Cappadocia With Kids
Balloons by the hundred at sunrise, a hotel room carved into a cliff, valleys of stone cones to climb through and a city dug eight floors underground. Cappadocia is the three nights in Turkey the kids will still be talking about at Christmas.
Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel
Is Cappadocia good for kids?
Yes, from about age 6. Balloons at sunrise, cave hotels with pools, valleys with rocks shaped like animals, an underground city with tunnels, pottery on a wheel and short horse rides. Younger children enjoy it too but cannot fly in the balloons.
How many days do you need in Cappadocia?
Three nights for the balloons, the valleys, Uçhisar and an underground city. Four if you add the Ihlara Valley day.
How old do kids have to be for a hot air balloon in Cappadocia?
Most companies take children from age 6 or 7, and they need to be tall enough to see over the basket. Rules vary by operator, so check before booking and have a terrace plan for anyone too small.
How do you get to Cappadocia from Istanbul?
By plane in about 80 minutes to Kayseri or Nevşehir, then an hour or 40 minutes by shuttle or hotel transfer to Göreme. Several flights a day from both Istanbul airports.
When is the best time to visit Cappadocia?
April, May, September and October for cool mornings, clear balloon weather and hikeable valleys. Summer is hot but reliable for balloons. Winter is snowy and quiet with more cancellations.
The Valley Of Stone Cones
Volcanoes covered this corner of central Turkey in soft rock millions of years ago, and wind and water carved it into the cones, ridges and mushrooms the Turks call fairy chimneys. People have been hollowing them out for 3,000 years, as homes, churches, pigeon lofts and whole underground cities to hide in, and today the same rock holds the hotels. Göreme, the village in the middle, is the base, with the balloons going up over it at dawn. Istanbul is 80 minutes away by plane and a different world.
Three nights covers the balloon morning, the Göreme open air museum and the valleys, Uçhisar Castle, an underground city and a pottery afternoon in Avanos. Four adds the Ihlara Valley.
Getting Around
A car or a driver. The sights are spread over 15 miles of valleys and small villages, and the roads are quiet and easy. Göreme itself is on foot. Hotels arrange airport transfers and most families book one day with a driver and guide for the underground city and the valleys.
Neighborhoods worth basing in
Göreme
The village in the middle of it all, with cave hotels up every slope, the balloons rising over the rooftops at dawn, restaurants and shops on the main street and the Open Air Museum a 20 minute walk. The base for a first visit and the easiest with kids.
Uçhisar
The village on the hill with the rock castle on top and big views over the whole of Cappadocia, 10 minutes from Göreme. Quieter and more upscale, with some of the finest cave hotels and Pigeon Valley at the bottom of the garden. Better for a family who wants calm evenings.
Ürgüp
The small town 15 minutes east, with a wider choice of hotels, more restaurants and a real Turkish town around you. Less of the postcard, more space, and the same distance to the valleys.
Museum Hotel
The cave hotel on the edge of Uçhisar with antiques in every room, a heated pool looking over the whole valley and breakfast as the balloons float past. The splurge in Cappadocia and the one I book for a celebration.
Sultan Cave Suites
The cave hotel on the hill in Göreme with the rooftop terrace that is in so many photos, where breakfast is served as the balloons rise. Big cave rooms, a pool and the village at the bottom of the steps.
Kelebek Special Cave Hotel
A family run cave hotel in Göreme with a pool, a hammam, rooms carved into the rock and a terrace over the village. Good value, warm staff and a fairy chimney room the kids will fight over.
The Three I Build Every Cappadocia Trip Around
The balloons and Göreme
On a clear morning as many as 150 balloons go up over the valleys before sunrise, and the whole sky fills with them. Fly if the kids are big enough, most companies take children from 6 or 7 and the ride is an hour of drifting over the chimneys with a champagne toast at the end for the grown ups. If not, watch from a hotel terrace or the hill above Göreme with a cup of tea, which is nearly as good and free. Then walk to the Göreme Open Air Museum, a cluster of rock churches with 1,000 year old frescoes.
The valleys and the fairy chimneys
Paşabağ, the Monks Valley, has the tallest fairy chimneys, mushroom capped cones you can walk right up to and into. Devrent, the Imagination Valley next door, is where the kids spot the rocks shaped like a camel, a seal and a dolphin. Love Valley and the Red and Rose Valleys have the hiking trails, easy and flat for the first mile and full of hidden cave churches. Go in the morning or at sunset, when the rock turns pink and the heat is gone.
Uçhisar Castle and the underground cities
Uçhisar Castle is a huge rock riddled with rooms and tunnels, the highest point in Cappadocia, and the climb to the top is 10 minutes of stairs for a view over every valley. Twenty minutes south, Derinkuyu is an underground city that went eight floors deep, with stables, chapels, wells and rolling stone doors, carved to hide thousands of people from invaders. Kids go down the narrow passages and love it, parents duck. Kaymaklı is the shallower, easier one for small children.
Family Time, Built In: Cappadocia With Kids
Cappadocia with kids is balloons at dawn, a bedroom in a cave, rocks shaped like camels, a city underground, pottery on a wheel and a kebab smashed open at dinner.
Finding the camel rock in Devrent Valley
The tunnels of Derinkuyu underground city
Throwing a pot on the wheel in Avanos
Sleeping in a cave room
PARK & DOWNTIME PICK
Avanos, 20 minutes from Göreme on the red river, has been making pottery for 4,000 years and the workshops put kids on a kick wheel with a lump of clay and a potter at their shoulder. It is the hands on afternoon. The hotel pools are the downtime, because many cave hotels have one, and the valleys are the playground, flat trails in the Red Valley and rocks to scramble at Paşabağ. Horse riding through the valleys is the other favorite, with short rides for small kids.
Five Things To Eat In Cappadocia
Turkish breakfast
Gözleme from the griddle
Baklava and Turkish delight
Dondurma, the stretchy ice cream
Çay and Turkish coffeeNicole’s Perspective
The three nights I add to an Istanbul trip
Istanbul is the city, and Cappadocia is the part of Turkey the kids remember. I put three nights here in the middle of a Turkey trip, fly in from Istanbul in the morning and have the family on a hotel terrace watching balloons the next day. The cave hotels alone are worth the flight.
I book the balloon for the first morning so there is a second chance if the wind cancels it, a driver for the underground city and the valleys on day two, and Avanos pottery on the last afternoon. Testi kebab, the stew cooked in a sealed clay pot and cracked open at the table, is the dinner the kids ask to repeat. Ages 6 and up is where this trip works best.
The Day Trip: Ihlara Valley
An hour and a quarter southwest, the Ihlara Valley is a canyon 300 feet deep with a river at the bottom, poplar trees, and rock churches carved into the cliffs along a flat shaded trail. Walk down the 400 steps at the Ihlara village end, follow the river for an hour or two past the painted churches, and come out at Belisırma, where restaurants put tables in the river and the kids dangle their feet in the water over lunch. Pair it with Derinkuyu underground city on the way, since both are south, and the Selime monastery carved into the cliff at the far end of the valley. A full day with a driver, back in Göreme for sunset.
Things I Would Tell A Friend Before They Booked
How Many Days
Three nights covers the balloons, the valleys, Uçhisar and an underground city. Four adds the Ihlara Valley.
The balloon and the Open Air Museum on day one, Uçhisar, Derinkuyu and the valleys with a driver on day two, Avanos pottery and a sunset hike on day three.
Add the Ihlara Valley canyon walk with lunch in the river at Belisırma and the Selime monastery, or a horse ride through the Rose Valley at sunset.
Four nights in Istanbul for the mosques, the bazaar and the Bosphorus, the morning flight to Kayseri, three nights in a cave hotel, and home from Istanbul. Nine days, two Turkeys, and the balloons in the middle.
Cappadocia With Kids, Answered
Is Cappadocia good for kids?
Yes, from about age 6. Balloons at sunrise, cave hotels with pools, valleys with rocks shaped like animals, an underground city with tunnels, pottery on a wheel and short horse rides. Younger children enjoy it too but cannot fly in the balloons.
How many days do you need in Cappadocia?
Three nights for the balloons, the valleys, Uçhisar and an underground city. Four if you add the Ihlara Valley day.
How old do kids have to be for a hot air balloon in Cappadocia?
Most companies take children from age 6 or 7, and they need to be tall enough to see over the basket. Rules vary by operator, so check before booking and have a terrace plan for anyone too small.
How do you get to Cappadocia from Istanbul?
By plane in about 80 minutes to Kayseri or Nevşehir, then an hour or 40 minutes by shuttle or hotel transfer to Göreme. Several flights a day from both Istanbul airports.
When is the best time to visit Cappadocia?
April, May, September and October for cool mornings, clear balloon weather and hikeable valleys. Summer is hot but reliable for balloons. Winter is snowy and quiet with more cancellations.
Ready To Put Cappadocia On The Calendar
Send me your dates and your kids’ ages and I will set Cappadocia into your Turkey trip, book the cave hotel and the balloon with a backup morning, and line up the driver for the underground city.
Keep exploring from Cappadocia
Nearby places and the whole region.
Click any card to open that page
Zoom out
All of Europe
Turkey