Beautiful Cappadocia – Hot Balloon Adventures in Turkey

as part of our turkey travel this past july, Ramin & i wanted to travel outside of istanbul. we looked at a few different places and we ended up in magical cappadocia. for those of you who aren’t familiar with cappadocia, it is located more inland in turkey and is home to the famous fairy chimneys…a site you can only fully appreciate in person and pictures do not do justice.

we didn’t buy the tickets until 3 days before wanting to go and the great thing about traveling around turkey while in turkey is that it is very reasonable! for both of us a round trip flight cost about $180 with turkish airlines + the flight was only one hour. we stayed at ada cave suites which was in a very central location. from the airport…which is very, very small…it was about 30 minutes to get to our hotel. the hotel took in the ambiance of its surrounding and gave you a cave-like feel, which for those of you following me on IG, know how i like that earthy feel. the town of goerme, which we stayed in, is a tourist town but it is so very peaceful. in fact, we ended up messaging ramin’s dad the next day to tell him and his brother to come visit to get away from the hustle and bustle of istanbul. i have been to afghanistan (ramin has not since he left when he was 3) and it felt very much like i was there.

while we were only there for 2 days, we wanted to make the most out of it. one of the things you must do is take a hot air balloon ride….the only thing is you have to be up at 4 am!

well, we of course did that. we got up before the sun was out and was picked up with another group to be taken to a very open area where you see the colorful balloon giants asleep waiting to wake up from their slumber. we had to wait though because there was reports of the wind not cooperating so safety first.
Watch our adventures in Cappadocia in Youtube below.

Watch the hot air balloon ride on Youtube.

once we were given the green light, we were taken to the hot air balloon for our group. tip: try to position yourself to get to one of the four corners of the balloon platform as that will give you the best views. watching the workers get the balloons up and running was a sight in itself but then as you start to go up and as the sun is starting to rise, you can’t just help be in further awe.

Watch our adventures in Cappadocia in Youtube below.

ramin, who has gone skydiving before, was getting a little anxious as we went further up…and he was having an internal debate whether he liked sky diving better…but we both really enjoyed it. seeing all of those other balloons and traveling in between the fairy chimney mountains was just bliss and peaceful!