Give the bus a whirl in Turkey's mountains

I am travelling through Turkey in May and plan to visit Istanbul, Safranbolu, Amasra, Sinop, potentially Tokat, Nemrut Dagi, Goreme, Olympos and other coastal towns. For beautiful scenery, which journeys would you recommend doing by train or bus?

- T. Mak, Kensington.

For the most part, this itinerary takes you through regions where the Turkish rail network is non-existent, so a bus is the only choice.

The scenic highlight of this journey is probably going to be the section from Konya to Olympos, which is the second half of the Goreme-Olympos leg. This takes you over the rugged and majestic Taurus Mountains, then along a beautiful stretch of coast south of Antalya, which has limestone peaks rising sharply from the coast. Goreme to Olympos is an 11-hour bus ride, with a change of buses required at Antalya.

You might want to break this leg at Konya, the centre for the Sufi sect known as the dervishes (pictured), with plenty to detain you for a day or so, including a visit to the Mevlana tomb-museum (where you'll see fine examples of Seljuk faience-tiling) and the Selimiye Camii (mosque).