Goreme
10/13/2025 - 10/19/2025
We left Antalya and headed to Goreme which is a town in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey. Our flight was scheduled for 5pm, but was delayed an hour. Once we arrived, there was still over an hour shuttle to get from the airport to Goreme. Needless to say, we were pretty tired by the time we got to our hotel and got settled. And we still had to find some dinner.
Getting in late and to bed late wouldn’t have been an issue if we didn’t have such an early first morning. We had a 5:15am pick up scheduled to do a hot air balloon ride.
These companies are amazingly organized! We were picked up promptly at 5:15am and made one stop to pick up guests at another hotel before being dropped at the company’s “office”. There were already A LOT of other people there, we were quickly checked in and given our boarding pass and sent to an area with plenty of tables and a decent breakfast spread. Once all the shuttles had arrived with all the guests, we were sent to our Sprinter Vans, all clearly marked so we knew exactly where to go. They grouped us based on hotel drop off after the flight. Very efficient! We followed the truck hauling our balloon and once we were at the launch site, we watched as they got it ready. They had even made a camp fire out there for warmth (which I stayed cuddled up close to until it was time to launch).
Our balloon basket had a center compartment for the pilot and four compartments at each corner each holding 4 guests. So everyone had an excellent view. There were other options with a much bigger basket and A LOT more passengers. We were so glad we sprung for the 16 passenger version.
We climbed in (kind of a clumsy process – particularly when you are dressed in literally ALL the clothes you packed!), and got settled in our respective compartments. Sorry Emma… no seat belts! We were off the ground at about 6:15am… very efficient! We chatted with the people around us and enjoyed a peaceful ride. There was even a couple from Madison Wi. with us! Small world!
It was early, we were tired, and it was COLD(37 degress)… but it was totally worth it!! What an absolutely amazing experience!!! We went over 2000 ft high and the flight lasted about 75 minutes.
We did a couple of hikes. The first was a relatively easy hike to the next town over (Uçhisar) to see the “castle” which is a large, multi-story structure carved out of a natural rock formation at the region's highest point. I’m not sure it qualifies as a castle in our book, but that is what they call it. After the castle, we hit 4 (FOUR) wine bars… it was my birthday! 😊At one of them the owner (who was SO cute!) played Happy Birthday for me and did a video of us and the wine bar.
Our second hike was much more challenging. We hiked to a lookout about 6 miles away into a valley (and back up – ugh!). We ended up on the same route that a trail race was happening. So we were hiking among the runners. I was so excited to see the runners, but made me miss my running friends. To be clear, it made me miss my running friends… not running!
The runners were looking good when we first saw them, but as the terrain became more challenging, it looked more like a death march than a race! I wish photos could depict just how steep parts of this trail was! It made Ville to Ville look flat! The race was the Salomon Trail Ultra and had three distances. The longest was 119 km (74 miles) with an elevation gain of 3,824 meters (12,546 feet), the medium distance was 62.5km (39 miles) with an elevation gain of 1,992 meters (6,535 feet), and the “short” route was 37 km (23 miles) with an elevation gain of 1,127 meters (3,698 feet). This race was no joke!!
In addition to runners, we found some really cool old cave churches that we climbed around in and saw some amazing views! And a super random little café literally in the middle of no where! We stopped for a glass of wine. It was a welcome break!
We had gorgeous clear skies every day, so were pretty invested in finding a different amazing sunset view each evening. The sunsets were stunning!
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