We took the high speed (4.5 hours) train to Ankara from Istanbul.
It departed from Sogutlucesme station and cost 370 tl
We purchased these tickets, plus our other train tickets from Ankara to Kayseri
and Kayseri to Erzulum two days before leaving Istanbul at Sogutlucesme station.
We needed our passports to buy the tickets. It took about an hour.
We stayed the night in Ankara and then got the train to Kayseri. (8 hours).
This train has 4 person compartments but men and women, even husband and wife
cannot travel in the same compartment unless you buy all 4 seats. We did.
The ticket was 505 tl per seat, so we paid 2,020 tl.
There were fold-down beds and the attendant came along with sheets, pillows, blankets
and pillow cases. There was also a standard euro 2 pin power outlet in the cabin.
We stayed the night in Goreme and then tried to get a bus to the bus station next day.
The bus station is 9km out of town and almost no city buses go there so we took a taxi.
That taxi ride cost us 370 tl.
We could have taken the taxi all the way to Goreme for about 2500 tl
but wanted to save money and also have the bus experience.
The bus to Goreme cost 120 tl and took an hour.
We stayed two nights at the Terra Cave hotel in Goreme. Quite expensive but fantastic.
Our pre-booked 4.30am taxi to Love Valley to watch the balloons was a no-show by 4.45am
The night receptionist drove us up there in his own car.
Well worth it and for a while we were almost alone.
Then at about 5.15am, buses appeared and 2,000 people spoiled the whole tranquilty.
We walked back to Goreme which took about an hour.
It was a fine walk and great way to see many balloons land on their trailers.
The next morning we watched the balloons from our hotel roof top terrace, pictured above.
We didn’t take a balloon flight but there were 25 people per balloon who had paid 300 Euro each.
The price was a bit higher than normal because the weather had stopped them flying the past three days.
There must have been 150 balloons in the air, so this is BIG business here.
