Like many people, I had only seen photos of Cappadocia all over Pinterest and Instagram and dreamed of the day that I would experience it for myself. I finally got to make it happen and was simply blown away! The rock formations made the region feel out of this world and waking up to hundreds of hot air balloons in the sky was so romantic!
Where is Cappadocia?
Cappadocia is in central Turkey. You will hear people refer to it as “Cappadocia” or “Kapadokya”
How to get to Cappadocia?
The easiest and fastest way to get to Cappadocia is via airplane. The flight time from Istanbul to either Kayseri or Nevsehir is only about an hour. You can then book a shuttle from either airport to Cappadocia. The most popular area to stay is Goreme. This is where you will find the most concentrated amount of hotels and restaurants.
How to get around Cappadocia
If you stay in Goreme, it is very easy to walk everywhere! Just note that the town is built up into the rock hills so some restaurants and hotels will be a small hike to get to. Overall, I could get from one side of town to the other in under 10 minutes.
I got to spend almost 4 full days in Cappadocia and was able to do and see a lot while there. Here is a list of things to do especially if it is your first time there! I loved everything on this list!
How many days should I spend in Cappadocia?
I definitely recommend having at least 3 mornings in Cappadocia. We arrived the afternoon on a Wednesday and chose our first morning in Cappadocia to do the hot air balloon ride. I highly recommend doing this your first morning there because if there are cancellations due to weather, you still have 2 additional mornings that you might be able to reschedule your ride. The second morning there, we watched the hot air balloons from the roof of our hotel and our final morning we went up to sunrise point!
Go on a Red Tour
You will notice the landscape quickly. Cappadocia probably has one of the most unique landscapes of the places I have traveled. If you are just as curious about the rock formations as I was, then I highly recommend booking a red tour. The red tour takes you around 5-6 different places including the Goreme Open Air Museum, Pigeon Valley, and the Goreme Panorama. Your guide will explain how the rock formations were formed … and trust me, it sounds very unbelievable.
How to book the Red Tour: I booked this one for $27 USD per person on Viator (included lunch). You can also wait, and your hotel will be able to also help you book a red tour. I noticed at our hotel they were charging $50 USD per person for the red tour there.
What are the stops: Each red tour is slightly different in the order and spots they stop at, but for the tour I linked, we visited the following locations:
- Goreme Panorama
- Uchisar Castle
- Pigeon Valley
- Ortahisar Castle viewpoint. We got to try pistachio coffee.
- Goreme Open Air Museum
- Kybele Boutique Ceramic
Take a hot air balloon ride
This is a no brainer. More than likely, this is one of the reasons why you came to Cappadocia. Hot air ballooning in this region is insane! The pilot can drop you low so that you get very close to the fairy chimney formations or as high as 1,500 meters (over 4,000 feet!). We arrived in Cappadocia without having booked a ride, and I almost recommend doing it this way. Every hotel has a hot air balloon company they can book you a ride on and there are also a lot of tour companies in town.
The experience with each is really all the same: get picked up early, get dropped off at the flight location, flight lasts about an hour, land in a trailer, champagne celebration and back to your hotel. Our particular hotel booked us with Universal balloons, and we had a good experience. We did notice that our company ended up taking us the highest of all 100+ balloons that day. Being over 1,500 meters in the sky was a bit nerve wracking.
Watch hot air balloons
Another amazing thing to do is actually watch hot air balloons! You do have to wake up early in order to see the balloons.
What time: Generally hot air balloons are out between 6:30 – 8:00 AM.
Where to watch: There are really not any bad places to watch hot air balloons. Most of the hotels in Goreme have viewing platforms, rooftops, seating, etc. I stayed at Cappadocia Caves hotel so they had about 8 different areas to watch the hot air balloons including a pool, which provided an awesome photo backdrop.
The other popular area to watch the hot air balloons is from Sunrise Point. There is one road to get there, but you do have to pay 6 LIR (about $.56 USD) to head to the top. The views from up there are amazing! A lot of the hot air balloons fly right over the viewpoint so you can get super close to them.
Order a clay pot from Dibek
What is a clay pot: A clay pot / pottery kebab is slow cooked meat or mushrooms with peppers and other items inside a clay pot. These take hours to cook, which is why reservations are suggested. You can mention you want a pottery kebab then. Your waiter will then bring the clay pot over and crack open and pour out the ingredients in front of you. It’s delicious!
Where is Dibek: Dibek is located right in the town of Goreme.
- Address: Belediye Cad. Hakkı Paşa Meydanı, Cami Sk. No:1, 50180 Nevşehir Merkez/Nevşehir, Turkey
Do I need a reservation: I would recommend making a reservation as the restaurant is pretty popular and fills up fast. You can’t make reservations online so call when you get into Cappadocia.
History of Dibek: Tasting local traditional food, feeling and living the tradition in a warm and charming old house atmosphere.
Located in the town center of Göreme, Dibek Restaurant serves traditional home cooked food. Dibek Restaurant’s building is 475 years old. The ground floor was originally used as stables and storage area. The upper levels were the living quarters. Its one year long restoration and redecoration were completed in 2004.
Meals are served on round tables on the floor. You can enjoy dishes sitting on cushions around the round table.
Go on a self-guided walking wine tour
Stop #1: Organic Wine Bar is an awesome spot to go! You enter the winery inside a cave and can then take your wine to one of the two levels to enjoy the views. We lucked out and got the upper spot with the cave seating which made for a cool experience!
Stop #2: Panorama Wine House lives up to its name. There was a gentleman making mulled wine when we walked up and gave us some in cute clay mugs. We then went to the roof deck where we had an amazing panoramic view.
Stop #3: Mozaik is a cool Mediterranean restaurant right in town, but they have a good selection of wines to try. If the weather is nice, I recommend sitting outside and petting all the street dogs.
Stop #4: Dibek is the clay pot spot I mentioned earlier, but they also make their own wine! If you can find the owner, ask him about his wine cellar. We got to check it out and he told us all about his wine making. If we had more time, we would have gone back to do an official tasting with him.
Take a horseback ride at sunset
You definitely need to go on a horseback ride at sunset in Cappadocia! We worked with our hotel who booked us with: Oskonca Tours. This company took us on a ride that was about 90 minute through Rose Valley. Rose Valley has some of the most beautiful rock formations, fairy chimneys and more! We walked right between the rocks in some parts. At the top of the mountain, they will give you about 30 minutes to check out the views, get something to drink and take pictures.
Have a 4 course meal at Pumpkin Goreme Restaurant
Pumpkin is a highly rated restaurant and art gallery in Goreme. The menu is pretty straight forward. You order a soup, salad, main and dessert for the price listed next to the main.
What to order: The lamb main was probably some of the best lamb I have ever had. Our waitress told us that the lamb had been slow cooking for hours, so it was falling off the bone when we got it. It almost had the texture of pulled pork. The soup (which had pumpkin in it) warmed us up after horseback riding.
Stay in a cave hotel
Pretty much every hotel in Goreme is considered a cave hotel. The problem is choosing which hotel to stay in. There are so many cool things about each place. After doing a bunch of research, I opted to stay at Cappadocia Caves Hotel.
Cappadocia Caves Hotel: This spot is located right in town and has a pool. In the summer, the pool would be great to have. We chose the honeymoon room so that we could get a jacuzzi tub in our room. They had a great free breakfast that included a rotating mix of egg dishes, fresh cucumber, tomatoes, spreads, pastries and more. They also had several outdoor platforms where you could watch the hot air balloons in the morning. Overall, I highly recommend.
Angel Cave Suites: Our friends ended up choosing a suite in Angel Cave Suites on Airbnb. They chose their spot for the cool room and jacuzzi tub in front of a window. Their spot is just a few steps outside of town, but still easy to get to.
Enjoy a meal in a cave
What’s better than a cozy meal in a cave? Not much. We made a reservation at Topdeck Cave which is right next to the Turkish Ravioli restaurant. You walk in to a cozy small cave. Half the room is set with floor cushions and low tables, while the other half of the room is set with standard tables. If you are a party of two, chances are you will be sat on the floor. The atmosphere is super cool.
What to order: Order the medium mezza plate then a lamb and chicken dish. Sharing these items among four people ended up being perfect.
Have a photoshoot with beautiful rugs at Galerie Ikman
This ended up being such a fun thing to do and the overall experience was very unexpected. Galerie Ikman is a Turkish rug shop, but has also found their niche by creating a space for people to come have a photoshoot with their rugs! There is a bunch of signage as you enter the side door that give you prices based on the type of shoot you want to have.
If you want to have a shoot with a drone, be sure to connect with Galerie Ikman ahead of time so they can schedule their photographer. This service costs 250 TRY (or about $25 USD). If you want to just bring your smartphone in and shoot you get 15 minutes for 100 TRY (or about $10 USD). Since there were 4 of us, we technically could have had an hour, but we probably spent about 30 minutes taking pictures and videos. We were also having a lot of fun chatting with the shop owners. One of the guys that was there ended up also taking a few videos for us, which ended up being our favorite of the bunch!
Eat some Turkish ravioli
OMG! Turkish ravioli ended up being my favorite dish in Cappadocia. Every time I would see it on the menu, I had to get it. There is a restaurant that is known for their Turkish ravioli that you have to visit, called Turkish Ravioli restaurant. It is a quick walk up a hill and they have an amazing roof deck.
What to order: I recommend their standard Turkish ravioli (we tried the Peravu and it wasn’t as flavorful. For dessert, you HAVE to get the hot ice cream. It is the best dessert I have ever had and we went back on our last day to get these two dishes!
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