Cappadocia

Cappadocia looks like nowhere else on Earth, a surreal Anatolian landscape of rock cones, ridges, and valleys sculpted by millennia of wind and water. Early risers are rewarded with one of travel's great spectacles, hundreds of hot air balloons drifting over the fairy chimneys at dawn. Over centuries, people carved homes, churches, and entire cities into the soft volcanic stone, and much of that world can still be explored today.

Many visitors stay in the cave hotels of Göreme, where rooms are hollowed into the rock, and use it as a base to wander the surrounding valleys on foot or horseback. The frescoed rock churches of the Göreme Open-Air Museum, the sprawling underground cities that sheltered ancient communities, and the castle-topped town of Uçhisar reward days of exploration.

Spring and fall bring mild, clear weather ideal for ballooning and hiking. Summers are hot and dry, while winters turn cold and often snowy, which dusts the strange rock formations in white for a magical, quieter scene.