Cappadocia ~ YVETTHEWORLD

Intro

Cappadocia is famous for its hot air balloon sunrises, but I was surprised about how much more this destination has to offer. Its cave hotels, monasteries, fairy chimney valleys and canyons make Cappadocia a magical place that’s definitely worth a visit. The locals we met in Cappadocia made us feel like at home with their friendliness.

Map

Places to see

5 Day itinerary

Day 1 - Travelling from London to Cappadocia

Before travelling to Cappadocia, we got an electronic visa to visit Turkey. Applying for one was an easy process, but the word “electronic” is a bit confusing.

When we arrived at the airport in Istanbul from London, we were asked to show our electronic visas. This was quite challenging, as we didn’t have it on paper and we didn’t have internet at the airport either. We explained that we thought our visas would be electronically linked to our passports, after which they just let us pass to take our flight to Kayseri. Next time I’ll make sure to print my electronic visa for Turkey.

From Kayseri airport, we took a one hour bus to Goreme to get to our hotel in Cappadocia. We arrived at the Village Cave House hotel late at night.

Day 2 - Green Tour

We started our Cappadocia trip with the Green tour. This is an all day tour which took us to the Pigeon Valley, a historic underground city and the Selime cathedral. The last stop of the tour was a walk in the Ihlara Valley, where we had a Turkish apple tea next to the river. Most of these places are far from Goreme, so it is worth visiting them with a tour.

Day 3 - Hot air balloon ride, Goreme open air museum, canyon and Rose valley

We had to wake up extremely early to catch our hot air balloon ride, which ended around 7am with a glass (or two) of champagne. This experience was more than worth waking up early for.

The hot air balloon rides are weather dependent, so it is recommended to book one early on during your stay in Cappadocia. This gives you time to rebook your hot air balloon ride if it gets cancelled because of bad weather conditions.

We spent the rest of the day hiking in and around Goreme, and we also visited the Goreme open air museum. Little did we know that we would end up in a canyon on our way back to Goreme through Rose Valley.

Day 4 - Uchisar castle, Zelve open air museum and Pasabagi fairy chimneys

This was a day full of remarkable Cappadocia landmarks. We started with a short bus ride from Goreme to Uchisar, where we visited the castle. I swear you’ve never seen a castle like the Uchisar castle before. We hiked to the top of the castle to admire the views.

After visiting the Uchisar castle, we took a taxi to the Zelve open air museum. Zelve used to be the home of a large community, but is now completely empty. People had to move out of their cave houses because of erosion risks. It is still a wonderful complex to see.

It was a bit of a walk to get to the Pasabagi fairy chimneys from the Zelve open air museum. The Pasabagi fairy chimneys is potentially the most Instagram famous place in Cappadocia. Apart from the few tour buses that came and went, it was surprisingly quiet at the fairy chimneys.

Day 5 - Pigeon Valley, Sultan Cave Suites and flight to Antalya

As we were flying to Antalya later this day, we didn’t want to go too far away from Goreme. We therefore decided to spend our day hiking the Pigeon Valley.

On our way to the Pigeon Valley, we stumbled upon the Sultan Cave Suites. This is the hotel where we initially wanted to stay, but they were already fully booked for months to come. However, the staff was kind enough to let us enter the terrace and enjoy the views over Goreme.