Hello traveler,
We found the lack of information hard to make a choice to go or not, we booked and hope our review with a bit of how the tour is build up will help you make up your mind.
1st day pickup and very long journey, many stops, total of 12 hours travel time. In an average bus, we where on the backseat and it was hell we where with 5, my mother an older couple my friend and myself it was so cramped, and no where to put your feet.
To make it more comfortable for my mom and our new friends my friend and i took turns sitting on the stairs i can not explain how uncomfortable it was for nearly 1200km and about 20hours (with stops and up and back down).
First day they will also ask questions for shows, lunch and tickets for museum entrance and balloonflight and watching the balloons go up.
Lunch €10, per lunch per person, dont do it its not worth it there is always a gasstation/shop around where you can eat something for the fraction of the price or even the restaurant where the "group" eats order a turkish pizza and your full for half the price.
Entree tickets, 11euro per person worth it. You'll go to a underground "city" very nice to see it its small and you must not be afraid of small spaces when you come out of the underground "city" there are at least 10 turkish women yelling at you they where selling handmade puppets but blown away by the noise we did not buy. On the bus we learned puppets where only 10 lira (€1,80) and felt bad we didn't buy some cause they benefit from it themselves no shops no big boss.
Shows (about 30euro) 1 show is first day evening we didn't go but some people did and they said the show was average they didn't recommended it. On top of that it was directly after a 600km ride no freshening up, no diner before.
The rest of the group went to check in into stone concept hotel, diner was just good the hotel staff seemed depressed, bored and annoyed the whole stay. At some point we the 5 amigos from the backseat felt like we where being watched to get out. The rooms where clean and good.
We also stopped at mevlana mosque in konya with 40min free time, its free and worth the visit there are guides inside that can explain alot to you.
Day 2.
5am you can go watch the 150 balloons take air. Its 16euro per person (we didnt go explain that later) our new friends went and they where very enthusiastic about it.
Breakfast at 7am again good food, depressed staff.
9am we left the hotel, we started with lpanoramic views perfect for pictures, went to 3 valleys, stopped at alot of places visited the open air museum (1hour free time). We stopped at the porcelain shop also nice to see and bought something. Went to the onyx shops the doors where bolted after we came in little onyx very much not related "jewelry".
Back at the hotel around 17pm time to freshen up and get ready for diner, different menu good food, depressed & annoyed staff. Others went to the second show most people where enthusiastic about it we didnt go we needed to get to bed early for the balloonride.
We arranged everything from home this trip a balloonride (balloonride was a different company), in the end we where blown off with alot of excuses and the balloonride got canceld for us the reason to take this trip and made it worth the ordeal of the travel we where so disappointed we didnt bother to go to atleast balloons going up.
Here our tourgide Erhan pulled through and was able to arrange a balloon ride for the last day little bit more expensive then normaal (tourprice 230, our price 300 p.p.).
5am we got picked and 6:30 airborne the most indescribable feeling, the sunrise, 150 other balloons, the magnificent views.
In the end we would highly recommend this trip including balloonride, the views, the sunrise the landscape its a once in a lifetime. And hope our extra information helps you decide of prepares you for whats to come.
As last note about the stone concept hotel, we knew we where not gonna make checkout time the tourguide told us to pack everything the night before, so i wanted to pay all costs (mostly drinks) the last night before checkout.... this was not possible, not even with the manager got strange stares and just very rude, i told them i pay now or i dont pay cause we are not gonna delay the tour more then neccessary, the young girl got a very arrogant laugh and when i walked away i was able to pay after all. No idea whats up with this hotel but its not just one employee they all are rude, short, annoyed, bored and overal bad attitude.
I dont know how the company do the trip for the money, the hotel was clean and comfortable, with a swimming pool and lovely food. It's a long drive each way but there are ample stops. The hot air balloon in €230 each, the 2 museums were €11 each for both. The swirling devishes ceremony was €20 each and the turkish night was €30 but this included all drinks. We did both nights but the swirling devishes was not worth the money and was not fun, you had to sit in silence whilst they did a one hour serious ceremony. No one really enjoyed it, but the turkish night was excellent and enjoyed by all. The balloon trip although a lot more expensive than we expected was amazing from start to finish. The €10 euro per day lunch was worth every penny. We only bought water and soft drinks from the hotel but they were cheap enough, just over €1 for a large bottle of water. We were taken to 3 shops, and shown demonstrations, but not left waiting too long for people to purchase things. I bought a gorgeous leather coat for €350. But there wasnt too much pressure to buy anything.
The guide aaram and driver were very professional. Dont hesitate to book this trip, it was the highlight of our holiday.