Right in the centre of Turkey, just over an hour’s flight from its capital Istanbul, is a land of fairytale ranges, subterranean living and soaring vistas that make for a stunning few days break.
Go for the scenery, marvel at the nature, enjoy the great food and have your breath taken away with a hot air balloon trip.
When to go
With a continental climate, it’ll be cold during winter and very hot during the summer, so spring and autumn are the best for warms days and pleasant evenings. Also keep an eye out for the wind as the hot air balloons won’t fly when it’s too windy.
Where to go
Cappadocia is an area where you’ll have multiple options to base yourself, with different towns and villages spread across the many sites – the main being Göreme, Çavuşin and Urgup.
Göreme is the main tourist town, with plenty of hotels, cave suites and restaurants to keep you occupied. Urgup is more of a residential town with a few sites to see. If you want something a bit more cosy and private then head to Çavuşin that is smaller and sleepier but in the heart of the fairy tale canyons and chimneys that you can walk out of your door and into.
To maximise your time get a car and you’ll have all the independence you will need plus to range a bit further afield to the underground cities of Kaymalki and Derinkuyu and the Star Wars backdrop of Selime.
Where to Stay
We opted for Çavuşin and the wonderful Phocas Cave Suites, set up on a hill overlooking the village.
Managed by the grand children of those that had carved the rooms out of the adjoining hill to create amazing rooms with rocky niches, soot-stained ceilings from the old oil lamps and a beautiful ottoman style bathroom.
Even better on the outside you’ll be able to enjoy a morning wake up (early!!) with all the balloons drifting over your room and across into the valley below.
Take a morning walk up the hill behind the hotel and into the canyons and fairy chimneys behind will make for some of the best morning strolls on the planet.
The staff here are marvellous, friendly and helpful to give you all the information, maps and stories to help you on your stay.
And the breakfasts are superb…just prepare your belly for a tasty onslaught! Olives, cheeses, local bread, preserves menemen (turkish scrambled eggs with pepper and garlic) and hot crepes with cheese and chocolate and honey-drenched baklava.
Whilst staying in Çavuşin make sure you have dinner at Seyyah Han a huge roof terrace on top that can be closed in and made cosy around a central fire if the evenings get cooler. They serve an excellent mezze, testi kebab (in pottery) and scrummy hot hummus and bacon!
What to see
There is so much to see and do, that our 3 day trip was non-stop moving from one place to the next, mouths agape and cameras clicking! You can pretty much start anywhere, so for us we started closeby and made our way outwards.
This also allows the sights to build up in scale and awesomeness. As we only had 3 days we had to pack things in, we’ll give you the itinerary on a day by day basis.
Day 1 – Fairytales
Pasabag (Monk’s) Valley has all the classic fairy chimneys where the monks of old carved out an escape from civilisation.
You will have free run of the valley to explore to your heart’s content, mushroom-shaped columns, secret passageways, triple-split chimneys. Make sure you make your way up around the valley for more exploration and beautiful views of green grasses and blue skies.
The Zelve Open Air Museum once housed the largest communities in the region, honeycombed with dwellings and religious chambers that was home to both Christians and Muslims.
Try to get the Cappadocia museum pass that will give you quick assess to many of the sights in the area…you’ll appreciate it at the Underground City where you can jump the very long queue with ease.
Imagination Valley, just by the road on the way to Ürgüp is aptly named where your mind can get creative with all the naturally carved rocks – camels, rabbits, birds and all manner of creations.
Just next to Ürgüp you can visit Ortahisar, where you can enjoy a lunchtime kebab and followed by a trek up it’s rock carved castle – looking like something out of Dante’s inferno meets the tower of babel.
After all these sights in one day, head up to the Red Valley to relax and watch the sunset. Get there in time to grab a nice spot on one of the many sandy sofas, sit back and enjoy the show.
Day 2 – Up high and down below
Break up your touring with a bit of ballooning on your second day. A hot air balloon is easily the number one highlight in a trip full of highlights and just has to be done…despite the early start at 4.30am. We’ve done a few balloon rides across the globe and this is easily the most amazing.
We took our flight with Kapadokya Balloons, one of the big outfits of the region that picks you up from your hotel, gives you a little breakfast during the safety briefing and then takes you up into the planes above the valleys for lift off whilst dawn is just starting to break into the day.
The baskets can be a bit on the large side (16 people) but everyone has a front row seat and once you are up and gazing at the beautiful scenery below you won’t worry about your fellow passengers.
We had perfect conditions for the trip and surrounded by a hundred or so balloons all lifting off at the same time that was truly magical.
First drifting slowly over the valleys and towns, before shooting up into the sky to the maximum height of 5500 metres for a bird’s eye view of the whole region.
Floating back down and a leisurely drift along pigeon valley and over the panorama view before coming into land perfectly on the back of a truck!
Celebrate with some bubbly before heading of for your day of sightseeing.
Heading south to the underground city of Derinkuyu – said to have been built by the Phrygians in the 8th century BC and then by Christians to ‘hide’ from muslims right up until the 20th Century.
A fascinating place with a maze of tunnels extending down to 60m that sheltered up to 20,000 at its height. It’ll be heavy with tourist traffic, but using your Cappadocia museum pass will get you to the front of the big queue outside.
Uchisar is worth a visit to its impressive castle that is wholly carved out of rock and affords stunning views of the surrounding countryside from its top with just pigeons to share it with.
The Goreme Open Air Museum, a UNESCO site where Byzantine monks first settled and left monasteries, churches and shrines, along with colourful frescoes and the ominously named ‘Dark Church’ – more for lack of windows than something satanic though.
With some remains of the day, head across the valley from Cavusin to ‘Love Valley‘, not named because of the rocks forming heart shapes and flowers, but rather forming other ‘loving’ shapes!
Love valley is blissfully devoid of tourists, so make sure you spend time walking amongst all that love down below and then drive round to the panoramic viewpoint above for a different perspective.
Day 3 – In a galaxy far far away…
You can afford a bit of a lie in today, but not too long as the tourist trail will be calling.
For us it was to the south and first to the Ihlara, a beautiful canyon valley filled with cave dwellings and rock churches that will surround you on all sides.
The valley is 16km long, but you don’t need to hike the whole length. We started at the midway point of Belisirma where you can get a coffee or a bite to eat at the many scenic restaurants that dot the river.
A short hike in and back along the valley along the pretty river should take a couple of hours
and treat you to a hike up to the imaginatively named churches such as Jacinth, Dark Castle and the Serpent Church.
Just a few kilometers north of the valley is the Selime monastery – one of the biggest in Cappadocia and carved out by the monks in the 13th Century.
The monastery is amazing, like a cross between Gaudi and Escher meets the Dark Crystal.
Next to the monastery is where locals will tell you the first Star Wars movie was filmed…it makes a great story and exploring the decaying cone-shaped rock dwellings will fire your imagination of having R2 or C3 walking around the corner at any moment…
but the movie reality is also a local imagination (it was never filmed here), but still well worth a visit, especially at the end of the day when you’ll have it all to yourselves.
All this in just 3 days? It will feel more like a lifetime of experiences that will stay with you for years to come. So start planning your trip to this magical place…enjoy!
