Things to do in Göreme
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Göreme Open-Air Museum
One of Turkey's World Heritage sites, the Göreme Open-Air Museum is an essential stop on any Cappadocian itinerary and deserves a two-hour visit. First an important Byzantine monastic settlement that housed some 20 monks, then a pilgrimage site from the 17th century, the cluster of rock-cut churches, chapels and monasteries is 1km uphill from the centre of the village.
Follow the cobbled path until you reach Aziz Basil Şapeli, the chapel dedicated to Kayseri-born St Basil, one of Cappadocia's most important saints. The grate-covered holes in the floor were the graves of the chapel's architects and financiers; the small boxes contained less-affluent folks' bones. In the …
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SOS & Sultan Restaurant & Café
A cheapish option that offers belly fuel rather than gourmet meals.
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A'laturca
Style meets substance at this elegant eatery. The menu here has been thoughtfully and creatively designed and the food is exceptionally well prepared. We enjoyed the classic meze selection and were very impressed by the succulent A'laturca-style lamb şiş kebap served on a perfectly cooked ratatouille. Other visits have introduced us to the delights of the chicken şiş kebap and the wickedly rich Kayseri mantısı (ravioli with garlic yoghurt and spices).
The restaurant has a number of eating areas, the most popular of which are the upstairs terrace and the quirky downstairs garden with its brightly coloured beanbag seating. Highly recommended.
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Orient Restaurant
Göreme's most atmospheric restaurant swoons under the weight of its own reputation as coupled-up diners nestle behind an extensive wine list. Juicy steaks, tender veal clay pots and a stack of flavoursome pasta dishes head the impressive, meaty menu. It's easy to order poorly though, as the cold mezes are oily, and the fish is dry. A safe bet is the decent three-course set menu (TL20). Service is delightful.
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Nazar Börek
This expat and industry hangout joint on the canal serves simple yet delicious meals, and the atmosphere is eternally fun and friendly. Fresh plates of börek (filled pastries), gözleme (savoury pancakes) and sosyete böregi (stuffed spiral pastries served with yoghurt and tomato sauce) are presented by jovial men with can-do attitudes. The canal-side chill-out area is where you'll get the skinny on local people and places.
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Göreme Restaurant
The live Turkish music played here every night tends to lure diners off the comfortable floor cushions and onto the impromptu dance floor around the low brass tables. The food is nothing special, but it's well priced and the menu includes 'world kitchen' items such as green curry chicken, stir-fried noodles with vegetables and falafel sandwiches. Beer and rakı (aniseed brandy) flow freely and service is good.
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Fırın Express
Simply the best lahmacun (very thin Turkish pizza) and pide in town are found in this local haunt that also does take away (paket) by the boxload. The cavernous wood oven fires up meat and vegetarian options and anything doused with egg. Traditional stews are also available but we suggest an ayran (yoghurt drink) and a çoban salatası (sheperd's salad) for a delicious bargain feed.
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Mercan
Geared towards the bus-tour trade, Mercan doesn't have the best food in Göreme by a long shot, but still has a pleasant terrace where you can sit and eat while gazing over the town.
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Cappadocia Patisserie
Close to the otogar, this place brings in cakes, pastries, baklava and ice-cream from Nevşehir and serves them with cappuccino or fresh orange juice.
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Local Restaurant
This reliable upper-echelon eatery stands on its own en route to the Open-Air Museum, and stands out for its wholesome continental meat dishes including stews, steaks, lamb shanks and tavuklu mantarli krep (chicken and mushroom pancake). The white tablecloths and stone-walled terrace provide some consolation for indifferent service.
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Karanlık Kilise
The stunning fresco-filled Karanlık Kilise, is the most famous of the Open-Air Museum's churches. It took its name from the fact that it originally had very few windows. Luckily this lack of light preserved the vivid colour of the frescoes, which show, among other things, Christ as Pantocrator, Christ on the cross and the Betrayal by Judas. The church was restored at great expense, which partly explains the extra fee to visit it.
However, the charge is also intended to keep numbers down in an attempt to preserve the frescoes. It's worth every lira.
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Tokalı Kilise
When you exit the museum, don't forget to cross the road and visit the Tokalı Kilise , 50m back down the hill towards Göreme on the right. This is among the biggest and finest of the Göreme churches, with fabulous frescoes in the two main chambers, and two smaller chapels (one underground). Entry is via the 10th-century 'old' Tokalı Kilise, through the barrel-vaulted chamber covered with frescoes portraying the life of Christ.
The 'new' church, built less than a hundred years later, is also alive with frescoes on a similar theme.
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Red Red Wine House
Stay close to me-e-e! In a former stable with arched ceilings, this seductive local feels like an ancient bootlegger's secret mixing den decorated by lovers of adult contemporary. A steady chain of guests smoke fruity pipes and sip increasingly palatable Cappadocian wines; hot, cold or shimmering at room temperature. It's open year round to honour the memory of former visitor Carlos Santana, whose spirit continues through live music most nights.
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Refectory
A few steps from the Yılanlı Kilise, don't miss the Refectory , with its long dining table and benches cut from the rock. At the end of the table is a trough in the floor that was probably used for pressing grapes. Attached to the refectory is a larder, where you can see storage shelves carved into the walls, and a kitchen. Another smaller, nameless church here retains a rock-cut iconostasis.
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Cappadocia Kebap Center
This tiny, friendly joint is a great place for a fast feed. You can enjoy a chicken döner kebap sandwich for a mere TL3 or acılı ezme (spicy tomato and onion paste) kebap sandwich for TL4, accompanied by chips (TL3.50) and a beer (TL3.50) or fresh orange juice (TL3).
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Roman Castle
Göreme village, set amid cones and pinnacles of volcanic tuff, is its own biggest attraction. At its centre is the so-called Roman Castle, a fairy chimney with a rock-cut Roman tomb; you can see the remains of the column tops on the temple façade. Some think Göreme may have been a burial ground for the Romans of Venasa (now Avanos).
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Yılanlı Kilise
The Yılanlı Kilise has 11th-century frescoes on part of the vault. On the left wall, St George and St Theodore attack the dragon, while Constantine the Great and his mother Helena hold the True Cross. On the right wall, the naked St Onuphrius, a hermit from Egypt, hides his nudity behind a date palm frond.
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Mehmet Güngör
Mehmet Güngör is a local guide with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Göreme's highways and byways; for €38 (up to four people) he will lead you through any of the local valleys. Most pension owners will also be happy to guide you on these trails for a minimal fee (it may even be complimentary).
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Pacha Bar
We don't know whether to be amused by or disapproving of the Pacha Bar's advertising slogan, which urges customers to 'get their rocks off'. Behind the otogar, it has sultry lighting, the mandatory disco ball and plenty of dark corners. It also has a pool table and big-screen TV.
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Rahibeler Manastırı
Rahibeler Manastırı. Although this was originally several storeys high, today you can only see what is thought to be the large plain dining hall, with steps up to a small chapel (with unremarkable frescoes). To its right is the similar Monk's Monastery
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Cappadocia Pide Salonu
Ask any local where the best pide in town is served and they will inevitably nominate this cavernous place near the tea shop (well, they will unless a family member owns or runs one of the town's other eateries). You can also get a cold beer here.
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Flintstones Cave Bar
Retaining 'it' club status with the closure of some other after-hours joints, Flintstones is more than just another licensed hole-in-the-rock. It's a favourite among young foreign single somethings who like to clench their fists, reach for the stars and roast their cold beers by the fireplace.
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Club Libra
A glitzy place with three levels of dance floors and bars, Club Libra caters mainly to Turks but tries to get travellers (especially females) in by waiving the usual entrance fee. There are belly dancers on Friday and Saturday nights.
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El Nazar Kilise
On the road between Göreme and the Open-Air Museum, a sign points to the 10th-century El Nazar Kilise. Carved from a ubiquitous cone-like rock formation, the church has been restored and is considerably quieter than the Open-Air Museum, although its frescoes are in worse condition. It's a pretty 10-minute walk from the main road.
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Fat Boys
The premier party joint in the village is akin to an office break room, but is surprisingly cool, with suitably loud pop-rock tunes, two large pool tables, classic bar food (think burger, fries and, er, Vegemite), all overseen by an Australian-Turkish couple with a penchant for the waterpipe and for long, generous pours.
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