Cappadocia Balloon Tours

Take the morning flight from Istanbul Ataturk Airport to Kayseri Erkilet Airport. Arrival and meet your guide & driver at the airport just outside the arrival's gate with a sign bearing your name. After introduction transfer to Cappadocia. Our first real encounter with Cappadocia’s almost Martian landscape is in the Devrent Imagination Valley, where the geographical formations remind us a place of another planet. A walk through the Zelve Open Air Museum is a journey into the past, with its troglodyte houses. This is one of the earliest inhabited and latest abandoned monastic settlements in Cappadocia. After Zelve we visit Pasabag (Monks Valley), where the voice of the wind harmonizes with the songs of the fairies. From here we pause at Avanos, a centre of terracotta art since 3,000 BC, for a demonstration in a traditional pottery workshop. After lunch in a cave restaurant, we visit the famous Goreme Open Air Museum to see the best examples of Byzantine art in Cappadocia. These are found in rock-cut churches with frescoes and paintings dating from as early as the 10th century. We will visit Dark Church too which is the most well preserved church of Cappadocia and not included in other tour programs. We stop at Esentepe Panorama for the best view of the region. We complete the tour with a visit to the Uchisar Rock Castle, giving you a panoramic view of the valleys of Cappadocia. Overnight in Cappadocia at a high quality cave hotel.

The tour begins with a descent towards the centre of the earth, with a trip to the Underground City of Kaymakli, one of the largest and most fascinating multilevel underground cities and a unique feature of this region. From here we drive to Soganli Valley, an open air museum in a wild natural setting near a typical Cappadocian village with its different style rock-cut churches and frescoes. After lunch in the village we pass through the Sahinefendi Village and visit Sobessos, a recently discovered late Roman site featuring incredible mosaic houses. We then proceed to Taskinpasa Caravanserai, which now serves as the village library and features a wonderfully carved stone gate. Continue with Keslik Monastery near Cemil Village, that hides its frescoes behind a very thin smoke layer which we can only see by torch light. Then we visit Mustafapasa (Sinasos), an old Greek town with its spectacular old Greek houses; very fine examples of late Greek settlements and architecture. We complete the tour with a visit to the The Three Beauties which are the most famous fairy chimneys of Cappadocia. Overnight in Cappadocia at a high quality cave hotel.