On the trip
Cappadocia
Sunday 25 into Uçhisar. Monday 26 sunrise balloon is booked and paid. Fly out Tuesday from Nevşehir.
On our trip
- Sunday 25: Akanthus has arranged our 03:00 pickup at the hotel for Izmir Airport, about 45 minutes. Ask for a van for four plus luggage, and a breakfast box.
- Pegasus PC 3190, Izmir (ADB) 05:20 → Kayseri (ASR). Arrival TBC, about 06:45. Susan Beans and John: seats 1D and 1E, Comfort Flex. Online check-in opens 24 Oct at 05:20. Susan Stevenson and David’s booking is not written down. Then about 75 minutes by road to Uçhisar. Prebook that transfer. Ask Cybele about early check-in or leaving bags. We should be there around 08:00–08:30. No fare is written.
- Cybele, Aşağı Kayabaş Sokak No. 30, Uçhisar. +90 501 599 5050. Check-in 14:00, check-out 12:00. Nights of the 25th and 26th.
- Monday 26 is booked and paid with SRM Travel: Premium Central Cappadocia sunrise balloon flight. Tour contract signed 29 Sep. EUR 320 per person (EUR 300 + EUR 20 booking fee), EUR 1,280 for four, paid in full via SRM’s secure link. Includes the flight, hotel-to-launch transfers, taxes, and the booking fee. Pickup time TBC from SRM. If weather cancels, SRM rebooks the next day or the day after. If no flight during our stay, full refund less the booking fee.
- Tuesday 27 we leave from the other airport: Turkish Airlines TK 2007, Nevşehir (NAV) 16:45 → Istanbul (IST) 18:20. That flight is the last Cappadocia beat.
- Longer-range weather for the region: clearer, cooler, and drier than the coast. Mornings can be cold if balloons go.
Two notes before the landscape. We fly into Kayseri and out of Nevşehir. Those are different airports. ADB → ASR on Sunday morning, NAV → IST on Tuesday afternoon. Anyone booking a transfer or a balloon pickup needs the right field. Monday’s sunrise balloon is booked and paid with SRM: Premium Central Cappadocia, EUR 320 a person, EUR 1,280 for four, paid in full. The contract was signed 29 Sep. The price includes the flight, hotel-to-launch transfers, taxes, and the booking fee. Pickup time is TBC from SRM. If weather cancels, SRM rebooks us the next day or the day after. If no flight goes during our stay, we get a full refund less the booking fee.
Cappadocia is a volcanic plateau. The rock is tuff, soft enough to carve and hard enough to keep a shape. What people call fairy chimneys are the caps of harder stone left on top of softer cones after the rest eroded. Valleys around Göreme — the open ones you can walk without a ticket — are that erosion plus centuries of pigeon houses, churches, and dovecotes cut into the same walls. Uçhisar, where we sleep, sits on a spike of that rock. The castle is the summit of the village, a climb from the lanes, not a separate excursion we have scheduled. Cybele is on Aşağı Kayabaş Sokak, cave and stone rooms above the valleys.
The painted churches are mostly at the Göreme Open Air Museum, a short ride from Uçhisar. That is small cave churches, red and ochre paint, a monastic landscape rather than a city. It is not on our schedule. Underground cities (Derinkuyu, Kaymaklı) are the other classic, and they are also not booked. The sunrise balloon is the booked morning. A valley walk after that costs nothing and does not need a reservation.
Sunday itself is a travel day: 03:00 pickup at Akanthus, PC 3190 at 05:20, about 06:45 into Kayseri if the flight is the same length, then an hour and a quarter on the road. We should reach Cybele around 08:00–08:30. Check-in is 14:00, so ask about early check-in or leaving bags, and prebook the airport transfer. Do not fill Sunday with a museum. Tuesday’s flight is 16:45 from Nevşehir, so Tuesday morning is still Uçhisar, and Tuesday afternoon belongs to the airport. The Istanbul day starts when we land, with the Merry van — that is the next page, not this one.
Pack a layer. The coast we just left is still warm at night. This plateau is not. Our weather note for the region is a high around 65°F and a low around 50°F, and colder in a basket at sunrise.