Cappadocia Red Tour
The famous north loop: Göreme Open Air Museum, Uçhisar, Devrent, Paşabağ and Avanos — done privately, and timed to miss the coaches.
The southern route
Cappadocia Green Tour
Eight storeys underground at Derinkuyu, a river walk through the Ihlara gorge, and a monastery so big it has a cathedral inside a rock.
- TÜRSAB licensed agency No. 15746
- No prepayment to enquire
- Free cancellation up to 48 hours before
- Skip-the-line entrance included
Tour overview
The day Cappadocia goes underground and then very green
The Green Tour is the other half of Cappadocia, and it surprises people. After a morning spent crawling through a city carved eight storeys into the earth, you come up into the Ihlara Valley — a green river gorge with poplars, a stream you can hear from the rim, and Byzantine chapels cut into the cliffs on both sides. It does not look like the same country, let alone the same region.
It is a longer day than the Red Tour with more time in the vehicle, because the distances are real: Derinkuyu is about 40 minutes from Göreme, Ihlara another 45 beyond that. Going privately means the driving is comfortable and the stops are yours to stretch or shorten.
Two honest warnings, because we would rather you knew now. The underground city passages are low and narrow in places — if you are strongly claustrophobic, say so and we will plan around it. And the Ihlara walk is about 4 km on a mostly flat riverside path, but it begins with a long staircase down into the gorge.
Highlights
- Derinkuyu Underground City — the deepest excavated underground city in Cappadocia
- The Ihlara Valley walk beside the Melendiz river, past cliff chapels still holding their paint
- Selime Monastery, a rock-cut cathedral complex on a scale that stops conversation
- Pigeon Valley and the dovecotes that fed the vineyards for centuries
- Lunch and a local artisan visit beside the river in Belisırma
- Long views over the Nevşehir plateau on the drive back
Step by step
How the Green Tour day runs
Pickup and the drive south
We collect you around 09:00. The road out of Göreme climbs onto the plateau and the landscape flattens into farmland — this is the fertile volcanic soil that made the region worth hiding under in the first place.
Derinkuyu Underground City
Around an hour underground. Wells, ventilation shafts, stables, a wine press, a chapel and the great round millstone doors that could only be moved from the inside. Only a fraction is open to visitors, and that fraction is still eight levels deep.
The Ihlara Valley
Down the staircase into the gorge and a walk of roughly 4 km beside the Melendiz. Chapels appear in the cliff walls — the Church Under the Tree, the Snake Church — some of them decorated in a style much closer to Syria and Egypt than to Constantinople.
Lunch and a local artisan visit
A proper sit-down lunch by the river at Belisırma, roughly halfway along the valley. Whatever is local and whatever is fresh, cooked by local cooks. Afterwards there is time to watch craftspeople working nearby, with no obligation whatsoever.
Selime Monastery
At the far end of the valley, a monastic complex hollowed out of a whole rock massif — a basilica with rock pillars, a kitchen with a chimney cut through solid stone, stables for the caravans. The climb up is short but steep and the scale inside is genuinely startling.
Pigeon Valley
On the way home we stop above Pigeon Valley, where thousands of small dovecotes were carved into the cliffs. The birds were not pets: their droppings fertilised the vineyards and orchards for centuries.
Back to your hotel
You are back at your door around 18:00, dusty and pleasantly tired. This is the day people tell us they did not expect to like most.
What the day looks like
Cappadocia Green Tour in photographs
Every photograph below was taken on the ground in Cappadocia by our own guides and guests — no stock, no AI. Swipe through them, or tap any picture to see it full size.
Where we meet you
Meeting point and pickup
We collect you from your hotel. The Green Tour heads south onto the plateau towards Derinkuyu and the Ihlara Valley, so the first hour is a drive — which is why it starts promptly rather than late.
- Start time
- Pickup around 09:00 — the southern route needs the full day
- Drop-off
- Back at your hotel door in the late afternoon
- Area
- Göreme, Nevşehir
Staying outside these villages, or arriving at Kayseri (ASR) or Nevşehir (NAV) airport? Say so in your request and we will collect you there instead.
Open the area in Google Maps
Included with every tour
Skip the line — priority entrance at every ticketed site
Queueing is the single biggest waste of a day in Cappadocia. As a TÜRSAB-registered agency, Gezginol holds a priority pass and buys your site tickets in advance — so you walk in past the queue while the coach parties are still shuffling towards the booth.
Skip-the-line entry
Your guide holds your tickets before you arrive. At the Göreme Open Air Museum, the Dark Church and the underground cities you go straight to the turnstile — no ticket queue, no fumbling for cash.
Fast-pass timing
Priority access is only half of it. Your guide also times each stop against the coach waves, so you are inside the painted chapels in the quiet window rather than the crush between 10am and 2pm.
We handle every ticket
Museum passes, church surcharges, underground city entries — all obtained for you on every tour we run, in every region we operate. You never queue at a booth, and you never pay more than the official state price.
Entrance fees themselves are quoted separately and at cost, because the Ministry of Culture and Tourism resets them each year — see our entrance fees page. What your tour includes is the priority access and the queueing done on your behalf.
No surprises
What is and isn't included
Included
- Skip-the-line priority entrance at every ticketed site — we hold the pass and buy your tickets in advance
- Private licensed tour guide (English, Spanish, French, German or Russian)
- Private air-conditioned vehicle with a professional driver
- Pickup and drop-off at your Cappadocia hotel
- Lunch and a local artisan visit
- Parking, fuel and road fees
- All taxes, official expenses and required insurance
Not included
- The cost of the entrance tickets — we obtain them for you and you skip the queue, but the Ministry sets the price (Derinkuyu, Ihlara Valley and Selime are ticketed separately)
- Hot air balloon flight — arranged on request
- Personal drinks and expenses
- Gratuities — always optional, always appreciated
If your plans change
Cancellation, in plain words
More than 48 hours before
No charge at all, and a full refund of anything already paid.
Within 48 hours
We try to rebook you first. Where real costs have been committed — a reserved vehicle, a guide who turned other work down — a fair share may be retained, and we tell you the figure openly.
Moving the date instead
Free, and there is no limit on how many times. If your plans move rather than collapse, just say so.
If the balloons are grounded
When civil aviation grounds a flight, the balloon company refunds or rebooks in full — your choice — and we handle the paperwork.
There is no deposit to hold a date, so cancelling costs you nothing but a message. The full terms are on our cancellation policy page.
Good to know
Cappadocia Green Tour — your questions answered
What is the Green Tour in Cappadocia?
The Green Tour is the local name for the standard southern route out of Göreme: Derinkuyu underground city, the Ihlara Valley walk, lunch by the river at Belisırma, Selime Monastery and usually Pigeon Valley on the way back. It covers longer distances than the Red Tour and includes a proper walk, which is why the two are sold as separate days.
Red Tour or Green Tour — which is better?
Do the Red Tour first if you have one day: it holds Göreme's painted churches, Uçhisar and the famous fairy chimneys, with short drives between stops. The Green Tour rewards a second day with the underground city and the green Ihlara gorge — more driving, more walking, and a completely different landscape. With two days, do both.
Is Derinkuyu claustrophobic?
For some people, yes. The main routes are lit and one-way, but there are stretches where you walk bent over in a passage about 1.5 m high. If that sounds unbearable, tell us when you book — we can swap in Kaymaklı, which is wider and shallower, or skip the underground portion entirely and lengthen the Ihlara walk.
How hard is the Ihlara Valley walk?
The path itself is flat and shaded and takes about 90 minutes at a gentle pace. The difficulty is the staircase — several hundred steps down into the gorge, and the same back up if we do not have the vehicle meet you at Belisırma. We normally do, so most guests only walk down.
Can I do the Green Tour without the underground city?
Yes. Because the tour is private, we simply build the day differently — more time in the valley, a stop at Pigeon Valley on the way out, and a longer lunch. Nothing to rearrange with anyone else.
Should I do the Red Tour or the Green Tour first?
Red first, if you can. It gives you the geology and the Byzantine history that make the Green Tour’s underground cities and cliff chapels make sense. If you only have one day and you like walking more than museums, invert that advice.
What temperature is it underground?
Around 13–15°C all year, which is a relief in August and a shock in April. Bring a light jacket whatever the forecast says on the surface.
Do you offer skip-the-line or priority entrance tickets?
Yes — on every tour we run. As a TÜRSAB-registered agency we hold a priority pass and buy your site tickets in advance, so at every ticketed stop you go straight in rather than queueing at the booth. It applies to all our tours in every region we operate, not just Cappadocia.
Does skip-the-line mean the entrance fees are included in the price?
No, and we would rather be straight about it. The priority access and the ticket-buying are included; the ticket cost itself is quoted separately and charged at the official state price, because the Ministry resets those prices every year. You never pay us a markup on an entrance fee.
How much time does skip-the-line actually save?
On a quiet morning, minutes. In the July–September peak, or at the Göreme Open Air Museum between 10am and 2pm, it can be the better part of an hour at a single site — which is why we combine the priority entrance with timing that avoids the coach waves in the first place.
Ready for the Cappadocia Green Tour?
Every tour is private and paced around you. Send us your date and a local guide replies within 24 hours.
Keep exploring
You might also like
Cappadocia Underground City Tour
Derinkuyu or Kaymaklı with a guide who can explain the millstone doors, the ventilation and where the smoke went. Half day, combinable with anything.
Cappadocia 2-Day Tour
Red Tour plus Green Tour plus a balloon dawn, arranged as one seamless private package. The itinerary we recommend most often.