Pamukkale in winter

Did you ever wonder where those amazing pictures of people sunbathing in white lagoons with views over the hills come from?

The answer is Pamukkale in Turkey!

It is quite the amazing feat to be a standout attraction in a country blessed with so many natural and historical treasures, yet Pamukkale has been attracting attention since times immemorial with its mineral pools filled by thermal springs.

Pamukkale translates to "cotton castle" and in all the instagram pictures, that is just what it looks like: a fluffy playground!

Unfortunately for us, visiting in the summer was not an option so we headed over right smack in the middle of January in the hopes that it would be just as great but with a fraction of the tourists.

Getting there isn't particularly hard, you just need to get to Denizli and then take a mini-bus to Pamukkale itself. From there its almost impossible to miss the big white mountain on the edge of town. There you pay the entrance fee and then you are free to walk up the travertine covered hill.

This is where the fun started for us!

It being January, it just so happened to be a cloud covered day with the occasional light rain falling from time to time. This would normally not be an issue but to protect the mineral formation, tourists are required to walk barefoot up the mountain. Even when it is freezing cold outside!

As we stood there taking our shoes off in a light drizzle, my spider senses where going off telling me this was going to be far less fun than advertised. Especially since my left foot was still not 100% healed from the gash in Oman...

A on the other hand was in heaven!

A small puppy had followed us all the way up the hill and as I worried about freezing my feet off, she and the puppy became best friends and played around with unbridled happiness. This included biting my socks and shoe laces as well...

True happiness!

It was all good until she was trekking up the hill and actually noticed that s#it was cold!

Pamukkale is a stunning place and indeed it was almost devoid of tourists at that time of the year but with low temperatures cooling down the mountain itself and the lower level ponds not really being warm, the first 20 minutes or so of our experience were a challenge far different from the Instagram worthy landscape we had seen online.

Fortunately the lagoons at the top of the hill were far warmer and we could finally relax and appreciate the natural treasure around us. It is stunningly beautiful even if it has been somewhat manipulated to increase the tourist experience!

But wait there is more! Oh yes there is more!

Unbeknownst to us, no visit to Pamukkale is truly complete without a swim in the Antique Pools.

Hierapolis, which is how Pamukkale was known in Roman times, was a spa city and at the heart of it were what are now the Antique Pools. A large area with mineral rich and heated thermal waters where patrons can swim in between columns of the temple of Apollo.

It is admittedly annoying that you cannot film inside the pools as only "licensed professionals" can do it but the experience of soaking is simply stellar! Swimming with the old gods!

And imagine that we did all of this in simply one day!