Cappadocia, Turkey

 

Visiting Cappadocia truly felt like visiting a magical world. 

While Istanbul was amazing, Cappadocia was like nothing I’ve ever seen or experienced before. Also, the hot air balloon ride was by far a top 10 life experience.

G and I were only here for 48 hours, but what a seriously incredible 2 days.

On Thursday, July 6 we flew Turkish airlines from Istanbul to Nevsehir Kapodokya Airport and caught an airport shuttle to our hotel (pre-arranging your car transport for Cappadocia is necessary, the area is not walkable and you're not going to find reliable ubers and taxis). 

Upon arriving at our hotel, our mouths were immediately agape. If you ever visit Cappadocia, I can't recommend the Museum Hotel enough. The entire hotel is a cave hotel (much of Cappadocia is built into caves) so our room was inside a cave and the hotel has the most incredible view of the hot air balloons, amazing food, great cocktails, peacocks in their garden, a beautiful infinity pool overlooking the Cappadocia landscape, an actual museum of artifacts inside, the constant happy sounds and sights of birds chirping and the beautiful garden with turtles and peacocks- easily one of the top 3 most unique hotels I've ever stayed in.

Upon arrival, we immediately went to the hotel restaurant to enjoy some cocktails and a phenomenal Turkish breakfast. 

Our Turkish breakfast feast 

Since we would only have 48 hours here, we had a pretty packed agenda and soon were off on our first adventure - a Cappadocia Private Tour with Reliance Tour Travel Agency. 

The tour was a great call as we got to learn a bit of Cappadocia history and cover a lot of ground with an informed tour guide who drove us from place to place. Our guide took us first to see the "Fairy Chimneys" before showing us the city built in the caves. Next up, we went to the underground city which once long ago could hide thousands of people at a time hiding from Roman persecution (they had a graveyard, oxygen chimneys, a kitchen, and the tiny hallways went on and on - it was worth the visit).

Going through the tunnels through the many stories of the underground city

Then we went to Paradise Valley, G tried his hand at creating some pottery (to great fun, not to great success), I tried some Turkish ice cream (it doesn't melt!), and we stopped by Love Valley where the rock formations looked very....well ...

Am I a creep or do you see it?

It was a jam-packed day of site seeing and soon we were ready to check-in to our cave room hotel. This room was too cool. The entire hotel is built into a cave and our room was as well. Check out the video to see as my description simply won't do it justice! 

After taking a bit of a rest in our room, we opted to have dinner at our hotel and head to bed early since we'd need to be up by 3 a.m. for our 3:30 a.m. pick-up for the hot air balloon ride. 

A once in a lifetime experience - the Cappadocia hot air balloon ride 

G and I awoke at an ungodly hour to catch the van that would be taking us to the hot air balloon ride takeoff (organized by Travel Inn Turkey). I cannot say enough how incredible this experience was. We arrived in a field where the balloons were beginning to be blown up before being escorted into a basket with the rest of our group. 

Before takeoff 

As our balloon was fired up, they quickly rushed us into what felt like a pretty small basket. There were probably 20 of us or so. Pro tip, try to get a corner spot if you can vs. on the side as you then have two different views. We didn't have a corner spot but it was still phenomenal.

G's face in this photo says it all 

Wow, just wow!

The views of the Cappadocia caves and mountains with the sun rising and balloons was such a once in a lifetime experience and worth the early wake up and expense. 

G and I right after we came back down from the hot air balloon ride

The van soon took us back to our hotel and we were back at the Museum Hotel by 6 a.m. We decided to use the rest of the day for a bit of relaxing and enjoying some beverages and the incredible pool (which was remarkably empty).

The Museum Hotel pool 

G enjoying a little snooze with some majestic views

The next morning, we woke up early to soak in our last few hours in Cappadocia and were met with the most beautiful sunset and views.

The only thing that came close to watching the hot air balloons from the air, watching them from the Museum Hotel 

Taking our cappuccinos into the garden to watch the hot air balloons go up with the sun

It doesn't get better than this 

Watching a sky full of hot air balloons from our balcony in our robes while sipping cappuccino with the most beautiful sunrise in the background with my husband was so special, I honestly teared up a bit!

One more coffee, robe, and sunrise selfie

The sunrise view from our hotel in Cappadocia 

We then had one more delicious Turkish breakfast and a dip before catching an airport shuttle for the next wave of our honeymoon adventure - Greece!

Turkish breakfasts, I will miss you

Cappadocia was truly like being in another world, like a fairytale - and while we jammed in a lot in 2 days, it felt like the perfect amount of time. I hope we get to come back someday, perhaps with our kids!