Balloons operate through the basic principles of gravity and heat transfer. While heating the air within the balloon, it rises. As the air inside the balloon get cold, it descends. To make the balloon fly, inflator fan fills it with air, then the air is heated.

What are the main parts of a hot air balloon?

A hot air balloon has three main parts: the cover, the burner and the basket (or gondola). The basket is where passengers travel. Usually made of wicker, protect the occupants and are lightweight and flexible. The burner is located above the passenger’s heads, and produce a flame for heating the air within the envelope. The wrapper is a colorful cloth bag that holds the hot air. When the air inside the envelope is heated, the balloon rises. To descend, the pilot allows the air to get cold and the balloon becomes heavier than air. The pilot has complete control of movement up and down thanks to the ability of controlling the heat in the envelope.

What is the wrapping made of?

A waterproof nylon is the most common material, but polyester and other fabrics are also used. The weave around the lower opening (called “mouth”) of the globe is usually made of fire resistant materials like Nomex, similar to fire suits.

What is the basket made of?

Woven wicker is used because of is lightweight, flexible and easy to repair. And it looks good!

All hot air balloons are the same?

All hot air balloons consist of a burner system, a basket and a wrap. The differences are in the shape and size of the envelope, the discharge system, the shape and design of the nacelle and the configuration, design and number of burners.

How long will the balloons last?

Depending on the care they receive a balloon envelope last more than 500 hours of flight. The basket will last much longer, perhaps thousands of flight hours, with proper care.

Can you steer a balloon?

The wind determines the direction of the globe. The pilot can steer the balloon, to a lesser extent, by adjusting its altitude to make use of different wind speeds and directions.

How many people can ride in a hot air balloon?

The capabilities of our balloons range from a minimum of 10 to a maximum of 21 passengers.

How long does a balloon flight?

This depends on the type of flight. Standard flight takes about 1 hour and Deluxe flights about 1 hour and a half.

What fuel do balloons use?

Hot air balloons carry up 80 liters of propane fuel tanks of stainless steel.

How high do balloons fly?

The balloons usually fly below 2,000 feet, according to the Federal Aviation Regulations. At this point you are able to observe people and animals, and time seems to stop for a moment.

How safe is a balloon?

The balloons are considered one of the safest forms of flying. Serious accidents are rare.

What if the burner goes out?

If the burner goes out, the first burner is reactivated. If that does not work, they go to the second burner to fly the balloon. If this also fails, there is a third burner parts! If there would not be any burners available, the balloon would land at about the same speed as a parachute.

What if a bird hits the balloon?

The balloons are so large that most birds avoid them. The envelope material is much stronger than it looks and a bird probably bounce if there was a collision. Balloon manufacturers have been tested, and it is possible to fly a balloon with a hole large enough for a person to pass through it, as long as the hole is not at the top of the casing.

How long does it take to inflate and deflate the balloon?

Our ground crew can inflate and take off a balloon in fifteen minutes or less. It takes about the same time to deflate and pack the balloon after the flight.

Do pilots need a license?

Yes, all our pilots have official licenses from Civil Aviation authorities of Turkey and internationals.

Why flying so early in the morning?

We fly in the first hours after sunrise, those are the quietest and freshest hours of the day. This allow us a more comfortable landing and the maximum lifting capacity of the balloon. Added to this, you will enjoy the splendor of a beautiful sunrise. All the adventure generally lasts from 3 to 4 hours, and then you have the rest of the day available to enjoy the many attractions of Cappadocia.

What to wear and what to bring to the Balloon?

It depends on the season. We also fly in winter! For summer: jeans or casual and flat shoes. For winter: raincoat, thick jacket or coat, etc. Although we usually land near a road, you may have to walk through the fields. It is colder in the balloon than on the ground, so you could bring a light jacket. Some people recommended several layers of clothing, for cold days. Bring your camera with plenty of film or storage space. Our team will be happy to take pictures of you in the globe.

How do passengers fly in the basket?

Passengers are usually standing on the flight. But there is nothing to worry about, the basket reaches our chests.

Where are we flying?

We go where the wind takes us. The sky is layered in different air currents, so that the pilot heats the air inside the balloon with the burner to take advantage of various streams in different directions.

Where we land?

We can land at any of the many open fields of the area. Your pilot will begin a gentle descent when he finds a suitable landing place, where our ground staff will be waiting for us.

How do weather affects?

Before flying, we check the wind speed. Generally, we fly when wind speeds is less than 10 miles per hour.

Is age a factor to consider?

Our flight is not recommended for children under 10 years or adults over 80.

How does it feels?

Once in the air you will not feel any turbulence or strong movement, as the balloon flies away with the airstreams. It is much more subtle than an elevator ride. The feeling is one of peace, as we fly above the trees and float over the fields, in a gentle, panoramic harmony with nature. Some passengers have described the feeling as “romantic” while others called it “peaceful and quiet”.

Do the flight have insurance?

Yes. All passengers are insured up to 1 million euros by international insurance company Eureko, Turkey.

What is the difference between a Deluxe Tour and Standard Tour?

Our deluxe tour offers a comfortable and cozy place to enjoy the fairy chimneys. The balloons used in deluxe tours only charge between 10 and 12 passengers, so you have more space to enjoy your flight. The flight takes about 1 hour and a half, ensuring that you can enjoy all off what this amazing area has to offer.

For the standard tour we use our larger balloons. This means that you will take place between 16 and 21 passengers. The flight takes about 1 hour. Although shorter than our tour deluxe, standard gives plenty of time to admire the unique beauty of this region.

How I can make the reservation?

To book, please send an e-mail to info@cappadociantour.com or fill out our form.

What is included?

We pick you up from your hotel. We will have a light breakfast before departure. At the end of the flight we will celebrate a small toast with the original champagne Göreme Balloons, and you will receive your flight certificate. We can help you celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, or any other special occasion.

How much is the balloon flight?

Please visit our websites Flight Details & Rates. We offer three types of ballooning tours.

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In addition to Erciyes, another volcano has contributed to the formation of the Cappadocia region: the Hasandağ. It is 30 km (19 miles) south of Aksaray and on a clear day is also visible from Cappadocia.  The Hasandağ is 3268 meters high, and although looks younger, it was formed in the same geological period that Erciyes.

What is the best time to visit Cappadocia?

The best times of the year to visit the region are from March to June and from September to November, during the seasons of spring and autumn.

What is the most suitable cloth to wear in these tours?

For convenience, if you’re visiting during the spring, you may need to bring an umbrella and waterproof shoes and closed as rains can be frequent, albeit temporary. Both spring and autumn, it is recommended to carry a light jacket for low temperatures that occur in the afternoon and evening. If traveling in summer wear cool clothes and sunscreen and if you do dress warmly in winter, the valleys of Cappadocia are covered with snow and the temperatures are very low.

What is the price of the tours? How to pay them?

Each tour specifies the price and you can reserve and pay them in our booking form, according to the number of participants.

If I contract several excursions or services do I get a discount?

We offer the lowest price for our services, which we offer discounts for booking or hire more than one of them.

In what days activities take place?

Generally the tours can be any day. If you require a specific day of the week, you can find additional information on each tour. If the system allows you to make the booking, then there are excursion that day and places available.

How long in advance is required for booking?

The “in advance” time varies depending on the tour. You can find those requirements on each tour. During the summer holidays, Easter and weekends, the places fill up really quickly, so we recommend you to make the reservations in advance.

What is “price per group”?

In some private tours the price lies in the services of the vehicle and the guide, so that one person pays the same that a small group. Our offer in these cases has a single rate, regardless of how many people are part of the tour.

Does the tour I booked it is as a part of a group?

No. Our tours are private. You will travel independently on the regular transports, according to your choice (plane / bus / boat / car) and you will only be with small groups in the areas selected for local tours, which will give you the opportunity to meet different people during their stay in the region. We also have customized tours, individual travelers, which allow our flexible packages fit your needs and travel in an organized, planned or spontaneous, without being dragged by a group.

Can I join a group for excursions?

You can book for your own group. One of the main things our clients look for is precisely the possibility to enjoy of private tours. That’s why we do not form groups from different bookings. If you want to travel in groups, try to find partners and make only one reservation.

Some tours include hotel pick-up, would you pick up us even if we are not all in the same hotel?

There is no problem about that. We pick you up at your hotel and your companions in theirs, unless we are talking about two widely separated places. If you have any questions, please contact us about it before booking.

We travel with small time and want to do the tour on the day of our arrival, do you pick up us at the airport?

Usually there is no problem for that, especially if you are going to stay more days in the region. If it is a one day round trip we recommend to consult us to plan the schedules and make our confirmation.

We are a large group and one vehicle may not be enough. What can we do?

If you intend to book for a large group we suggest you contact us to coordinate all the details, that we guarantee to solve.

We travel with small children, do you have special seats for them?

Yes, our suppliers take this into account and to many destinations is mandatory. Remember, when booking specify ages and any other necessary information about the children.

If I cannot be in time to the tour, would you wait for me?

The regular tours for groups always leave on time and we cannot change their schedules. For private tours, if you think you cannot be ready at the proposed time and it seems better to change, please contact us before booking.

Why am I being charged one euro / dollar for the booking?

For your payments we use the secure payment platform Paypal. To ensure the validity of the cards, Paypal made a transaction of one euro or dollar, which is returned immediately.

We want to travel to other cities, do you have tours on other sites?

Yes, we have! Please, contact us to provide you more information and set up the details for your new tours.

If your inquiries has not been clarified in this selection of frequently asked questions, you can contact us here. We will answer your questions within 24 hours.

Shortly before dawn, our drivers will check the weather and the most appropriate areas to fly. When sun start rising, we begin to inflate the balloons. While staff inflate you can take pictures of balloons and the wonderful landscapes of Cappadocia. Once the process of inflation finish, the pilot welcome you to the balloons.

You start to soar more and more … the adventure begins. There it is! … You are flying…!

We go where the wind takes us. The sky is layered on air currents, so that the pilot heats the air inside the balloon with the burner and uses the currents from different directions.

In the heights, discover a wonderful and spectacular view of Cappadocia with the sun just rising. You can take pictures and our team will be happy to take pictures of you on the balloon. So do not forget your camera, with enough film or available space.

Your hot air balloon flight will be approximately one hour. We will land in one of the many open fields of the area. Your pilot will begin the gentle descent when he finds a suitable landing place, where our ground staff will be waiting. After deflate and pack the balloon we will have a toast with champagne to celebrate the experience and we will give you a flight certificate. Finally, you will be transported from the landing point to your hotel. The experience lasts between 3-4 hours, so you will have the whole day to enjoy the many attractions of Cappadocia.

Son of Christians, St. George at early age served in the Roman army under Emperor Diocletian and was praised many times for his excellent service to the Empire. But soon appeared religious repression, for which the emperor summoned his top aides and made them engage in paganism. They all did, except for Saint George, who, according to history, stood in the middle of the room and confessed his devotion to Christianity, which cost him jail and continuous torture. It is said that the emperor himself subjected him to cruel tortures, asking the saint to sacrifice his beliefs for his life, but he was adamant and confessed to be willing to die for Christ, as his father did when he was little. After this reaffirmation of his faith, the story says that God spoke to him: “Do not fear, George, I’m with you” and since then, to no avail were tortures, or the sprocket, or the iron sandals or the water and lime well. Saint George unscathed from physical damage and surrounded by a sort of angelic aura.

In demand of one last big test of the existence of his God, Magnentios, one of the advisers of the Emperor, ordered him to perform a miracle. They passed near an ancient tomb and the Roman asked the Holy to resurrect the person buried there. After praying for a long time, the stone rolled away from and a man arose. The emperor asked him who he was and he said he had lived many years before Christ, but being an idolater, after his death he had being burning in the fires of hell for that long. According to the stories of St. George, after this great miracle many idolaters and pagans were converted to Christianity, including Athanasius, a famous magician, or the wife of the emperor. But nothing prevented that St. George was beheaded soon after.

Known for his miracles and great deeds to help people, there is a famous legend about St. George and a dragon. It is said that this dragon had threatened the idolaters of Athaliah, so that the inhabitants had been held behind the walls, leaving their homes, fields and crops and each year sacrificing a girl to appease the monster. When St. George came to this area, the king’s daughter was about to be sacrificed. After subjecting the dragon, St. George put a rope around his neck and handed it to the princess, who drove the beast back to the city, where many were baptized and converted to Christianity.

It is believed that this myth came from the Saint own icon, that represents the Equestrian murder of a fearsome dragon with a princess in the background. The first image-makers of St. George might have tried to show Satan as the dragon, and St. George overcoming evil, although other interpretations suggest that the figure of the dragon refers to the emperor Diocletian and the princess to his wife Alexandra, converted to Christianity after witnessed the miracles of St. George.

When the Crusaders traveled through the Byzantine Empire, they found this icon and from it recreated the legend. In fact, it is thought that this holy icon is miraculous itself, so St. George fame was spread throughout the East and the Crusaders devotion to the Saint was brought to Europe. Thus, St. George of Cappadocia, recreated in several of the frescoes of the caved churches of this magical region, became the patron of countries like England, Syria and Lebanon, among others, and is venerated by Anglican, Orthodox and Muslims.

In one of these cities, Derinkuyu, buried up to 85 feet deep, -as far as I have understood, the biggest of all-, I ended up almost inadvertently, accompanying a group of tourist friends. The Cappadocia region never ceases to amaze me. You think you’ve seen it all, the valley, the churches, the fairy chimneys, the amazing landscape, and soon you find a whole underground city, with rooms, bathrooms, kitchens, dining rooms, warehouses, stores, chapels, graves and really great air vent system.

Logic tells us that the inhabitants of the region created these cities to be protected against severe weather and enemy attacks. From the surface no one could imagine there was so many people down there. No doubts about it, it was an excellent hiding place. “The houses were built underground, and the entrances were like wells that widened below. They had tunnels dug for the animals, while people descend by stairs. Among the houses were goats, sheep, cattle and poultry, together with their young … “wrote Xenophon.

Derinkuyu, meaning “Deep Well” features eight levels, connected by stairs and 53 air ducts. The original vent system still works perfectly and it is estimated that the city could accommodate about 20 thousand people.

As a particular case, Derinkuyu, in his first two floors beneath the surface hosted a missionary school, with two long tables made of rock, baptismal font, kitchens, homes, warehouses and even stables. In the third and fourth floors remained the hideouts and the armory and in the deeper floors there were wells, hidden corridors, a small church, tombs and a confessional. As a measure of maximum security, from the inside of the city they could blocked all the multiple entries with large stones, independently on each level.

Due to its complexity and to adapt to changing conditions, the underground cities were perfected and extended over time. Appears that while there was no danger people were living on the surface, but before any abnormal situation they went down to their perfect retreat; thus, most of the houses above were connected also to the underground city.

In fact, thanks to these connections, the city was found and rescued in 1963, when a resident of the area, bringing down one of the walls of his house, excavated in the rock as is customary in the region, discovered a mysterious unknown room, which led to another and then to another … he had rediscovered Derinkuyu, the largest of the underground cities of Cappadocia.

Although for me it was amazing, I would not recommend this tour to claustrophobics. Such labyrinthine shelters were built precisely for closure, for the fact of being buried away from danger and enemy invasions. There took over, for example, the early Christians persecuted by the Romans, and lived there for some time, so they were gradually accommodating site conditions to their needs.

Traveling through different levels of Derinkuyu, I could not think of anything else than hundreds of Cappadocian digging their tunnels, just with a ray of light, working to exhaustion to create a safer life underground.

Open- Air Museum

To the first canyon, you can access to the right by a path between the other two, through the Geyikli Kilise (the Church of the Deer), with paintings of a cross, fishes and deer. Particularly, fish paintings are very common in Cappadocia, and symbolize the faithful (called pisiculis), who became members of the church being baptized in the pool (L-shaped pond). The acrostic for the Greek word “Peces” (Fishes), formed the phrase Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. A cross in a circle with fishes on both sides, symbolizes the faithful who believed in Jesus Christ.

In the first canyon, to the left, there is a mosque, built from an old church. Towards the end of the canyon, two sides of rock embedded in a honeycomb of caves, houses, lofts, a monastery, storage rooms, chapels and tunnels that lead to the second canyon. It is recommended that visitors do not climb to the caves nor pass through tunnels.

The Uzumlu Kilise (Church of the grapes) and a living room with storage compartments and stone wheels to grind the beans are in the third canyon. Here, the grape juice is represented as the blood of Christ.

Nobody knows for sure when the underground cities of Cappadocia were built. Maybe in Hittite times or perhaps some of them as late as the sixth century A.D. It is a fact that there were already underground cities in the V century B.C., according to the Athenian historian Xenophon, in his “Anabasis”. So far 36 underground cities have been discovered, some of them recently. It is also estimated that, in most cases, they are all connected, but archeologists has not been able yet to locate these links.

The base of the cities consisted of tuff itself. The Cappadocians created large cities that were not noted from ground level. For vent pipes, they carved up to 85 meters (300 feet) into the rock and then made side holes at different levels and in all directions. They also carved a complex system of stairways and tunnels to connect all the layers to the surface.

They dug homes, bathrooms, kitchens, dining rooms, warehouses, cellars, chapels, tombs and so on. In dangerous times they were allowed to block the ways with large and solid stones in the strategic tunnels and camouflaged the entries from the surface.

Today, even in some modern houses, there are artificial holes leading to underground passages, most of them used as warehouses.

Yeralti Kaymakli Kenti (Kaymaklı Underground City)

With eight floors and an area of ​​approximately four square kilometers (1.5 square miles), this is one of the largest underground cities of Cappadocia. Visitors can watch only 10 percent of it, down to five floors. It is believed that it could accommodate about 3000 inhabitants and that it was connected with the nearby Derinkuyu. It was opened to the public in 1964.

Kenti Yeralti Derinkuyu (Derinkuyu Underground City)

Derinkuyu Underground City, which means “water well”; like Kaymakli, is one of the largest in Cappadocia. It was inaugurated in 1965. It is 70-85 meters (230-300 feet) deep and has 53 air ducts. The original ventilation system still works very well. This tour is not recommended for visitors who suffer from claustrophobia or restricted movement aversion, as there are many passages where you have to squat.

The first two floors below the surface hosted a missionary school with two long tables in the rock, a baptism place, kitchens, warehouses, rooms, wineries and stables. The third and fourth floors were for tunnels, hideouts and armories and the lower floors had water wells, hidden corridors, a church, graves and a place of confession.