Turkey Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon

Cappadocia, Turkey · Turkey

Easy7 daysAsia~£800 est.

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Overview

You launch in the half-dark, the burner roaring above your head, and as the light comes up the whole absurd landscape of Cappadocia assembles itself below: fairy-chimney valleys, cave-riddled cliffs, and a hundred other balloons hanging in the pink air around you. The dawn flight over the Goreme valleys is rightly one of travel's great set pieces - and the essential tactic is to book it for your first morning, because wind cancels flights roughly one day in three and you want spare mornings in hand. Between flights, Cappadocia works hard: walk the Rose and Red valleys between rock-cut Byzantine churches, descend eight storeys underground at Derinkuyu, where thousands once sheltered from raiders, tour Goreme's Open Air Museum frescoes, and ride horses - the 'land of beautiful horses' earns its name - through Sword valley at sunset. Spring and autumn (April-May, September-November) give the most reliable flying weather and comfortable hiking; winter flights over snow are magical but cancel often. Around £800 covers a week with a cave-hotel base in Goreme, a standard balloon basket (£150-200 - pay more for fewer people), museum fees and a rental scooter for the valley trailheads.