Let’s talk Cappadocia, Turkey! This stunning place situated in the most incredible landscape is something you don’t get to see everyday!
Cappadocia was on my bucket list for a very long time. We have all seen those magical videos on instagram of hot air balloons flying at sunrise above fairy chimneys. We can all agree it looks like a fairy tale, so of course I wanted to see it for myself!
Table of contents
- How to get to Cappadocia
- Cappadocia accommodation – Cave Hotel
- Photo and sunset spot
- Cappadocia adventures
- Göreme open air museum
- Hot air balloons in Cappadocia
- Instagram spots Cappadocia
- Best time to visit Cappadocia
- My advice
How to get to Cappadocia?
Since I did my Erasmus in Greece, I saw many people going on trips to Turkey and other neighbouring countries. So naturally that gave me the idea to travel there myself. Getting to Turkey from Thessaloniki was really easy. There is a direct day/night bus ride and it takes 10h to get to Istanbul. It costs about 60 euros both ways. Every seat in the bus has its own screen so you can watch movies + you get free coffee, tea and water.
Before entering Turkey we had to make an online visa. It costs 20 euros and we had to show it on the border. We made a 7 day trip including 4 days in Istanbul and 3 days in Cappadocia. I will talk about Istanbul in another blog post so it doesn’t get too long. If you ask me, I would definitely recommend doing both Istanbul and Cappadocia because both are amazing and well connected.
From Istanbul to Cappadocia we took a 1:30h flight. The flight cost around 50euros round trip. You can check your flights here. We landed in Kayseri and took a minibus (20 lira = 2,15 euro) to Nevşehir. On the minibus you also get free coffee or tea! From Nevşehir we took a taxi (40 lita = 4,30 euro) to our hotel in Göreme. If you will be renting a car to get around, I found that this site offers it.
Cave hotel Cappadocia, Turkey
We booked Cave Life Hotel (85 euro for 2 nights). The owner greeted us and showed us around, he was very nice and friendly. Also he recommended us a quad tour that he organised for us the next day. The hotel has a beautiful little terrace where you can enjoy the view of hot air balloons early in the morning. Besides the terrace the breakfast place also overlooks the valley. Here are some other accommodation options in Cappadocia.
Photo & sunset spot
The fist thing we did after leaving our luggage in the room was taking a walk trough the town. Later we found a place to eat and watch the sunset. The hill above our hotel (Lover’s Hill) has a trail that leads to a plateau with an amazing view over the fairy chimneys of Cappadocia. This is also a famous sunset spot. I swear this place looks so magical and out of this world! All the caves and different shapes of rock formations are really something to admire.
If you want to be prepared for what the morning holds, it’s better to go to sleep early! Mornings in Cappadocia start even earlier!
Being the sleepyheads that we are, waking up at 6am wasn’t an easy task. Only to notice that we were even a bit late. I don’t know why but we expected the hot air balloons to fly from another side. Because of that we had to climb the hill above our hotel to get to the viewpoint. I was in a skirt and the terrain wasn’t meant to be walked over so you can imagine the view haha. After getting to the top we noticed that a lot of people were already there, some even doing wedding shoots! We found a spot, sat down and enjoyed the view of these huge hot air balloons flying so close to us. Since a lot of them were already in the air, we wanted to make sure that tomorrow we get up even earlier and try to get at least some shots with this beautiful view.
Adventure time in Cappadocia, Turkey
After getting breakfast at the hotel, the owner arranged a car to pick us up and take us on a 2 hour quad tour. It was only the two of us which made it even more amazing! Only thing I recommend is definitely taking sun glasses with you! Otherwise you will be partially blind like I was because of all the sand in my eyes! The place where you rent will give you a mask so you don’t have to worry about getting it up your nose and mouth. Our quad guide explained all the places where we stopped and offered to take pictures of us.
One of the stops was the famous Love Valley. There you can take a break on a cute swing with a picturesque view in front of you.
Another quick break was in a small town called Cavusin. There was a local who showed us around some caves. He explained how his family was living inside a cave until not so long ago, which was crazy to imagine! In Turkey you have to know that everything that someone does for you, even if you don’t ask them, is not for free! So neither was this. This time the man didn’t want a tip but he wanted us to buy something from his small shop, so we did.
Göreme open air museum
Since we didn’t have much time in Cappadocia we wanted to explore it as much as possible. Right after the tour we got some sandwiches and headed on a walk to Göreme open air museum. Göreme open air museum is a series of over a 1000 year old Catholic churches carved into a mountain.
On the way there we got to see some beautiful horses and even some camels. After getting close to the camels, the man who works there told us that we can sit on them. They took some pictures of us and all of a sudden they started walking the camels, which we didn’t agree to but ok. In the end they charged us a crazy amount of money. Of course, without even warning us which was not a really pleasant surprise. I can only say that we left the place pretty pissed off but those are the mistakes you learn from. At least we got to ride camels for the first time in our life. This unexpected cost made us change some planes because we didn’t want to spend extra money.
We ended up walking trough some of the fairy chimneys while soaking up the sun. Later we went back to the hill above Cappadocia (Lover’s Hill). There we took a pretty long walk and enjoyed the sunset again. Since the town isn’t too big you can explore it by foot and see every corner which is great!
Hot air balloons in Cappadocia, Turkey
Since we wanted to have some beautiful memories from this stunning place, we knew that our amateur iPhone photography, without even a tripod, wasn’t gonna cut it. We decided to get some help and let a professional do it.
We found a great photographer that picked us up in the morning in front of the hotel. He drove us to a place where the hot air balloons rise. This time we arrived just in time as they were preparing everything. Once the balloons were in the air one of them decided to fly right above us! All the people on the balloon weaved at us and it was so fun! Even though we didn’t have enough money to spend on the ride itself, we had an amazing time just enjoying the view of the colourful sky.
Perfect instagram shot!
After getting some amazing shots with the balloons, the photographer took us to a stunning hotel terrace. There where we took some pictures and he even made small videos of us for an even more amazing experience! The funniest thing were these two women who came alone and asked the owner of the hotel if he could hold their hand just to get the famous instagram shot. You know the shot when your boyfriend is holding your hand and taking a pic of you haha. They were hilarious and it really made us realise that sometimes this is what people do to get the “perfect” instagram shot hahah!
Soak in the views of Göreme
Our Cappadocian adventure was coming to an end so we decided to spend it chilling on the terrace. Later we went on the hill above us called Lover’s Hill. There we enjoyed the view of the town and a beautiful horse ranch underneath us. We enjoyed our time there until hopping on the bus back to the airport. Here you can find even more adventures in Cappadocia.
Best time to visit Cappadocia, Turkey
The best times to visit Cappadocia is from April – June and September – October. These are the months with the best weather for exploring. Chances of rain are little but the temperatures are much lower than in the summer. We went in March and the weather was great! We were in our t-shirts and hoodies and in the evening leather jackets.
My advice
When visiting find a cave hotel to get the best experience! We found Cave Life Hotel to be amazing! The owner was so nice, feel free to check it out when planning your trip! It would be a shame to visit this stunning place and not be able to say that you slept inside a rock! Also go on a quad tour not just to see more places but to add an adventure to your trip! And be careful because I almost fell from it!!
Explore more!
If you have the chance, explore as many place as you can while visiting Turkey! I wanted to visit a lot more places but I just didn’t have enough time for everything. But at least now I have to visit it again, which is never a bad thing! I hope you enjoyed my view of Cappadocia, Turkey and I hope I gave you some travel inspo! Personally I always get a travel fever after reading travel blogs and I feel like packing my bags right away! With that being said, I hope I made at least one of you get a travel fever as well! If you want to read more travel blogs feel free to check out my other destinations! Until our next travel story, relax, love, laugh, explore, stay well and healthy and have an amazing time! Talk to you and see you soon! Xx Donatela
I have put my Pinterest pin if you would like to save it! 3 day itinerary Cappadocia, Turkey!
Cappadocia is amazing! I totally agree that one should stay in a cave hotel. Göreme Open-air Museum is spectacular. The little cave churches are charming, I especially loved the blue church. I also enjoyed the underground cities.
It really is! I hope I will visit again! And staying in a cave hotel is a must for the total experience!
Cappadocia looks stunning! Good I’ve read your post. Now, I know that the best time to visit this place is April!
It really is! April was great for us! There were no crowds and the weather was amazing!
Look so amazing. We offer also hot air balloon Safari flying here in Tanzania. Visit the link here https://www.footslopestours.com/serengeti-hot-air-balloon-safari/ Great view thank you for sharing