Cappadocia, sunrise to cave supper.
Dawn flights over the fairy chimneys, the Red and Green valley loops, a descent into the underground cities and a slow night in a cave restaurant: what each is really like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven to lock in early.
First visit or fifth, these are the ones that sell out first: the sunrise balloon flight, the combined Red and Green day, the sunset run through the valleys, a night in a cave restaurant. Book these, then build the rest of the trip around what is left.
Goreme Hot Air Balloon Flight at Sunrise
Sunrise hot air balloon over Cappadocia’s fairy chimneys. Hotel pickup, light snacks, champagne toast, and a flight certificate included.
From $142 per person
Read the review →
★ 5.0A Goreme classicHot Air Balloon Ride/ Turquaz BalloonsFrom $1753,330 reviews
★ 5.0Books out weeks aheadSunrise Hot Air Balloon Flight / Discovery BalloonsFrom $1192,882 reviews
★ 4.9Worth the 4am alarmGuided Red Tour with Lunch and TicketFrom $212,452 reviews
★ 4.8Fairy-chimney pickSunset or Daytime ATV Adventure TourFrom $12,397 reviews
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★ 5.0Cave-country favouriteGreen (South) Tour Cappadocia (small group) with lunch and ticketFrom $542,317 reviews
The valleys are the whole point.
Once the balloons are down, Cappadocia is one long walk between rock towers: Love Valley's spires, the Rose Valley going pink at five o'clock, Sword and Pigeon and Red. Take them by quad bike, on horseback or on foot, and the landscape stops being a backdrop and starts being the day.
Red Tour, Green Tour, or both?
Every first-timer hits the same fork. The Red loop takes the north, all fairy chimneys, Avanos pottery and Goreme's churches; the Green runs south to the underground cities and the Ihlara gorge. Here is what each one covers, so you can pick the day that fits, or clear two mornings and do the lot.
The northern loop
The Red Tour
6 to 7 hours (approx.) · from $54 · 1,975 reviews
The classic north day: the Goreme Open-Air Museum and its painted rock churches, the mushroom towers at Pasabag, the animal shapes of Devrent, and the pottery kilns of Avanos on the Red River. Short drives, big views, back by mid-afternoon.
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The southern loop
The Green Tour
7 hours 45 minutes (approx.) · from $54 · 1,103 reviews
The longer south day: down through the tunnels of Derinkuyu underground city, a walk along the green floor of the Ihlara gorge, lunch by the stream, then the rock monastery at Selime on the way home. More time in the van, more ground covered.
See the Green Tours →
Car and guide
The private day
8 hours (approx.) · from $229 · 1,399 reviews
Your own driver and a licensed guide, the best of Red and Green folded into one unhurried day, and the freedom to linger at the viewpoint everyone else is filing back to the coach from. The way to do it if you only have one day.
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The evening moves into the caves.
Dinner comes under a carved rock ceiling, the tables long and the mezze slow. Folk dancers take the floor, and a whirling dervish turns through the sema with one palm raised to the sky. It is a set-piece night, and in a stone cellar it earns its billing.
The flying-dress hour.
Just after sunrise, while the balloons still hang over the valley, the photographers set up: a trailing dress on a cave terrace, a horse on the ridge, the low light doing the work. Kitsch, some of it. The pictures come out anyway.
Clay from the red river.
Avanos has thrown pots from the red Kizilirmak mud for three thousand years. Sit down at a kick-wheel with a master potter, or watch lamps, carpets and spice blends made the slow way in the workshops around the old town.
It was all cut by hand.
Byzantine monks hollowed churches out of the cliffs at the Goreme Open-Air Museum and painted the ceilings with saints. Whole towns dug the other way, eight storeys down into the tufa at Derinkuyu and Kaymakli. The soft stone kept every chisel mark, and you can still walk into nearly all of it.
Pick your patch of Cappadocia.
Goreme for the balloons and the cave hotels. The Red Valley for sunset. Avanos for the clay. Derinkuyu for the eight floors underground. Uchisar for the castle rock and the whole plateau laid out below it.
Know what you’re after?
Twelve ways to spend a day around Goreme. Pick the one that sounds like you, and the whole list behind it comes priced, rated and ready to book.
Worth leaving the valley for.
The Green Tour country starts an hour south: the Ihlara gorge with a stream running down its floor, the white glare of the Salt Lake on the road west, the vineyards around Urgup. Longer days, thinner crowds, the same soft stone underneath.
Three mornings, in the right order.
You will not see all of Cappadocia in one trip, but three good mornings cover the essentials. This is the order we would give a friend checking into a cave hotel tonight.
Day 1
Ease in on the Red loop
The Goreme Open-Air Museum first, then the fairy chimneys at Pasabag and Devrent and the potters of Avanos, with a valley viewpoint saved for sunset.
Plan day one →
Day 2
Dawn flight, then go south
Up before five for the balloon, breakfast back on a cave terrace, then the Green Tour south to the underground city at Derinkuyu and the walk down the Ihlara gorge.
Plan day two →
Day 3
The valleys, up close
Quad bike or horseback through Love and Rose valleys while the light is still low, an afternoon in the hammam, then a long dinner and the dervishes at a cave restaurant.
Plan day three →
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