Hot Air Balloon Questions

Some tours include the balloon flight. On most tours, you can choose it as an optional extra. The tour page says which, and the Included list is the place to check.

Where it is included, the flight is already booked and paid for and appears in the itinerary as its own step on the morning it happens.

Where it is not, it shows in the booking form as an extra you can add on the morning you wake up in Cappadocia. The price appears before you add it, and it goes onto the same booking rather than being paid separately.

Tours that already contain the flight are listed under Cappadocia tours, and their titles say so.

Balloon prices in Cappadocia move with the season, the fuel price and how many baskets are flying, so we do not publish a fixed figure that would be wrong by the time you read it.

The live price for your dates is in the booking form. Add the balloon as an extra and the total updates before you commit to anything.

What is worth knowing is that it is the most expensive hour of a Turkey trip, and an experience that almost all our travellers say they are glad they chose.

The flight is about an hour. The morning around it is about four.

Pickup comes roughly 90 minutes before sunrise, which means between 04:00 and 05:30 depending on the season. There is a light breakfast at the operator's base while the crew reads the weather, then a drive to the launch field selected for that morning's wind conditions.

You watch the envelope inflate, which takes twenty minutes and is more impressive than you expect, then you fly. On landing there is a certificate and a glass of sparkling wine at the basket, and you are back at your hotel by about 08:30.

The rest of the touring day starts afterwards as normal, which is why a balloon morning and a full tour day sit together comfortably.

Commercial ballooning in Cappadocia is regulated by the Turkish civil aviation authority. Pilots are licensed, aircraft are inspected, and every flight needs a permit issued that morning on the basis of the weather.

The permit is the part that matters. Flights are grounded for wind that would look harmless from the ground, and the operator cannot override the authority's decision. That is why cancellations happen, and it is a sign the system works rather than a sign something is wrong.

Balloons are among the slowest aircraft there are. They rise and fall with the burner and drift with the wind, and nothing about it is sudden.

Check that your travel insurance covers ballooning. Some policies exclude it unless you add it.

Most operators set a minimum age of six, and some set it higher. Children below that are not carried, whatever the parents are willing to sign.

The practical limit matters more than the number. A child has to stand unaided for an hour and to see over the basket wall, which is a metre or so high. If a six year old cannot see over the wall, they will spend the flight looking at the basket rather than the view.

Children fly at the same price as adults. There is no child rate, because the basket space is the cost.

Tell us the ages when you ask and we will confirm what the operator allows on your dates.

There is no strict weight limit, but the operator needs to know. The operator places passengers in different parts of the basket to balance the weight, and a very heavy passenger may be asked to pay for extra space. Tell us in advance rather than at the field.

You need to climb into and out of the basket unaided, over a wall about a metre high, and to stand for the length of the flight. There is no seat.

Ballooning is not recommended if you are pregnant, have had recent surgery, or have a back, hip or knee problem that makes standing or a landing bump difficult. Landings are usually gentle and occasionally firm.

Fear of heights troubles people less than they expect. There is no sensation of falling, and the basket wall comes to chest height.

You get your money back, or you fly the next morning if your itinerary still has one.

The decision is made at first light by the operator and the civil aviation authority together, and it is final. Paying extra cannot allow a flight to go ahead when it has been cancelled.

This is the reason we suggest two nights in Cappadocia rather than one. A single night gives the balloon one morning. Two nights give it two, and the odds change considerably.

Where the flight is refunded, the money goes back the way it was paid. Where it moves to the next morning, the rest of that day reorganises around it.

You can see the current position for any morning on the Cappadocia balloon flight status page.

Most mornings fly. Most cancellations happen in winter, and several cancelled mornings in a row are normal in January, and they are unusual enough in spring and autumn that losing more than the odd morning would be bad luck.

Wind is almost always the reason. Cappadocia is a plateau, and a morning that looks perfectly still from a hotel terrace can carry too much movement at 500 metres.

Nothing you do changes the odds except giving the balloon more than one morning. Two nights in Cappadocia turns a single chance into two, and that is the only reliable way to improve them.

It depends on the basket, and the range is wide. Standard baskets carry between 16 and 24 passengers in compartments of four or five. Smaller baskets take eight to twelve, and the smallest take four.

A smaller basket costs more per person and gives you more room at the edge, which is where you want to be. If that matters, ask about the smaller flights when you book rather than at the field.

Everybody gets a place at the wall in any basket. The separate sections are arranged so each passenger can see out, rather than standing behind another person.

Warm layers, trousers, and closed shoes you can walk in on rough ground.

It is cold before sunrise in every season, and colder still standing in a field. Bring a jacket even in August. You can take it off once the sun is up and the burner is above your head.

Avoid a loose scarf or a hat that could blow off during the flight. The burner is directly overhead and there is nothing between you and the open air. Tie long hair back for the same reason.

Cameras and phones are fine. Put a strap on them, because anything dropped from the basket is gone.

Yes, and watching from the ground is a worthwhile experience in its own right. A hundred balloons rising out of the valleys at sunrise is arguably a better sight from the ground than from inside one of them.

We run a sunrise watching option: pickup before dawn, a viewpoint above the valleys, tea and something to eat while the balloons inflate and lift. It costs a fraction of a flight.

It works for people who cannot fly for health reasons, for children under the minimum age, and for anyone who would rather spend the money elsewhere.

Some of our tours that include the balloon also come in a version without it, at a lower price, with the watching option in its place.

Yes. A private basket takes two people, or your family alone, and it costs several times a shared flight. Proposals are the usual reason.

Book it well ahead. Only a small number of private baskets are available, and they are booked early, particularly around Valentine's Day and through the spring.

The operator will arrange a photographer, flowers or a set up at the landing if you ask. Tell us what you have in mind when you book and we pass it on.

A standard shared flight at sunrise is also a fine place to propose. A basket full of strangers cheering becomes part of the story afterwards, and it costs a great deal less.