I've only had one sleepless night on a train, but it sucked so much that it changed the way I'll travel on overnight trains forever.
13.09.2023 - 10:33 / forbes.com
At five o’clock in the morning, a pale golden light is washing over an otherworldly landscape of conical rock formations and undulating cliffsides. The sky is specked with colorful hot air balloons at varying heights. In the early morning silence, the only sounds are the occasional gentle woosh as the balloons fire and dogs barking far off in the valley.
This is the view of Türkiye’s magical Cappadocia from Argos, a luxury cave hotel named by National Geographic as one of the 250 must-see places in the world. The rooms and amenities are scattered throughout a small village crowned by Uçhisar castle, the highest point in the region of rock towers and stone mounds.
The area has seen a surge in tourism over the past couple of decades, often overwhelming the tiny Nevşehir Kapadokya airport. Although the abstract landscape is now synonymous with the daily Instagram-friendly hot air balloon spectacle, some hotels and tourism organizations are keen to promote its more ‘authentic’ attractions.
At Argos, ‘authentic’ means sleeping, eating and relaxing inside rock-hewn caves and historic dwellings. Each room is unique: some are a warren of low grottoes; some have a cozy cave on the lower floor and a bedroom built above; and some are constructed in traditional style clinging to the cliff edge overlooking the valley.
The rooms have open stone fireplaces – just buzz reception and they’ll send someone to light a fire – and beige and soft-hued furnishing that blend seamlessly with the pale rock walls.
The hotel’s amenities are likewise hidden throughout the village inside the cliff face or protruding from the steep rocky landscape. There’s a meeting room inside a vast grotto with glass panels on the floor revealing amphorae that were dug up during excavations. The new Nahita restaurant is located inside a dining room with chiseled rock walls.
One of the hotel’s crowning features is the ancient chapel, built inside a cave, where guests can have private dinners or events. Hollowed-out rock meets arched stone walls with decorative circular openings where the light streams in. Around the walls, niches carved out from the rock hold tall candles and sprigs of dried herbs. For total privacy, the hotel will close the sturdy wooden doors so you can eat in semi-darkness by flickering candlelight.
Argos is also responsible for the upkeep of some of the region's iconic “fairy chimneys.” At the edge of the village, you can walk into one of the tall conical rock formations honeycombed with caves hollowed out centuries ago.
At the hotel's Seki and recently opened Nahita restaurants, the menus are a celebration of hyper-local food from the Nevşehir province. In the latter, start with a shepherd’s salad combining tomato, cucumber
I've only had one sleepless night on a train, but it sucked so much that it changed the way I'll travel on overnight trains forever.
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Reprinted with permission from The Globe: How the Earth Became Round by James Hannam, published by Reaktion Books Ltd. Copyright © 2023 by James Hannam. All rights reserved.
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