Worth getting up at Dawn? Sunrise in Cappadocia

When our alarm went off at dawn, I seriously wondered if this would be worth it.  Did I really want to really want to crawl out from under this wonderful, warm, down comforter pull on gloves and a beanie and trek up a hill?  “Hell, no!” my cold hating, sleep loving body answered.  Really, on vacation, you are dragging me out of bed at dawn?  Well, I decided not to listen to my body, and hauled myself out of bed.  Todd was experiencing the same issues as me – he was very unhappy that this dawn calling did not include coffee!  Once we walked out the door from our cave room, the fresh, crisp air sure woke me up.  Todd struggled a bit more!

Now what?

Up the hill we went to head to the viewing spot to see the balloons rise over Cappadocia.  Well the trek wasn’t nearly as bad as we anticipated because our hotel was already halfway up the hill!  Had we been on the other side of town, it would have added another whole 10 minutes to our hike!

Balloon Lift Off

So was it worth it?

Wow!  It was absolutely amazing.  Totally worth it.  I actually considered getting up the next morning to see them again, but the bed won this time!

So what was so cool?

Well, if you check out this video it will give you a better idea of the “pre-party”!  Sort of reminded me of playing with Lite-Brite as a kid.  You have this dark background and as soon as you poke one of those pegs through it, there is amazing colored light.  Well it was really similar to that.  We were up on a hill overlooking the valley as they were starting to fill up the balloons.  It was still pretty dark, so you couldn’t see too many details.  But all of a sudden one of the balloons would light up.  Then it would go dark and the one next to it would light up.  Gradually they would then start to lift off the ground.  It was really beautiful!  Once they were all up there were at least 60 balloons in the air!

Did we ride in a balloon?

Well I do hate to disappoint you, but no we didn’t.  The biggest reason?  I am a huge chicken!  As I saw the balloons floating up into the air, I thought, that could be really amazing.  Then they continued floating up higher and higher, and I thought, wow, that looks really terrifying.  I was reminded later that day that whether you fell from 40 feet or 400 feet the result would probably be the same…Well, I decided that thought was definitely not going to convince me to get in that little basket!  Another reason – about $200 per person!  Decided we would prefer to spend our travel dollars at a more leisurely pace.

Tips

If you do decide to ride in one of the balloons we did hear a few tips from people who did do it:

1. Don’t book through your hotel.  We spoke with a couple who were able to save about $60 per person just by negotiating directly with the balloon company.

2. If you are there in October, the second morning flight is best apparently.  Why? More light to see things!  In the summer, first morning flight is best.

3. Everyone we talked to loved it – so if you have ever wanted to ride in a hot air balloon, this would be an amazing place to do it.

4. Go with one of the more expensive, trusted companies.  Apparently, their pilots have more experience.  For obvious safety reasons this is important, but also the better pilots fly closer to the ground so you can see things a lot better.  The less experienced pilots head straight up to the higher elevations and your view isn’t nearly as good.

What do ya think? Would you ride in a hot air balloon or are you a chicken like me?