Join us as we spend 3 unforgettable days in Cappadocia, Turkey, one of the most unique destinations in the world. We share everything you need to know about visiting Cappadocia, including staying in a cave hotel, watching hundreds of hot air balloons at sunrise, exploring fairy chimneys, hiking scenic valleys, and touring ancient underground cities. We cover our experiences on the famous Red Tour and Green Tour, tips for booking a hot air balloon ride, where to eat, where to stay, and practical travel advice to help you plan the perfect Cappadocia itinerary.

Cappadocia, Turkey Tips: 

• Download an E-sim and ook a shuttle transfer from airport to hotel and back before you get there.
• Book this Sunrise Hot Air Balloon Tour – it was amazing!!
• Book a Red Tour to visit northern highlights in Cappadocia like Ucisar Castle, Goreme National Park, Pasabag, Devrent Valley, Avanos pottery workshop, & Love Valley 
• Book a Green Tour to visit southern highlights in Cappadocia like Goreme Panorama, Pigeon Valley Overlook, Derinkuyu underground city, Selime Monastery, & Ihlara Valley 

Our top recommended hotels in Cappadocia: 

• Harman Cave Hotel
• Chelebi Cave House 
• Koza Cave Hotel

Check out our Turkey Activities & Tours for all activities we recommend and even some that we wanted to do but couldn’t get to. 

If you want to take this exact trip, download our 3 day Cappadocia Itinerary! And then continue your trip with our 3 Days in Istanbul episode too.

Find a great flight deal to Istanbul or Cappadocia by signing up for Thrifty Traveler Premium and get flight deals sent straight to your inbox. Use our promo code TSP to get $20 off your first year subscription.

3 Days in Cappadocia – Episode Transcript

0:34

Insurance and get ready to embark on a new adventure with us around the globe.

Hello fellow travelers.

Hey, squaddies.

Welcome to this week’s episode of the Travel Squad Podcast.

Today we’re taking you to central Turkey and the beautiful region of Cappadocia.

0:52

Cappadocia is a unique region in central Turkey, and it’s known for its unique landscapes of fairy chimneys, cave dwellings, ancient rock formations that are shaped by volcanic activity, and natural weathering.

A lot of people think Cappadocia is a city, but it’s actually a region made-up of five provinces and its rich history.

1:12

So I absolutely loved this region.

And Kim, with all of the almost like ruin like areas, I think you would really like it too.

I know I would.

I think our squatties would really enjoy this region.

It was otherworldly, so beautiful.

1:28

Every part of the city was just so picturesque.

And there’s so much to do, so much adventure here.

There’s five cities, you said.

Did you get to all of them?

Honestly, I don’t remember.

We stayed in Gora May, but when we say it’s five cities collectively, we did multiple tours.

1:45

There’s several famous tours that are called colored tours, which we’ll get into, but we went all around and into certain areas.

So I have no doubt that we kind of like crossed them, but we didn’t spend much times in the cities.

They’re really more so towns, so to speak.

You’re really seen the historic cities that are in the natural areas that were built into the rocks, because the rock here in this region is very soft and brittle.

2:11

So historically people used to carve into these rocks and caves and have dwellings, churches, etcetera.

So a lot of them are still here.

You can explore them, of course, you could enjoy the views of the valleys and the natural rock formations not being in them.

2:28

So I don’t know if we got into like all 5, but we went around all the major areas.

We definitely didn’t get into all 5 and I want to correct ourselves and say they aren’t just cities, it’s 5, 5 provinces.

SO5 provinces make up this region and we definitely didn’t hit everything but beautiful with everything that we did see and we did see quite a bit.

2:49

Squad Ace I mentioned this on the last episode and I’ll say it again.

If you were looking to take a trip to Turkey anytime soon or even anytime in the next year, I would implore you to sign up for Thrifty Traveler and especially Thrifty Traveler Premium.

It is a flight and hotel deal alert service, so you can set your settings to your home airport, maybe even that you’re interested in going to Turkey here and it will alert you when deals come through for points deals, cash deals, business class flight deals and you can get more bang for your buck on a trip like this.

3:22

We can also give you 20 bucks off your first year subscription when you use our promo code TSP at 30 traveller.com/premium.

So let’s get right into it and start off with the tips.

First tip is something that we already mentioned again, Cappadocia is a region made-up of five provinces, not a particular city.

3:41

So depending on where you fly into, it’s not necessarily going to say Cappadocia may be the city, but this is the region as a whole.

There are two airports that you can fly into.

They’re both probably about 40 minutes away.

We flew into the one that had the abbreviation NAV.

3:58

Now pronunciation, we just want to mention Brittanie is saying.

Cappadocia.

I’m saying Cappadocia and our tour guides told us there are so many different ways to say it that no way is necessarily incorrect because of course it’s just linguistically where someone comes from, how they are going to pronounce things.

4:17

Thank you so much for clarifying that, because we know we have a lot of sticklers about pronunciation.

I heard this from a Turkish girl herself.

Say it.

There is no particular way to say it.

If you say it in any one of those ways or a couple other different ways, they will know exactly what you’re talking about and no one is offended that you said it the wrong way.

4:37

O if you hear Brittanie say it one way and me say it another way, it’s just because it’s our different ways.

But they all recognize it as one and the same.

And we here in the US often see it spelled with AC, but there we saw lots of times it was spelled with AK.

4:53

So it’s just pronunciation, language region.

She mentioned at least five different ways you could pronounce it.

So just wanted to give you guys some of that insight.

And, and really, I think for all words Squatty’s, you guys really need to embrace that.

5:09

Yes, absolutely.

More so the ones who come at us and say we mispronounced it, if it’s in a different language hours, for that we apologize.

But a real practical tip, we’re just getting into the tips practically now is pack in layers.

It definitely can be cool in the morning and evenings.

5:27

Yeah, well, we were there.

We were there in April.

We saw mornings in the 40s and the evenings, you know, down into the 50s.

So weather can vary, so it can get a little chilly.

It was nice to have something warm to cover up with in the mornings and evenings, but the daytime does get nice and warm for the most part depending on what season and you go in.

5:46

You definitely want to download WhatsApp if you don’t have it, many tours and guides will chat with you on WhatsApp.

Also, everyone is connected to the vendors out there.

There’s a handful of them offering a lot of the same tours and activities to do.

So you can always shop out tour pricing that way.

6:05

We had lots of our hotels even message us saying, hey, do you want to do these tours?

These are the pricings versus what we found like on Vidor or get your guide.

So book your stuff, get it refundable because you may find it cheaper upon arrival or as you get closer to your stay, your hotel even reaching out to you.

6:25

Sometimes it’ll be via e-mail, sometimes it’s on WhatsApp when you put your phone number on with the reservation also.

Yes, everyone reached out to us regarding tours.

Our hotel reached out to us about tours that they offered.

The driver from the airport also reached out.

The tours that we had booked also told us what other tours they had.

6:43

So everyone’s very well connected.

A lot of of the tours that are named like Red Tour and Green Tour are going to do most of the same things, go on the same routes.

And so it’s a good way to shop out some pricing.

Sometimes price wise you do have to pay cash to get a cheaper price, but just shop around.

6:59

We for the most part book tours through a Viator and we’re going to link the exact tours that we took in the show notes with one exception and we’ll mention it when we get there.

And that was for the hot air balloon ride.

Yeah, which, by the way, Speaking of the hot air balloons, when you gave the brief description of Capita Brittany, you didn’t mention, if you don’t know it by name, it’s the place that you see on Instagram where everyone is riding the hot air balloons and you see the hundreds of them in the air over the unique landscapes.

7:25

This is where we are at.

So yes, we’ll talk more about the hot air balloons later, let alone the pricing and why we cancelled our tour that we originally booked with.

Was there no hot air balloons in Istanbul?

If there were, I mean, I didn’t see them in masses, in the air.

I’m sure maybe in certain areas you could, but I didn’t really pay attention, let alone see any in Istanbul.

7:45

I didn’t see any while we were there.

Cappadocia is the region where you want to do the hot air balloon.

How far is the flight from Istanbul?

It was an hour.

An hour?

One hour?

Hmm, I could do a little hop skip when I jump over there.

You could just an easy hour flight.

And there was a soul of female traveler staying at our hotel so.

8:02

That’s a sign.

That is a sign.

Kim, you would love this place.

When we get into it more, you would really love this place and I’ll tell you why.

Currency wise.

Same with last episode on Istanbul.

They are on the Turkish lira at the time of this recording, it’s about 44 lira to one U.S. dollar, so just rounded up to 50 for simplicity sake.

8:20

But lots of places except euros in the touristy regions.

Yes.

We did mention in our last week’s episode that the ATM fees we heard have larger withdrawal fees.

So if you can’t take out cash in Istanbul, that’s probably better.

But there were ATMs available in the city, of course.

8:37

And lots of places here of course, course did take credit card just as well realistically, again, the cash that we had was for tips for our guides.

The language here is primarily Turkish, but they also speak Kurdish and Arabic, but we did not have any issues with English while we were here.

This area just as well is hilly but also very walkable.

8:55

Of course we mentioned how vast it is with five different provinces, but wherever you stay within Cappadocia and the city regions, more particularly for us in Goramae, super super walkable.

I would recommend actually staying in Gora because it was a really great town, beautiful scenery around, and we’ll describe a little bit more of that later, but hilly but walkable.

9:16

If you need data or Internet, we do recommend getting an E SIM and we’ll link one for you in the show notes.

And as we mentioned in the last week’s episode, pack toilet paper in your purse just for all of the public bathrooms you might come across.

They may not have any toilet paper there.

9:31

And just a last little tip here, that area we stayed in gourmet, it is a sleepy town.

And when I say that don’t think that that there’s not stuff to do because there is.

What I mean by that is not many restaurants or shops open before 8:00 AM and your tours usually don’t start until 9:30 or after.

9:49

The reason for this is because as we had mentioned, this region is famous for their hot air balloon sunrise tours that they do.

Most people believe it or not, are actually doing the hot air balloons.

When I say literally hundreds are up all at the same time, hundreds are up with hundreds of people.

10:06

So lots of those people are obviously not able to do any of the tours early restaurants are like, why are we going to open if people aren’t even back in town by this time?

So just know things don’t open and tours don’t start till a little bit later simply for the reason being that people are on the hot air balloon.

10:23

You know what town Gora May reminded me of?

Bryce.

I mean, I guess for the landscape, yes, Bryce, but like walkability wise, it reminded me of Zermatt.

Oh.

OK.

Like Zermatt has the Matterhorm as like the main viewpoint, and here we have all of this caves and fairy chimneys and all of that.

10:41

And so every part of town you can see that and there’s so many like different rooftops that you can go on and see that.

And I feel like it kind of reminded me of Zermatt.

Obviously different landscape, but just the walkability of it and the atmosphere was kind of.

10:57

Vibe.

I told you that when we were there, I said.

This reminds me of a mountain town.

Not in the mountains, Just that kind of quaintness with it.

Was there a lot of hikers?

No, not really.

And by that do you mean like kind of like backpacker hiking?

There was just hiking outfits and people hiking.

11:13

No, because it’s not really again, in a mountainous region, I mean there’s hills and valleys, but most people are here exploring the caves and hot air balloons and just the unique landscapes that are in this region.

Not to say that you can’t do hikes because there are some, but no, not a lot of hikers.

11:29

But let’s get into it and talk all about our time here.

So we left Istanbul on a Sunday.

We had a mid morning flight so by by the time we landed in Cappadocia it was around 12:40 PM.

Yeah, we booked a shared shuttle that picked us up from the airport and dropped us off at the hotel.

11:48

Taxis were also available outside of the airport and we’ll link the shuttle we took in the show notes.

That was something you reserved ahead of time.

It is something we reserved ahead of time.

We actually booked it on via tour and I want to say it was about $15 a person ish for the shared shuttle.

12:04

How long was the drive to your hotel?

30-40 minutes.

OK, yeah, I think, you know, obviously you can’t get a taxi.

I just heard that they obviously mark up the prices of the taxis right outside of the airport.

But the shared shuttle was great.

And a lot of the times your hotels will reach out to you asking if you need transportation to and from the airport, so.

12:24

I like that.

Yeah, and they’ll hook you up with a shuttle service.

So we spent three nights in Cappadocia.

We stayed at the Harmon Cave Hotel on the recommendation of our squaddy, Erin Cave.

Cave Hotel Kim, this.

We’re going to get into it.

You would love this place.

12:39

It sounds romantic though, like not really solo trip.

No, you could do it solo.

And like Brittanie said, there was a solo girl who was travelling, enjoying herself, vibing herself on the rooftop terrace of our hotel that we chatted with for a little bit.

12:54

So you can definitely do this alone.

I would say.

Sure it would be fun with another person.

Antic.

I don’t necessarily know right?

I mean, I had a romantic time with Brittany, don’t get me wrong, but this place doesn’t exude Roman, let’s put it that way.

Yeah, it’s not like honeymoon Suite and Santorini romantic, just beautiful romantic sunsets and landscapes.

13:17

But you could do this by yourself, You could do this as a girls trip, you could do this with friends.

So many different ways to take this trip.

Anyone can enjoy it.

But we stayed three nights at the Harmon Cape Hotel.

It was only about $407.00 for the three nights total.

And I feel like our hotel was a really great deal.

13:33

Our room was beautiful.

It had a rooftop that we could see the hot air balloons for.

That was one of my favorite parts.

There was so many different courtyards to our hotel.

There was one on like the first floor that was kind of the rooms were around it and it was kind of enclosed.

Then there was like a first floor terrace and then there was the upstairs rooftop.

13:53

There were different types of rooms here.

No room was like really the same.

You could book a cave room.

You could book a more modern room with like stones and arches.

And I really enjoyed this hotel.

So when we say Cave Hotel, again, this was not the only cave hotel here in Gourmet or this region, like we were saying historically going back hundreds if not thousands of years, people built into these rocks and stones because they are very easily carved in.

14:20

So some rooms within this hotel are actually literally carved into the mountainside and mountain itself.

So just a really unique stay all around and beautiful ambience with the terraces and the decor that they had all around.

And not just this hotel, pretty much every hotel that we saw in this.

14:39

Yeah, So we checked into the hotel.

We went up to the rooftop to relax for a little bit.

And again, this day we didn’t have any solid plans.

So we decided to do a walk to a panoramic viewpoint.

It was called Ate Panorama Viewpoint.

Took us about 20 minutes to walk there from our hotel.

14:57

And that’s when we realized how hilly the city is in this area.

Got a nice overlook viewpoint, panoramic view.

And then we ended up walking into town and roamed around, saw all of the little shops that we’re outlining the Main Street you can see like souvenir shops, carpet shops, restaurants, cafes.

15:15

Lots of places here do have rooftops because of the views.

And then we went to a place called Tuma for dinner.

It’s a rooftop restaurant with great views.

And we specifically went here because I really wanted to try the pottery kebab.

Pottery kebab is known in this region.

15:31

And we also got a little show with it.

So they cook the chicken and spices and Peppers in this clay pot and then when it’s ready, they basically lit the base on fire.

And then they took a little kind of machete looking thing and they tapped it open and then they poured it into this bowl and it’s like sizzling hot.

15:51

And they gave it to you with like a cider rice.

It was really, really good.

So very different than the normal like Donner kebab that we were used to in Istanbul.

I also tried the national drink, which is called Rocky and it tastes like black licorice.

So I did try that up there.

16:07

We had a beautiful view.

Sounds like a rock, yes?

Yeah, I was going to say like if you’re familiar with the Middle Eastern spirit called a rock that they have in other Middle Eastern countries, it’s very much like this taste like licorice because it’s made from like the star anise that licorice flavour comes from.

16:24

So that’s usually not my go to drink.

Brittanie had that.

I had a beer.

I tried it.

I actually quite liked it.

I mean, is it a drink that I would sip on myself to catch myself a buzz?

Not necessarily, but I did enjoy it for sure and it is rather smooth.

And this is coming from somebody who doesn’t like licorice.

16:42

It was worth a try.

And after dinner, we picked up a bottle of white wine so that we could bring it back to the hotel and we went back up onto the rooftop and we enjoyed it with the baklava that we had brought from Istanbul.

What a classic pairing.

Yeah, some wine in baklava on the rooftop, looking at the beautiful sky as the sun is setting.

17:02

Seeing the city below with all the other rooftop terraces that everyone else is also enjoying it.

Looking in the opposite direction, we can see some crazy rock formations and up to one of the famous castles that they have that was carved into the rock and all the the windows and holes and dwellings.

17:21

I mean it’s just a really unique experience all around.

I have not been to any place on Earth quite like this, and it was really something.

We had our time on the rooftop.

We went to bed around about 10:00 PM because we had to wake up at 3:00 AM for the the hot air balloon tour the next day. 3:00 AM Wake up call 3.

17:40

AM wake up call for a 5:00 AM pick up.

No, it’s 4:30. 430 Look at that even earlier.

Gwadis, if you want the details on the time that you need to wake up, the time that you need to get to the hot air balloon, where to go on your trip in Cappadocia, where to stay, the route to take, what to eat, everything in between.

18:00

Basically this entire itinerary for this episode, along with some squad tips that we’re not going to share here on air You, you can download the itinerary in PDF form.

We have it LinkedIn, the show notes, and you can always find it at shoptravelsquad.com.

Occasionally we do put itineraries on sale, so make sure to sign up for our newsletter so that you get the promo codes when those do go on sale.

18:23

So I’m really excited to talk about the hot air balloon, and I don’t know if you guys know this, but Jamal was afraid of the hot air balloon.

I would be too.

It’s kind of scary.

You know, I love roller coasters.

It’s not really a height thing for me.

Like I love thrills, but something about like a hot air balloon.

18:38

I don’t.

You are afraid of heights.

Like any Cliff walk, you freak out.

I don’t like the clear bottom ones ’cause I think they could break.

See it’s I think the worst, right?

I’ve jumped out of a plane before.

Big deal.

What I will not do is bungee jump and rely on the cord, which I know is stupid.

18:54

But in my mind I have these varying degrees of what I view as safe, like not safe, hot air, blue.

And I’m thinking to myself, what if that thing blows up while we’re in the middle of the air, you know, and then it just catches fire.

What a terrible way to go, right?

Then scratches it and it pops.

Yeah.

19:10

And there was actually one point when we were on the hot air balloon ride, not where I, like, freaked out, but I thought to myself, oh, we’re kind of low.

He needs to raise up, otherwise we’re going to hit these telephone wires or something, right?

Like those are the type of things.

So I don’t want to say I was scared.

19:25

I was nervous.

I.

Leading up to the trip out it, Jamal was like what I.

Was saying I could have done.

One, yeah, Jamal was saying I could do this without it.

You can go alone.

Can we cancel it?

He was trying to get out of it so many different ways.

This is like the one iconic thing, but I think I would be feeling similarly.

19:41

But you have great spots to do hot air balloon watching, which is equally as cool for the view, right?

So I mean you have the pros and cons of not necessarily doing it depending on what your thing is.

Is the view better from the balloon?

That’s one of those things it’s really tough to say.

19:58

Yeah, it’s really tough to say.

Like one of the squatty said they didn’t do the hot air balloon and they said they enjoyed it just as much watching it from the rooftop.

Well, they can’t really say if they didn’t do it.

Right.

What do you think?

I think the balloon right, is worth it and we’ll get into that.

20:14

But I also think that if you have the opportunity to do both, that’s the best of both worlds.

You also are someone that would die of FOMO if you didn’t do it well.

She would die of FOMO, and she’s the type of person who sits herself on the edge of 1000 foot Cliff to take a photo, right?

20:29

Like Brittanie is of the mindset if I die doing something that I want to do, she’ll go happy.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

So like she has that going for.

Her, but my big tip about the hot air balloon is schedule it for the 1st morning that you’ll be there, especially if you’re only going to be there two or three days because the balloons don’t go up every day.

20:51

If the weather forces cancellation and you’ve scheduled it for your first day and you have a few more days, then you’ll have alternate days to possibly reschedule.

But if you don’t schedule it for the first day and you schedule it for the last day you’re there and they don’t go up, then you won’t have another opportunity.

I’ve read from some people while I was looking at reviews, the full 3 or 4 days that they were in Kappa, the balloons didn’t go up at all.

21:12

We were very lucky that all three mornings that we were there, the balloons went up.

So we had a great chance.

I was a little nervous because I I read some like wishy washy things about April and we were there in April and the week after we left it was raining all week.

21:28

So they probably didn’t go up then.

And it’s not up to each individual Tour Company.

It’s up to the Turkish government to say whether or not the balloons are safe to go.

Up.

So yeah, definitely schedule first thing.

That way you can avoid the potential cancellations and ideally reschedule if you need to.

21:44

So we woke up at 3:00 AM and we had a 430 pickup time.

What’s great about Cappadocia is everyone is doing tours and everyone is picking you up for these tours.

You’re often not meeting at like a place a lot of people are picking you up and getting you to where you need to be.

22:01

So we had a 430 pickup time.

They drove us to a field.

They provided us with juice and a pastry.

And then you can watch all of the balloons getting ready to go up in the area in this big field.

And there’s all of the balloons are spread out, but everyone’s getting ready to do the balloons at the same time for sunrise.

22:17

About anticipation, excitement on a mass scale when there’s literally thousands of people out there waiting to get into hundreds upon hundreds of balloons for the same experience, which is a beautiful sunrise over a unique landscape.

Once the balloon’s ready to get up, they have the basket up depending on what you book.

22:37

So there are a lot of different options for booking.

We booked a comfort flight, meaning there was going to be less people in our balloon so it was going to be less crowded.

But balloons can generally fit like as low as 16 people up to like over 30 to 40 people.

Think our balloon was in the 20 person range and they only put three to four people per section of the basket.

22:58

So the basket is actually pre sectioned off so you can’t move from side to side.

You were in one little like section of the basket.

Which a tip real quick is when you get in because they just told us, hey, get it in, right?

And of course people aren’t naturally going to pile to a section that’s already crowded, But do yourself a favor and get into a corner area.

23:19

You do not want to not be in the corners because the corners are going to give you the best views.

Yeah.

And once you get in the balloon and everyone’s in there, they’ll just kind of go over some safety and briefing, and then you’re going to practice doing the landing position so that you don’t have to practice that later.

Because when you do land the balloon, you have to all like hold on to these straps and duck down so your head’s not sticking out above the basket.

23:42

It’s.

A brace position, and then Brittany had to sit in my lap.

Like if you’re with people, it’s like the bigger person is in the back, you kind of squat, the other person is sitting in your own squat.

And then like you’re holding on to some handles in a brace position because of course, it’s a hot air balloon.

23:58

There’s no natural way to steer it.

You’re bound by the wind.

They said the only thing we could really do is decide if we’re going up or down.

So depending on like where you come in, how you come in, how strong the wind is, like sometimes the balloon can actually potentially tip over or even land and drag on the ground for a little bit of time.

24:16

But we had a smooth.

What if you’re solo?

Who do you sit on?

Whoever is in the basket with you.

Yeah, I guess so.

You’re going to make a real good friend.

But we went up and our flight was about an hour and there are so many places in the world where you can do hot air balloon rides.

24:31

But I think it was so iconic to do it in this region because of the landscape, all of the fairy chimneys below, that otherworldly landscape beneath you, all of the valleys beneath you.

It was just so picturesque.

And besides the landscape, seeing all of the other balloons at like eye level or right below you was really, really cool.

24:54

Our flight was really smooth and it felt really safe to me.

And when I asked him all at the very end, like how did you feel about it, you rated it AI?

Actually don’t remember what I rated it in the moment.

What did I rate?

It a nine out of 10. 9 out of 10.

Yeah, see, I gave some high scores apparently.

25:10

So I enjoyed it.

To kind of get back to your question, Kim, of is it more enjoyable, like watching or being in it?

It’s really tough because, you know, when we first started taking off, he got us like really high.

And then at some point in time, of course, he just like lowered us.

25:26

And we weren’t like incredibly low to the ground, but we weren’t that high either.

Where I felt like, oh, God, if something worse were to happen now, we were to fall from the sky.

Like, at least this is a decent enough distance, right?

So it’s that dope.

I mean, if you fall the size of a house, you’re probably going to die.

25:43

Maybe.

But again, psychologically, I felt fine.

You know what I mean?

It’s really again, a matter of perspective.

But we went high, which is really cool because you could see just everything all around you.

At some point, you’re higher than most of the other balloons, and then he lowers you and then everyone’s higher than you, but you’re close to the ground.

26:00

So it’s this unique effect of wow, like I’m still high, but I’m close to the ground.

I could see things really close and up and personal and then they lift you again and then they lower you into a valley and then, oh, wow, here’s the clip to the valley.

Now you got to raise again and go up.

So it’s just like, it’s not like you’re up there and super high.

26:17

They’re raising you, lowering you.

So if it’s better to watch or be in it, I really think depends on your pilot and how they’re moving you around the landscape.

Also because if we just stayed really high the whole time, like, yeah, that’s a unique perspective, but I don’t think it would have been as cool as when he lifted us lowered.

Us.

Are they all doing that though?

26:34

I noticed some doing it, but I also noticed some that were staying pretty low consistently and some that were staying pretty high consistently.

So I think we had a good pilot in terms of it was moving us all around as best as he could and what what you can.

The last day that we were there, we watched the balloons and there wasn’t really any wind that day.

26:53

And so they all went up and they kind of all just like, stayed in that position, like they weren’t shifting much in the sky.

What?

Time Did you start watching the balloons that day?

Gosh, we woke up equally as early to be on the roof by like 5515 because that’s when they started taking off.

27:11

You watched it from your hotel?

From our hotel on the rooftop.

Yeah, beautiful views.

I have seen Instagram stuff of people drinking champagne in their hotter balloon basket up with the beautiful landscape and balloons behind them.

Was that something that was offered to?

You our tour did offer alcohol free champagne upon landing as a celebration, so I bet you there are some tours that are able to do that while you’re up in the air.

27:37

Or maybe those ones are more private ones because again, we still haven’t gotten into how we went with this vendor for the ride versus what we originally scheduled.

But believe me, there are tons of hot air balloon vendors all around the city that you can go into.

So they all probably have different packages.

27:54

Well, let’s talk about it.

Why did you pick this one?

Which one was it?

So we originally booked on Viator and it was $300 per person to book that one.

But then as we were getting all of the WhatsApp messages, we were getting price ranges from 130 year old to about €200 a person.

28:14

Actually the cheapest 1 was 120 a person.

And the reason we didn’t go with the cheapest 1 was because it was a more crowded basket.

We decided to pay €10 more for $130.00 to get a less crowded basket.

And that was actually offered through our hotel about a week in advance.

28:32

If we hadn’t booked it a week in advance and had just booked it the day that we arrived, the price for that day was €180 per person.

So really depends on on if there were cancellations the day like before, because if there were cancellations, everyone’s trying to get on the next day and then they raise their prices because they have like dynamic pricing.

28:53

But just shop around a little bit.

We ended up going with whoever our hotel booked us with and we were very happy with our situation.

Yeah.

So our hotel reached out to us a week before we got there.

We booked a refundable hot air balloon tour through Viator.

And most Viator tours are refundable, which is a very good benefit of them.

29:11

Yes.

And so when they told us that for two people it will be the price of 1 and we could just do it through our hotel, pay cash upon arrival, I was like why am I not going to save that money?

And so that’s exactly what we did.

So again, just kind of going back to our tips section, anything that you book tour wise, hot air blue and green tour, red tour, anything else, book a refundable one because I assure you, your hotels will probably reach out to you in some way to ask you about tours and even transportation from the airport.

29:42

So you could potentially get better prices.

Overall, I definitely think it’s worth it.

If I were to go to back to Cappadocia and I would, would I do it again?

I probably wouldn’t.

I feel like I I got what I wanted out of the experience and I’m OK with not doing it again.

You would.

Watch them.

29:57

Again, yes, absolutely.

We watched it two days in a row.

The first day, watching it from our rooftop wasn’t enough.

Brittany’s like we got to wake up early and do.

The next day, yeah, it’s, it’s magical.

It’s magical.

I I will use that term wholeheartedly and with an endorsement like magical.

30:13

So they dropped us off back at the hotel probably around like 8830 in the morning, and our breakfast went until about 10:30 and so that gave us an hour to eat breakfast before we had our next tour.

I want to back up real quick, not trying to stay too long on the hot air balloons because I do want to get on to other stuff of what we did here, but use the restroom before you go to the field and are picked up and don’t drink a lot of water in the morning.

30:40

Brittanie drank some water or maybe she didn’t drink a lot, I don’t really know, but nevertheless, she had to use the restroom.

By the time we got to the field, there are no bathrooms there.

You’re out in the middle of nowhere, then you’re going to be in a hot air balloon, which one has no bathroom, obviously, and you don’t want to be uncomfortable and have to hold it, right?

30:58

So I had to make some sort of covering for Brittanie because you’re in an open field.

She squatted in front of the truck that took us and I had her jacket and Shaw and like blocked her, right.

So not to call out Brittany, but just don’t drink a lot of liquid and morning.

31:15

Yeah, definitely is me my small bladder syndrome.

But you are about 3 hours without a bathroom.

So just keep that in mind because by the time they pick you up, pick up other people go to the field.

Have any coffee?

Yeah, don’t have I.

Didn’t have coffee that more and I was like, I’m not going to drink a lot of water.

31:31

I don’t want to have to have any of that problem.

So last tip, yes, we’ve moved on.

Had breakfast at the hotel getting ready for our next tour.

So the next tour that we had booked was our Green Tour and we booked this through via tour and we’ll make sure to link it in the show notes.

31:47

The Green Tour is a very popular day excursion in Cappadocia, explores the southern region.

The Red Tour explores the northern region.

So the Green Tour goes to scenic viewpoints, valleys, underground cities, and that was one of the things I really, really wanted to visit while we were in this region.

32:05

Historical sites.

And it mixes, you know, natural beauty and cultural heritage.

So we got picked up our hotel.

There was only 7 people on our tour.

They picked us up at about 9:30 and it lasted until about 6:30 in the afternoon.

32:20

Yeah, and so when they picked us up, we went to the gourmet panorama, and it offers breathtaking views over the town and its surrounding valleys.

It’s a perfect spot to take in the region’s famous rock formations and capture the panoramic photos.

So I know the day before we had mentioned how we went to a panoramic viewpoint.

32:39

It was a different one than this.

This is a specific one now.

Also too, before we get too far into the green tour, I know Brittanie mentioned that it goes to the southern region, but lots of the tours here are color-coded by names and take you to the same things.

If they don’t take you to the same things, it’s going to be like a one off or something, but they will take you to the main highlights of the southern region or when we get to the red tour of the northern region, right?

33:04

They’re all pretty standardized and the same.

It’s just which operator are you going?

Right from here we went to the Pigeon Valley overlook.

Pigeon Valley is another beautiful overlook with a whole bunch of small pigeon houses carved into the cliffs.

They were historically used by locals to collect pigeon droppings for fertilizers.

33:22

The pigeons were actually used as messengers and also used for me and this valley has walking trails and beautiful views so we they went and stopped there before moving on to the underground city.

Yeah.

And when we say the Pigeon Valley overlook in the small houses, keep in mind, like what we’re talking about here is people carved their houses into the rock and the caves and then above the doors.

33:44

Then they have small little notches that they carved out, which were really the nesting areas for the pigeon.

So you literally saw hundreds of these carvings of people’s old homes going back hundreds of years.

And of course, just the care that they put to have the pigeons because of how important they were, were those reasons that you mentioned of communication, fertilizer, etcetera.

34:04

And just so unique, like how people used to live back in the day, and just this rock being so malleable that you could cut right into it.

So when we were actually in Egypt, our honorary squat E Cash and Ryan asked if we were going to go to any of the underground cities in Cappadocia.

34:21

And I said yes.

I specifically wanted to go to Cappadocia for the underground city is a high air balloon.

So that was our next stop.

We went to one of the underground cities.

It was Dineroku, your Alta Shuri.

So this is an underground city.

It’s the largest excavated underground city in the region, and it can shelter up to 20,000 people, along with all of their livestock and supplies.

34:45

Oh like literally an underground bunker?

It literally was and it was multi layered just as well.

So, I mean, it gave me flashbacks to Egypt because there were certain areas where it was tight stairways and you had to duck so that you didn’t hit your head.

And when you go down, you’re ducking in a way that’s a little bit uncomfortable.

35:04

But for the most part, of course, you could stand and enjoy this.

But to move from room to room, sometimes you really had to be a little bit limber, let’s say.

The curved edges of The Cave also remind me of the architecture in Greece.

I can see that, I can see that for sure.

35:20

But what was really cool about being down here is just imagining an underground city where 20,000 plus people lived.

They had the wherewithal to build ventilation shafts, storage rooms, and they had hidden passageways just as well.

Because our guide was telling us that the reason why they built these underground is a lot of Christians back in the day were in this region.

35:41

And of course when the Roman Empire and other people were persecuting them because of their religious beliefs, this is where they would go to hide.

So they even showed us areas where they, I don’t want to say booby traps, but where they they actually had doors to block off access and prevent them from getting in and certain other ways to escape.

36:00

I mean, just the ingenuity that went to building this literally hundreds and thousands of years ago is just mind boggling.

And I really appreciated being down here.

And you can just even see too, Brittanie said that they had their livestock down here.

So they had certain areas too, where they would show where the livestock were tied up.

36:18

They even built trenches for their hay and water.

And so you could see like even remnants of that and the carvings that they did.

So really cool to be down here.

Yeah, We saw the church area down there as well.

Our guide would walk us through and show us like some of the corridors, explain everything.

36:35

And then we also haven’t had a little bit of free time.

He actually did tell us that they would have these big boulders kind of hidden in like the stairwells that they would use to block it off if they were anticipating, like an invasion so that no one could get past.

36:50

And a few years ago, I guess a couple of kids moved one of those rock boulders and rolled it out into the stairway.

And then they got trapped down there for like hours before the people could go down and, like, move it because they’re just so heavy.

And they’re these huge massive boulders that could like block so no one could get through and invade their space.

37:11

So really cool and unique stop for sure.

So after the underground city, we went to celebrate monastery and here we have a church and monastery that was carved out into the rocks.

And then of course it had spaces for the monks quarters.

It does give you panoramic views of the landscape around.

37:29

So this was a cool area where we got to go out and explore.

You can still see some ancient carvings and things like that.

So I I really did enjoy the stop.

But of course, you know, once you see the underground city, the other stuff that just carved as caves is not as impressive, but still very equally impressive.

37:45

Don’t get me.

Wrong.

It looks cool, like big curved archway entries in the rock.

Yeah, it’s in the rock, like the underground city.

Obviously you go underground, but this you actually kind of have to hike up part of a mountain to get into and.

Very much like Egypt, some of these ruins that were just carved into the earth that are still there, like Jordan.

38:06

That’s not as like Jordan, but yeah.

Yeah, so this monastery was just carved right into the rock.

They have these carved out areas for the monks quarters, the churches.

It’s this huge religious structure inside of the mountain and rockscape.

So it was really cool.

38:21

The outside rock area doesn’t look interesting at all, but once you get up in there looks like it would have been cool.

And you overlook a valley when you’re up there.

So you do have good lookouts while you’re up on this mountain and in this monastery.

So I I did enjoy that stop.

And it was the last stop that we had before we went to lunch.

38:39

Lunch was included in this tour.

We went to the Elara Star restaurant.

We got soup, salad, bread, and we’re able to pick a main dish.

Jamal and I both got the chicken kebab, but there were other options to choose from.

And then they ended the lunch with the baklava, of course.

38:55

So after lunch we went to the Ulara Valley.

And the Ulara Valley is a river carved Canyon formed over thousands of years by a river that runs through the region.

It’s created steep cliffs that rise about 330 feet above the valley floor.

39:11

So we descended down some steps into this region.

Our tour guide walked us to a certain area, gave us just a little bit of information, but really gave us free time to appreciate the landscape, right, Because we’ve been seeing a lot of the rocks.

Yes, we’re in a valley with rocks.

There are some carved out houses and structures that are in this region.

39:30

But it’s really just to appreciate the valley, the greenery and everything that’s growing in this area.

Yeah, it was one of the most green areas that we saw of the region because a lot of the other areas were the rock formations and more were like desert like and this one was more like lush green water flowing river, all of that.

39:49

So we got some time to explore the valley and go on like a little hike.

And then that was pretty much the end of our tour, except for in the description of the tour, they listed all the things that we were going to do and we’re like, yes, we’re done.

They did throw in a little gate one situation because they snuck in a shopping opportunity at the very beginning of the day and at the end that weren’t on the summary for the day, so.

40:13

Anything interesting to buy?

The first one was a jewelry shop and they did have a unique stone to the region.

We didn’t buy anything there.

And then the last stop was more for like Turkish delights, nuts and spices and things like that.

So.

Coffee and tea.

40:29

They thought you just need a little pick me up after a long day.

Maybe they did give us samples at the last spot and the stuff was actually good, don’t get me wrong.

But there in those shops, they I kind of felt the not, not in the jewelry shop, but in the last shop, the pressure to buy.

Yeah, the eyeballs that I wouldn’t say it was verbal pressure, but it was physical pressure.

40:49

Let’s put it that.

Physical you got a little nut tap again.

Yeah, no, I did not.

But with the eyeballs, you know, like the look the follow around, you sure you don’t want anything?

You know that type of stuff.

We made friends with a Japanese tourist who was also staying at our hotel.

41:05

She took a different Korean tour and when we compared notes, she also was taken to a similar shopping situation.

So seems like that’s just something that they do on these tours.

It was what it was.

We didn’t end up getting anything, but it wasn’t very long that we were at these stops either.

41:21

So then they dropped us back off at the hotel and we wanted to grab dinner.

So we decided to grab dinner at a restaurant called Hapena, which was literally just steps away from our hotel, just right around the corner.

And this restaurant is a Michelin Bib Gorman restaurant has an open terrace dining and we ended up getting some Kid B and Monta tea while we were here.

41:43

Really good.

I enjoyed this a lot.

The kid be was delicious.

They had it with the spicy garlicky yogurt sauce that traditionally goes on the Monty.

And the Monty in this region is a little bit different than what it was.

If we harken back to our episode on Istanbul where they have the yogurt topping, they have it on top of this as well.

42:02

But this one is more red sauce oriented.

So I had a lot of red sauce and then some of the garlicky yogurt.

But nevertheless, really good place to have dinner here and gourmet at Hapana as it is Michelin bib Gorman rated like Brittany had said.

And then we walked back to our hotel, went back onto the rooftop, and we had some more wine and baklava this night.

42:23

A new bottle of wine or the same one?

It was the same bottle of wine.

We did not finish the bottle of wine that we had bought the first day.

But nevertheless, we each had like a glass of wine, enjoying the baklava, the sunset.

Kim, you know, like, I don’t think you’ve seen them yet, but when you see the photos of our hotel and the terrace and just kind of like the views that you have with it, you’ll understand and appreciate.

42:44

Like, yeah, this is, it was just a vibe to go up there and just sit.

Like even if you had coffee or were just enjoying water for that matter, It’s to go up there and sit and enjoy.

On the rooftop every morning and every night, like every night for around sunset, every morning for the hot air balloons.

43:00

It was just so nice up there.

So the next day, which was Tuesday, we wanted to watch the hot air balloons from our hotel rooftop.

We specifically booked a hotel that had a rooftop so we would be able to see the hot air balloons.

We didn’t want to do any extra work to get to another viewpoint, although there are some really beautiful viewpoints in Cappadocia where you can get really close to where they do the balloon take offs and they kind of come up near the cliffs and I’ve seen some really cool pictures about that.

43:28

But like you’re already getting up earlier.

So we got up probably around like 4, 30 ish to be up on the roof by like 5/15, 5:20.

That’s when you start to see the balloons rise and it’s just so beautiful seeing the sky lit up, you know that golden hue and all of the balloons just in the background.

43:49

You get so excited for like the first few balloons to get up and you’re taking pictures.

But it’s one of those things where it just gets better and better as the morning goes on and as the sun starts to rise.

Oh, you know what would have been cool?

If you had a tripod set up and did a time lapse video.

44:06

Oh, that would have been good.

That would have been good.

That would have been really good, yeah.

Bodies do it.

Or Kim, you go.

We didn’t see it this morning, but one of the hotels next to us, they had a rooftop as well and someone was doing a photo shoot the next morning.

44:22

So.

In like one of those big flowy dresses, yes.

Flowy dress and then I think she had a hot tub up there and she was doing a whole bunch of shoots and things.

Up those are there are types of tours that I’ve seen on Viador.

Also these photo shoot experiences.

44:38

I imagine they have a lot of them because like I said, we did see it and it seems very popular to do to get your photos professionally taken.

Well, they can’t take pics like you.

I know that, Jamal.

Well, I am not a professional photographer.

You’re fluffing me up pretty good, Jim.

I appreciate that, but I am not at that professional level.

44:53

You know, something that I wasn’t expecting in this region, but we saw was vintage cars.

And there’s a lot of, like, vintage car shoots that you could do.

So you can rent a car and like drive out to these panoramic viewpoints or use the car.

For.

Yeah, American, like imagine like when you were in Cuba, Kim, and they have the classic cars.

45:11

They have a whole bunch of them in this region and that’s one of the tours.

They do early morning rides to see those hot air balloons in those classic cars, convertibles, mind you, on that, do the photo shoots.

And then yeah, there’s lots of other tours that you could do there too that we didn’t mention, like biking tours, ATV tours, just because of the rugged landscape tours.

45:30

So there’s.

I know you like that.

You know me.

Yeah, I love a horseback ride.

You know, I was considering a horseback ride at sunset.

Oh God, thank God.

We and I didn’t because later this year we are going to Kyrgyzstan and we are going horseback riding and I can only torture Jamal to 1 horseback riding event per year.

45:52

Well, we have one last year, so you have one built up.

No, but we don’t, we don’t get to add them on because then.

They don’t roll over.

That’s too much torture for my cheeks.

I don’t like sitting on a saddle, I won’t lie.

So.

But yeah, the classic, they have the shoots like Brittanie was saying.

So they have it for the hot air balloons in the morning.

46:08

So it was a really nice sunrise in the morning.

Several people from our hotel came up.

What I did like was that there were people up there but it didn’t feel overly crowded.

There was probably like 4 couples up there ish.

So a.

Romantic trip then.

No one was a father daughter situation, one was the family.

46:27

So it wasn’t just couples like, I just mean like groups of people.

And everyone was nice and courteous about about giving people space to take their photos switching out.

So yeah, the hotel is small and intimate enough, but also the terrace is large enough that you didn’t really feel too much of the crowds when you were up.

46:44

There and this day we booked the Red tour, which I mentioned earlier goes to the northern region of Cappadocia.

So we booked this through Viator again, we will link it in the show notes for you guys.

But it started off by taking us to Uchisar Castle, which is the highest point in Cappadocia.

47:02

And it’s a massive natural rock formation carved into a fortress over centuries.

So inside is a network of tunnels, rooms, and it once served as homes and defensive spaces.

So we actually have a view of Uchisar Castle from our hotel.

47:18

When you’re in the city of Gourmet, you can see it pretty much all over the place when you’re looking up.

So this really gives you the highest viewpoint.

Our tour stopped this year.

You can hike all the way to the top, but they didn’t give us the opportunity of enough time to hike all the way to the top.

But you’re still close enough to it to just really appreciate how large it is, all the carved out formations.

47:38

But they did give us free time to roam around and go into some of the lower carved out formation.

I really liked our guide.

Her name was Isel.

She was a fantastic guide.

She was really fun, upbeat and she gave us a lot of history, of course.

And she was telling us that Uchisar Castle, some of them were homes, but at some point they were deemed unsafe to live in because that rock is just so soft that the government was afraid that it would crumble and that people would be injured.

48:07

So the people that were living there were moved into new housing.

But then the Turkish government realized, well, this area could also be used as like a tourist destination.

So they reopened some of the homes and let the original owners return to turn them back into cafes or souvenir shops or for tours.

48:25

So we got to go into one that had been turned into a souvenir shop, and we got to climb in and up and see some of the rooms and living space and the outlooks.

So it was really cool to do that, yeah.

The bottom level again was a souvenir shop, but then you can climb up and it was furnished like it used to be.

48:42

So when Brittany says like recently, we’re talking within the last 70 years, they kicked them out and said that people can’t live in them anymore, but then again returned it to the original owners to make them touristy for people who are coming.

So we got to experience that.

After visiting Uchi Star Castle we went to the Gourmet National Open Air Museum which is a national like park that they had there and they again have some more of the unique rock formations and cave dwellings and ancient churches that were carved into the stone.

49:13

This is actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has beautiful preserved paintings inside of some of these ancient churches that were inside the monastery series that were cut into the rock.

It was really cool to be here.

There had so many different rooms of like monasteries, churches, prayer halls.

49:31

Some of them obviously still have the paintings in better condition than the others.

The rooms that are in the best condition, they don’t allow you to take photos in.

But wow, just like so impressive.

Like you’re in some of these rooms and I swear it’s so beautiful and done up that you really feel like you’re in Europe.

49:49

But the irony is you’re just in a rock cut out of a cave.

But it looks like a.

Church, Yeah.

I just googled a picture of it and I do specifically remember you calling this one out to me that you really love the rock formations here.

I said that or Brittany.

50:05

Brittanie said that she sent me a video.

She loved it so much.

No, that was actually at Love Valley, Kim, the one that you’re referring to.

They all it all looks very similar, but specifically Love Valley is what I sent to you.

Oh, I know which one you’re talking about.

But this one is a religious site.

50:21

Kim, I wouldn’t send you.

Well, this is going to be a.

Dumb question, but we have mosques, we have churches.

What is a monastery?

What religion is that?

Monastery is for Christians.

Right, but monastery is really where monks are, as is where monks live and dwell.

50:38

So it’s Christian monks, yes.

OK, got it.

So when we were done here, we continued.

On to Pashaba, which is also known as Monks Valley and it’s one of the best places in Cappadocia to see the fairy chimneys up close.

So if you don’t know what a fairy chimney is, it’s really just the last pillar of a weather rock formation.

50:58

I guess the closest equivalent would maybe be if you’ve been to Bryce National Park or any of the ones in Utah and know what the hoodoos are, where they’re just the tall towering formations that are left after they’ve been eroded due to wind, sand, water, etcetera.

But here they are looking really otherworldly out here.

51:17

And so this is really the highest concentration and closest area you can get to some of the vest fairy chimneys that they have.

Is that like looks like a little Hershey?

Kiss on top?

Yeah, like little mushroom or.

Like gnomes that kind of like.

Rock gnomes out there kind of like that, yes.

51:33

Yeah, the very top.

Part is called.

Like a cap and it gives them that mushroom like appearance.

Yes.

Apparently it’s like what’s underneath it is a different type of stone than what’s on top.

And so that’s why it creates that shape specifically is like the erosion of the wind, the water hitting it and the top part being like a hard, more solidified rock in the bottom being more like a softer, more malleable rock.

51:57

So yeah, But we got to walk through the area.

She showed us monks also lived in this area, hermit monks, and they carved some small chapels and living spaces into the stone.

And they did this to seek solitude and spiritual reflection.

So we got to see some of those areas and they talked a lot about Star Wars almost being filmed out in this area, but it wasn’t filmed out there because they couldn’t get the permits.

52:23

I think it was, yeah, at the point in time, like obviously.

Star Wars hadn’t been made.

They didn’t really want to allow filming there for George Lucas, but that’s why they ended up filming some of the scenes in Tunisia instead.

Because of course they have like, otherworldly type atmospheres and natural formations.

52:41

But George Lucas apparently originally wanted to film in this region, but they didn’t allow it.

And then we made a quick stop at.

Durvet Valley, which is also called Imagination Valley, and it’s just a whole bunch of rock formations that resemble animals or human figures.

52:57

So she like pointed out one that looked like a camel, one that looked like Trump’s head, one that looked like a snail, one that looked like a hand.

And so you just use your imagination to see all of these different rock formations.

So we were probably there for like 15 minutes just kind of looking at these natural shapes.

53:14

It’s fun.

They were pretty cool.

They stopped.

Here on the tour, if we had more time to roam around, I’m sure we could have seen a lot more stuff.

But there’s one main stopping spot where most of the rocks look like a few of those things that Brittanie had mentioned.

So I can only imagine what more there is.

53:31

But if you have more time and are doing your biking or ATV tours, you could probably see a lot of different cool, unique shapes in this region.

And that was our last stop before we went.

To lunch.

For lunch, we had kebabs, French fries, rice, salad and soup.

Really good.

53:47

Just at a local restaurant in the town of Avenos.

And the reason we went to Avenos is because it’s famous for pottery.

And we went to a pottery workshop.

Yeah, so of the river that runs through.

Here they have a lot of their red clay at the bottom, hence the reason why they are also famous for their pottery kebabs.

54:06

And our guide was even telling us, like, if you go anywhere within Turkey and somebody’s making pottery kebabs, like the pottery.

And Vaz is coming from this region right here.

And even at one point when we were driving out of town, we did see a factory and all the the pottery that was outside of it.

54:23

But because pottery is so famous in this region, they did also take us to a pottery shop.

We got a demonstration to show how it’s actually made.

So we got to watch some guy wet his hands, mold the clay, use his foot to spin, whatever that mechanism is called.

54:42

I don’t know what it’s actually called that spins it.

Is that really what it’s called?

OK, look at that.

And so we got to watch that.

They asked for some sort of volunteer.

I didn’t want to do it.

Somebody else volunteered.

But then she realized after the actual professional gave the demonstration that her nails would get dirty.

55:00

So I tried to encourage Brittany.

She said no.

Then she pointed at me.

The guy saw me.

And so I ended up going up there and trying my hand at some pottery formation.

And I must, I must say I was pretty successful in it.

I wanted to act, actually spin it myself with my foot, but he said no, he’s going to do that.

55:19

But he just kind of, it’s hard if you’ve never.

I have.

Done it a few times in my life.

Even in high school I took a pottery spinning class.

It’s harder than it looks.

No, it it definitely is.

But he told.

Me when to wet, how much pressure to put and at some point he put his hands over mine, but mine were the main ones.

55:34

How romantic.

I know it was like a.

Scene.

From Ghost, if you ever saw that movie with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, you know, except it was me and the professional guide as he was guiding me through my pottery making.

No, but I would say I was successful in a unique experience.

I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.

55:49

So that was cool.

And then they had a very large shop to buy.

Things in and it was sectioned off by pottery masters and so like you could see different levels of things one was like pottery that had a whole bunch of gold gilded into it some of them had really intricate designs there were some really beautiful decanters that you could buy we really wanted to buy some decanters but we.

56:11

Opted not to do it, but like the actual artwork in here that they they had from what they were making was just really impressive.

Yeah, it was really cool to see.

And then our very last stop of this tour was for the Love Valley.

And they are more naturally formed rocks with distinctive shapes.

56:29

Describe the shape for the squaties.

Well, there are.

Like the fairy chimneys?

And if you’re going to get on it, Kim, I will say it in the most elegant way I can.

Fallot Yeah.

And so I was wondering like, is that?

Why it’s called Love Valley?

Is it just here in Love Valley?

56:44

Because when I.

Google the pictures, it looks like it’s widespread.

Well, it is a large valley, so I don’t.

Know when you’re Googling it how far and what’s actually coming up.

But there is one specific Love Valley known for a larger opening area.

But she was saying, our tour guide, I sell that it runs rather long to see the people horseback riding down there and people go in with the ATVs or they could hike through it.

57:08

So you can just enjoy it from the panoramic view top, which we did and they have lots of little pop up shops and food and ice cream and things like that up there.

Or you can go down and explore and hike.

But our tour just gave us the overlook.

But still nevertheless really impressive because she said that the reason why they.

57:27

Named it Love Valley is because apparently from above it’s heart-shaped and so that’s what they named it Love Valley.

But I thought it might be Love Valley for different reasons, but it is heart-shaped because she pointed.

It out and you can’t see the formation of it when the big open area.

So that was our last.

57:44

Stop of our right tour.

Yeah.

So I asked Jamal when we were done with both tours, the red tour and the green tour, if you only had time for one tour while you were here, which would you pick?

That’s really tough.

I don’t know.

If I enjoyed the red tour more because I liked our guide more, but I thought it was really cool.

58:06

But then at the same time with the green tour, I really like the underground city.

Like the underground city was maybe the highlight, but that was the one thing that I thought was the highlight and I enjoyed the red tour more so I don’t know which one I would choose.

And you need 2 days because they’re full day.

Tours.

58:21

Pretty much they are.

Yes, there is an option.

To.

Do a combined red and green tour in one day.

I don’t know what they cut from each to make it that combo because one’s North and South and I don’t know how much longer it is.

But if you only had one day, you might consider doing a combination tour of the green and red.

58:41

But we wanted to really see all of the different areas areas, everything seemed really unique and cool.

So we did the green tour one day, the red tour on another day, and it worked out really fine for us.

Nice.

If you have enough time, that’s perfect.

Yeah, absolutely.

So when we were.

58:57

Done.

We got dropped back off at the hotel.

Kim, we had another continuation.

We still had some more wine, some more baca boxes.

It take you 2 to go through a bottle.

Three days putting me to shame.

I know, I know.

Well, you know what?

I.

Could go through more, but we were just rationing it out for whatever reason, right?

59:13

Yeah, We’re just rationing it out.

So took us three days to go through our bottle of wine, one glass a night, sunset on the roof with our baklava.

But we ended up, of course, wanting dinner and getting hungry.

And you wouldn’t think it or maybe you would, right, Getting tired of the local cuisine.

59:30

And what I meant by that is for dinner, it would be like kebabs and meat.

And that sounds good.

I always want to eat meat, but I was like, you know, let’s just let’s try something different.

Let’s try to find different cuisines.

We were looking Chinese, possibly the food.

Well, we did not find Thai, but they did have other Asian food.

59:46

But then we settled on Indian Brittany and I love Indian.

And let me tell you something.

Sometimes when you go to other countries and you try like foreign cuisine, that’s like hit or miss.

You really don’t know.

We went to a place called Mama Stay in and I would wager to say this might be some of the best Indian food I’ve ever eaten in my entire life out here in gourmet.

1:00:06

We got some butter chicken.

Some aloo Gabi, some non delicious, really enjoyed it and just kind of wanted to switch up from the Turkish food and kebabs and bread and ended up getting some Indian.

That’s kind of how we settled out our night.

Yeah, Indian was really, really.

Good gave us another walk through town though.

1:00:23

The town’s always just so cute to walk through.

Anyways.

There was a lot of different cafes and restaurants.

A lot of people were out.

There were plenty of restaurants to choose from.

Like even though it’s a small town, there was so many different restaurants people recommended did like every time we went on a tour, someone would say like, oh, did have you eaten at this place?

1:00:41

Have you heard of this place?

So there was no shortage of food places to go to, that’s for sure.

So we just had dinner that night.

The next morning we woke up and got on the balcony one last time for sunrise and the hot air balloons.

1:00:58

This was the day that the hot air balloons, there wasn’t really a lot of wind, so the balloons went up and we feel like they went down in that same exact position that they went up.

And then they didn’t have, like a lot of movement like they did the days before.

But still really, really cool to see.

1:01:13

It’s actually probably better for photos because when the wind is moving, you can’t predict where the balloons are going.

But when they just go up and they stay, you have plenty of time to take photos.

It’s actually really nice.

Yeah.

It was a really nice morning.

I don’t think it really gets tiring watching the sunrise and the hot air balloons.

1:01:29

Like, I mean, if it was a hand full of balloons, OK, but literally, again, hundreds.

It’s just a unique, magical experience with the color of the sky, the sunrise, the unique formation.

So whatever photos we didn’t get the day before, didn’t think they turned out good.

This was our opportunity to repeat them and of course, just enjoy the experience.

1:01:46

Naturally, before our transfer to the airport, because this was the day that we were leaving Turkey and traveling to Greece, we wanted to grab a quick breakfast.

So we went to a cafe called Cafe Safak.

We got some more minimum and goes the May, which is another popular Turkish breakfast item.

1:02:04

Some breads with like cheese, spinach, and you can also have it with meats, but it’s a really thin bread.

It’s very good.

So that’s what we had and then went back to our hotel and caught our transfer to the airport before finally flying off to Greece.

Yeah.

So our flight was.

At 10:25, but it takes 40 minutes to get to the airport and they told us that they were going to pick us up at 8:30 and we’re like, OK, so we’re not going to get there until like after 9.

1:02:28

And we were wondering, is this just enough time to get us to the airport?

So I had asked out on the WhatsApp.

And they’re like, oh, yeah, we, you know, we do this all the time.

No one’s ever missed their flight.

Come to find out, there is only one gate at this airport.

How did you not know that from when you flew in?

Because where they put you in for arrivals?

1:02:45

You’re kind of like blocked off and you can’t really see anything, so you cannot see what’s in the departure area.

See, I guess, yeah.

There is nothing to.

See like a couple check in counters and then.

Like a communal area and then there’s there’s like the waiting area.

1:03:01

And so it says go to waiting area if your flight’s next.

If it’s not, then you just hang out in the non waiting area.

That’s still kind of with the check in and everything like that.

There’s not really much food options if any.

It’s just like a little Cafe to buy snacks.

So that’s another reason why we wanted to get breakfast.

1:03:18

We knew when we landed it was a small airport didn’t know how small it was in terms of need to have time to navigate through.

So whatever time they tell you they’re going to pick you up for us to sure you’re probably a OK on that timing because we got there just with like an hour and 10 minutes to spare.

1:03:35

This sounds like such a lovely trip.

Where you really don’t want to rush through it, you want to enjoy the wine on the terrace and wake up early and watch the balloons and just immerse yourself in the landscapes and sounds like you had a really great time.

Yes, I really love this region.

1:03:51

And I would go back to Cappadocia.

I know I said that about Istanbul, but I really love Turkey and I feel like it is probably up there in the the top ten of my top ten favorite countries.

Now the list is expanding.

Yeah, Turkey.

Is definitely high on the.

List really enjoyed it, loved the experience.

1:04:09

It’s one of those things too.

Now that we’ve done kind of all of the major highlights, Istanbul and here Cappadocia are great places to go back and just enjoy the ambience at your leisure without the pressure of doing stuff.

Not to say if we went back or let alone a Cappadocia wouldn’t do another tour, but then I would have more time to be like, oh, that’s maybe do that sunrise tour in the classic car convertible or maybe let’s do an ATV or now we don’t need to do the tours.

1:04:36

Let’s actually just go hiking or walk in the valley.

So really beautiful place all around and even just to enjoy the city, different restaurants, rooftop bars, cafes, That’s the place to be.

I really like Cappadocia Squatty.

I hope you enjoyed this episode.

1:04:52

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1:05:11

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