Written By: Clare Nicolas
Posted: February 1, 2023
If you are looking for a culturally and historically rich holiday, you MUST add Turkey to your bucket list. Turkey as a whole is filled with many unique things to do and see, but Cappadocia specifically takes the take and makes you feel like you are on an entirely different planet! It’s filled with fairy chimneys, magnificent underground cities, and vast landscapes that make it the perfect location to watch hundreds of hot air balloons rise each morning. Not only are there several activities you can participate in, most of them are extremely reasonably priced! Read more below to learn about the best things to do in Cappadocia on a budget.
We were able to complete all of the activities listed below in a span of 4 days (half of day 1 and day 4 were spent traveling to and from Goreme). That being said, we jam packed our time there which didn’t leave much time to relax or wander around the city. Below is the itinerary we used for completing all of Cappadocia’s must-do attractions in less than 4 days.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
We emailed the owner of our hostel before we arrived in Cappadocia asking the best way to get from the Nevsehir airport to our hostel. He gave us two options:
1. We could take the airport shuttle service which would cost us around $5 USD per person, but since it’s a shared service it could take close to 2 hours to arrive to the hostel.
Or
2. We could hire a taxi for $40, but because of the distance it would still take close to an hour and a half to arrive. We opted for the shuttle bus, and the owner of our hostel was able to arrange everything for us.
Make sure you book an accommodation with a roof top terrace so you can spend your mornings watching the hot air balloons rise. We stayed in Hostel Terra Vista which had incredible views of the hot air balloons right from our bedroom window! They also had an incredibly helpful staff who booked all of our excursions for us, and you can stay in this hostel for only $15 USD per night! If shared rooms are not your thing, this hostel also offers private rooms for as low as $63 USD per night.
The Whirling Dervish is a Muslim religious ceremony, where men wear white robes and literally twirl around a platform to the music of reed instruments and drums. They continuously twirl for 10-15 minutes at a time, completing 3 rounds. Their right hand is faced upwards to symbolize receiving grace from god, while the left hand is faced downward to symbolize sharing that grace with the world. The music starts to put the audience almost in a state of extreme relaxation. Many people nearly fell asleep during the ceremony!
This is an all-day activity going from about 9:30am-5pm. The Red Tour consists of touring areas in close proximity to Cappadocia city center (Goreme). Since these attractions are all relatively close to the city center, it is possible for you to go see these sites without a tour guide. But booking a taxi to take you from place to place will start to add up, and I think it is completely worth it to have a tour guide there to inform you about the history of the sites. If we would have gone without a tour guide, I know I would not have appreciated these sites nearly as much. This cost is all inclusive, meaning it includes the transportation, guides, lunch, and museum entrance fees.
There are tons of tour busses traveling around to all of these sites on the Red Tour daily, so in order to avoid everyone arriving to the same spots at the same exact times, the order of activities will depend on the tour company. Listed below are some of the sites you may visit on the Red Tour.
Open Air Museum
The Open-Air museum is a must see attraction, you can see the famous churches carved into the hoodoos, where people used to live, keep their livestock, and so much more! The open air museum is also on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Avanos Village – Pottery Shop
Here you will stop to tour a pottery workshop, and may even be able to create your own pot on a non-motorized pottery wheel! After you learn about the importance of the red clay to the Turkish culture, you can browse their selection of all kinds of beautiful hand painted pottery which make excellent souvenirs!
Deverent Valley
Here you will get a fascinating look at fairy chimneys scattered throughout the valley! You spend some time here taking in the views, and maybe grabbing a Turkish coffee.
Love Valley
Yet another valley with spectacular views of the fairy chimneys built throughout the valley. This is the largest valley in Cappadocia.
Uchisar Castle
This is one huge fairy chimney! So large that it can be seen in the distance from pretty much anywhere in Goreme. It is mind boggling to wonder how people were able to not only build, but live and navigate through this huge castle!
This is an all-day excursion that will take you to some of the farther sites from Cappadocia. It would be very difficult for you to navigate this entire route booking everything yourself, so I highly recommend going through a travel agency. This tour is all inclusive, meaning it includes the transportation, guides, lunch, and entrance fees.
Again, because visiting these sites is so popular, the order in which you arrive to certain locations will depend on the company. This tour typically goes from 9:30am-5:00pm, and since these sites are located farther away from Cappadocia, you can expect to spend a large part of your day driving in the tour bus. Listed below are some of the sites you may visit on the Green Tour:
Pigeon Valley
Pigeons historically were always very important for Cappadocian people. They used them to send messages, and used their eggs to create paint! Due to their importance, small cubbies are carved into walls everywhere for these pigeons to stay. At Pigeon Valley you will get a spectacular view of the hoodoos.
A Turkish Bath is a very intimate experience to say the least! From what I’ve seen, Turkish Baths differ depending on what company you go with. The one that we tried included a sauna session, followed by sitting in a salt room, then moving to a steam room. After the steam room, you lie down on a platform in the middle of a large room with Turkish women that will then come exfoliate your skin, and finish with a bubble sponge bath. You then have the option to add on a massage afterward for an additional cost.
Note: the men and women sections are located on completely different sides of the building, and no not intermix.
This tour is an extremely structured ATV ride. Each person can either get their own ATV, or you can partner up with someone else if you are not comfortable driving. The route is very easy, a majority of the time you are driving on paved roads or very flat dirt roads. There are many other ATV companies going along the same route simultaneously, so the companies make sure that you stay in a straight line while driving and do not deviate from your position in line.
You take the ATV ride up to Love Valley to enjoy the view and get a coffee, and then head back to an area ideal for watching the sun set. The sunset was very beautiful, the sky was pink and purple and then cast those colors over the whole city of Cappadocia.
The Hot Air Balloon Rides are without a doubt the most popular attraction in Cappadocia. Getting a photo at sunrise in front of the balloons rising every morning is every social media creators dream. This is why it is very important to book accommodation with a nice rooftop terrace! Watching the balloons rise every morning is breathtaking.
If you are looking to splurge a little bit, you can go ride in a hot air balloon! It is about an hour long ride, and you get to see the fairy chimneys from a completely different perspective. Keep in mind, the mornings are quite chilly, so bring a coat! Also the hot air balloons are depended on weather conditions. So if you want to take a ride, I would recommend booking for your first morning there. That way, if weather does not allow for the balloons to take off that morning, you can push it to the next morning and try again.
Cappadocia has made it to the list of one of my favorite places I’ve visited. The landscapes are just completely different than any other place. If you are looking for a historical vacation full of incredibly unique site seeing, make sure you add Cappadocia to your list. Here is a recap of the costs:
Accommodation – $15/night
Whirling Dervish – $21
Red Tour – $35
Green Tour – $35
Turkish Bath – $30
ATV Sunset Ride – $23
Hot Air Balloon Ride – $150-210
Be sure to follow me on Instagram and TikTok (@adventuringwithclare) and on YouTube (Adventuring with Clare) for more tips and tricks for how you can travel around the world on a budget. Thanks for reading!