Visiting Cappadocia Turkey During the COVID-19 Pandemic
In our final weeks living in Istanbul during the COVID-19 pandemic, the country of Turkey re-opened domestic travel routes. We took this opportunity to visit an extraordinarily unique place in the world, only a few hours away, with vastly safer social distancing conditions.
Lifting off from the densely crowded confines of Istanbul, we felt our heart rates slow to a comfortably calmer beat as our Turkish Airlines flight carried us to the ‘land of fairy chimneys’: Cappadocia (Kapadokya).
Dating back at least 4,500 years, civilizations have made their homes here within caverns they hand-carved into monolithic rocks. Today, Cappadocia should be brimming with visitors, dotting its skies in hot air balloons, overflowing restaurants and spas, and occupying the region’s traditional and ‘cave suite’ hotel rooms. But the COVID-19 pandemic has spared no tourist-dependent business.
Our July, 2020 visit to Cappadocia was marked by blissful solitude, but also by sadness for the region’s locals who depend on tourists for their livelihood. Throughout the town of Göreme where we stayed in the nearly unoccupied Osmanli Manor Hotel, at least 90% of restaurants and shops were shuttered; those which remained open informed us we were the first non-Turkish visitors they’d hosted since March 12, when Coronavirus precautions halted Turkey’s international and domestic travel.
To see as much as possible during our brief visit, we enlisted a tour guide through Stoneland Travel for their famous Cappadocia Green Tour and Red Tour. We’re so glad we opted for tours, rather than renting our own car, as the price was only a smidge higher, and we experienced vastly more than we could have managed on our own. Further, the independent guide who was contracted for us, Şahin, exceeded our expectations in every way. A PhD scholar of architecture and history who speaks fluent English, Russian, German, and Turkish, Şahin is passionate about nature, a seasoned world traveler, and former competitive white water rafter for the Turkish national team. He is a truly awesome person with whom to spend two days exploring. We enthusiastically recommend you seek his services when you visit Turkey (he offers tours throughout the country).
