Hot air balloons
Who hasn’t heard of 5 weeks in a balloon story by Jules Verne? Now you can have you can also take a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia.
With such a rare collection of natural elements, a balloon air trip is the next level if you really want to enjoy the view of all this greatness.
Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning, over 100 hot air balloons rise all over the kingdom of Cappadocia. It feels like it’s a race against the sun. Because when you are in one of those balloons, you’re rising up with the sun.
In Goreme are more than enough balloons agencies, and all are more or less the same. You should talk to the agency a few days in advance, to schedule the ride. Scheduling it a day before can be more expensive or if it’s a really busy season, they might be all booked.
According to Turkish customs, this as well can be bargained and therefore the price can vary upon the day, weather or the agent you’ve spoken to.
Tip to book a ride
The best tip I can give you is to have a Turkish friend ask about the price so he can get you a better price.
Of course, tourist will pay a higher price, which can be more than double.
Turkish people don’t have a good English, so keep that in mind. But as a touristic area, people working in these places have a better knowledge of English (but don’t get your hopes too high).
The experience
After booking a trip, everything is set and you don’t have to worry about anything, expect to wake up really early, around 4 or 5 am, depends on which series of balloons you are going on.
The people from the agency take in from your hotel in the morning, bring you to their agency office for a small breakfast and coffee and some document signing. Then they take you to the balloon taking off place, which is somewhere in a field.
Each day there are 2 series when they launch balloons. The first one starts to rise the same time as the sunrise or maybe a little bit earlier and the second one rises right after the sun had risen. The difference between the two is about 30 to 60 minutes, and the first one is more expensive.
In august 2015 the negotiated price was between 100 and 150 euros. For groups, the negotiation is even better. Ask a Turkish friend to help you with this.
Why it’s worth taking a hot air balloon ride
Although is not a cheap thing to do in Turkey, is definitely worth it.
There is no way you are discovering the vast and special Cappadocia and not enjoying a hot air balloon. Another thing which makes this place pretty special are the over 100 balloons rising at the same time combined feeling of being in one of them.
If you are not in the balloon or you’ve been already, the second best thing to do at sunrise is to go to the same Red Valley panoramic point and be fascinated by the magical show of the balloons. At sunrise there is nobody, and it will feel like magic.
But the photos are worth more than 1000 words.
Tell me what you think!