Four days: a balloon flight, the underground cities and a cave hotel.
The trip turns on one thing: a balloon flight before dawn. Hundreds rise at once and you drift for an hour above the fairy-chimney valleys. The rest covers the Göreme open-air museum, the Derinkuyu underground city and Uçhisar castle.
Transfer to Göreme and into the cave hotel. Sunset from Uçhisar castle in the evening.
A 04:30 start — the flight lifts before sunrise. After breakfast, the Göreme open-air museum and its rock churches.
Derinkuyu, eight levels underground, then a walk through the Ihlara valley and Pigeon Valley.
A pottery workshop in Avanos, then the airport transfer.
The balloon flight was even better than I expected. On the first day the weather pushed it to the next morning, but we were warned in advance and it caused no trouble at all.