Imagine extraordinary “fairy chimney” pinnacles of rock with capstones perched on top of them. Imagine deep gorges with streams meandering between shady poplar trees. Imagine mesmerising medieval churches cut into the rocks and painted with colours so bright that they still have the power to thrill. This is the Cappadocia of the blistering summer months when the sun rips the colour out of the landscape and burns so brightly that roses bloom and die within a single day.
Now blink and do a double-take. Imagine those same extraordinary fairy-chimney rock formations capped with bonnets of snow. Imagine the valleys with the streams frozen to ice and the rough rocks smoothed over beneath a thick blanket of white. Best of all, imagine the medieval rock churches empty of the summer crowds so that you can linger to appreciate every last detail of the frescoes. This is the Cappadocia known mainly to its residents and to the few hardy souls – mainly Japanese and Korean – who venture here in winter, and it’s a completely different Cappadocia, a place where wearing multi-layered clothing is not so much a fashion statement as a necessity, and where the locals slosh about in the snow wearing curious rubber overshoes.
Of course you can come to Cappadocia in winter and do exactly the same things that you would do in summer, namely visit the open-air museums and underground cities, trek through the valleys, and perhaps take a trip to a “Turkish Night”. But some of the local travel agents have wised up to the potential of winter tourism and offer alternatives perfectly tallored to make the most of the altered landscape.
Kirkit Voyage in Avanos, for example, offers a wonderful eight-day walking tour of the valleys on snowshoes. The tour takes visitors to small villages like Helvadere and Yenipınar in the foothills of Mt Hasan that rarely see a tourist at other times of year. Up here the air is clear, the forests unspoilt and the glistening crater lakes often frozen in winter. After three days of walking around Güzelyurt, the tour heads back towards more familiar territory in and around Mustafapaşa, Ortahisar, Uçhisar and Avanos. On the way accommodation is provided in village houses, offering a great way to meet some of the locals, try out some of their home-cooking and get a glimpse of life in a cold climate very far removed from the usual image of Turkish tourism as it is played out along the coast.
On the wall of Kirkit Voyage hang a pair of snowshoes that look alarmingly like outsize tennis rackets. It’s a relief, then, to see the snazzy modern versions that are provided for guests. I try a pair for size. “It’s easier to walk on them than in ordinary shoes,” says Osman Diler who sports the sort of perma-tan acquired from many years of outdoor guiding. Nor is any previous experience required to join the tour, he assures me, as he dangles the prospect of walking through the glorious Ihlara Valley in the snow before me.
For many people Göreme will be better known than Avanos or Güzelyurt. Here the Middle Earth travel agency offers snow-shoe excursions around the many beautiful valleys which fan out around the village. “What if there’s not enough snow?” I ask, remembering last year. Then they can take you to Mt Erciyes, or even at a pinch to the Ala Dağları National Park where snow is guaranteed.
The other option that opens itself up to Cappadocia’s winter visitors is skiing on Mt Erciyes (3916m), an extinct volcano near Kayseri, with a flourishing small ski resort. If you’ve already been skiing on Uludağ, near Bursa, put everything you saw there out of your mind. This is the rural take on winter sports, with headscarved mums careening down the slopes on sleighs while their children play with snowballs right beside them. At the same time there is everything here that you could possibly want for serious skiing, with three pistes and 12 kilometres of runs on fine, powdery snow. You can even hire everything you need here, including skis and snowboards.
What else can you do here that’s especially wintry? Well, also near Kayseri the hot springs at Bayramhacılar feature a large outdoor swimming pool where, if you can catch the weather right, you can swim in piping hot water while all around you the snow lies thick on the ground. These days no visit to Cappadocia would be complete without a trip in a hot-air balloon to view the staggering scenery from on high. And what could be more staggeringly beautiful than gazing down from a crisp blue sky on a phantasmagoria of snow and ice?
There’s no getting away from the fact that Cappadocia is right in the middle of the country which means that in winter it’s freezing. Pack your thermals and your sturdiest hiking boots, and forget thoughts of a cheapskate budget. You’re going to need a hotel that keeps the heating running even when visitors are thin on the ground, which usually means paying that little bit more.
