Cappadocia - spring 2026

[NeverNaughtyNanna]

Hello, my friend is going to be 60 next year and would love to go to Cappadocia for a hot air balloon ride. We would have to go during school holidays and I think that May half term is probably our best bet! Has anyone been and did you go for a package holiday or did you book everything yourselves? Any recommendations as to where to stay or what else to visit gratefully received.

You don't need to book a package tour. We went ourselves. Flew to Kayseri, hired a car and booked places to stay online. A car is the best way to get around as a lot of the sights are spread out. Driving is easy in that part of Turkey as there is very little traffic.

Every hotel will have leaflets for balloon rides. At dawn there must be 1,000 or more baloons all launching.

@Aaron95 this is good advice, we did not go in the end, despite being in Turkey for 2 weeks (October) because we did not have a hire car and the public transport and the airports (and then the sights) did not work out very well. I think if you have a car, it makes the world of difference.

I booked a two day tour with Viator.

I stayed in Antalya and also did a 2 day tour with Viator . It was brilliant - we did Cappadocia and the fairy chimneys and stayed overnight in a cave hotel. Long days and lots of time on a coach but seeing the dawn rising of the hot air balloons (better than going on the balloon trip itself in my opinion) was amazing.

Thanks for all the tips 😁