1-Day Cappadocia Tour from Istanbul with Overnight Cave Hotel (Flights Included)

Day 1: Flight from Istanbul to Kayseri or Nevsehir, overnight in a Cappadocia cave hotel

Your driver collects you from your Istanbul hotel on the European side and takes you across to the airport for an afternoon or evening flight, depending on what’s running that day. The hop down to Kayseri or Nevsehir takes a little under an hour and a half, and there’s usually a good view of the Anatolian plateau on the way in.

On landing you’ll be met in the arrivals hall and driven straight to your cave hotel — the road out of the airport is quiet in the evening, so it’s an easy run. Check in, drop your bags and get an early night; the rooms are carved into the soft rock, thick-walled and properly dark, which makes for good sleeping before a full day ahead. No meals are included tonight, so if you’re hungry, ask reception for a nearby spot.

• Overnight in Cappadocia
• Included Meal(s): None

Day 2: Full day tour of Devrent Valley, Avanos, Goreme Open Air Museum, Uchisar and Kaymakli, then flight back to Istanbul

If you’ve added the optional hot air balloon ride, you’ll be picked up well before sunrise for the flight over the valleys — it’s an extra cost and booked separately, but few people regret it. Otherwise, take breakfast at a civilised hour and check out in good time. 09:30 — your private guide and driver collect you from the hotel and the day begins at Devrent Valley, on the northern slopes of Aktepe, a kilometre from Pasabaglari and five from Avanos. The ruins here spread across three small valleys, and the pointed fairy chimneys with their heavy stems are the ones everyone tries to put names to.

Next is Avanos, a pottery town since around 3000 BC, where you’ll visit a traditional workshop — often cut deep into the hillside. The clay comes from the Red River that runs through the town, and it has fed both the land and the local trade for a very long time. Lunch follows at a traditional Turkish restaurant. Afterwards, the Goreme Open Air Museum: an important Christian centre in the early Middle Ages and a bishopric administered by Mokissos, near Aksaray, in the 11th to 13th centuries. There are monasteries, churches and chapels everywhere around Goreme but very few dated inscriptions, so your guide will explain how the buildings are placed by their iconography and architecture instead.

Then on to Uchisar, a troglodyte town squarely in the middle of the region, named for the huge rock at its centre that once served as a castle. It’s the highest point around, with the whole of Cappadocia and Erciyes (Argeus) Mountain laid out from the top. The last stop is Kaymakli, among the largest and deepest of Cappadocia’s forty or so underground cities, with eight levels — though not all are open. 16:00 — the tour finishes and you’re driven to Kayseri or Nevsehir airport for the evening flight back to Istanbul, arriving somewhere between 19:00 and 22:00 after about an hour and twenty minutes in the air. Our service ends on arrival; onward transfer to your Istanbul hotel is your own arrangement.

• Included Meal(s): Breakfast, Lunch

Inclusions

• Return domestic flights Istanbul–Kayseri/Nevsehir
• Pickup from Istanbul hotel (European side) and airport transfer
• 1 night in a Cappadocia cave hotel with breakfast
• Private licensed English-speaking guide and private car on tour day
• Lunch on the Cappadocia tour day
• All entrance fees listed in the programme
• Local taxes and service charges

Exclusions

• Transfer from Istanbul airport to your hotel on return
• Hot air balloon ride and other optional tours
• Meals not listed in the programme
• Drinks with meals
• Personal expenses
• Tips and gratuities
• Travel insurance