Cappadocia Hot Air Balloon Ride, Sunrise Morning Flight

Cappadocia is one of the few places in the world where you can balloon almost all year round. Most ballooning regions close down for entire seasons. Here the conditions allow launches across the calendar, which is a large part of why the region logs more balloon flights than any other. Weather still has the final say each morning: flights get away on roughly 250 to 300 of the mornings in a year, with December to April the period when cancellations pile up. The flight crosses the fairy chimneys, the valleys and the settlements of Cappadocia, with orchards and gardens under the basket. Insurance during the flight is included in your ticket. The operator states that its pilots have completed a full training programme and hold licences from the General Directorate of Civil Aviation, the same authority that keeps daily launches across the region to around 150, and describes its safety record as a strong one. A January flight and a June flight are not the same morning. Sunrise sets the schedule, so take-off moves through the year, later in winter and earlier in summer. What stays constant is the light. Balloons go up at first sun, which means the eroded cones and the cliffside cave houses come out of shadow while you are already above them, and the shadows are still long enough to show every ridge on the valley floor.