Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Flight over Goreme at Dawn

Count back an hour from take-off and that is when the morning starts. A driver collects you in the dark, hands over a snack pack for the road, and heads out towards the take-off area while the sky above Goreme is still black. Nothing lifts until the Turkish Civil Aviation authority releases the day's flights. Once that clearance comes through you are taken to the designated launch point, where the last stage of inflation is already under way, the envelope pulling taut as the burners fire. Then boarding, and roughly an hour in the air. The pilot works the valleys while the sun comes up, and the low light does the rest, throwing shadows across rock formations that look closer to lunar than Turkish. On a clear morning 100 or more balloons are up there with you. The champagne celebration and the flight certificate come once the basket is down. Dawn is the only slot Turkish regulations allow in Cappadocia, which is why the timing is this tight, and why a windy morning cancels the flight instead of pushing it back a few hours. Between December and April that happens often, so the earlier in a trip the booking sits, the more chances there are to fly.