Pamukkale, a current hotspot for tourism just a short distance away from Denezli.

To reach Pamukkale you first have to land at Istanbul, from there you can either get a private car to drive you but that’s pricey. Your next best option would be to get a bus, although cheap it does take a significantly long time to do so. Instead, I opted for the faster route and not that expensive - flying. We caught a domestic flight from Istanbul to Denezli, which cost 175 Turkish Lira (TL), which converts to £22.41 - How can you say no to that? So that’s what I did, flew from Istanbul to Denezli. When arriving at the airport, I had a driver waiting for me at the airport which cost 50TL (£6.40) and this journey took around an hour to the hotel called Venus, this would be my overnight home whilst in Pamukkale.

If you’re taking a flight to Denezli, when you arrive at your hotel you’re either early in the morning and therefore may have to wait for your room to be ready or you’re later in the evening, in which you’re basically going to go straight to sleep. As I had landed in the morning, I got lucky with the room at 9am being unoccupied and was able to check in straight away.

After checking in, putting my stuff in the room and grabbing some breakfast, I quickly freshened up (by taking a nap). After rising from the dead, feeling more like myself the plan was to head up to the main attraction - the Salt Lakes. The hotel had a shuttle bus that went up every 30 minutes, so decided to get up to the top of the attraction that way. Once arriving, you have to purchase a ticket with costs 50TL to enter. Opening times are 8am - 8pm, but once you’re in you’re allowed to stay as long as you want. Spending around 4 hours in the area, waiting for the sun to set, I had ventured up and down the pathway along the pools waiting for it all to quieten town. There are areas where are completely off limits, with just a simple chain going through it and a sign that says “no entry” is what I assumed anyway. Now, it’s 6pm and 32degrees+ what do you do? Chill on the grass waiting for it to get quieter and less hot, but also to go down and check the lower pools which seemed to be less busy.

The most annoying part of it all is having to take your shoes off when you’re walking on the salt lakes, meaning you’re walking barefoot on really slippy and sharp ground. A disaster waiting to happen.

This is where they sting you, because it costs 50TL to get into the area and yet there are other things you’re able to do within the fascinates like go to the museum and the Turkish baths, but they costs more money and I hadn’t gone there to see those particular things. In the mornings you’re able to book a hot air balloon ride to watch the sun ride and around 50 balloons go up at once to see the whole of Pamukkale and further.

Only in Pamukkale for once day, there was an early wake up to get up to the bottom entrance to the salt lakes to photograph the hot air balloons and what an incredible sight it was to see that many balloons up in the air. After shooting for about an hour and seeing the sun rise, back to the hotel for a quick nap before having to check out and head into the city of Denzli by bus that costs 7TL. Here was the bit of nightmares, having to wait for 10pm for the overnight coach to Cappadocia.

- MY RECOMMENDATIONS -

So Pamukkale isn’t, or certainly doesn’t look like a wealthy area. The hotels are very few and far between, aren’t many restaurants to eat at, unless you want cheap and aren’t afraid of some dodgy looking food. I took a hard pass on some of the foods on what I think was the main road, instead I just ate at the hotel because it was pleasantly cheap and looked well prepared. I couldn’t reccomend The Venus Hotel, Pamukkale enough. It’s insanely cheap to stay there, I think overall it cost me 100TL for one night, with breakfast in the morning and insanely fast wifi speed (this is important when you’re away and have very little data), there is a pool you have access too and food was cheap.

At The Venus Hotel, Pamukkale the staff are incredible helpful and their English is pretty spot on. A few things I asked went straight over their heads, but that’s to be expected. One of the staff members there has a friend who owns his own hot air balloon company and when we struggled to get a good price for hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia, he got in contact and 10 minutes later this guy called Junior turns up. Originally given a price of €180, then having gone up to €250 when having enquired about it with the hotel in Cappadocia, the decision to find it cheaper was a must. In steps Junior from Turkey 4 Travel. I cannot recommend Junior enough, we managed to get ATV tour during sunset, hot air balloon ride for sunrise and Turkish night for the experience, as well as a airport shuttle transport all for €205.