Best Things to Do in Cappadocia

This list runs roughly from the essential to the optional. Most first visits should mix a few from the top with at least one long walk from the middle.

1. A balloon flight at sunrise. The reason many people come. Our balloon guide explains booking, safety and cancellations.
2. Watch the balloons from the ground. Free, and on a calm morning nearly as memorable. Walk up to the ridge above Göreme or stand on your hotel terrace at first light.
3. Göreme Open Air Museum. A monastic valley of rock-cut churches with frescoes from roughly the 10th to 12th centuries. Pay extra for the Dark Church. Full details in our museum guide.
4. Rose Valley and Red Valley. Pink and red rock ridges with hidden churches along the path, including the Column Church. Walk in during the afternoon and time it to finish at the viewpoint for sunset.
5. Love Valley. The tallest, strangest fairy chimneys in the region. The view from the rim is famous, but the walk along the valley floor is better.
6. An underground city. Derinkuyu or Kaymaklı, eight storeys and four storeys deep. We compare them in our underground cities guide.
7. Uçhisar Castle. A rock outcrop riddled with rooms. The climb to the top is short and steep, and from the summit you see most of Cappadocia laid out below.
8. Paşabağ. Also called Monks Valley, with multi-headed fairy chimneys where hermits once lived. Small and crowded, so go early.
9. Zelve. Three valleys of abandoned cave houses, lived in until the 1950s. Quieter than Göreme and less about frescoes, more about how people lived.
10. Ihlara Valley. A green canyon with a stream, poplar trees and churches in the cliffs, about an hour and a half south-west. Pair it with Selime Monastery.
11. Pottery in Avanos. Workshops along the river still use kick wheels. Many will let you try. Some are basically showrooms with a demonstration, so don't feel pressured to buy.
12. Mustafapaşa. A former Greek village near Ürgüp with carved stone house fronts and hardly any tour buses.
13. Pigeon Valley. An easy walk between Uçhisar and Göreme, lined with old dovecotes cut into the rock. Farmers used the droppings as fertiliser for their vineyards.

A note on ATV and horse tours at sunset: fun, but loud and dusty, and they follow the same tracks walkers use in Red and Rose valleys. If you want the quiet version of that view, walk.