Cappadocia Red or Green Tour for Korean Travellers: Photos and Stairs

Choose the Red Tour if your group wants the classic fairy chimney photos with little walking, and the Green Tour if you can manage a long staircase and want the underground city and the Ihlara canyon. With us, the Red Tour has two versions, from $50 per person and from $80 per person with lunch, and the Green Tour costs from $77 per person, or from $80 per person for the version with Selime Monastery. If you have two days, do both: Red on the first day and Green on the second. Most Korean couples and families start with our Cappadocia Red Tour with lunch through Paşabağ, Zelve, Avanos and Love Valley.

This page compares the two tours from the angle Korean travellers ask about most: where the best photos are, how much walking and how many stairs each day involves, and which tour suits parents, honeymooners and church groups. For the general overview, see our pages on the Cappadocia Red Tour and the Cappadocia Green Tour.

Red Tour and Green Tour side by side

The two Red Tour listings differ in the stop list and lunch arrangements. The $50 Cappadocia Red Tour covers six stops including Devrent Valley and an outside view of Uçhisar Castle. The $80 version, about six hours long, names Paşabağ, Zelve, Avanos and Love Valley as its main stops. Both are guided group tours.

Photo spots on the Red Tour

The Red Tour is the one that gives you the images most people picture when they think of Cappadocia. The light is best in the late afternoon, when the rock turns golden and pink.

• Göreme panorama. A viewpoint above the town with the fairy chimneys and cave hotels below. A good spot for a group photo at the start of the day.
• Devrent Valley. Free-standing rock shapes that look like animals, the best known being the "camel". Stand back from the rock and shoot from a low angle to get the whole shape against the sky.
• Paşabağ. Tall fairy chimneys with several "caps", some with small chapels cut into them. This is the most photographed stop on the Red Tour. Walk to the far end of the path for fewer people in the frame.
• Zelve. A valley of abandoned cave dwellings. Here the photos are about texture: doorways, windows and stairs cut into the rock.
• Avanos. A small town on the Kızılırmak river, famous for pottery. The workshop stop is a chance for a short video of the potter's wheel.
• Love Valley and Uçhisar. Tall, smooth chimneys in Love Valley and the rock castle of Uçhisar on the skyline, best photographed in the warm late-afternoon light.

Photo spots on the Green Tour

The Green Tour has fewer "postcard" stops but more variety: an underground city, a green canyon and a rock-cut monastery in one day.

• Derinkuyu or Kaymaklı underground city. Derinkuyu reaches a depth of about 85 metres and could shelter up to 20,000 people. The tunnels are lit, but it is dark for photos. Turn off the flash and use your phone's night mode.
• The Ihlara staircase. The view from the top of the stairs, looking down into the canyon, is one of the best shots of the day. The canyon is about 15 km long and up to 150 m deep, carved by the Melendiz river.
• The Ihlara riverside path. Willows, poplars and the river, very green from spring to autumn. Rock-cut churches line the canyon walls; around 50 have been recorded along the valley.
• Selime Monastery. A huge rock-cut monastery on a cliff at the northern end of the valley. Climb a little way up for a wide view across the plain.
• Pigeon Valley. A short viewpoint stop near Uçhisar, with dovecotes cut into the rock.

Walking load: which tour is easier on the knees

For Korean families travelling with parents, this is usually the deciding question.

Red Tour: easy. Each stop has a short walk from the bus on mostly level ground. At Paşabağ and Zelve you can walk as much or as little as you like. There are no long climbs, so the Red Tour suits travellers in their 60s and 70s who walk comfortably for 20 to 30 minutes at a time.

Green Tour: harder, in three ways.

1. The underground city. The tunnels are narrow, ceilings are low in places and the steps between levels are steep. Tall travellers bend for long stretches. Anyone uncomfortable in confined spaces can stay on the upper levels or wait at the entrance.
2. The Ihlara staircase. Getting down into the canyon means a long staircase of several hundred steps. Going down is hard on the knees, and the group usually walks on rather than climbing back up.
3. The canyon walk. About 3.5 km on a flat, shaded path by the river. This part is easy for most people, but it adds up after the stairs.

If one person in the group cannot manage the stairs, tell us when you book. On a private tour the guide can change the order, shorten the Ihlara walk or choose the less demanding underground city. Our Cappadocia private tour page explains how that works.

Which tour for which Korean group

For a group with older parents, the private Cappadocia Red Tour with your own guide, from $161 per person, lets you set the pace and stop for photos whenever you like.

Church groups usually want the rock-cut churches of the Göreme Open-Air Museum, which charges foreign visitors €20 on the ministry's current list, with the Dark Church inside charged separately at €6. Our page on Turkey pilgrimage tours for Korean church groups covers the wider route with Istanbul and the Seven Churches.

Food, breaks and practical points for Korean travellers

Lunch. Both tours stop for lunch at a local restaurant. On the Green Tour it is usually in Belisırma village by the river, in the middle of the Ihlara walk. Expect Turkish food: soup, salad, grilled meat or a clay-pot stew, rice and bread. It is not spicy. Many Korean travellers bring a small tube of gochujang for the week, which is fine.

Toilets. There are toilets at the main sites and at the lunch restaurant. Some charge a small fee in Turkish lira, so carry a few coins or small notes.

Clothes. The underground city is cool all year. Cappadocia is on a high plateau: Nevşehir's average daytime high in January is about 4°C, and summer afternoons reach the high 20s. Wear shoes with grip for the Green Tour.

Pace. Korean groups often like a full, efficient day. Group tours run on a fixed timetable, and the guide keeps the group together at each stop. If your group wants more time at the photo stops and less at the shops, a private tour is the better choice.

Language. Our group tours are led by licensed English-speaking guides. A Korean-speaking guide can be arranged on request, subject to availability, for a private tour. See our page on the Korean-speaking guide in Istanbul.

Adding the balloon and a photo shoot

Many Korean travellers plan Cappadocia around the photos, and the balloon morning is the other big photo opportunity. Our standard sunrise balloon flight with transfers starts from $199 per person. Every flight depends on morning permission from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (SHGM), so no flight can be promised in advance.

If you prefer to be in the photo rather than in the basket, our Cappadocia balloon photo shoot with a professional photographer starts from $103 per person, and the sunrise photo shoot with a flying dress from $399 per person. The Cappadocia balloon photo shoot page explains the difference.

A good two-day plan: the Red Tour on the afternoon you arrive, the balloon at sunrise on day two, then the Green Tour. Our Cappadocia 2-day itinerary sets out the timings, and the Cappadocia tour prices page lists all the options.

The Yellow Tour and other alternatives

If neither tour fits, there is a third route. Our Cappadocia Yellow Tour through the south valleys, Çavuşin and an underground city starts from $50 per person. It includes an underground city like the Green Tour, without the Ihlara staircase. For a single day that combines highlights from both, the Best of Cappadocia day tour starts from $57 per person.

Tours that cover this

• Cappadocia Red Tour with lunch: Paşabağ, Zelve, Avanos and Love Valley: from $80 per person.
• Cappadocia Red Tour: guided north valleys day trip: from $50 per person.
• Cappadocia Green Tour: Derinkuyu, Ihlara Valley and Selime with lunch: from $80 per person.
• Cappadocia Green Tour: Ihlara Valley walk and underground city: from $77 per person.

For hotels, airports and other activities, see our Cappadocia destination guide.

Frequently Asked Questions