Goreme Sunrise Balloon Flight, Cappadocia (Nazar Balloons)

Nazar Balloons sells two morning flights over Cappadocia, and this is the lower-priced one: a straight sunrise flight over the Goreme landscape, while the company's other product launches in the main flight area and costs more. Pickup is roughly an hour before the flight, from your hotel, in the dark. The driver hands out a snack pack on the way to the launch area, and the pilots use that drive to read the conditions and settle on a launch point, because the wind decides the route here and the pilot only decides where to start. You reach the field in time to watch the last of the inflation, the envelope filling and lifting off the ground. Take-off then waits on clearance from Turkish civil aviation, which controls the sectors and the daily launch count. The flight lasts about an hour over the valleys, with 100 or more balloons in the air alongside you on a clear morning. Landing is followed by a champagne celebration and a flight certificate, then the transfer back to your hotel. Dawn is the only permitted window, and between December and April the wind grounds balloons often enough that a cancelled morning is normal rather than bad luck.