Small-Group Full-Day Cappadocia Tour with Goreme Open-Air Museum

Start the day with a pickup from your hotel at 9:30am or, if you've selected the option, a pre-sunrise hot air balloon tour at 4am. Visit Devrent Valley, also known as Imagination Valley, one of the most surreal looking landscapes in Cappadocia. The next stop will be Pasabagi, also known as Monks Valley, where Christian hermits chose to build Hermit Cells and churches in these 3-headed pinnacles, symbolic of the Holy Trinity. It is possible to see all stages of the fairy chimneys from this spot.

Then proceed to the pottery center of Cappadocia, Avanos, a village set on the banks of the Kizikirmak/Red River. The river gets its name from the red clay deposits. Here, you can watch the potters at work using the traditional kick wheels, a technique that has remained unchanged for generations. Lunch will be served in a local restaurant.

After lunch, you'll continue on to the Göreme Open Air Museum, where important Byzantine cave-churches can be found in these once remote valleys, where monks and nuns pursued their monastic 3rd century life. Here, you will see the preserved Byzantine cave wall paintings and frescos from the Iconoclastic period through to the end of Selçuk rule. Icons with scenes from the Old and New Testament can be seen above portraits of saints and church Fathers depicting the structure of the Byzantine Empire.

Next, you'll head to the panoramic viewpoint of Esentepe, with its spectacular view of Göreme Valley and Göreme Village.

End your day with a visit to Uchisar Castle, a tall rock being the highest point in the Göreme region.

At approximately 4:30pm you will head back to your air-conditioned coach where you'll be driven back to your hotel.