Turkey is generally pretty affordable however (there’s always a however), we decided to splurge on the famous Cappadocia sunrise hot air balloon ride, which ran us $220 per person. Ouch. But…I’d say it was worth every penny! 

When looking for vendors for this activity, prices will vary. I’d recommend making sure you take off at sunrise (not after) and with the rest of the balloon pack. The coolest part about the whole experience is the sheer number of balloons floating around you! We noticed some companies (I don’t know how much they charge but I can imagine they might have lower rates) take off further out to the side, and some take off while most have already gone up and back down.

Additionally, watching the balloons from land is an insane experience itself. Some even say they prefer that to being up in the balloon itself. I was very pleasantly surprised at how affordable some of the “cave hotels” were. 

We also traveled fairly quickly through Turkey which never helps the budget. 

Some notes:

– Lodging was our most expensive category at $780. Our hotel prices ranged from $60/night to $95/night. The $95/night was at a “nicer” cave hotel in Cappadocia. We wanted to try out two different cave hotels in two different areas to see if there was any difference. Would recommend staying in Goreme to watch the hot air balloons in the morning from your hotel balcony.

– Our second highest category was flights at $576. Flying to Turkey costed us $355. We also had 2 domestic flights that were both $111 (Istanbul to Kayseri and Antalya to Istanbul. We took a bus from Capadoccia to Antalya)

– The entire activities category is the hot air balloon ride.

Everything we did while in Turkey can be found in our Turkey Itinerary.

Click here to see what we spent in Georgia.