6 Amazing Things To Do In Cappadocia Besides A Hot Air Balloon

Whether you came to Cappadocia for the famous hot air balloon ride and have some extra time, or you are here to explore one of the most eye-catching geographical regions in Turkey, there are plenty of great things to do while you’re here!

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We spent five days in Cappadocia exploring what I think is truly one of the most interesting places I’ve ever been. Hotels built into caves, open air museums, hot air balloons in the skies each morning, and questionably shaped rock formations… more on those later.

Not only is the region of Cappadocia incredibly geographically unique, there are also so many amazing things to see and do when you visit.

I want to share with you a few ideas of things to add to your itinerary that you can either do in place of a hot air balloon ride (if it isn’t quite in the budget) or in addition to it!

When my husband and I left for our 6 month trip to 18 countries, we knew that airfare would be one of the single largest individual costs of our trip. So, after a little bit of research, we found a way to get affordable flights all over the world: travel credit cards.

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The first note here that I need to make is that almost no flight is truly free, you do have to pay the taxes and fees. But, what if I told you I just bought a $6 flight from North Carolina, USA to Athens, Greece this week. Or that I’ve spent only $11 for me and Colton to fly from NC to Turkey?

Would you believe those numbers?

I never in a million years thought I could fly abroad for less than a few hundred dollars, and that’s if I somehow found an amazing deal!

It wasn’t until I came across travel credit cards and the world of points and miles that I understood how these serial travelers I was seeing everywhere were affording their flights.

The trick was, they were barely paying for them.

So, after tons of research, applying for credit cards, hitting bonuses, and of course getting everything in order to leave home for 6 months to travel, I bought our one way flights out of the country for $11.

How did we do it?

The world of points and miles, of course!

Let me tell you how we did it and give you the information you need to start earning free flights with your credit card!

Let me preface this with one statement: the world of points and miles is BIG and there is a lot that you honestly don’t need to know to just get started.

So, I’m going to give you the most necessary information to get you started and cut out all the fluff. Let’s go!

I promise you this is not a scam, because maybe that’s the first place your mind is headed when I say “free” flights.

In fact, paying with points and miles to purchase flights at insanely low prices is entirely legal, I promise!

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Fill out my Free Credit Card Consultation Form & I’ll email you personalized recommendations!

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Find them here!

What Are Points and Miles

Points and miles are the reward currency of airlines and hotels: aka loyalty points.

I’m not talking about the points you earn by flying with an airline repeatedly, that you only rack up over several years.

I’m talking about points and miles you earn just from having the credit card you already use!

Each bank or airline that offers credit cards with points and miles use them as an alternative currency for purchasing flights.

Many of the banks that offer travel credit cards have both airline and non-airline branded credit cards: a.k.a the airline the bank has partnered with offers airline miles as the sign up bonus, not credit card points. Those miles can only be used with that airline.

If you apply for a bank branded card with no airline association, you’ll earn points with that bank that can then be transferred to their airline or hotel partners.

How To Get Points And Miles With Travel Credit Cards?

The fastest way, and most likely reason why you’re wanting a travel credit card, is to earn points with a sign up bonus.

Most banks offer a sign up bonus of varying amounts after a certain amount of qualifying purchases on the card in the first few months.

It might sound something like this: “earn 60k bonus points when you spend $3,000 dollars on purchases in the first 4 months.” Yadah yadah.

But, you will also earn points while using your card on your everyday purchases! Some cards offer bonus categories, like 3x on grocery purchases, or 2x at restaurants, etc. So, when you spend money on your card, you’ll earn points in return that can be redeemed for various things, like flights or hotel stays.

Generally, if you’re wanting to redeem miles for flights or hotels, you’re going to need a good chunk of miles to do so.

You can purchase some domestic flights with as little as 8,500k points one way, but if you’re flying international, it will likely cost you 15k one way, at the very least.

Of course, the cost of award flights in points can greatly vary and is not always directly tied to the cash ticket price.

Other ways to earn points with travel credit cards include anniversary bonuses, giveaways, and transfer bonuses. These come and go and aren’t something I would rely on.

For the purposes of this post, which is all about a beginner’s guide to free flights with points and miles, sign up bonuses are your very best friend.

How Much Are Points and Miles Worth?

Not all points are created equal.

Some points are more valuable than others simply because you can transfer and redeem them in more ways.

Points and miles also get their value depending on the deal you get when redeeming them.

Let me give you an example scenario to explain…

For example, let’s say you have 75k Capital One miles and you want to fly from Atlanta, Georgia to Athens, Greece for an amazing holiday eating delicious Mediterranean food and swimming in crystal clear waters for 8 days.

These are the flights you’re looking at. They’ll take you to Greece during the best time to visit, late summer when it isn’t too crowded and not too hot.

You have a few options for how you can book these flights with points

Option 1: Redeem Points with a Travel Portal

Option 1 is to redeem your points through Capital One Travel and their online portal. When you do this, you’re going to get a fixed redemption rate of 1¢ per mile.

So your 75k miles would be worth $750 for travel. You could use those 75k miles to buy a flight worth up to $750 through the Capital One Travel portal. That’s over half of what this ticket is worth. So you would still have to pay about $390+ on top of your 75k miles for this ticket.

We can definitely do better than that!

Option 2: Transfer to a Partner

Option 2 would be to transfer your Capital One miles to one of their airline transfer partners, then book the flight on their website using your points.

If you did this, those 75k miles could become 75k FlyingBlue points (Air France & KLM’s loyalty program and one of Capital One’s transfer partners).

The same exact flight booked on Air France with cash would cost you $1,142.

But, you can transfer your points from Capital One and over to FlyingBlue, so now you have up to 75k FlyingBlue miles! Let’s use them!

If you use FlyingBlue to book the exact same flight, you would only need 30,000 miles and $208 in taxes & fees. Way better than using all 75k and only covering half of the cost!

And, instead of paying $1,142 out of pocket for a round trip ticket to Europe, you’re only paying $208 plus 30,000 points.

*you want to transfer only the amount of points you need. In this scenario, thats only 30k of the 75k.

In this scenario, you would be redeeming your Capital One points, through FlyingBlue, for 3.1cents per mile. Now that’s more like it!

This is why points can be so valuable and why transfer partners can be the best way to go when redeeming points.

I know that was a lot, so let me summarize if for you:

Out of pocket price for ticket Atlanta to Athens: $1142 on Air France/KLM
Price of same ticket booked through Capital One Travel: 75k miles + $392
Price of same ticket booked through FlyingBlue after transferring Capital One miles: 30,000 miles + $208 in taxes and fees.

You would come out of this deal with around 45k Capital One miles left in the bank. That’s enough to buy you another roundtrip flight to Europe.

Now THAT’S how we use points and miles to our advantage 🙂

RESOURCE: Free List of Transfer Partners & Airline Alliances + How to Use Them

*be sure to only transfer the points you need and no more so you can keep the extra points with your bank and transfer them elsewhere in the future*

How Do You Redeem Points And Miles For Flights?

The way that we typically redeem our points and miles is by using them to purchase flights. We do this by transferring our credit card points to transfer partners.

The scenario above is a great example of how we would use our points and miles to get amazing deals on flights.

Here is that chart again that I made to show you where you can transfer points based on what program you’ve accumulated points with.

The process of transferring points can be a bit complicated, but I’m going to help you out here.

Here is the basic rundown of how to redeem your points for flights:

Accumulate points on your credit card
Research credit card airlines transfer partners
Search Google Flights or Skyscanner to find flight routes
Search for award flights on airline transfer partners
Find desired flights and see how many points/money required to book them
Create a frequent flier account with airline if you don’t already have one
Transfer points on your bank’s website to transfer partner of choice
Book those flights!!

To use the example from above, I would find the flights I want and make sure I have enough points to pay for them. Then, I would log into Capital One and go to the Capital One Travel portal to transfer my points to FlyingBlue. Once my points were transferred, I would buy my flights!

The real trick is finding award flight availability and the deals that are out there waiting to be had! It takes a little bit of time and practice but you’ll get the gist!

What Travel Credit Cards Are Best?

For me to answer this question, you’ll need to ask yourself a question first: what are your goals?

Are you looking to cover some international long haul flights? Maybe you’re an avid domestic traveler and would like to cover a few legs of travel for your upcoming trips. Would you like to stay in nice hotels for just the cost of fees?

It’s good to look at the options and decide what you think will work best for your goals!

If you want to cover some flights, I would find a card that has great travel benefits and flexible rewards. If you’re more interested in hotel stays, get a hotel branded card!

You can find my favorite travel credit cards and all the information about them on my
Travel Credit Cards Recommendations page.

Want my help choosing a travel credit card?
Fill out my Free Credit Card Consultation Form & I’ll email you personalized recommendations!

“Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.”

How Long Do You Need To Enjoy Cappadocia?

My husband and I spent 5 days in Göreme, the most popular spot to stay in Cappadocia. In that time we were able to do a lot and see much of the town we stayed in.

When people refer to Cappadocia, they’re often referring to the 5 towns of Göreme, Nevşehir, Uçhisar, Ürgüp, and Ortahisar. But, there are many other small towns in the area as well.

Because we stayed in Göreme, that is where I recommend you stay and where most of the activities I’ll be sharing are easily located from

I think that 3 days is enough to do the main activities in Cappadocia, but ideally you would want to stay for at least 4 or 5 days to fully enjoy it.

If you’re planning your trip to Turkey, check out these other blog posts:

How To Get Here

Cappadocia is fairly easy to get to, and you have a few options to choose from to get you there depending on your budget and itinerary.

Fly to Kayseri

Flying from Istanbul or another spot in Turkey is definitely the easiest way to get to Cappadocia.

You can fly to Kayseri on Turkish Airlines or one of the local budget airlines like Pegasus (which we enjoyed and had a great experience with!)

We flew into Kayseri from Antalya, then flew to Istanbul from Kayseri at the end of our trip. It was definitely the fastest way to get around in Turkey, and affordable within our budget as well.

Once you arrive in Kayseri, you can hire a transfer to drive you to your hotel in Göreme or whichever town you chose to stay in. Our hotel offered us a transfer when we booked, and we figured this was the easiest way to get there from the airport.

If you are wanting to save some money, you can also get a taxi at the airport and likely save a few bucks. Definitely the least expensive option will be taking the bus from the airport to Göreme. You can book this bus with Flixbus, which is a great company for bus travel in Turkey!

However, I think setting up a transfer with your hotel is by far the simplest way to do it.

Take a Bus

A more budget friendly option is to take a bus to Cappadocia from your starting destination.

If you decide to take this option, the typical bus ride is about 13 hours from Istanbul to Göreme and 9 hours from Antalya.

A popular option is to take the overnight bus from Istanbul or Antalya to Cappadocia, then back to Istanbul.

This way, you aren’t missing out on valuable day time to explore. Plus, we’ve been told that this overnight bus is quite comfortable!

We did take a Flixbus once while in Turkey and it was a comfortable experience. The buses are very nice and Flixbus is such a large company that the service standards mean you’re going to have a good experience..

What To Do In Cappadocia

Alright, into the great activities that Cappadocia has to offer other than a hot air balloon ride!

Like I said before, many of these activities are most easily accessible from Göreme, so we recommend you use the town as a jumping off point for these activities.

Open Air Museums

The region of Cappadocia has an incredibly interesting history. In particular, we found the open air museums to be fascinating.

There are two main museums to check out, though the Göreme Open Air Museum is the most popular. The other to check out is the Zelve Open Air Museum, just outside of town.

Essentially, these museums are outside, and you are exploring settlements that were built into the soft rock that the region is well known for. Most of these communities were settled by Christians in the Byzantine era, then later used by Ottomans and Turks.

Here are a few quick hit facts:

There were people living in the rock caves up until the 1950’s, when they were relocated by the Turkish government out of fear that the structures were not safe to occupy.
Part of the UNESCO World Heritage list as of 1984.
About 600 churches have been uncovered in the region, with many more suspected to have not been found yet.

Entrance fees: 15-50 lira per person.

It seems to me from what I have found on the internet that the entrance fees can change based on the time of year or day of the week, but be prepared to spend around 50 lira per person, which is a few US dollars.

Horseback Ride

Another very fun activity to do while in Cappadocia is a sunset horseback ride through the valley and up to a lookout.

We highly recommend riding with The Dalton Brothers. We felt that the horses were very well taken care of and the experience was really fun!

The price listed online is €35, however I believe you can negotiate a slightly lower price at the office located in Göreme, which is a short walk from the middle of town. We actually stopped by on our way back from the open air museums.

They have lots of options for the time of day and duration of your ride, but we really enjoyed the sunset ride.

horseriding things to do in cappadocia turkey

We were led through the valleys and incredible rock formations, then led up to the top of a lookout to watch the sunset. There was a snack cart and refreshing drinks for purchase at the top.

The horses were adorable, and it was an incredibly relaxing experience!

ATV Tour

ATV tours are very popular in Cappadocia, and we saw groups of riders heading out to explore at all times of the day.

Though I am mentioning this possible activity as something you could do while in Cappadocia, I don’t recommend it at the top of the list of things to do.

Not only is the ATV noise incredibly disruptive in town, they are also destructive to the local environment. On top of that it’s a much more dangerous way to see Cappadocia, as there are often people in the group operating these large vehicles with little to no experience.

So, those are some reasons to maybe reconsider your ATV ride in Cappadocia, if those things don’t quite sit right with you.

However, if you do decide to take an ATV tour, choose a company that you feel comfortable with and be very careful!

Hike Love Valley

Remember how I said that some of the rock formations in Cappadocia are… questionable? Well, welcome to the Valley of Love.

Love Valley gets its name from the overtly phallic rock formations that it is so famous for.

Love Valley in Cappadocia, things to do in Cappadocia

You can’t unsee it!

It is possible to walk to the valley from Göreme where you can then hike through the, um, towers…

If you’re looking for directions, I’ve added the coordinates for the trailhead to the map at the top of this post!

Hunt for Turkish Rugs

Turkey is obviously famous for Turkish rugs. They are colorful, handmade, and one of a kind. Though we weren’t in the market for a rug to take back home with us, we wanted to see what all of the hype was about.

Well, as it turns out, there are some spots in Cappadocia where you can pay to take pictures with rugs. Yes, I really mean that.

There are some very popular photo opportunities made famous by instagrammers back in the height of the late 2010’s when curated travel photos were the backbone of Instagram.

So, now you can pay to have someone take your picture in these rug shops that cater to photo tourists.

And look, if you desperately want one of these pictures, knock yourself out. We, however, decided to forego the photo op and find some Turkish rugs for ourselves.

looking for turkish rugs is one of the best things to do in cappadocia

After wandering around Göreme for a while, we realized there are a lot of rug shops, and to find out whether or not one is a tourist trap, just walk in and scope it out.

We ended up finding a few that were just regular old rug stores, and we got to walk around and admire the beauty of such artwork.

The nice thing is, this can be an entirely free activity, unless you of course decide to purchase a rug for your place back home!

Watch the Sunrise/Sunset From a Viewpoint

There are a few very popular viewpoints in Göreme, either to watch hot air balloons take to the skies in the morning, or watch the sunset bathe Cappadocia in soft orange light.

We walked up to the highest point in Göreme to watch the sunset on our last night in Cappadocia, and it did not disappoint. This would also be an incredible spot to watch the balloons in the morning.

things to do in Cappadocia, watch the sunset in Cappadocia

Just note that this spot does get fairly busy and you will have to pay to access the viewpoint. While it is a small amount, be sure to keep some lira on you because they collect cash.

We didn’t have any cash on us, and a super kind Turkish man who worked near the ‘tollbooth’ offered to pay for us to get in because he wanted us to see the sunset. This is why I say the Turkish people are some of the nicest people we’ve ever met!

The viewpoint is located at the very top of a road called Aydan Kiragi, and I’ve also listed it on the map that accompanies this post, located at the top and bottom of the page.

You can also always ask your hotel concierge or one of your guides for any activities you do where they recommend that you watch the sunrise/sunset! The locals will always know the best spots!

Where To Stay In Cappadocia

I recommend that you stay in Göreme if you can. It is affordable and centrally located, with most of the hot air balloon rides and other activities starting from here.

There are a ton of AMAZING hotels in Göreme. The best thing to do when here is stay in a cave hotel built right into the rocks. Luckily, there are options for every budget!

Luxury: Sultan Cave Suites OR Şah Saray Cave Suites Halal Hotel

Mid-Range: Göreme Valley Cave House

Budget: The Dorm Cave by Travelers

Where We Stayed: Maron Stone House

Where To Eat

Dinner: Organic Cave Kitchen

Wester Style Coffee Shop: Hopper Coffee House

6 things to do in cappadocia turkey that aren't a hot air balloon ride

6 amazing things to do in cappadocia turkey

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