The area of Cappadocia in Turkey is one of the most beautiful and unique areas in the world. It is worth a visit for the hikes through its fantastic valleys lined with cave-hewn chapels and unique rock formations.

While there, we stayed at one of the areas boutique cave hotels: Les Maisons de Cappadoce.

Quite simply, Les Maisons de Cappadoce is an awesome hotel!

Les Maisons de Cappadoce is located in Uchisar, a small yet ancient village, located outside the busier, touristy town of Goreme. Although there are a few other hotels and restaurants in the area, it is a tranquil place where the buildings and residents coexist with the natural environment.

Interior of Studio les Chevres

The rooms, most of which are individual cave dwellings, have been carefully restored by French architect Jacques Avizou, who used old photographs, local craftsman and ancient building techniques to return the homes to their original beauty. Jacques has also decorated each room with local furniture and textiles and contemporary fixtures in the bath and kitchen areas.

Our favorite room available is Studio les Chevres; it is one of the few rooms that is completely carved out of the rock (without any additions to the structure). It is an intimate space with magnificent views over the valley below. We highly recommend staying in this room if it is available.

Although the rooms at Les Maisons de Cappadoce are significantly more expensive when compared to other places in the area (they currently list at 140+ Euros/night), in our opinion, it is worth it.

Touring the Cave-Hewn Chapels

The number of cave churches in Cappadocia — carved directly from the area’s soft, volcanic tuff rock — is estimated at 1,000, with over 150 that are decorated with frescoes.  The architecture, in particular, is amazing: the cave churches employ Byzantine-style architectural elements (such as columns, domes, and pendentives), all of which have no structural significance (they are carved into solid rock, with no load).

We highly recommend reserving a guide to trek through the Cappadocia area through the hotel. As you would expect from an architect, Jacques has contracted the services of guides that can offer the best look at the Cappadocia from a historical, architectural and environmental perspective.

Watching the Sunset

Uchisar boasts a 60-meter-high rock formation that rises above the center of the small town. A climb to the top provides the best vantage point to be had of the entire Cappadocian landscape. It’s a good stop for sunset.

What to Read Before Your Trip

Turkey’s historical synergies and cultural vibrancy combine to make for an unforgettable travel experience. To gain a full understanding of the country’s complexities, we recommend the following:

John Julius Norwich’s comprehensive but extremely entertaining book, “A Short History of Byzantium” will give you a full appreciation for the rise and fall of Constantinople and Christianity in Byzantium.

Approach Guides’ cultural travel guidebooks to Turkey, including a detailed guide to Hagia Sophia with a focus on its Islamic architectural legacy and a guide to Ancient Mediterranean Mosaics, which connects the mosaics of Turkey with those in Italy and other areas of the Mediterranean.

Taking a break on the Great Wall of China

One of the most quintessential places to visit in China is the Great Wall located north of Beijing – it is everything that you expect and more. We went to the Great Wall one August morning to find it enveloped in a fine mist and completely to ourselves.

To get a similar experience, we recommend avoiding the overly touristy and Disney World-like Badaling (70 km NW of Beijing) and going to Simatai (110 km NE of Beijing), where you can follow the Great Wall to Jin Shan Ling. Compared to the Badaling portion of the wall, the Simatai – Jin Shan Ling portion is unrestored and offers a more authentic feel.

Your driver will most likely try to persuade you to start at the opposite end (Jin Shan Ling), which sits 300 meters higher than Simatai (making your walk more downhill than up), but hold your ground for two reasons:

1. its safer to go up the sharply inclined and unrestored parts of the wall
2. everyone walks the other direction, so you will have the Wall completely to yourself for most of the hike.

Oh…one last tip…avoid the weekends.

Where to Eat and Sleep

• At the end of the day, return to Beijing for a rest at Hotel Lu Song Yuan, a charming hotel set inside an old courtyard house.
• Later, treat yourself to the BEST Peking Duck at Beijing Da Dong (SE corner of Chang Hong Bridge and 3rd Ring Road; +86 65822892) They serve the best duck we ate in all of China. The skin is super crispy but not overdone and the meat is lean and tender. They serve it with cucumber, radish, scallion, plum sauce, sugar (for dipping the skin) and garlic (which adds complexity to the dish).
• At least once while you are in Beijing, try the Noodle Loft (No. 20 Dawang Road, Chaoyang District) for a totally unique noodle dining experience. The traditional noodle joint features an open kitchen where the handmade noodle dishes are made to order. Seriously delicious.

Suggested Reading

In addition to our cultural travel guidebooks to China, we highly recommend several books that can be purchased directly from Amazon. These books helped form the foundation of our knowledge and serve as references that we return to again and again.

• A History of Chinese Civilization
• Buddhist Art and Architecture (World of Art)
• The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama
• China: Fragile Superpower

Tiger, Kanha. Taken on location from the back of an elephant during a "tiger show".

There are only 5,000 tigers remaining in the world today. India hosts a staggering 60% of this total, with the next largest population in Southeast Asia. There are no tigers in Africa, which gives tourists to India a unique safari experience.  Seeing a tiger in the wild should be a priority on any traveler’s itinerary.

The centrally-located Madhya Pradesh province holds two of the best places to see tigers in the wild. After viewing the stunning Islamic architecture of Delhi and Agra or visiting the amazing Buddhist caves outside of Mumbai, take a quick flight to Kanha National Park or Bandhavgarh National Park (outside of Khajuraho) to to view one of India’s most unique natural sites: tigers.

Why Kanha or Bandhavgarh?

There are only two wildlife parks in India that offer you the opportunity to ride into inaccessible (by car) areas of the park on mahout-driven elephants to view tigers up-close during the day (this is called a “tiger show”): Bandhavgarh and Kanha (both are located close to each other in the province of Madhya Pradesh). In addition, both parks have a large tiger population, making them the two premier spots in India for sightings.

Information on Bengal Tigers

• The tiger is the largest of all thirty-seven species of wild cats. Along with the lion, the leopard, the snow leopard and the jaguar, the tiger is classified in the genus “Panthera”, which comprises the group of big cats that are capable of roaring, due to a modification of the hyboid bone.
• There are probably 5,000 tigers remaining in the world today (this estimate was given to us by researchers at Kanha). India hosts 60% of this total (the subspecies specifically being the “Bengal Tiger”), with the greatest concentration thereafter being in Southeast Asia (there are no tigers in Africa).
• Tigers are the only big cats with stripes.  The stripe patterns on each tiger, designed for camouflage, differ on each side of its body.
• Males weigh 400-500 lbs and females 220-350 lbs.
• Tigers are successful in 1 out of every 10-20 attempts to stalk and kill prey. Tigers kill their prey with either a bite on the back of the neck that serves to sever the spinal column or a bite on the throat that serves to suffocate its prey. An adult tigress needs to kill a fair-sized prey (200 lbs) 40-50 times per year, or every 7-8 days.
• Tigers possess two sensory enhancements, neither of which is unique to this species: the tepetum lucidum, a reflective patch in the retina which improves vision in low light conditions; and the vemeronasal organ (VNO), sometimes called Jacobseon’s organ, which is located in the roof of the mouth. The use of the VNO is most obvious in the grimace known as flehmen, in which the animal wrinkles its nose and extends its tongue; the VNO is designed to evaluate the sexual receptivity of females.
• Tigers have evolved as basically solitary animals (as compared to lions that exists largely in group formations). Both males and females are territorial and have specifically staked out areas in which each animal pursues prey.
• Females nurse cubs for 20-24 months; gestation period of 105 days; average litter of 2-3 cubs, with high mortality rate (34% in first year, 17% in second), the most common reason for death being infanticide, the killing of the cubs by a new male looking to mate with the mother tiger.
• Poaching is still a real problem, particularly because elements of the tiger are still in in demand for traditional Chinese medicine.

Hotel. Kipling Camp. 07649/277218. www.kiplingcamp.com. Although it is far from luxury and a bit expensive, this is the quintessential (and first) camp in the area, to the best of our knowledge. It is located right outside of the entrance to Kanha. The camp appears to suffer a little from a staff turnover issue, however, it is more than adequate. You are here to see tigers and they maximize your experience on this front, running a morning and afternoon game drive led by experienced naturalists.

Information on other parks in India. Dave and Deb, Canada’s Adventure Couple, recently posted a feature on Ranthambore National Preserve, which was taken from a feature by Akila of The Road Forks.

The Ancient Village of Pitigliano, Maremma (Tuscany), Italy

When I read the NY Times article about vacationing along the Tuscan coast, I was transported back to our stay in the Maremma – one of the most serene and beautiful places that we have been. Maremma has idyllic hilltop towns, fantastic food, picturesque farmhouses turned hotels, and, maybe best of all, a low rate of Italians in fast cars pushing you along the winding roads!

We really enjoyed our stay here – a week resting at our farmhouse-hotel, touring through quaint towns and even renting a sailboat to sail along the coast for the day.

We stayed in the area of Scansano at La Bell Antiglia www.labellantiglia.it; the B&B has great views, modern and comfortable rooms and the hosts, Mauro and Sabrina, treat their guests like family.

For dinner, we ate at La Cantina on Via della Botte in Scansano. This Slow Food restaurant is housed in a charming old wine cellar and has delicious food, but take it from us – only expert drivers in a Smart car should try to drive up into the town!

The wines of Maremma are really tasty and offer great values.  The red wines of the Maremma are technically known as “Super Tuscans”.  Super Tuscans is a term given to wines that include a larger concentration of “foreign”, meaning “not Sangiovese” or “not indigenous”, grapes in the blend; the cabernet sauvignon grape is the most prevalent. We profile wines from the region in our ApproachGuide to Italian Wine.

While in Italy, you might want to follow a cultural theme with ApproachGuides: Italy.