A Traveller's Guide: How to Get from Cappadocia (Goreme) to Nemrut Dagi (Kahta)

This post is a bit of an aside from our usual what-we-did and where-we-went theme.  If you are not interested in the fine detail of how we got from Cappadocia to Mt. Nemrut, you should probably move on.  When I was trying to figure out how to get from Goreme to Mt. Nemrut I did a lot of googling and didn't find anything useful; and the Lonely Planet was too vague as to be of any assistance at all.  So in hopes this might help someone in the future, here's how we went about getting to the giant heads!

We were headed for Kahta as our base for Mt. Nemrut.  The travel agencies and/or bus companies in Goreme will sell you a ticket "direct" to Kahta, which actually means taking a "shuttle" to Kayseri, where you make a transfer to a bus heading straight to Kahta.  The itinerary they gave us was as follows: Depart Goreme at 7 pm, arrive at Kayseri otogar at 8:30 pm.  Depart Kayseri at 10 pm, arrive in Kahta (via Adiyaman) at 8 am.  The trip cost us 60 TL each (though we got some quotes up to 65 TL).  

First, the leg to Kayseri: For unknown reasons, different agents for the same company would give us differing departure times to get to Kayseri.  Our shuttle was scheduled to leave at 7 pm, and actually showed up around 7:30.  We were standing with our packs in front of the Kayseri otogar at 8:15 pm - a travel time of 45 minutes rather than an hour and a half.  What we learned is that they toss you on a shuttle bound for the airport and drop you off at the Kayseri otogar, which is easy enough as they will leave lots of time before your bus is to leave.

When we got to Kayseri's (huge, new, impressive) otogar, we went to our bus company to exchange our chit for an actual ticket.  We did a quick check and it looked fine.  It wasn't until 8:32 pm that I double checked and saw that they had changed our departure time from 10 pm to 8:30 pm.  Ummm... We ran to the bay, but the bus was gone.  No problem, said the ticket guy, who told us we could catch an 11:30 pm bus from the same bay - same company, same seats.

About 11:15 pm, the bus hadn't arrived to the bay and the ticket guy showed up to lead us across the street to where the bus was actually waiting.  It was legit (i.e., it was the bus we had tickets for, going to the right place), but we guessed maybe they didn't want to pay the entrance fees to the otogar to pick up four passengers.  In any event, the bus was jam packed and we got seated separately in the back.  I got to spend the night with a portly old Turkish lady pressing herself against me.  Good times... Other than that, the trip went off without a hitch.  

Arrival in Kahta: Turns out, we couldn't have had better luck missing that 8:30 pm bus.  Our bus arrived in Katha around 7:30 am.  Had we taken the original bus, we would have arrived at 4:30 am to a dark and empty bus station in a dusty, cruddy little town.  At least by the light of day, we could prepare ourselves for what was to come!  I do not recommend arriving in Kahta before daylight - the bus station will be closed and the area probably wouldn't be pleasant in the dark.

Hitch #1: I had read online that sometimes busses will drop you off at Hotel Kommagene (notorious for being the worst rip off in town) instead of "500 metres down the road at the otogar".  We passed Hotel Kommagene, but instead of stopping 500m down the road, the bus took a right and headed into the back streets amongst some shops.  We arrived at a bus station that looked pretty legit (it had bus company stands and all), but there were very few dolmuses and taxis nearby.  What we later learned: Kahta is rebuilding its otogar so the bus station has been temporarily relocated, although the dolmuses and taxi stands have not.  There are a few dolmuses and taxis at the temporary bus station, but the bulk of them remain at the main road.

Getting up Nemrut: With only dolmuses to Adiyaman in sight, and prepared to be scammed by all that we had read, we started by asking our bus office when the public dolmus runs to Cesme Pension (Cesme is at the southern gate to Mt Nemrut and is only 6km from the summit - we figured this was our best bet.  The Lonely Planet advised that the owner would run us up to the top for 40 TL but we also figured that we could walk if necessary).  The bus guy, who didn't speak English, called someone and told us it would be about 15 minutes.  Over the next 15 minutes, two different shady characters showed up and offered us rides up to Cesme for about 75 TL.  It seemed they were claiming that the public dolmus (10 TL) went up in the afternoon, but it was hard to tell.  We sent them away.

We then tried the bus company next door, who called someone else who showed up and told us he would take us up the mountain - NOW - for 10 TL each.  Suspiciously, we got in the dolmus which, as promised, took off immediately.  However, our suspicions were confirmed when he drove us to an empty parking lot (which we now know is the parking lot behind the dolmus station where they are rebuilding the otogar) and told us that the public dolmus would take off "about 1 or 2 pm" and he would see us then.  Oh, sigh.  We eventually negotiated a ride up the mountain immediately for 40 TL total (20 TL each).  The guy seemed very displeased, so I assume we got a reasonable deal.

Here's the deal.  The Lonely Planet tells you that a dolmus runs up the hill every two hours in the summer, and maybe that's true, but early June is apparently not mid-summer.  There appears to be one dolmus a day that leaves the dolmus station (i.e., NOT the temporary bus station) around 1 or 2 pm.  If you arrive in Kahta early and don't want to wait that long, you can either suck it up or throw yourself to the wolves and see what kind of deal you can negotiate with any of the shady characters who will approach you.  Those guys are easy to find.

We made it up to Cesme Pension at the south gate of Nemrut around 10 am.  After a quick nap, we readied ourselves to go up mountain.  More learnings: the guy at the pension when we were there would not run us up the hill for 40 TL.  We were lucky enough to impose on the kindness of a German couple also staying at the pension to get a ride.  You can walk, but if it is hot be warned that it is probably a bit longer than the 6 km quoted in the book, that there is absolutely no shade on the road, and that there is a lot of uphill.  We considered hitching a ride up with the Germans and trying to hitch a ride back down after sunset with someone else, but the long walk down if we couldn't find a ride deterred us and we visited midday instead. This actually turned out to be a great idea, as there were very few people at the summit in the early afternoon.

Getting down from Nemrut was far easier.  In early June there is one dolmus a day down the mountain - it left at 7:15 am, took us to the temporary otogar where we caught a dolmus to Adiyaman.  From Adiyaman we hopped on another shuttle to Gaziantep.

Not to slam the Lonely Planet, but it was not helpful with this leg of the trip.  Different sections tell a different story (for example, in one part it says it will take you 12 minutes to walk from the south gate to the top - in another section it says it is a 6 km walk.  In another section it infers that you can walk the 12 km up the hill from Karadut no problem - this I would definitely not recommend).  So for what it's worth, this was our experience - I hope it helps someone else out there!