spaswinefood: A flying carpet tour of Turkey's spas, wine and food

Spaswinefood has spent the last two magical weeks on a "flying carpet tour" of Turkey. A few weeks ago we hopped onto a magic carpet (Sprinter van) with ten other travelers. Usually we drive but this time, with only two weeks to see the country before Wine Bloggers Conference (#EWBC12) in Izmir, Turkey, we took a tour. Our travels started in Istanbul, with stops in and around Gallipoli, Canackkale, Troy, Bergama, Kusadasi, Ephesus, Pumakkale, Aphrodisias, Fethiye, Kayakoy, Antalya, Konya, Cappadocia and Ankara areas. We discovered the mutli-faceted beauty of Turkey, as did the authors of Anatonian Days and Nights. This post will give a Spaswinefood snapshot of a few happenings along our 5000 km. route. There will be more Spaswinefood posts on Turkey in the future. Nowhere have I traveled that there are been so much to write about, in just a two week journey.

Ballooning in Cappadocia © Spaswinefood

Turkey's constant stimulating Spaswinefood environment resulted in many photo shootouts, which will form the basis of many future posts. Now let us hop onto a flying carpet for a few quick highlights.

Turkish carpets are both beautiful and expensive © Spaswinefood

Spa happenings are common throughout Turkey
During our travels the hotels we stopped at all offered spa services. Turkey is a place for spa pampering.

Spa services at Hotel Collssae © Spaswinefood

We also able to observe throughout the country many special spa places, such Pamukkle's hot springs and Salt Lake spa treatments at Tuz Golu. The many Roman ruins scattered throughout Turkey that we visited all had evidence of baths.

Hotsprings at Pamukkle, Turkey© Spaswinefood

Lake Tuz, Turkey© Spaswinefood

Salt hand treatment at Lake Tuz, Turkey © Spaswinefood

Now for the Roman baths, and there are many to be found throughout Turkey.

Roman spa at Efesus ruins, Turkey © Spaswinefood

No Spaswinefood visit to Istanbul would be complete without checking out today's Turkish baths (hamams). Frommer's describe the historic hammas in Istanbul. Anita Brown describes what a visit to a Turkish bath is like. Given that Istanbul bath houses are a unique experience I certainly wanted to check them out while in Istanbul. It is on my list of things to do now that I have returned to Istanbul. In anticipation before leaving for Turkey I checked out what Tripadvisor had to say. Lonely Planet also gives a step by step guide. If you are looking for luxury then you might consider going to a five-star hotel where you can experience a Turkish bath and get a good massage.

Wine has a very rich and long tradition in Turkey
While I have come to Turkey to check out its wines at #EWBC12 here are a few observations from the route. Wine in today's Turkey is widely available at hotels. Tom Brosnahan's travel website on Turkey gives an overview of Turkish wine regions. Brosnaham describes the wine regions are being centered in Mara and Aegean, East around Elazig and SE near Diyarbakir and some in the volcanic soils, such as Cappadocia. He notes that two vineyards, namely Kavaklidere and Doluca vineyards in the mid 1900's set the standards for Turkish wine. Typically most hotels have a display at the entrance to the dining room. Doluca was one of the most common displays we saw.

Doluca wine display at hotels © Spaswinefood

From the wine options offered at hotels along the route we tried a few.

Doluca Rosé© Spaswinefood

Kavaklidere red wine © Spaswinefood

We also found that local wine usually offered as part of the options offered when we visited jewelry and pottery shops in places, like Cappadocia. Wine has a long history in Turkey dating back. At the various ruins we visited throughout Turkey we saw lots of evidence of this. See Caroline Gilby, Lynn Levine's article and other articles talks about recent developments in Turkey's wine industry. So does Bilgin's Blog offers insights into Turkish wines. Check out this first event in London on Turkish wines. Also, do not forget to check out Wines of Turkey.

Champagne and juice after ballooning in Cappadocia © Spaswinefood

Turkey is well known for its wines. This is surprising given it was one of the original sources of wines throughout the world. Spaswinefood is looking forward to checking out the best of Turkey's wines at #EWBC12.

Food: Amazing Turkish Cuisine

Spaswinefood got to check out cuisine from around the country. The hotels we stopped at offered buffets with many options (salads and other cold foods (mezes), hot dishes (mezes), entrées, cheeses, desserts and the list goes on). Lunch stops at smaller restaurants were often amongst the tastiest foods we have ever eaten. Turkey is a popular tourist attraction therefore it is not surprising that it has wonderful cuisine. In fact Turkish cuisine is regarded as one of the best cuisines in the world. Spaswinefood looks forward to writing more later.

Salads and cold foods © Spaswinefood

An amazing diversity of excellent cheeses © Spaswinefood

Now here are some Turkish deserts.

We sampled widely from the many food options for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Fortunately we did lots of walking while exploring the many ruins we visited. We did not mind the early morning rise for hot air ballooning in Cappadocia.