Booked the tour for two people from Gref Tour. It was a beautiful experience. On the first day, we saw goreme open air museum, love valley, pigeon valley, amongst other points of interest. We had lunch buffet style half way through arriving to cappadocia which was very tasty, with lots of variety (drinks excluded). The hotel we stayed in, Stone Concept hotel had a beautiful room with the interior carved in stone. The dinner (drinks excluded) and breakfast (buffet style) offered were very good, and the hotel also offered an outdoor pool. On the second morning we saw the hot air balloon parade (which wasn’t included in the price), but you were also given the option to ride the balloons (for an extra 200+ euro fee per person). The night before there was also a laser show available for those interested, but that also came at an extra fee (25 euros per person).
Unfortunately, the negatives about this tour are several:
(1) By “shopping experience” they mean that they will take you by bus to three different stores in cappadocia (pottery, food, and jewelry) with the premise that they have a historical background. In reality they explain two things and then try to push you to buy something from them. Each stop at these places lasted about 20 minutes, taking time from more interesting activities such as sightseeing. We would’ve preferred an hour or two of time on our own to visit the center of cappadocia and buy what we wanted.
(2) Cappadocia is famous for its hot air balloons and it’s absurd that they didn’t include it in the price, but rather propose it later during the bus ride as an extra paid activity, which people are obviously going to pay for given that it’s characteristic of the place.
(3) Not enough time to eat, we were given 45 minutes for each stop which for a buffet style meal isn’t enough given that other tour buses also ate at the same time in the same place.
(4)We weren’t informed beforehand of the program of the tour. We were just told as we went what we would see, so a lot of the time we had no idea what was next.
(5) The tour wasn’t only in English. Most were Russian tourists (which we didn’t know beforehand) so the guide had to ping pong between Russian and English for each explanation. The brochure proposing the tour however was written in English.
(6) The second day, we stopped at Konya for lunch. The guide gave an approximative explanation of a place with a rich history, as “people who live here have to dress conservatively and don’t have the freedoms of other places of Turkey, such as alcohol being banned” amongst other limited worldview things. We also weren’t given a chance to visit the city, they preferred to make us stop at one of the tourist trap souvenir shops (a jewelry store which just showed us a color changing stone and then said that we could buy stuff from the store). Also the lunch was the only one that wasn’t a buffet, and we had it at a dingy restaurant, which gave both me and my partner severe food poisoning that evening, and for the days that ensued (the food and been laid out on the tables way before we had arrived, and they didn’t give us spoons/forks to serve ourselves with. We had to use our own cutlery which is extremely unhygienic considering also the persisting pandemic). We had to get something at the neighboring gas station. So I would recommend not to eat this place if it is proposed to you. Also, the waiter spilled rice on me and didn’t even apologize or try to clean up, adding to an already terribile service.
I would also like to add that this tour wasn’t managed directly by gref tour but rather an external organization.
Overall cappadocia is a beautiful town and a once in a lifetime experience, it definitely lives up to the hype. The tour is alright, just be aware of what was said above.