Argos in Cappadocia

Cappadocia  - Absolutely Magical!

Argos Hotel – History Reborn as New merges with Old -  Fabulous!

Words cannot describe the feeling we had when arriving at Argos Hotel in Cappadocia.  I had searched online as I always do for places to stay and had found Argos because of its beautiful website and fantastic pictures, a real pearl.

 A quote,   which caught my eye,   from their website reads: 

www.argosincappadocia.com

“Some come to this land simply to tour and some come to savour every moment..

Some arrive with preconceptions and some bring with them a sense of wonder..

Some are happy to take away a few memories and some go home enriched for life.”

Well if that doesn’t give you Goosebumps, how could we resist this invitation?

We had seen lots of photos and knew it was going to be very cool but it surpassed our expectations, after being out for 180 days, and staying in a different  hotel almost  every night,  this hotel  is everything and much more than even its fantastic website depicts.  Usually I have to make allowances for hotels I see on the web because typically the website is way better than the actual hotel but with the Argos Hotel this is not the case, the website is fabulous and the actual hotel goes beyond fabulous, this time even the pictures cannot capture the consciousness of which this hotel has been created.  My daughter once asked me, “do you think you can experience the consciousness of the people when you enter their homes” I believe you can, it’s something that is felt, and when you enter this hotel and its rooms you get a sense of how very conscious this Owner and all the people he has chosen to bring this gem into being, really are.

I think that is another reason that I chose this hotel,  it spoke to me,  how could I resist this opportunity to receive such creativity to assist me in my  writing.  Just imagine sitting on the terrace of this beautiful place looking out over the fairy castles and chimneys,  with a snow capped mountain in the distance,  it is just fuel for the imagination, I wish everyone could see what we are seeing here.. When we arrived we were met by our host Saval, she was so excited that we had shown up a day earlier than expected as she wasn’t going to be able to meet with us otherwise, turns out she had already checked us out on the web when I confirmed our booking and now we are facebook friends too, very lovely, very helpful, thanks Saval for everything!!

Did we meet any fairies, well just one or two!!

 Its only a baby,  at less than a year old,  its a very new hotel,  however, it was 13 years in the planning, construction and renovation stages and  because of its sensitive historical and environmental surroundings it was met with many challenges.  Fortunately those were overcome and the Owner  and his team have managed to create and enhance these natural volcanic caves into something that is now considered as one of the top hotels in the world.  The hotel snuggles into the Cliffside attaching new construction to the very old natural cave homes and fairy chimneys that used to once be the homes of the Byzantine people.

The Owner said, “My goal is to offer an experience you cannot even imagine, one that surpasses all expectations”, well you have definitely achieved your goal, congratulations!

Thank you for creating your vision so that we may all experience and enjoy it to.

Some might think I’m a travel writer, well, I’m not, it’s just that when you have such a wonderful experience that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle with your own personality, its fun to share it.

Being in construction and design ourselves we could see some of the challenges they must have had to overcome during construction.  The natural existing cave homes were formed from volcanic overflow so this makes them very soft and easy to carve but also easy to wash away with the wind and rain, then the addition to the caves to complete the rooms is done with a local rock, very pretty, light crème colors, which then gets scraped with a tool by hand to create a rake like effect.  They have also used a lot of antiques and items found from the local area, some of the features I really liked was that all units have traditional wood burning fireplaces in them,  hot water heat which makes if very comfortable in the winter and a few units even have “cave pools” right in the units, I love the choice of fabrics and linens, too fun.  I don’t have enough room to describe all the wonderful details but check it out on their website at www.argosinCappadocia.com you will want for nothing at this hotel!  That’s just the hotel, they also have room for banquets, weddings and musical performances in a room which used to house the linseed press in days gone by, great for acoustics and a fabulous restaurant too. 

We enjoyed a glass of their local red wine,  now being produced by the grapes the Owner has planted on the hillside, we sampled some of this local wine and it was smooth, rich and full bodied.  I think it’s because the grapes have to struggle so hard for water and survival on this volcanic hillside that the wine is so full of flavour, really a very high quality wine! Wish we could take some home.  We finished the evening  sitting by the wood fire in the gathering room,  enjoying another glass of the fabulous wine, chatting with the Owner and Architect and learning about the  construction techniques  in Turkey,  so cozy and so interesting, there is nothing quite like the smell of a wood fire, a glass of fine red wine finished off with lovely interesting people.

Yes this pool was in our room!

What makes the Argos Hotel setting even more magical is its location within Turkey, set in Uchisar a land known for the fairy chimneys, it doesn’t take much imagination to start to envision what you will see as your sitting on their terrace watching the sun come up at 6am, it keeps getting better too because not only do you get to see all these fairy chimneys and castles but out in the distance you will start to see     “ Balloons” emerging,  yes that’s rights balloons, every morning at sunrise there are Balloon rides for the tourists,  hundreds of them at the peak of the summer,  its magical, the sky is afloat with color!