Cappadocia, Turkey

This place completely changed how I see travel. I'd seen photographs of the Cappadocian landscape my whole life — the balloons rising over the fairy chimneys at sunrise is probably one of the five most-shared images on the internet — but nothing prepares you for standing in Göreme valley at 5:30am watching sixty balloons lift off simultaneously in complete silence. We stayed in a cave hotel carved into the volcanic tuff and every morning I climbed to the roof terrace with coffee and watched the sky fill with colour. The best way to understand the scale is to rent a car and drive the Rose Valley at dusk — the rock formations turn deep amber in the late light. The underground cities of Derinkuyu go eight levels below the surface and were home to thousands of people for centuries; walking through them by torchlight is genuinely one of the most extraordinary things I've done. Go in October or April — summers are crowded and winters freeze. Stay at least four nights, five if you can.