If you’ve never heard of it, get ready to fall in love! Cappadocia is a region in central Turkey. It’s known for its unique rock formations (fairy chimneys), natural caves, and history. It’s a magical place, specially during the sunrise and sunset! Perfect for everything you can imagine like weddings, engagements, honeymoons, getaways, or a family vacation! We visited Cappadocia in August while staying in Istanbul. The main reason for going to Cappadocia was to ride a hot air balloon there for the first time. We had seen pictures and heard about it and could not let it pass being so close. The landscape makes it look from another planet, I cannot stress how amazing this place is and a must go if you visit Turkey.
How to get there? We flew from Istanbul to Cappadocia through Turkish Airlines to Kayseri (Kayseri Erkilet Airport – ASR). Cappadocia’s other airport Nevsehir (Nevşehir Kapadokya Airport – NAV) does not offer as many flights as Kayseri but is also a good alternative. Our flight lasted about 1 hour, we had arranged our hotel pick-up which was very convenient and took another hour to reach Uchisar where we stayed. With Cappadocia’s topography the ride to the hotel was an adventure as it was full of hills and curves where most of the time if you come a across other cars coming in the opposite direction, and the streets are so narrow that you would have to go in reverse with a hill behind you, let’s just say you do not want to drive there. There are also overnight buses from Istanbul and other parts of Turkey that take about 10 hours if you want to go that route. We believe the easiest and cheapest way is to fly there. Our roundtrip ticket from Istanbul costs us $70 USD.
Where to stay? We recommend staying in either Göreme or Uchisar. The two are within 10 minutes of each other and are very well located to see the hot air balloons at sunrise. The most popular/touristy is Göreme for its many options of accommodations, restaurants, location, and activities around it. We stayed in Uchisar (quieter town than Göreme) at Millstone Cave Suites Hotel, loved it! Oh and get their breakfast! Turkish breakfast with the valleys in the background is priceless!! We recommend staying in a cave hotel to make the experience even more unreal! You’ll have beautiful views all around and get that cavern living vibe. There are also other towns around like Urgup and Avanos that are worth looking into.
What to eat? Just like in Istanbul, food in Cappadocia is delicious and there are many places to eat, you won’t have trouble finding something you like. For the most part we ate at our hotels restaurant which serves delicious plates for dinner and off-course the exceptional Turkish breakfast. We also enjoyed lunch at Dream Spot Cappadocia in Uchisar which has spectacular views and really nice quality food and service.
Hot Air Balloon Ride. If you’re interested in the hot air balloon ride you must book ahead time. Although, there are many companies, they do get filled up quickly so make sure to book at least 1 month in advance. Standard rides cost about $190 USD per person with 20-24 people per basket (well worth it!!). The cheapest ride we saw while searching was $170 USD and was already filled up. There’s also private rides if you’d like to go alone. We got lucky last minute (1 week in advance) and booked through Urgup Balloons. Highly recommend them, they offered hotel pick up/drop-off, coffee and pastries before the ride, champagne toast after the ride, and the guide was great! They picked us up from our hotel at 4:15am, took us to have breakfast, we finished registering, and waited for the green flag! Yes, many things can affect the ride but most importantly is the wind speed and direction. We got lucky because for the previous three days they had not been able to fly and had to cancel peoples reservations. There’s no way to tell how things will turn out, I would just recommend to visit Cappadocia for at least 3 days in case you don’t get to ride on your planned day you always have more sunrises to do it in. We heard of some people that were not able to do it after traveling there just for that, don’t let this happen to you and give it enough time! We waited like 20 minutes for the green flag and were on our way to the hot air balloons!! The experience is a once in a lifetime, there are many other places to ride hot air balloons but I know they will not be as magical as doing it in Cappadocia. The scenery is mind blowing and the ride is so smooth you forget you are between 3,000-6,000 feet above ground level!
Sunrise. It was important for us to also watch the sunrise with all the balloons getting ready to fly and then in the air. We knew this would be the best opportunity for a magical moment and amazing pictures since the day that you actually fly you don’t have that background as you’re up in the air. It was tough to decide where the best spot to see the balloons would be. We had options to go to Göreme to a high point, stay in our hotel which had great views and could pay extra for a setup with Turkish carpets (like you see on Pinterest), go to the Uchisar Castle, or go to one of the many viewpoints around. It was tough because the guide was explaining to us that they don’t actually drive the balloons, they go where the wind takes them so I cannot tell you and we did not know what would be a good place. Since we had identified the area from where they start flying from our flight the day before we knew at least we would see them go up. What we ended up doing was chasing the balloons! Yes, we chased them lol. We ended up on this grassy hill at 5:30am where a group of street dogs came at us and I don’t know how we scared them away and they simply left us alone. Santiago and I really felt danger because those dogs were big and ready to bite!! Anyway, from there we moved since we noticed the balloons were not coming that way and went to another viewpoint where we stayed most of the time in shock of how beautiful it looks. There were times where they flew right above us!
Other activities: Since our goal was to ride a hot air balloon and see a sunrise with all the balloons in the air we booked Cappadocia for only 2 nights 3 days. This was enough time to fly, enjoy a sunrise watching and taking pictures of the balloons in the air, visit the Uchisar Castle, explore Göreme and Uchisar, and enjoy the hotel. We recommend a longer stay if you want to explore more. There’s plenty to do like hike the Red and Rose valleys, visit the Underground City, Göreme Open Air Museum, and go horse back riding.
It’s a must see even if you don’t want to ride a hot air balloon it is out of this world you will not want to miss it!
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