I remember the first time I sighted this whimsical looking fairytale esque land on Pinterest about 6 years ago. It has been a dream of mine to visit this place complete with its moon like landscape & fairy chimneys, ever since then! I’m sure you’ve seen that infamous balloon filled skyline gracing the social media channels and more so very recently, but honestly? Nothing can compare to when you first see the dreamy Cappadocia with your own eyes. All those images I had seen prior to this couldn’t possibly showcase the magnitude of beauty that this gem in the world really has to offer. I feel that everybody must see this place at least once in their life. And it really isn’t too hard to reach 🙂
Read on for my 3 day Guide to Cappadocia!
What is it?
First and foremost I think it’s safe to see that this place is not only a national treasure for Turkey itself but it’s a true natural wonder of the world! Due to a volcanic eruption a zillion years ago this moon like landscape and its rocky formations formed and utilising the soft rock material- caves, carvings, houses, places of worship…were subsequently created by humans themselves. Including an entire secret underground CITY that housed approx 3000 people [more on that later!]
How to get there?
With Kayseri [ASR] only a 1hour 20min flight from Istanbul it is super easy & cheap to fly to from both airports here. We took flights from Sabiha Gokcen International airport [SAW] as it had better connections for me travelling from the Middle East and Jack (the boyf) travelling from UK.
*Note; Flights are more frequent to ASR (from this airport too, but both are easily accessible!
Cost: £82 return SAW- ASR
https://www.turkishairlines.com
£200 return DXB- SAW
Once you arrive at Kayseri airport you can take a bus costing no more than $10 to the town of Göreme, and then take a short taxi ride to your specific hotel from the bus stop!
Where to stay?
I definitely recommend staying in a cave hotel! It’s a very cool experience and wouldn’t be a complete trip to Cappadocia if you didn’t. The hotels usually come with a rooftop terrace to take in the views and in particular at sunrise, as they provide the best panoramic views of the balloons.
We stayed at Maccan Cave Hotel and absolutely loved our stay here. Its rooftop terrace is stunning and the hotel staff are beyond helpful, welcoming you in with open arms- and of course traditional Turkish tea 🙂 they will help you organise your day to day activities whatever and wherever you want to go, and wish to see! The hotel is on the same road as those with the epic rooftops such as;
Sultan Cave Suites/ Mithra Cave Suites/ Artemis.
All of these terraces are open to anybody throughout the day/ evening but the rooftops are reserved for guests only at sunrise. We enjoyed daytime drinks and sunset up on these beautiful rooftops!
Hearts for Cappadocia at Maccan Cave Hotel rooftop terrace
Sunset at Sultan Cave Suites
Rooftop set up at Mithra Cave Hotel
My tips.
I would recommend hiring a car. If you don’t want to, the town of Göreme is great to walk around with some places you can take a taxi to see. The hotel can organise a driver for a few hours for you costing no more than $15! But if you really want to sightsee most places freely and with ample time to explore- you will need a car, as it would be a cheaper option.
When you book the drivers they generally stay with you for the amount of time you’ve organised. They also really don’t mind to take photographs for you, as they know how beautiful this place is and are more than happy to help you capture it 🙂
Things to see/ to do!
Okay I’m going to have to make this as short as I can because there is just so much to do to see, to eat, to taste to FEEL in this magical place. So I will bullet point.
Day One
- Rooftop drinks and chill
- Sunset at Red Valley
After landing, enjoying day drinks upon our cosy rooftop and embracing this magical place we planned to watch our first sunset at the incredible Red Valley. Its about ten minutes from the town of Göreme and we hired a driver to take us, who actually sat and enjoyed with us too! There is a small café here where you can buy refreshments, oh and beers 🙂 The valley gets its name from the ever changing colours of the rocks from pink to red as the sun sets…and we were completely blown away. I have never been so awestruck in my life by a place I had only been in for a few hours. I will let the below images do the talking for me;
Day Two
- Hot Air Balloon Ride
This is what dreams are made of and more, our first sunrise spent in a hot air balloon. A bucketlist wish since forever finally completed! When we booked Maccan Cave hotel www.booking.com they automatically booked our hot air balloon ride with Butterfly Balloons. I had read this is one of the more favourable companies to book with and they get pretty booked up far in advance- so either book early or confirm with your hotel that you are enrolled. Few words again can describe this experience, it was probably the best moment of my life I think! I couldn’t wipe the smile from my face it was stuck! The balloon ride is 90 minutes long costing 180 euros per person. The ride covers the whole area of Cappadocia including flying low enough to touch hands with people enjoying the sunrise on the rooftops in Goreme!
- Sunset at Usichar Castle
Once again we hired a driver to take us here for sunset. About 20 minutes drive from Göreme and entrance fee costing 8 Turkish Lira. Inside you will find carved tunnels and rooms but the best part is the view from the top! It closes just before sunset so we sat outside to watch it, again with our friendly driver 🙂
Day 3
We opted to hire a driver for the day to take us to a number of places. You can pay a fee of around 30 dollars to take the RED/ GREEN tour in Cappadocia but for comfort and ease we opted to use a driver. If I was to come again I wouldn’t recommend doing this as the cost was more than we had ideally budgeted for. However, we ticked off a large number of sites to visit including;
Pidgeon Valley
Love Valley
Pasabag, Monks Valley
Devrent Valley
Open Air Museum
Derinkuyu Underground City
I will include all of the above plus where to go sunrise balloon chasing [i love that this is an actual verb here!] in a second blog post as this will be far too much to read in one day]
Enjoy Part 1 and please feel free to ask me ANY questions/ guides/ pointers I will be more than happy to help 🙂
IG: @jessicaamandafryer