Review: Mithra Cave Hotel In Cappadocia, Turkey

January 15, 2020

best cave hotels in cappadocia,mithra cave hotel

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Visiting the magical fairy chimneys and caves of Cappadocia had been on my bucket list for years, and was my #1 bucket list item for the last few years. And because I had a “technicolor” birthday a few months ago and was planning an appropriately epic trip for it…so in Cappadocia that was FOR SURE going to include staying in a cave hotel.

Read my detailed first-timer’s guide to Cappadocia!!

I did a ton of research on the best cave hotels in Cappadocia prior to booking at Mithra. I’ll talk a little more at the end of this post about the other couple of hotels that made the “short list” for me, and also a few specifics on cost, transportation, and more.

Bottom line (or, the TL;DR version…)

I loved my time at Mithra Cave Hotel (link here, & check out TripAdvisor reviews), and wish I could have stayed longer. The location is perfect, views from the patio are great, and the rooms were cool (though don’t feel as “authentic” as a cave hotel would be in my mind, but I don’t think that’s unique to this hotel). The breakfast buffet was extensive, though that’s not as much of a draw for me…I’m not a big breakfast eater.

On the “not glowing” side, the service was just fine. I maybe had high expectations because I’d seen a lot of reviews mentioning how amazing it was, but I didn’t get much help from the front desk guys in getting questions answered. And my bed and pillows weren’t great.

So let’s dig into the specifics, shall we??

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My room at Mithra Cave Hotel

The first thing I did was faceplant, because I arrived at like 12:30am after almost 24 hours of travel. So I didn’t spend a ton of time exploring my room at first, but enjoyed what I saw the next morning.

It was bright and airy (not as cave-like in that regard), with some cool little details. I had one of their Deluxe rooms…not the awesome giant ones, but not the tiniest either. I paid €460 euros, or about $513 USD at the time for two nights.

The mattress, pillows, and bedding were definitely not anything to write home about.

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The hotel common areas

To me, this is one of the coolest parts of staying at Mithra. The hotel can feel a bit maze-like at times, but that means there are many different areas you can go to feel like you have it all to yourself.

There are several little mini patios platforms (like the one in the first pic below), nooks with seating, delightful details (doorknobs, hanging elements, etc.), and more. And we haven’t even gotten to the awesome rooftop patio…

Because I was out exploring the area around Göreme to maximize my short visit, I didn’t get to just chill at the hotel much, but I wish I’d been able to. It would have been a lovely place to sit and have a drink, read, and enjoy the view.

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The patio and views

Which brings us to that patio…this was one of the biggest selling points of Mithra specifically is its rooftop patio space and the views you have over Cappadocia. I looked at sooooo many different types of cave hotels, but I did know that I wanted a great patio or balcony view. After a lot of research and looking through reviews, I decided that Mithra’s fit the bill.

The sunrise from this spot is a whole other piece of this story, and we’ll get to that later.

On a side note, Sultan Cave Suites is one of the most well-known Instagram views of Cappadocia and is next door to Mithra…in fact, the photo at the very top of this post is actually (as far as I was told) part of a patio at Sultan Cave Suites. But in looking through reviews, it sounded like Mithra’s view was actually slightly better—and I concur!

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The breakfast buffet

This was one thing that review writers raved about…Mithra’s buffet breakfast is extensive! The thing is, I’m not a big breakfast eater to begin with, and I’d rather find just really good espresso,

HOWEVER, it felt like I had to take advantage of the breakfast and see if anything was truly awesome, so I did try a number of the different cheeses, pastries, eggs, and more.

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Sunrise and watching the balloons

This is what I’m here for!!!

I was bummed because I’d hoped to do my first morning in Cappadocia actually taking a hot air balloon ride, and then my other morning watching the sun and balloons rise from the hotel’s rooftop patio.

Unfortunately neither of those quite worked out due to weather (the balloons couldn’t fly either morning), but I still got to see a gorgeous Turkish sunrise over the unique landscape.

I got up about 30 minutes before sunrise time and stuck my hand out the door…this told me it was WAY too cold to wear the pretty sundress I’d brought, and instead pulled on jeans, a sweater, and my Patagonia jacket, and went outside to freeze.

The sky’s colors changed from indigo to pink to orange, and the hills and buildings started to appear.

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Here’s what that patio looks like in daytime, and because someone had booked the fancy breakfast photo setup, they leave it out for a while (it’s reused days in a row). So few hours later I got to head over here and get my own pic…at not cost!

Sadly since I was traveling solo, I didn’t have someone I could trust to take my pics, so this was the best of the lot. But c’est la vie!

So if you can’t tell, I really enjoyed my (short) time at Mithra, and would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a cave hotel in Cappadocia that has a beautiful balcony and view!

How to get to Mithra Cave Hotel

The hotel helpfully arranged for my transportation, but it ended up being a shared shuttle. They do have private transfers too, I just didn’t pay close enough attention when booking. It was totally fine, the driver was easy to find and nice, but since I arrived so late (after 11pm, after almost 24 hours of travel) and I ended up being the last drop-off.

So I honestly would have been happy paying more to just have a solo transfer and faceplant into my bed sooner! The shared shuttle was 50 TL (Turkish lira) one-way.

My other cave hotel “short list”

If you’re looking for different recommendations on the best cave hotels in Cappadocia, Tulip Cave Suites and Hezen Cave Hotel. Tulip is one of the hotels that gets mentioned a lot, and then Hezen is a more luxury option in a different area of Cappadocia. It looks pretty bomb, to be honest…I was just looking for a more traditional cave hotel in Göreme on my first visit.

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