The Ballıca Cave, 26km southwest of Tokat, is one of Turkey's most famous caves. The limestone labyrinth, 3.4 million years old and 8km long (680m is open to the public), bristles with rock formations such as onion-shaped stalactites and mushroom-like stalagmites. Smugglers used to live here and the squeaks of the current residents, dwarf bats, add to the atmosphere created by dripping water.
Unfortunately, the ambience is quickly lost if you share the metal walkways with many others, and with its copious lighting and signposts, the cave can feel like an underground theme park.
The views from the cafe, over the forested hills and oh-so-pretty mountains are enough to make you want to lace up some hiking boots, and good news is that these caves now sit at the heart of the new Ballıca Nature Park . It's hoped that in the near future a number of signed hiking trails will lead off from the caves.
To get to Ballıca, take a minibus from Tokat's İlçe ve Köy minibus terminal to Pazar (₺4, 40 minutes), where a taxi will be waiting to run you up the winding country road to the cave (8km). Drivers prefer to do a round trip with waiting time, but they also like to keep the meter running while they wait so you may end up paying as much as ₺60 to ₺80. If you are driving from Amasya, Pazar is signposted 14km south of the main road to Tokat.
