Goreme Hot Air Balloon Flight, Cappadocia Fairy Chimneys

Balloon prices in Goreme move, and the operator is unusually open about why. Early reservations are quoted on dynamic pricing, so booking well ahead shields you from the increases that follow whenever the balance between supply and demand tips. Closer to the flight date the opposite can happen too, with competition pulling prices down. The operator covers that case with a money back guarantee: if the price has dropped by the day of your flight, part of what you paid comes back to you. The flight itself is over Goreme and the valleys around it, which is the detail to check before comparing quotes. Çat Valley is 30 km away from Goreme and has only three or four balloons flying there in total. Above Goreme the sky works differently: more balloons go up here than anywhere else on the planet, Turkish civil aviation caps the sky at 100 balloons airborne at once, and the fairy chimneys and eroded valleys sit directly below the basket. Pick-up depends on where you sleep. Hotels in Goreme, Uçhisar and Çavuşin are collected 30 minutes before take-off, with breakfast packs handed out on the drive. From Nevşehir, Ürgüp, Mustafapaşa or Nar the car comes an hour earlier. Time in the air over Goreme Valley is one hour. Launches are dawn-only and hostage to wind and visibility: in a normal year the fleet gets up on between 250 and 300 mornings, with the blank days concentrated from December to April.