3-Day Cappadocia Tour from Kayseri with Optional Balloon Ride

Day 1: Kayseri – Cappadocia (D)
Start your 3-day tour with an airport transfer from Kayseri Airport to your Cappadocia hotel. Alternatively, if you are already in the greater Cappadocia area, you can opt for a hotel-to-hotel transfer for a hassle-free start to your tour. Once you've checked in, head out by minibus for a tour of the incredible Dervent Valley area. Admire the landscape and stop in Pasabag (Monk’s Valley) to walk through the area’s cone-like rocks where monks and hermits once lived in isolated seclusion.

Continue by minibus to the pottery town of Avanos, and after a break for lunch, travel to Pigeon Valley. See its famous bird-nesting caves and then head to Göreme Open-Air Museum. Exemplified by dusty-looking beige buildings and fairy chimneys, this open-air museum comprises a cluster of rocky monuments that attest to Byzantine life in Cappadocia.

Overnight: 4-Star Alfina Cave or Dilek Kaya Cave Hotel

Day 2: Cappadocia (B, D)
Upgrade to start your day in style with a hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia! It’s an early start from your hotel, but once at the hot air balloon office, a buffet breakfast awaits. Tuck in and then take to the skies on a 1-hour flight! Cappadocia’s volcanic origins have left some truly captivating sights, with fairy chimneys punctuating the rocky landscape that you’ll see below you. Finish with a glass of Champagne and then return to your hotel.

If you choose not to take the balloon ride, then spend the early morning at leisure. Both groups meet up in the late morning for your hike through Rose Valley – a beautiful stretch of land that takes its name from the red-hued rock that abounds throughout it. Straddling the villages of Göreme and Çavuşin, the valley is peppered with rock-carved churches and tunnels, and your guide will point out the best ones on your hike. Finish up in Çavuşin, and after visiting its cave mosque, enjoy some free time for lunch (own expense).

Hop aboard your minibus and continue your day’s tour to Kaymakli Underground City, one of Cappadocia’s best-preserved subterranean sites. Explore its maze of passages, seeing underground stable and cellars while learning about the early Christians who once hid here to escape persecution. Return to your coach and travel to Ortahisar for a stroll, admiring its stone houses that surround its crowing rocky glory -- Ortahisar Castle. Stop for photos by this unique fortress and then continue by minibus through Pigeon Valley. If time permits then stop at a wine cellar for a wine-tasting session, and then return to your hotel in time for dinner.

Overnight: 4-Star Alfina Cave or Dilek Kaya Cave Hotel

Day 3: Cappadocia – Kayseri (B)
Check out of your hotel after breakfast and then finish your 3-day tour with a transfer to Kayseri Airport or another Cappadocia hotel.