Cappadocia

Ash That Set Soft Enough To Carve

Three volcanoes buried central Anatolia in ash. It compacted into tuff, a rock soft enough to cut with hand tools and hard enough to stand for centuries once exposed to air, and for roughly two thousand years the people here did the obvious thing with it. They carved. Houses, stables, churches with painted vaults, monasteries, dovecotes, and a large number of underground cities deep enough to hide entire populations for months. The balloons are what everyone photographs. The reason to come is that you are looking at one of the largest rock cut landscapes on earth, and people still live in it.

The planning decision: give it three nights, not two

Almost every itinerary allocates two nights here and it is the single most common mistake. Balloon flights go at dawn and are cancelled for wind or cloud, routinely, and far more often in winter. With two nights you get one attempt. With three you get two, and the difference between flying and not flying is the difference between the trip you imagined and a genuine disappointment. Three nights also gives you the underground cities and the Ihlara valley without compressing them into the same day as the museum.

Season, and what the weather does to the flights

April through June and September through October are the best months: mild days, cold mornings, high flight reliability. July and August are hot but the mornings are still flyable and the light is good. Winter, roughly December through February, is the most beautiful this landscape gets, with snow on the fairy chimneys, and it is also when the highest share of flights are cancelled and some smaller hotels close. Whatever the month, the balloons fly at first light and you will be collected around four thirty in the morning, which is worth knowing before anyone commits.

Where to base, and getting here

Uchisar sits highest, around its castle rock, and has the best views, the quietest evenings and the strongest hotels. Goreme is the centre of the valley and the most convenient for the sites, and it is also where the coach traffic and the souvenir shops are. Urgup is larger, less scenic and has the better restaurants. Fly from Istanbul to either Kayseri or Nevsehir, around an hour and fifteen minutes, then a transfer of roughly forty five minutes or twenty five respectively. Most people arrive from Istanbul, and three nights here slots neatly between Istanbul and the coast.

Stay strategy in cave hotels

Argos in Cappadocia in Uchisar is built through a restored monastic complex with tunnels and a serious wine cellar, and it is the most complete expression of what a cave hotel can be. Museum Hotel, also in Uchisar, is the view: a terrace looking straight across the valley toward the balloons at dawn. Kayakapi Premium Caves in Urgup restored an entire abandoned neighbourhood. Sultan Cave Suites in Goreme has the terrace everyone photographs and the crowds that come with it. One caution that applies across the category: cave rooms vary enormously, some have little natural light, and the difference between the best and the worst room in the same hotel is larger here than almost anywhere. The room category matters more than the hotel name.

When to begin

Four months for spring and autumn. The good cave rooms are few, the hotels are small, and the view rooms in Uchisar are booked well ahead. Balloon flights are reserved at the same time as the hotel, not on arrival, and the reputable operators sell out in season. Confirm which operator, because safety records and basket sizes differ, and a twenty person basket is a very different experience from an eight person one.

Four experiences worth building the days around

• A dawn balloon flight, booked with room in the schedule for a second attempt if the first is cancelled.
• The Goreme Open Air Museum at opening, for the frescoes in the Dark Church before the light and the crowds arrive.
• Derinkuyu or Kaymakli underground city with a guide who can explain the ventilation shafts and the rolling stone doors.
• A private walk through the Rose and Red valleys in the last hour of light, which is when this landscape actually earns its reputation.

Who this trip suits

Cappadocia suits photographers above almost anyone. It suits couples, and it is a strong honeymoon leg. It suits families with children old enough for the early start and the underground passages. And it suits anyone building a first Turkey itinerary, where three nights here between Istanbul and the coast gives the trip its range.

When another plan may fit better

If nobody in the party will get up at four thirty, the central experience is gone and the trip is worth reconsidering. If you have claustrophobia, the underground cities and some cave rooms are genuinely difficult. And if you want a beach and a boat, this is the opposite of that, so route it with the Aegean rather than instead of it.

Plan it with one accountable advisor

Tell us your dates and whether the balloon is essential, because that decides how many nights we hold and which hotel faces the right way. We handle the flights, the operator, the guides and the internal legs from Istanbul as one plan. Our luxury leisure travel planning sequences Cappadocia inside the wider Turkish route.