The visual extravanganza of Cappadocia in Turkey with its unique experiences can’t fail to impress! A well-deserved bullet point on anyone’s bucket list. Certainly it was on mine and it exceeded expectations!
Cappadocia is a region in central Turkey. It is known for hot-air ballooning, unique rock formations, referred to as fairy chimneys, and also its cave towns and underground cities. A totally magical area. It can be very hot in summer and in winter it will have temperatures below zero with, of course, snow!
Our 3 nights in Cappadocia was one of those travel experiences where everything was just as you had hoped, in fact, even better. Perfect September weather, days in the mid to high 20’s; gorgeous character-filled accommodation, amazing hot-air balloon experiences from above and below, wonderful day tours with the best tour guide we’ve ever had.
Where to stay
There are a several towns in Cappadocia region in which you might stay: Urgup, Uchisar, Goreme and Ortahisar.
Goreme is the main tourist town because it is right in the centre of the region and there is easy access to the balloon flights, the day tours, sunset tours etc. with lots of accommodation and restaurant/café choices. This town is where we stayed and I would definitely recommend it. Apart from the convenience it is visually spectacular. The town is built in and around the rock structures and is truly magnificent to see!
We stayed in the Sultan Cave Suites which was an excellent choice! By chance, we picked the place where you see all the Instagram shots of beautiful young women sitting on coloured cushions on a terrace looking out on the hot-air balloons at dawn. It is indeed a spectacle that can’t be replicated anywhere else. The main terrace itself is definitely a feature of the place but there are other little stone terraces scattered on various levels around. Both our day tours happened to finish here with a glass of wine.
Various levels of cave suites are available at quite reasonable prices but they all have a taste of luxury. The rooms themselves are captivating with little decorating touches that encapsulate the character of the area. The restaurant is available for breakfast and dinner with views over the town and surrounds that are hard to beat! A small outside bar leading onto the main terrace is also very popular.
There is also other accommodation in Goreme with lovely terraces and views with the same character feel. But I can only comment on where we stayed and we were more than happy with our choice.
Booking.comHot Air Balloons
This is one of the most popular places in the world for hot air ballooning due to the magical landscape that the balloons fly over. At dawn, up to 150 balloons will be up in the air! They will fly over unique rock formations, fair chimneys, valleys, caves and some even float over the town. It is weather dependant but they do run pretty much all year around. Our top choice was Turquaz Balloons but I’m sure they are all excellent!
There are several companies that run various levels of balloon rides and I think they all pick-up/drop-off from where you stay. We did a fairly standard one which was an hour long and we felt it was just a good amount of time. Even a standard balloon ride starts with a mini breakfast and finishes by landing on a trailer! We then had a glass of champers, snacks and were presented with a certificate and medal. They are not cheap experiences but they are well worth the money. We were back for a proper breakfast by 7:30am.
For those that have any safety concerns, no need to worry. The balloons are well regulated these days and the pilots have many hours and years of experience.
As someone who is scared of heights, I wondered how I’d go with being so high up. But I was fine. I think because the height of the basket was sufficient enough to feel secure and we were fairly squashed in, I had no qualms whatsoever.
A sign of the times was that of all the 20 passengers in the balloon, we were the only two NOT taking selfies! And there were LOTS of selfies!
If you don’t have the money or desire to actually go up in the balloons, watching them at dawn from the ground is also pretty amazing. We got up at dawn both mornings following our balloon day to watch the show from below. Almost as good!
Underground cities, cave towns and fairy chimneys
We did a couple of day tours with Kelebek Travel and it was a great choice. There are of course other companies that offer similar tours. We had the best tour guide for both tours – Tujba (pronounced Tuba) and she was great – the perfect personality for being a tour guide – very likeable.
Alternatively, you can hire a car or even hire a driver for the day. Both would be great options if you know where you want to go.
The Red tour and the Green tour were the two tours we chose to book. I would have no hesitation in recommending both. I think we were happy to do a tour simply because there were so many options of where to go and having someone else make the decisions for us made it easy and stress-free. Also we met some really good people on both these tours and had some interesting conversations.
Places that we visited on these two tours include:
The underground city of Kaymakli
A fascinating, rabbit warren of low, narrow, sloping tunnels which open up to various types of rooms over eight levels (although not all are open to the public). I think we visited four or five levels. There is a church, stables, kitchen, winery, storage rooms etc. Some of the easily accessible areas are still used today as storage areas and cellars.
Crouching through all the tunnels is hard on our old knees and hard on John’s bald head. So if you are tall, it might be a bit of struggle. Although if you have young knees and hair on your head you might be alright! I probably wouldn’t recommend for anyone that suffers from claustrophobia either. Having said all that it was really quite amazing!
Ihlara Valley
This is a combination of green gorges, canyons with underground caves and churches built into the rocks and a pretty tree lined river. A little oasis in a part of Turkey that doesn’t have a lot of greenery. Many people once lived in these rock caves!
We took a few hundred steps down to the river, visited one of the rock churches and walk along the river to a beautiful spot on the river where we had a break. This location was quite unique. There were a couple of food stalls and many ducks, turkeys and geese wandering around. But what I loved most were the wooden platforms scattered around with cushions to sit on right on the water. There were also some little wooden tables and stools literally in the water so could you sit with your feet in the water. Really loved it here!
Also had a nice lunch at a restaurant further up the river, where we were picked up for our next destination.
Selime Monastery
This monastery complex contains the largest cathedral sized church in the Cappadocia region built into the volcanic rock towers. It was built quite deep into the rock with intricate detailing. Many steep steps and paths surround this area, which also houses a winery, smaller church, kitchen, storage areas etc. within the rock.
Pigeon Valley
We just had a quick stop here to take a few photos looking down on the valley. But this would be a good place to go to spend some time walking through the valley floor with all the fairy chimneys and pigeon holes in the cliff walls. It has a various walking track options. The pigeon holes were cut into the cave walls to house the pigeons because the locals liked their manure and used their egg shells for plaster.
Pasabag Valley
Has some of the most amazing looking fairy chimney structures in the area. Mostly dark on top like toadstools. Climbed up a steep slope to get a view from above. Another visually spectacular area.
Zelve Open Air Museum
Walk through this cave town, and explore various religious and domestic caves up high. Definitely worth a visit.
Imaginery Valley (Devrent Valley)
Without even moving from the car park you can see awe-inspiring rock structures that resemble animals and other imaginary figures. If you are there for longer you can take your time walking through them all. We just had a quick stop.
Kings Valley farmhouse lunch
Walked down through these amazing white rounded rock structures quite different to others we have seen. A wonderful traditional lunch under vine creepers with some great conversation with some others on the tour. So very relaxing. Could have stayed there for much longer! Must advise though that although we didn’t have any wine, some of the others said that it was a bit … young!
Ceramics studio and museum
Didn’t have high expectations of this but it was actually quite impressive. John was the member of the tour that had a go of creating some pottery of his own on one of the old fashioned pottery wheels. He actually did quite well. Of course, then you are taken through their massive shop in the hope you will buy something. Alas, they were disappointed.
Love Valley
To not to put too fine a point on it, the name of this valley is named so because the rock structures look like, well, penises! Great for photos of course! As if we hadn’t taken enough already!
Sunset activities
In Goreme, at sunset, there any many options you can participate in. We didn’t ourselves – by that time of the day we were exhausted after being on the go since before dawn and my feet were killing me. And on two of our three nights there I was probably enjoying a glass of wine on the terrace! But for those of you that are younger, fitter or more energetic you could:
- Walk up to the sunset viewing spot.
- Take a quad bike tour
- Wine and sunset tour
- Various walking tours
- Jeep safari tours
- Camel sunset rides
So as you can see there is no end of things to see and do in this unique part of the world. It was the highlight of our three week holiday to Croatia and Turkey. Get there if you can!
Please feel free to leave a comment or ask me questions you like on our experiences of Cappadocia.
And perhaps pay me a visit on Instagram and follow me if you like what you see.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this Travel Inspiration from an Empty Nester!
Very comprehensive blog, Jenny thanks for writing most of the answers to the questions that I meant to ask you. On getting there, did you fly from Istanbul?
Thanks Ruth, glad to hear it. And yes we did fly from Istanbul. You can bus there but its probably an all day drive.
A truely impressive blog post Jenny – congratulations. I have never heard of Cappadocia before! Thanks for sharing such a unique & stunning destination. The hot air balloons over the incredible landscape would be a must for me. As would be a visit into the underground city. In fact, I’d love to see everything you mentioned in this post
Thanks Estelle! Yes a lot of people haven’t heard of it, but enough people have to keep the area buzzing with tourists. Perhaps in 10 years it will be overcrowded like a lot of other places. The underground city was great, but my knees haven’t quite been the same since! Seriously though it was one of our best ever travel experiences.
This is a fabulous post, Jenny. You have convinced me!! Really would like to do the balloon and the valleys. I have done a few of those crawling in the caves and screaming whenever a bat flies over, so not gonna do that. Would love to do all else. Thank you so much for writing about your beautiful experiences.
Thanks so much Georgina! Always happy to inspire! Had to laugh at your comment about screaming in the caves, but no bats in these caves thank goodness. In any case, plenty of other things to do there!
What an incredible post Jenny! The pictures are amazing and almost had me booking a trip to Cappadocia next week, but sadly I’ll have to wait a little longer. A balloon flight has always been on my Wish List and what better place to have a wish come true – fingers crossed. I also enjoyed a laugh at the Love Valley photo and meaning – LOL. I believe we should vote this the post of the year, it’s so in depth and informative. Congratulations 🙂
Thanks so much Joycee for the big compliment! It helps I think when you really love the place. Our time there will be some of our best travel memories! Hope you get there one day!
What a great description of a marvellous place, Jenny! I’ve seen a great number of photos of this place and would love to go there. Your post was really informative with lots of great tips. I’m glad you didn’t find being up so high too scary, that would be my main fear. I’d be missing the one that was hard on your knees but doing lots of sunset and would force myself for sunrise of course, awesome for photography!
Thank-you for sharing, Roz
Thanks so much Roz. Yes definitely don’t do the underground city. Kills the knees! And thanks for the compliment about the photos – much appreciated coming from a proper photographer!