Antalya to Cappadocia: Fly or Drive, Then Our Tours When You Arrive

Getting from Antalya to Cappadocia comes down to one decision: a short hop to Kayseri lasting 1 hour 10 minutes, or roughly 586 km by road, which takes 8 to 9 hours. Get Turkey Tours has no coach or minibus service from Antalya and does not sell the plane ticket. We take over when you arrive: pickup at Kayseri or Nevşehir airport, a Cappadocia package of 4 days at $270 per person and up (season, hotel and inclusions all move the figure, so check the current rate with us), days with a private guide, Red and Green Tours in small groups, and balloon flights at sunrise. Stay two nights at the very least; a single night cannot hold both a balloon flight and a full day in the valleys.

The real choices for a Cappadocia tour from Antalya

You can reach Cappadocia from the coast in three ways, and each one shapes a very different trip.

Plenty of agencies along the coast sell a 2-day coach trip to Cappadocia. In practice that is about 17 hours of driving for around one day on the ground, with a balloon pickup at 4 a.m. in the middle. It can be done, but we do not sell it and would not suggest it for families. When time is tight, flying to Kayseri and spending two nights in Cappadocia gets you much more out of the same two or three days.

The flight from Antalya to Kayseri

Flying nonstop from Antalya Airport to Kayseri Erkilet Airport (ASR) takes roughly 1 hour 10 minutes. SunExpress and Pegasus have served this route, mainly during the high season, so look up your dates with the airline. Göreme and its cave hotels lie just over an hour's drive from Kayseri.

Our Cappadocia packages begin at arrivals. The 4-day package covers a private transfer between Kayseri or Nevşehir airport and your hotel in both directions, so someone is waiting at the gate when you land from Antalya. If you only book day tours, the small groups pick up from hotels in Ortahisar, Avanos, Uçhisar, Ürgüp or Göreme, and the airport transfer is yours to arrange, or you can add one.

Starting in Side or Alanya, allow for the drive to Antalya Airport first: about an hour from Side and around two from Alanya. Most people either leave very early or sleep in Antalya the night before.

The road through Konya: taking it slowly

From Antalya the highway climbs over the Taurus Mountains to Konya, then runs east along the old Silk Road past Aksaray into Cappadocia, roughly 586 km altogether. With a hire car and spare time it is a rewarding drive. In Konya you can see the Mevlana Museum and the tomb of Rumi, and Sultanhanı, a short detour before Aksaray, ranks among the biggest Seljuk caravanserais in the country.

Done in one stretch, the drive takes 8 to 9 hours including breaks. The night bus from Antalya to Nevşehir costs least and needs 9 to 10 hours; a minibus then runs from the Nevşehir bus station on to Göreme. We organise neither of these. If you come by car, our Cappadocia tours pick you up at your hotel, so the car can stay parked for two days while a guide shows you the valleys.

Tours to book after you arrive

Here are the tours we operate in Cappadocia; the price for your date is on each tour page. Our Cappadocia tours page lists them all.

Lunch and entry tickets come with the small-group Red and Green Tours. The private highlights day leaves out meals and museum tickets, but the guide and van are yours alone, and you set off at 10:00 from the hotel lobby.

The right choice depends on why you made the trip from Antalya. For scenery, the six-hour Red Tour shows the fairy chimneys at Devrent and Paşabağ and the cave village at Zelve. For history, the Green Tour takes you down several levels into Derinkuyu, then along the river on a stretch of the Ihlara Valley, and finishes at Selime Monastery, carved into the rock; it is the longer and harder day. Families with young children tend to do one of them, not both. With any Cappadocia tour from Antalya, the guided days are simple to arrange; settle the Kayseri flight and the cave hotel first, as both change in price by date.

Two nights or three: a workable plan

Two nights, arriving by plane from Antalya:

1. Day 1: fly to Kayseri, drive to Göreme, watch the sunset from a viewpoint.
2. Day 2: balloon at sunrise if the weather is right, followed by the Red Tour or a private highlights day.
3. Day 3: the Green Tour with Ihlara Valley and the underground city, or an easy morning, before flying home.

Three nights on the 4-day package covers the same sights, includes the airport transfers and gives you a free morning. That spare morning counts, since wind grounds the balloons on some days and a second attempt is valuable. It is the main reason we point people to the Cappadocia packages rather than a two-night trip when they have the time.

Before you book the balloon

A standard balloon flight begins at $199 per person; the price changes with the season and the operator, so ask us what it is today. You spend around an hour in the air, and the pickup is long before dawn. Whether you fly depends on the wind: strong wind cancels the flights, and that is more common in winter. A cancelled flight costs you the entire morning, so read the cancellation terms on the balloon page and keep in mind that one night in Cappadocia gives you no backup morning.

Not everyone enjoys the balloon. You share the basket, you get up very early, and travellers who are afraid of heights often choose the balloon-watching tour instead, seeing the sky fill with balloons from a viewpoint on the ground. You will find both on our Cappadocia tours list.

Returning to the coast or heading to Istanbul

Most travellers take the plane from Kayseri back to Antalya. Others go on to Istanbul, which is simple because there are Istanbul flights from both Kayseri and Nevşehir; our page about the Cappadocia tour from Istanbul covers the trip in that direction.

If you prefer to stay on the coast, our Antalya tours include long road days: the Kekova sunken city with Myra and Demre, Aspendos and Perge, and Pamukkale from Antalya, which takes about 12 hours as a private tour or 8 hours on the shared one. Pamukkale works as an inland day trip; Cappadocia does not. See every option on the Antalya tours page. For distances, prices and a timed plan for that day, read our guide to the Pamukkale tour from Antalya, Side or Alanya.

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