Cappadocia - The Dreamland of Turkey

Cappadocia is a region in central Turkey, a one-hour flight from Istanbul. Despite the confusion, there isn't a city called Cappadocia; rather, it's the name of the entire area. The unique landscape here, which appears as if giant stone mushrooms sprouted from the ground, was formed naturally over millions of years by various processes. The area is mainly famous for its floating hot air balloons. Every morning at sunrise, hundreds of balloons rise into the air, and you can watch them from various points in the area. The sight is dreamlike and gives a surreal feeling, as if entering a land of legends.

Accommodation

Choosing a hotel in Cappadocia is one of the important things to do wisely before your trip. There are several towns, with the main ones being Goreme and Uchisar. Both have plenty of hotels, many offering views of the balloons during sunrise. When I did my preliminary research, I was looking for a hotel with a beautiful terrace overlooking the balloons, and it was important for me to find a hotel that wasn't too large or crowded with tourists. I chose the Zara Cave Hotel in Goreme, a new hotel that opened just a year before. With only 17 rooms, the hotel is not crowded, it's centrally located in the town, close to everything, and importantly, equipped with a stunning terrace for balloon viewing. This means you can wake up and go straight to the terrace without having to drive around searching for a viewpoint.

Watch Highlights

Getting Around

Many people who come here pre-book organized tours (the routes are quite fixed). If you stay in the town center, you can easily manage without a car. We chose to rent a car for the duration of our stay and plan our own routes most of the time. Driving in the area is convenient and easy, and having a car allows us to take our time at our own pace.

Where to Watch the Floating Balloons?

There are three main options

1. Watch the balloons from your hotel. As I mentioned earlier, it's important to make sure your hotel has a viewing point facing the sunrise.

2. Drive to a viewpoint in the area - this requires a bit more effort and a car (or pre-booked taxi). There are several viewpoints around the towns. The most convenient in Goreme is also the highest point, from where you can also see the sunsets - just look for the hill with a giant Turkish flag, visible from anywhere in the town.

3. Viewing from inside a hot air balloon - part of the experience is also trying a balloon flight. Highly recommended!!

Exploring the area

There are three main hiking routes in the area: the Red and Green routes, which are the most well-known, and the Blue route if you have extra time. The Red and Blue routes are a short drive from Goreme, and we chose to explore the points that interested us along these routes independently. The Green route is farther away, so we did it as an organized tour with a guide. All the tourist agencies in the towns offer exactly the same tour packages for organized trips and a variety of attractions, including hot air balloon flights. I recommend comparing prices because they can vary significantly between agencies without any justified reason.

Booking Tours

We booked our hot air balloon flight and the Green route tour with Fairyland Travel agency in Goreme. After visiting several agencies on the evening of our arrival, we heard tourists talking about a significantly lower price they received for their flight from this agency, so we decided to inquire. After receiving excellent service during our flight, and even flying in a balloon with only four people (compared to the usual 12-24 in a basket), we decided to also book the guided tour with them for the following day (the Green route).

You can combine a hot air balloon flight or balloon viewing at sunrise with a tour of any of the routes on the same day.

Restaurants

Sofra Restaurant in Ugrup - Excellent local food. I recommend the traditional Cappadocian dish - Testi Kebab, which is a meat stew cooked in a sealed clay pot.

Seten Restaurant in Goreme - A restaurant serving local food but slightly more upscale compared to the area. Recommended for dinner, as there is a nice atmosphere with lively local music.

La Vida A la Carte in Goreme - A relatively simple local restaurant with surprisingly delicious food.

Wineries

In Cappadocia, there are several wineries, some of them small and others very large. Surprisingly, many Turkish winemakers use grapes grown in the Cappadocia region. We visited two of them.

Turasan Winery in Ugrup - A giant and industrial winery. You can visit for a free wine tasting. If you want to taste their premium wines, you can pay 40 lira for a tasting of three wines and a winery tour. The tour was nice, but the wines we tasted were below average.

Kocabag Winery in Uchisar - A smaller winery with a family atmosphere. Here, too, you can taste the simple wines for free or pay for tastings of wines from the higher series, combined with a cheese platter or snacks. The wines were very good, some of the tastiest I've had in Turkey.