Hotels near Red Valley and Rose Valley

The Kızıl Vadi (Red Valley) and Güllüdere (Rose Valley) circuit is the hike to do if you only do one. The standard loop runs 7.7 km with roughly 258 m of cumulative elevation gain and takes 3 to 4 hours round trip at a photography pace, or a shade under 2 hours if you push. Difficulty is moderate: the surface is soft volcanic tuff that crumbles underfoot, and one descent is steep enough that a knotted rope has been fixed to help walkers down. The rock these paths cut through belongs to Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985 and covering 9,884 hectares between Nevşehir, Ürgüp and Avanos.

The churches are the reason to walk slowly. Haçlı Kilise (Church of the Cross) sits about 5 km in, up a short metal ladder, with a Greek cross carved into the ceiling and red ochre pigment still legible on the walls. Üç Haçlı Kilise (Church of Three Crosses) and Kolonlu Kilise, the Columned Church, notable for the free-standing rock pillars holding up its dome, come later and are easy to walk straight past. Most are open access and free; where a caretaker is sitting at the entrance you will be asked for a small fee of roughly 30 to 50 lira, so carry coins and small notes. A tea house beside Haçlı Kilise sells fresh orange juice and is the only reliable water on the route.

Pro Tip: Walk this one in the late afternoon rather than the morning. Balloon flights launch at first light, so the sunrise slot belongs to Love Valley and the Göreme panorama; Red Valley is the counterpart, and the tuff turns deep rust-red in the last hour before sunset. The terraces at Kızılçukur and Aktepe Sunset Point charge a small admission, but the open ridge a few hundred metres along the same path is free and just as good.