Cappadocia Travel Questions

Plan for at least two nights in Cappadocia if you can. Three nights gives you more time. Two nights gives you one full touring day plus a balloon morning, which covers the main valleys and leaves you wanting more.

Three nights lets you do two guided days, leaves an extra morning in case your balloon flight is cancelled, and still leaves an afternoon to walk a valley on your own.

Four nights is for people who want to hike, ride, or sit on a terrace and watch the light move across the rock. It is a small region and a slow one, and it repays the extra day more than most places do.

One night works if the alternative is not coming at all, though the balloon then gets a single chance to fly.

April to June and September to October. Mild days, cold mornings, and the best odds on the balloon, because the wind is calmer either side of summer.

July and August are hot in the middle of the day, though the mornings are fresh and the valleys empty early. Balloons fly most days.

Winter is the surprise. Snow on the fairy chimneys is one of the sights of Turkey, hotels are cheap and the valleys are yours. However, balloon flights are cancelled more often in winter. If the flight is your main reason for visiting, there is a greater risk that it may not happen.

Whenever you come, bring a warm layer. Cappadocia sits above 1,000 metres and the mornings are cold in every season.

By air, into one of two airports. Nevsehir Kapadokya is about 40 minutes from the hotels, Kayseri Erkilet about an hour and a quarter. Both are used, and which one you fly into depends on the day and the schedule.

The flight is about an hour and a quarter. Including the transfers at both ends, allow about four hours from your Istanbul hotel to your Cappadocia hotel.

There is also an overnight coach, around eleven hours, which saves a hotel night. It is more comfortable than it sounds, with reclining seats and a stop halfway, and some of our tours use it deliberately for that reason.

Driving yourself is possible and rarely worth it on a short trip. It is over 700 km each way.

Goreme Open Air Museum, for rock cut churches with their frescoes still on the walls. Devrent Valley, where erosion has left shapes people have been naming after animals for centuries. Pasabag, for the tallest chimneys with their capstones balanced on top. Uchisar Castle, the highest point in the region and the view everyone photographs.

An underground city, either Kaymakli or Derinkuyu, to see entire towns dug eight levels underground. They include air shafts, stables and churches, making them one of the most unusual sights here.

The Avanos pottery workshops on the Kizilirmak, where clay has been thrown on kick wheels for three thousand years.

And the balloon at sunrise, which is not a sight so much as the way to see all of the above at once.

Our Red, Yellow and Green tours divide these between them. The whole set is under Cappadocia tours.

These are three standard routes that cover different parts of the region. Most travellers choose one or two of them.

The Red Tour is the north: Devrent Valley, Pasabag, the Goreme panorama, the Avanos pottery workshop, Zelve and the view of Uchisar Castle. Almost no walking, so it suits everybody, and it is the one to take if you only take one.

The Green Tour is the south and covers more ground: Derinkuyu underground city, the Ihlara Valley, Selime Monastery and Pigeon Valley. Some walking, none of it hard.

The Yellow Tour is the walking one, with an optional valley hike of around two hours. You can stay in the vehicle and meet the group at the far end if you would rather not.

Two days in Cappadocia usually means Red plus one of the others. Which pairing suits you depends on how much you want to walk, and it is worth asking us.

They can be, and it is better to decide honestly before you go down than halfway along a passage.

The chambers are open enough to stand in and well lit. What is tight is the passages between them: low, narrow, and you need to bend down to walk through stretches of ten or twenty metres. In places two people cannot pass.

The visitor route is short and there are stewards and exits, so you are never far from daylight. Most people find it fine and remember it as the best thing they did.

If enclosed spaces are not for you, say so. The guide takes the rest of the group down and you wait at the entrance with the driver, and nothing else in the day changes.

Sunset activities work well because many guided routes finish before the evening. ATV rides, horse riding and jeep safaris cover different valley tracks and require different levels of effort.

An ATV tour suits travellers who want a more active, dusty ride. Horse riding is usually offered at a guided walking pace, while a jeep safari lets you cover similar scenery without driving the vehicle yourself.

A Turkish Night in a cave restaurant is the indoor evening option and normally combines dinner with a staged folk show. Read the exact inclusions, duration, minimum age and pickup area before adding any activity.

Available extras appear in the booking flow on tours where they fit, with the price shown before you add them.

Dinner and a folk show in a cave restaurant, usually starting around 19:30 and running to about 23:00, with hotel pickup and drop off included.

You eat a set Turkish menu at a long table, and local drinks are normally unlimited and part of the price. The show includes dances from different regions: the spoon dances of the south, the fast footwork of the Black Sea, a belly dancer, and a whirling dervish sema at some point in the evening.

It is a tourist evening and it does not pretend otherwise. It is also good fun, the musicians are real, and everybody ends up dancing.

The dervish sema is a religious ceremony rather than entertainment. If you want to see it as one, ask us about a separate ceremony that is presented as a religious event instead.

Both activities are designed to welcome beginners, including people who have never tried them before.

The ATV run starts with a briefing and a short practice loop, and the guide leads the group one rider behind another. The pace follows the slowest rider. If you can ride a bicycle you can do it. Wear clothes you do not mind covering in dust, because the valleys are dry and you will be behind somebody.

The horses are used to beginners and the ride walks rather than gallops. Riders are led along valley trails at sunset and no experience is needed. Say if you have never sat on a horse and they will give you a quieter one.

Minimum ages apply to both and vary by operator, so tell us the ages when you ask.

Layers, and shoes with grip.

The region sits above 1,000 metres, so mornings are cold in every season and the balloon field before dawn is colder than the forecast suggests. A fleece or a jacket you can take off by ten in the morning is the right idea, even in July.

Paths are dust, loose stone and steps. Trainers that you have already worn and find comfortable are ideal. Sandals are not, and neither is anything with a smooth sole.

In winter, add gloves and a hat. Snow lies here and the wind crosses the plateau with nothing to stop it.