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Published: August 17th 2012
I had arranged the tour via email with one of the employees at the Güneş Hotel where I would spend the night close to the summit of Mount Nemrut. In Trabzon I told my Japanese friend Kash my plans and he decided to go to Nemrut on the way to Cappdocia. We bought our tickets for the 15½ hour journey from Trabzon to Malatya where we would start the tour. Arriving at the Malatya
otogarat 9:00 am gave us enough time to get to the center by public bus (1.50TL), find Ramazan from the Malatya tourism office, and most importantly grab some brekky before the 12 pm departure. Normally there is a lunch stop on the way to Nemrut but the restaurant was closed since it was Ramadan. That suited me fine as I was eager to get to the hotel and assume a horizontal position after the interminably long and uncomfortable bus ride. We ate breakfast around 10:30 am so I just grabbed a half pound of Malatya's famous dried apricots for 50¢ for the ride up. We arrived at the Güneş Hotel around 2 pm and I took a power nap after check in since we weren't heading up
to the summit for sunset until 5 pm. Sunset was really beautiful and we (9 of us on the tour from Malatya) had the west terrace to ourselves for an hour before many more tourists showed up from the south side of the mountain (Malatya is north of Nemrut and conviently located for my Turkey itinerary). A little after sunset we headed back to the hotel for dinner but not before I was finally able to wash off the grime from the overnight trip from Trabzon. Dinner was fine but I could have eaten way more than the hotel gave us. They were full for the night, maybe 20 guests, and I don't think they planned accordingly which was glaringly evident at the meager breakfast the following day. We were woken up at 4:30 am for the sunrise tour which was surprisingly chilly and breezy but, like sunset, very beautiful. The actual sunset was nicer but the light on the statues was better in the morning. It was best once the other hundred tourists left and we once again had the mountain to ourselves before leaving the east terrace for breakfast and the 7:30 am departure for Malatya. We were
back in the center of Malatya at 9:15 am and everyone went their separate ways.
The tour price was 100TL including transport and hotel with half board. 8TL entry fee for Nemrut is extra but only paid once for sunset and sunrise which was nice. The tour was fine (no guide) and the group was good but I thought it was a bit overpriced considering our room had no bathroom (others did for the same price) and the food was barely enough. But it was definitely a time saver as continuing to the south side of the mountain would have added at least another day to the trip and the tours from Kahta offer either sunset or sunrise and both are worth seeing from the mountain. Overall, I'd recommend the tour if you have a couple of days to spare and are in the general vicinity of Malatya. Buses depart from Malatya's
otogar to every corner of Turkey and there is one bus per day from Malatya to Göreme (for Cappadocia) at 12 pm, taking 7 hours, and costing 40 or 50TL. Looking at ~8 hours by bus north to Amasya. There are also night trains with sleepers to
Ankara.
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Heidi
non-member comment
tourists
Hi Jon, When you mention all the tourists at the site, where are most of them from? Europe? Asia? Are you seeing many US travelers? I'm curious because it seems like so many American's are not traveling to Turkey or the surrounding areas...Great pictures by the way !!