Hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia

Short story: I went up in a hot air balloon for my Birthday in Cappadocia! It was amazing!

Long story: I have been trying to make it a yearly tradition to go on a city break for my Birthday, with that in mind I wanted to do something special for my 30th and decided I had always wanted to go to Istanbul and it would be super cool to go on a hot air balloon in Cappadocia. However as it turned out my geography was quite poor. Cappadocia is not as close to Istanbul as I had assumed based on no knowledge or reason. It was actually 7.5 hours away by car/coach/bus or just over an hour’s flight! Hmmn so not ideal but surmountable. I considered the overnight bus but decided f**k it, I was turning 30 we would fly to Cappadocia from Istanbul. And thus the 30th Birthday trip began to take shape.

Next up the hot air balloon. So don’t get me wrong I’m not expecting it to be cheap but I’m thinking it will be around £100, right? And let me tell you I was wrong! Nearly enough to put me off doing it but then the f**k it I’m turning 30 and that only happens once mentality kicked in again and I found myself having decided and pretty much just told my boyfriend this was the plan. Sorry Jake! He doesn’t particularly enjoy moving around when going on holiday but had already agreed to the flight from Istanbul to Cappadocia, definitely preferring that to the overnight bus, and obviously I was not opposed to this.

As a side note because it deserves a mention I found a gorgeous hotel for us in Cappadocia - Tantan Cappadocia House and I went for their best room the King Suite with a hot tub on the inside terrace as part of the room. Can you tell what sold me?! Also the price was not ridiculous don’t get me wrong this was not an on budget stay or trip but it was absolutely gorgeous. I was so excited to stay there, showing everyone who showed even the slightest interest my hotel my booking like some people show off pets or children! You might now be expecting a twist in a negative direction but there isn’t one - this is the happily ever after, well happy birthday trip anyway. The room looked exactly like it did in the photos and I had told them it was my Birthday and they delivered a chorus of Happy Birthday with an incredibly delicious cake, candles and a fruit plate! The staff were absolutely lovely, despite there being a considerable language barrier between us. I had tried to learn Turkish, but the best I could do by the time we went was pick up the odd word like ok - tamam and just about say thank you - Teşekkür ederim! So just in case it wasn’t clear I 100% recommend Tantan Hotel and the lovely Turkish spa package I had whilst there!

To go back to the hot air balloon story, I had researched and found out there were many different companies! I picked the Voyager balloon company with the help of the Turkey Travel Planner website. I booked it for our first morning in Cappadocia - my Birthday! I was excited but knew there was a chance it wouldn’t go ahead if the weather wasn’t good enough, so I had the day after my birthday but otherwise I wouldn’t be able to go.

All was going well until we are sitting in the domestic departures part of Istanbul airport and I check my emails on the day before my birthday… the balloon ride has been cancelled. Shoot! The weather didn’t seem that bad but fingers crossed for the day after, after a small amount of panic and checking it wasn’t just this company I resolved to hope for the best and my friends and our favourite saying it is what it is and my slightly more positive take of whatever is meant to be will be!

Here I shall pause again to tell you that when we got to the hotel there was no water in the area, this continued into the next morning. Now the more practical amongst you might be concerned about showering, going to the toilet etc. However, by the next morning, my Birthday, this wasn’t my main concern. Naturally I was a little concerned that having planned out this, if I say so myself, great trip with a hot air balloon trip and a hot tub, I might actually not be able to do either! However, the water soon came back so hygiene as a second priority and hot tubbing as a first could go ahead. Phew!

Cappadocia itself is absolutely gorgeous and honestly I fell in love - the natural landscape of ‘fairy chimneys’ is stunning and it just felt peaceful, rivalling my usual favourite of being by the sea. We hired a car and explored an underground city, of which there are a lot in this region. At this point I should tell you my boyfriend has a shoulder issue, which means his shoulder sometimes pops out, and being the crazy but incredible person he is, he is able to put it back in himself! You might be able to guess where this is going… Yes in the underground city after a slightly longer drop than expected it popped out! He was struggling to get it back in and at this point I was once again in my whatever happens is meant to happen belief and I resigned myself that if we needed to spend my Birthday in Turkish A&E that’s what we would do. However, luckily he was kable to persevere and get it back in and despite being in some pain we continued our day of exploring. A lovely walk in Pigeon Valley, a quick pit stop for food with a gorgeous view and seeing more of the incredible rock formations up close before going back to chill in the hot tub before an incredible dinner with the most  incredible view. Special shout to Cratus Premium restaurant at this point, picked by Jake and another top recommendation from me.

The only downside of the hot air balloon was that it was a pre-sunrise take off, which meant a 3.45am pick-up and neither of us are morning people, so naturally we had an early bed to make up for it…Jokes it was my Birthday so we needed to make sure we made the most of it! So running on at most 3 hours sleep we were up, me doing a full face of make-up for our pick up, where we were then taken for a quick breakfast and then onto the launch site. I was excited but it felt a bit chaotic. The balloon is huge. The hardest/ scariest part was the entry and exit of the basket. You have to climb in and out using the foot holes and my poor boyfriend had to do this with a very sore shoulder. There were 6 people including us in our compartment and another 3 compartments with a middle compartment just for our guide and the pilot. It was a little cramped but you could still just about move around so not a huge problem and certainly not one I felt was big enough to justify the additional costs for less people, although if you have the cash to spare I think there is one where you are seated on the flight which sounds cool but I think I enjoyed standing for the most part and being able to move to look in the different directions and of course slightly hang out of the basket! It was colder than I expected so I was pleased I had brought my scarf and jacket.

The views, just look at them…Incredible. Approximately 160 went up that day, we went super low into the valley and way up high. We saw the sunrise. It wasn’t particularly rocky or bumpy, a very smooth ride in fact. I had done it, I could sleep happy now. We spent approximately 1 hour in the air and had a champagne reception when we landed, along with a certificate presented to each of us by the pilot although there had been a malfunction with my boyfriend’s…

We were back at our hotel by 6.30am where and when I realised there were still balloons flying to and managed to persuade my reluctant boyfriend to have a few extra snaps on the rooftop before a quick nap and our last day in my new favourite place!