Now or Never

Every now and then we feel the need to mix it up from beach time and there is no better opportunity than taking an Instagram-worthy pilgrimage to the dead center of Turkey. The region of Cappadocia is a tourist hot spot, namely for the hot air balloon tours that hover over the area daily, and the incredibly unique geological formations from which early Christian communities carved out houses, churches, and entire underground cities into the soft rock of old volcanic deposits. The tourism center of Cappadocia lies in the small village of Göreme, so we booked four nights in one of the many boutique cave hotels in town.

The early morning hot air balloon rides that take off from just outside Göreme have become an institution over the years and to enjoy it you have two options: 1) Pay over $200/person for an hour ride or 2) Find a good vantage point in town and watch from below. Since our hotel had a great view from its rooftop terrance and we’re on a budget, we elected for the latter. With all the social media hype we were preparing ourselves to be underwhelmed BUT it absolutely exceeded our expectations. The sheer number of balloons peppering the sky against the rising sun made for some amazing views – one balloon even passed no more than 25 feet directly above our heads! We also managed to see a number of wannabe influencers trying to get that perfect Insta shot, both on other hotel rooftop terraces, and even standing right next to us…

From Göreme the quickest and easiest way to see the network of rock-carved structures in Cappadocia is at the Göreme Open Air Museum, a 15 minute walk from the center of town. A little over $10 gets you an entrance ticket and an audio tour. While it got crowded fast, the sheer number of cave churches with well preserved religious wall art from the 11th century was impressive. We definitely recommend a visit but go early!

Besides watching the hot air balloons, one of the main activities we were looking forward to in Cappadocia was getting some good hiking in. We mapped out a route that went through the most walking-accessible spots: Love Valley, Rose Valley, and Red Valley – about a 10 mile loop. Each was appropriately named (we’ll let the photos/video clips speak for themselves) and uniquely shaped from millions of years of wind and rain. The day was filled with stumbling upon hidden cave buildings, scenic views, and scrambling up hillsides. A big two thumbs up.

For our last day in Cappadocia we had planned to go on an organized tour to see a few sites that were too far by foot, including one of the few multi-story underground cities in the area. However a last minute cancellation due to bad weather (that we only found out about because our tour bus never showed at our hotel) meant we had to pivot. We ended up figuring out how to take a couple different local minibuses to get to one of the most famous underground cities called Kaymakli, about 30 minutes from Göreme. Back in the day Kaymakli was primarily used for protection from Muslim Arab raids during the Arab-Byzantine Wars (780–1180) and goes about 12 stories deep, the first four of which are open to the public. The network of tunnels and caverns was extremely extensive, with rooms for sleeping, cooking, storage, and even wine making. It’s pretty damn claustrophobic in parts but the temperature inside stays incredibly cool and pleasant. We could almost imagine what it would be like living down there…almost.

The next day we caught an early morning shuttle to the local airport for a short flight to our last stop in Turkey…