Cappadocia Tour from Istanbul: 2 Days, Goreme, Ihlara Valley & Flights

Included today: flight, lunch, entrance fees, transfers and your hotel night.

An early flight from Istanbul, followed by cave churches, fairy chimneys and the Goreme panorama.

04:00 – Your driver meets you in the lobby of your Istanbul hotel and takes you to the departure airport. The pick-up time and airport can change.

07:00 – Domestic flight from Istanbul to Nevsehir or Kayseri airport in Cappadocia. The flight time can change.

08:20 – Landing in Cappadocia. Your local guide waits at the airport, and the group drives to the first stop. The arrival airport and time depend on availability.

13:00 – Lunch break with a sit-down meal at a local restaurant along the route, included in the price.

Route: Devrent Valley → Pasabag → Avanos Pottery Workshop → Goreme Open-Air Museum → Uchisar Kalealti → Goreme Panorama

Devrent Valley (Imagination Valley): also known as Pink Valley, Devrent has no carved rooms and no visitor facilities, only bare tuff columns worn into shape by rain and wind over millions of years. Each rock is named after the animal it looks like most: a sitting camel, a dolphin, a seal. Your guide shows you the best-known figures and explains how two layers of volcanic rock produce these top-heavy shapes.

Pasabag (Monks Valley): some of the tallest fairy chimneys in Cappadocia stand here. Early Christian monks chose this spot over the lower valleys for a practical reason: the height kept them away from passing traffic and curious visitors. Their cells, cut into the tops of the mushroom-shaped pillars, could only be reached by a rope ladder, which the monk pulled up after him. The chimney with three heads near the entrance is the most photographed rock in the valley.

Avanos Pottery Workshop: the Kizilirmak, the longest river in Turkey, flows through Avanos and leaves a typical red clay on its banks. Potters here have used this clay for about 8,000 years. In the workshop a master potter shapes a piece on a foot-driven wheel in front of the group, with a skill that takes years to learn. You can try the wheel yourself, and finished pieces can be bought or shipped home.

Goreme Open-Air Museum: a group of churches, chapels and monasteries cut into the volcanic cones of the Goreme valley between the 10th and 13th centuries. Inside, Byzantine frescoes in ochre, blue and red have survived well, because the soft rock soaked up the pigments into its surface. The Dark Church, the most colourful of them, has a separate entrance fee, but its full New Testament fresco cycle is worth a close look.

Uchisar Kalealti (Below the Castle): the name means the village and rock face at the foot of Uchisar Castle, the highest natural rock formation in Cappadocia. From here you see the castle's honeycomb of carved windows and doors in full, without climbing to the top, so everyone in the group can enjoy it. The narrow street at the bottom has small shops and cafes where you can buy water before moving on.

Goreme Panorama and Evil Eye Tree: this viewpoint on a ridge above the valley shows the layout of the Goreme canyons better than anywhere else: pink rock cones, terraced orchards and the white fronts of cave or stone hotels below. Nearby, a large tree has been hung with hundreds of blue glass evil eye charms (nazar boncugu) by visitors and locals over the years, and it is one of the most unusual photo spots in the region. At this height the midday light creates strong contrast across the valley floor.

17:00 – From the last stop, your driver takes the group straight to your cave or stone hotel in Cappadocia.

Included today: breakfast, lunch, flight, entrance fees and transfers.

An optional balloon flight at sunrise, then an underground city, a 3 km walk through the canyon and an evening flight back to Istanbul.

Optional early-morning add-ons (can be added during booking at the best available price):

• Hot air balloon flight at sunrise, our most booked activity
• Balloon watching tour to the best viewpoints for sunrise photos

06:00 – Optional hot air balloon flight, not included in the price. Balloons take off at sunrise from special launch fields in Cappadocia, and you book this extra separately before the tour.

08:00 – Breakfast at your cave or stone hotel, included, before you check out.

09:30 – Check-out. Your guide meets the group in the hotel lobby for the second full day of touring.

Route: Esentepe Panorama → Derinkuyu Underground City → Ihlara Valley (3 km) → Belisirma Village → Pigeon Valley

Esentepe Panorama: the day starts on Esentepe, a volcanic hill above the Ihlara plateau with an open view in every direction over southern Cappadocia. From up here you can follow the line of the Ihlara gorge across the plain below, which gives you a sense of its size before you walk into it. The stop lasts about 10 to 15 minutes and is mainly for photos.

Derinkuyu Underground City: the deepest underground settlement in Cappadocia that you can visit. It reaches about 55 metres down over 18 levels, and the upper eight are open to visitors. Everything was designed for defence: tight corridors made attackers move in single file, round stone doors closed each level from the inside, and a ventilation shaft 55 metres deep brought in fresh air. Up to 20,000 people are thought to have hidden here during Arab raids in the 7th and 8th centuries.

Ihlara Valley (3 km Gorge Hike): the Melendiz River has cut a gorge 14 kilometres long through the plateau, and you walk about 3 kilometres along its floor. Cliffs between 100 and 150 metres high rise on both sides. Byzantine cave churches are carved into the lower walls, and most still show faded but readable frescoes from the 9th to the 13th centuries. The path is flat, runs close to the river and has shade for much of the way, so it is the coolest part of the day around noon.

Belisirma Village (Lunch Stop): a small village on the floor of the valley, where restaurants have built wooden platforms right over the Melendiz River. You eat on decks above the water, cooled by the air of the canyon. Lunch usually includes local mezes, grilled meat and ayran, the cold yogurt drink found all over central Turkey. The setting is so unusual that most guests count it among the best moments of the trip.

Pigeon Valley: Pigeon Valley (Guvercin Vadisi) lies between Uchisar and Goreme. It is named after the thousands of little niches cut into its walls, pigeon houses made over the centuries to collect droppings as fertiliser for the fields. The path on the valley floor brings you close to these holes, many of them still home to wild pigeons, and gives one last view of the Uchisar rock before the airport. This is the final scenic stop.

17:00 – From Pigeon Valley, your driver takes the group straight to Nevsehir or Kayseri airport.

21:45 – Evening flight from Cappadocia to Istanbul. The flight time can change.

23:00 – Landing in Istanbul. Your driver waits at the airport and drives you to your hotel. The arrival airport and time depend on availability.