar has some of the nicest places to stay in Cappadocia. There are carpet shops and trinket stalls near the base of the castle, but the town still feels calmer and a bit more residential than Göreme, with clustered stone houses overlooking the valleys. From here, it's easy to take off for a walk through Pigeon Valley (Güvercinlik Vadisi), so named for the birds the villagers traditionally raised in distinctive-looking cotes lodged in the walls of the valley.