Goreme, Turkey

Goreme is a town in the Cappadocia region of Turkey. The town is centered in the middle of a internationally popular region that is best known for its natural rock formations, often called "fairy chimneys". Some places are magical – and Göreme is one of them. Located 70km west of Kayseri, this small village is set amid towering fairy chimneys and majestic honeycomb cliffs, with the stunning backdrops of the Rose, Honey and Pigeon Valleys surrounding it. Guidebook-speak really can't do the place justice, as its overall package is much, much greater than the sum of its parts (and those parts are all pretty damn impressive in their own right). Though some jaded travellers whinge that it ‘isn't what it used to be', we think they're full of tuff: Göreme is one of Turkey's unspoiled treasures, where trad¬itional village life manages to happily coexist with a thriving modern tourism industry and where visitors are – and always have been – made welcome by a local community as friendly as it is close-knit.