Cappadocia (Turkey)

The dawn hot-air balloon flights are the signature experience, and yes, they're worth it: a hundred-plus balloons rising over the valleys as the light comes up is genuinely extraordinary. Book ahead in high season, fly on your first morning if possible (flights cancel in wind roughly one day in three, so you want backup days), and take the early slot regardless of the 4am pickup.

If flying isn't for you or the budget won't stretch, watching the launch is almost as good: the viewpoints above Göreme and the rooftop terraces of the cave hotels fill with tripods at 5:30am. Ask your hotel which valley the balloons are expected over that morning.

The Göreme Open-Air Museum is the essential sight: a cluster of rock-cut churches with superb Byzantine frescoes, the Dark Church being the best. Go at opening to beat the tour buses. Uçhisar Castle, the highest point in the region, gives the panorama.

For hiking, Rose and Red Valleys (a half-day loop from Göreme, best in late afternoon light) and Ihlara Valley (a canyon walk past rock churches, an hour's drive away) are the standouts. Love Valley and Pigeon Valley are shorter and closer. Trails are poorly signed; download an offline map.

Early Christian communities hid from raiders in multi-storey cities carved underground, and two of the best are open to visitors: Derinkuyu (the deepest, eight levels open) and Kaymaklı (wider, easier to navigate). They're an easy half-day trip south, and genuinely astonishing: ventilation shafts, wine presses, stables and chapels, all below ground.

Go early, and skip them entirely if you're claustrophobic; the passageways get low and narrow.

Stay in a cave hotel; it's the whole point. Göreme has the most choice and the restaurant strip, Ürgüp is smarter and quieter, Uçhisar has the views, and Ortahisar is the village-y budget option. Cave rooms are naturally cool in summer and warm in winter, and the rooftop terraces double as balloon-viewing platforms.

Evenings are low-key: this is a hiking-and-sunrise destination, not a nightlife one. The local testi kebab, a meat stew slow-cooked in a sealed clay pot that's cracked open at your table, is the dish to try.

Cappadocia pairs naturally with Istanbul: fly into Istanbul, spend three or four days there (our Istanbul guide covers the city in detail), then take the one-hour flight to Kayseri (ASR) or Nevşehir (NAV) for three nights among the chimneys. Night buses from Istanbul are the budget alternative but take 10 to 12 hours.

With more time, the Turquoise Coast around Antalya is a short flight or a long bus ride south, and eastern Turkey rewards the adventurous.