Cave Hotels in Cappadocia: 19 Rock-Carved Stays with Balloon Views

Get Turkey Tours offers 21 hotels in Cappadocia, and in 19 of them the rooms are carved into soft volcanic rock. They run from Eka Cave Maison in Göreme, with its plain cave rooms, up to Museum Hotel in Uçhisar and its antique-furnished rooms. Breakfast comes with every one, and most have a terrace for watching the balloons go up at sunrise.

Hotel pages show live rates taken directly from each hotel's booking engine. Prices move every day with the season and the room type, and a cave suite with its own pool or hot tub costs far more than a standard room. Open a hotel to see tonight's rate and a calendar of dates.

Cave hotels sorted by budget

Royal Stone Houses and Heybe Hotel & Spa, two more hotels in Göreme, are made of cut stone and not hollowed out of the rock. Both offer good value, but book them for where they are rather than for a cave room.

Inside a cave room: what to expect

Cave rooms are hollowed out of tuff, the same soft rock as the fairy chimneys. Expect an arched or uneven ceiling, very thick walls, and either a small window or no window at all. The rock keeps the room cool in July and keeps the heat in during winter. Those thick walls also have downsides: weaker phone reception in some rooms, a faint earthy smell in older ones, and not much daylight toward the back. Plenty of hotels combine real cave rooms with stone-arch rooms built up against the cliff face; check the room name on the hotel page to see which you are getting.

Be ready for stairs. Most cave hotels step down a hillside in terraces, and the rooms with the best views are often reached by outdoor steps with no lift. If you have limited mobility, choose a room at ground level and read its description before you book.

Why people book Göreme: terraces facing the balloons

When flights go ahead, balloons lift off over the valleys near Göreme at dawn. Local Cave House, Cappadocia Inn, Artemis Cave Suites and Sultan Cave Suites each have terraces looking straight at them. Wind cancels flights on some days, so staying two nights gives you another chance. If you would rather see the sunrise from the basket, the sunrise balloon flight, standard level starts from $199 per person including hotel pick-up; the price changes by season and date, and we can give you the current one. Every level is compared in a separate guide to balloon prices.

Top-end cave suites: pools, hammams and antiques

The luxury end of our list feels like a different trip. On the slopes of Uçhisar, Museum Hotel belongs to Relais & Châteaux and fills its rooms with antiques and archaeological pieces; it also has an infinity pool facing Pigeon Valley. Above Ürgüp, Kayakapı occupies a restored cave neighbourhood, and some of its suites have private pools. Kelebek, among the first boutique cave hotels in Göreme, offers a hammam and a pool. In Çavuşin, Seki Cave Hotel has a heated rooftop pool that faces the sunset.

Seasons and rates

Spring and autumn usually push rates up, since the weather is mild then and balloons fly most days; European holidays have the same effect. Winter covers the fairy chimneys in snow and brings prices down, though cold or wind keeps the balloons grounded on some days. Terrace rooms looking at the balloons, and rooms with a private pool or hot tub, go first.

Which villages have the cave hotels

Göreme offers the widest choice, with 13 of our Cappadocia hotels, near the Open Air Museum road and the valleys where balloons launch. Uçhisar, roughly 5 km away, sits higher and is calmer; Ürgüp, roughly 10 km away, has a bigger choice of restaurants. To compare the villages, read our guide to choosing a village in Cappadocia, and see every hotel in the full list of Cappadocia hotels.

Day trips work from any of these hotels: the Red Tour of Cappadocia and the Green Tour of Cappadocia both pick you up at your hotel and include lunch. Flying in from Istanbul? Our 4-day package for Cappadocia begins at $270 per person excluding the hotel, which you select on the package page. Season, hotel and inclusions change the price, so ask us for the current figure.

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