Cappadocia hot air balloon: tours and times 2026

About the Destination

Göreme, the town the balloons rise over

Göreme sits 15 km east of Nevşehir and 5 km west of Ürgüp, small enough to cross on foot. Everything the balloons fly over is within a few kilometres of the centre.

Göreme had about 2,429 residents in 2023 according to its own municipality, which is the first useful fact about the place: the town is walkable end to end and nothing needs a car. Aşıklar Tepesi sits roughly 200 m southeast of the centre, Rose Valley about 2 km north, Çavuşin about 5 km north and Ortahisar, built around a 90 m tuff pinnacle, about 4 km southwest. Dolmuş minibuses link Göreme with Nevşehir, Uçhisar, Avanos, Çavuşin, Ürgüp and Ortahisar every 30 to 60 minutes, each trip under half an hour.

Volcanic rock shapes all of it. The landscape formed between Erciyes and Hasan Dağı in a process the municipality dates to roughly 60 million years ago, and the fairy chimneys were cut into churches, chapels and dwellings between the 4th and 13th centuries. Göreme itself worked as a monastic centre for about nine centuries over that span. The rock-cut complex was opened to visitors as a site in 1967, and the Ministry's own record lists ten monuments inside the enclosure, among them the Girls and Boys Monastery, Elmalı, Saint Barbara, Serpent, Dark, Saint Catherine, Çarıklı and Tokalı churches, painted directly on rock and in tempera.

A Cappadocia hot air balloon morning is governed by a clock and a flag. The morning flight period runs from 30 minutes before sunrise until 11:00, slot capacity in the flight area stands at 104 primary and 52 secondary balloons in that period and 65 at midday, and the Slot Service Centre publishes a per-sector decision for each dated window in the LTB1 (Kapadokya) area, split into Sectors A, B and C plus secondary Regions 1 to 5. Under a red or yellow flag no departure clearance exists. Even under green, the call to launch belongs to the pilot and the operator.

Flyable days (last full season, 2025) 223 of 365

Passengers (last full season, 2025) 754,098

Maximum wind for commercial flights 10 knots

Flight area elevation 1,224 m

Göreme Örenyeri opens 08:00 daily

Balloons airborne on a busy round about 156

223 days

Balloons do not fly every day

Flights went ahead on 223 days in Cappadocia in 2025, so roughly 140 days had no flights at all. Build a trip with spare mornings rather than one dawn of hope, and book the flight for the first morning of your stay.

10 knots

The wind ceiling is a hard number

Commercial passenger flights may only operate when wind speed is at or below 10 knots. The official meteorological assessment of the flight area names March and April as the relatively high-wind months, which makes them the weakest for reliable take-off clearance.

28 days

Afternoon flying barely happens

A second flight period runs from 14:00 until 30 minutes after sunset, weather permitting, but in 2019 it was opened on only 28 days of the year and even that capacity was just 26 percent used. The study treats afternoon flying as unsafe in most months, with November, December, January and partly October the exceptions.

900 m

Height is modest on purpose

Flights stay between tree level and about 900 metres (3,000 feet) above the ground, and most of the time you cruise at 300 to 1,000 metres. The Civil Aviation Authority caps balloons at 6,000 feet on weekdays and 8,000 feet at weekends, and the 1,224 m field elevation sets an upper air temperature of about 15°C for loaded flights.

16-24

Basket size changes the morning

Local baskets are typically rated 1,500 to 2,500 kg, which works out at about 16 to 24 passengers plus the pilot. One major Göreme fleet flies 60-minute programmes in baskets of 20-24, a maximum of 16, and 8-12, so fewer passengers per compartment buys you space and sightlines rather than extra minutes.

€20 + €6

What the museum ticket covers

On the Ministry tariff, Göreme Open Air Museum is €20 for foreign visitors and the Dark Church is an explicit exception requiring its own €6 ticket. The Red Tour's price covers all fees and taxes and the Green Tour includes admission, so the day tours on this site handle the entrance side for you.

The classic balloon morning

This flight runs 3.5 hours door to door from $126, with hotel pickup, champagne ceremony, snack breakfast, live commentary and a flight medal. Expect 60 to 90 minutes in the air inside that total.

The lower-cost sunrise flight

The 3-hour sunrise flight is from $90, with snacks, an air-conditioned vehicle and a flight certificate included. It suits travellers who want the dawn itself without the ceremony extras.

Red Tour through the northern valleys

Six to seven hours from $33 in a small group, with hotel pickup and drop-off, a professional guide, lunch and all fees and taxes; drinks are not included. It covers the Göreme-side valleys and the northern loop with admissions handled.

Green Tour south and underground

Seven to nine hours from $33 with admission and entrance fees, lunch and an air-conditioned vehicle, drinks at lunch extra. This is the day that reaches underground city country, where Derinkuyu runs about 85 metres deep with a 55-metre ventilation shaft and only about ten percent open to visitors.

Sunset ATV over Love and Rose valleys

Two hours from $40 with a safety briefing, an English-speaking guide, helmets and hotel pick-up and drop-off, choosing a 1-hour or 2-hour ride. Keep it in your back pocket as the plan for a morning when the flags go red.

The August shaped-balloon display

Türkiye's Ministry of Culture and Tourism runs the Cappadocia balloon festival as the Nevşehir leg of the Türkiye Kültür Yolu Festival, which ran 1-9 August in 2026. The 7th International edition filled three days with 30 special-shaped balloons from 10 countries lifting off early from the Göreme balloon field.

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Cappadocia hot air balloon tours and the alternatives compared

Six tours on this site, side by side on price, length, inclusions and the traveller each one fits.

Choosing between these comes down to how many mornings you have and how much of the day you want arranged for you. A Cappadocia hot air balloon flight is the headline, but the valleys also read differently from a minibus at midday and from an ATV at sunset, and travellers arriving from Istanbul for a weekend have a different problem again. The table below sets the six tours on this site against each other on price from, duration, inclusions and best fit.

	Price from	Duration	What is included	Best for
★ Hot Air Balloon Ride	from $126	3.5 hours	Hotel pickup and drop-off, champagne ceremony, snack breakfast, live commentary, air-conditioned minivan, flight medal	The complete classic balloon morning
Sunrise Flight	from $90	3 hours	Snacks, air-conditioned vehicle, flight certificate	The sunrise flight at the lowest entry price here
2 Day All Inclusive Tour from Istanbul	from $687	2 days	Boutique hotel, roundtrip Istanbul-Cappadocia flights and airport transfers, breakfast, lunch, skip-the-line tickets, licensed guide, balloon flight optional on request	Two days from Istanbul with everything arranged
Red (North) Tour	from $33	6-7 hours	Hotel pickup and drop-off, professional guide, lunch, all fees and taxes	The northern valleys with admissions handled
Green (South) Tour	from $33	7-9 hours	Admission and entrance fees, lunch, air-conditioned vehicle	The long southern day underground and through the valleys
Sunset ATV Quad Tour	from $40	2 hours	Briefing, guide, helmets, hotel pick-up and drop-off, sunset over Love Valley and Rose Valley	The evening ride and the no-fly-day plan B

First trip with one dawn available, take the full classic morning at 3.5 hours from $126. Tight budget, take the 3-hour sunrise flight from $90. Coming from Istanbul for a weekend, take the two-day trip and specify the Cappadocia hot air balloon in the special requests section, since flight tickets are not included. A second day on the ground, Red Tour north or Green Tour south at 6-7 and 7-9 hours. An evening to fill, the ATV ride.

Practical info

Planning a Cappadocia hot air balloon ride

Arrival, timing, kit, etiquette and the rules on who can fly, in the order you will need them.

Getting to Göreme by air, coach and dolmuş

Nevşehir Kapadokya Airport (NAV) is the closest, lying about 30 km north of Nevşehir town, with flights from either Istanbul airport taking around 90 minutes. Kayseri airport is the bigger gateway at about 71 km east of Göreme, with buses every hour or two towards Nevşehir and a change at Avanos, 18 km north of the village. Intercity coaches take about 10 hours from Istanbul, 3 hours from Ankara, 9.5 hours from Antalya and 3.5 hours from Konya, arriving at Nevşehir otogar.

From Nevşehir, Göreme is reached by bus, minibus or taxi, and the Göreme coach station can be called on +90 384 271 24 35. Once you are in town, dolmuş minibuses run to Nevşehir, Uçhisar, Avanos, Çavuşin, Ürgüp and Ortahisar every 30 to 60 minutes with each trip under half an hour. Outlying viewpoints such as Rose Valley need a vehicle, a taxi or a tour. The balloon flights and the Red and Green day tours on this site include hotel pickup and drop-off.

Nevşehir Kapadokya (NAV): about 30 km north of Nevşehir, roughly 90 minutes from either Istanbul airport
Kayseri airport: about 71 km east of Göreme, buses every hour or two towards Nevşehir, change at Avanos
Avanos sits 18 km north of Göreme and works as the connecting point from Kayseri
Coaches: about 10 hours from Istanbul, 3 from Ankara, 9.5 from Antalya, 3.5 from Konya, all into Nevşehir otogar
Göreme coach station: +90 384 271 24 35
Dolmuş every 30-60 minutes to Nevşehir, Uçhisar, Avanos, Çavuşin, Ürgüp and Ortahisar, each under 30 minutes
Göreme lies 15 km east of Nevşehir and 5 km west of Ürgüp, with the open-air museum about 2 km east of town, inside a 30-minute walk

Balloons above carved cave dwellings and fairy chimneys in Cappadocia tuff rock

The best months for a flyable morning

Aim for late spring to early autumn, and prefer September and October over March and April. The official assessment of the flight area names March and April as the relatively high-wind months, and 10 knots is the hard ceiling for commercial passenger flights. The regulator's own monthly data from a full survey year put October at the top for flight volume and January at the bottom. Published advice is to book 2-4 weeks ahead between April and November, with June to August filling months in advance and winter usually needing about a week.

Nevşehir's warmest months are July, mean 21.4°C with an average maximum of 28.5°C, and August, mean 21.3°C and maximum 28.7°C. January runs a mean of −0.1°C with an average maximum of 4.0°C. May is the wettest month at 57.9 mm and August the driest at 8.4 mm, while rainy days peak at about 13.1 in March and 12.3 in January and fall to 1.7 in August. Winter is cheap on the calendar and expensive on patience, so only plan it with three or more spare mornings.

March and April have the highest wind speeds in the flight area and the weakest odds of take-off clearance
Commercial flights go only when wind speed is at or below 10 knots
October recorded the most flights and January the fewest in SHGM's survey of a full year
Sunrise over Göreme: about 05:15 at the June solstice, 06:03 in mid-April, 06:48 in mid-October, 07:53 at the December solstice
Launch windows run roughly 05:00-06:00 in summer and 06:00-07:00 in winter
May is wettest at 57.9 mm, August driest at 8.4 mm; rainy days 13.1 in March, 1.7 in August
Afternoon slots are treated as unsafe in most months, with November, December, January and partly October the exceptions
Only 223 of 365 days were flyable in 2025, so demand concentrates on fewer mornings than the calendar suggests

Balloons silhouetted against orange sky as sun rises over Cappadocia ridges

What to wear for a pre-dawn flight

Dress for the daily minimum at the Nevşehir station, which runs 13.7°C in July and 13.6°C in August, about 15°C below the daytime maximum, then 5.1°C in April, 8.9°C in May, 10.5°C in September and 6.8°C in October. Winter mornings sit near −3.6°C in January, −2.6°C in February and −1.3°C in December. The briefings ask for everyday clothes in layers and closed walking or sports shoes with grip and flat soles.

Leave the sandals, slippers, high heels and anything loose at the hotel, because you will be climbing in and out of a basket in the dark. Spring and autumn call for trousers, long sleeves and a jacket; summer works with light trousers and a sweatshirt; winter needs a heavy coat, gloves, a beanie and a scarf, plus two layers of socks and thermal underwear. Taller passengers should bring a hat, since the burners throw real radiant heat.

Closed walking or sports shoes with grip and flat soles, no sandals, slippers or high heels
Layers you can peel off once the sun is up, in everyday rather than formal clothing
Spring and autumn: trousers, long sleeves and a jacket for dawn lows around 5.1°C in April and 6.8°C in October
Summer: light trousers and a sweatshirt, because July and August dawns average 13.7°C and 13.6°C
Winter: heavy coat, gloves, beanie, scarf, two layers of socks and thermal underwear
A hat if you are tall, for the radiant heat coming off the burners
Nothing loose or dangling that can catch as you climb into the basket
A camera strap you can keep around your neck, since you will be standing for the whole flight

Crew inflating a balloon envelope with burner flame before dawn in Cappadocia

How a balloon morning actually runs

Your pickup time is confirmed the evening before, once the next morning's flight plan is set, so do not fix a departure flight or a hotel checkout against a guess. Collection is from your own hotel, with roughly 30 minutes of transfer each way to the launch field, and pickups are drawn from Göreme, Ürgüp, Avanos and Uçhisar. The launch field, flight direction and landing area are chosen on the morning itself from the authorised area and the wind, which is why nobody can promise you a particular valley.

After landing, Göreme Örenyeri opens at 08:00 every day on the Ministry's record, with a daytime close of 17:45 and a separate night session listed from 18:00 to 23:00, box office 22:30; the seasonal listing gives 08:00-19:00 from 1 April to 1 October and 08:00-17:00 from 1 October to 1 April, so check on the day. Admission is €20 for foreign visitors and the Dark Church needs its own €6 ticket. The site sits about 2 km east of town, inside a 30-minute walk.

Pickup falls 60 to 90 minutes before sunrise, with the exact time confirmed the evening before
A June pickup lands around 04:15; a December one is much later, with sunrise about 07:53
The 3 or 3.5-hour duration covers inflation, flight, ceremonies and transfers, with 60-90 minutes airborne
Flights commonly track over Göreme, Love Valley, Rose Valley, Red Valley and Çavuşin
When the wind allows, a balloon can land back on the same field it lifted off from
Göreme Örenyeri opens 08:00 daily, admission €20 for foreign visitors with the Dark Church €6 extra
On the Ministry tariff, Zelve and Paşabağ are €12 for one ticket admitting both, Derinkuyu and Kaymaklı are €13 each and Ihlara Valley is €15; the Museum Pass Cappadocia is listed at €65 for three days and is not valid for Night Museum visits

Passengers packed in a red balloon basket over Cappadocia's white rock valley

Who can fly, and the rules behind the decision

Not everyone can go up. The usual minimum is about age 6, with a height test of roughly 1.20 to 1.40 m so a child can see over the basket edge, and one Göreme operator sets the floor at five. Passengers must stand for the whole flight, climb in and out unaided, follow safety instructions and hold the landing position for about five minutes, a posture the briefings compare to sitting on a horse. Listed medical exclusions include recent surgery, severe hip or back pain, fragile bones, use of crutches, a cast on a broken bone and conditions affecting judgement.

Pregnant passengers, and anyone who suspects they may be pregnant, are advised not to fly; thresholds published locally range from more than two months to no stage of pregnancy at all, so declare it when you book. There is no fixed per-passenger weight limit, because the limit belongs to the balloon, basket and total load, but accurate weights are required for the flight manifest. Thirty firms operate in the region with 367 balloons and 585 licensed pilots, and the launch call on the day rests with the pilot.

Minimum age about 6, with a height of roughly 1.20-1.40 m so a child can see out; one operator sets five as the floor
You must be able to stand for the whole flight and climb in and out of the basket unaided
The landing position has to be held for about five minutes
Medical exclusions include recent surgery, severe hip or back pain, fragile bones, crutches, a cast and anything affecting judgement
Pregnancy: advised against, with thresholds ranging from more than two months to any stage, so declare it in advance
No fixed per-passenger weight limit, but give accurate weights for the manifest
Red or yellow flags mean no departure clearance at all, and under a green flag the pilot and operator still make the final call

Dry grassy ridge above eroded Cappadocia valley with balloons at sunrise

Location

Find Göreme, Cappadocia

Göreme sits in Nevşehir Province, 15 km east of Nevşehir and 5 km west of Ürgüp, with the Göreme Açıkhava Müzesi ticket office at Gaferli Mah. Müze Cad., Göreme/Nevşehir, telephone +90 384 271 21 67.

Plan your visit

Sunrise balloon flight in Cappadocia: practical details

Flight windows, sunrise times, weather, what to wear, who can fly and how to reach Göreme, page by page.

Booking Your Flight

Dozens of colorful balloons lifting off together from Cappadocia valley floor

Balloon price

The flights listed on this site start from $90 per person, with the full classic morning from $126. What follows is what actually moves that…

Dense cluster of balloons over Cappadocia cliffs under pink dawn clouds

Booking ahead

Morning slot capacity is capped, the regional fleet is a fixed number, and roughly four mornings in ten produce no flying at all. That combination…

Is it worth it

You are airborne for 60 to 90 minutes inside a morning of three to three and a half hours, from $90 on this site. Here is what that buys, and what…

Safety and rules

Whether hot air balloons in Cappadocia are safe comes down to the paperwork and the limits: a national regulator, an area administration, three…

Flight tiers compared

Standard, comfort and deluxe mean different things at different companies, and the labels travel faster than the specifications behind them. Three…

Planning Your Visit

Scattered balloons drifting in golden and blue sky above Cappadocia at sunrise

Best time to fly

A month-by-month read on whether the balloons will actually leave the ground, based on the official wind limit and the regulator's own flight-day…

Sunrise flight morning

Take-off is tied to sunrise, and sunrise over Göreme moves by more than two and a half hours between June and December. This is the whole morning…

Fairy chimneys and ridged tuff rock in Cappadocia under cloudy sky

Do balloons fly daily

Flying is decided morning by morning, sector by sector, by wind and temperature at ground level. Here is how the official decision works and how…

Balloons climbing into deep blue sky above Cappadocia's pale rock plateau

How many days

Balloons flew on 223 days in Cappadocia in 2025, so the length of your stay decides whether a grounded dawn costs you a lie-in or the whole reason…

What to wear

The hour you stand on the launch field is the coldest of the day, and you land standing in a braced position. Those two things decide your outfit…

Wide twilight panorama of Cappadocia valley with balloons above winding roads

Getting to Göreme

Two regional airports, four long-distance coach routes and one packaged trip from Istanbul all end in the same small village. Which one you pick…

Watching the Balloons

Where to watch balloons

Ground-level vantage points for the dawn fleet over Göreme, ranked by what they actually show you. For each one: how early to be standing there,…

Where to stay

Pick the slope and the orientation first, then worry about the property. This page sorts Göreme's lanes and the nearby villages by what their…

Aerial view of Cappadocia rock valleys with balloons spread to horizon

Launch sites

The launch fields lie in the valleys immediately around Göreme, and nobody knows which one until the morning itself. A driver collects you from…

Balloon numbers

Slot capacity is set separately for the morning and the midday period, roughly 156 balloons hang over the valleys at the same moment on a busy…

Balloons rising from white Cappadocia canyon into soft pastel morning sky

Balloon Festival

The shaped-balloon festival over Göreme is a state cultural programme that sits on top of the ordinary flying morning. Here is when it falls, what…

Beyond the Balloons

Rider on white horse on narrow Cappadocia trail beneath morning balloons

Things to Do

Göreme is small enough that one village can hold a whole trip: the dawn flight, a rock-cut monastic site 2 km east, two valley day routes and a…

Ihlara Valley

A river-floor path between volcanic walls, chapels cut into the rock on both sides, and 394 steps to get down to it. This is the stop that makes…

Göreme Open Air Museum

The rock-cut monastic enclosure sits about 2 km east of Göreme, within a 30-minute walk of the centre. Ten monuments, painted interiors, and one…

Red vs Green Tour

Two classic day routes, both small group, both from $33. What separates them is driving distance, time on your feet, and how much energy is left…

Derinkuyu Underground City

The deepest of the region's rock-cut refuges, about 85 metres from the surface down, with a 55-metre shaft that worked as both ventilation and…

FAQ

Cappadocia hot air balloon questions

The questions people actually ask before booking a dawn flight over Göreme, answered with the official flight-area and museum facts.

No. Balloons flew on 223 days in Cappadocia in 2025, so roughly 140 days of the year had no flights at all, and 754,098 people flew across those mornings that did go ahead. The Slot Service Centre publishes a per-sector flag for each dated window in the LTB1 (Kapadokya) area, and under a red or yellow flag no departure clearance exists for commercial flights. Even under a green flag the final call to launch belongs to the pilot and the operator.

Your pickup time is set by the date you fly. Sunrise over Göreme is about 05:15 at the June solstice, about 06:03 in mid-April, about 06:48 in mid-October and about 07:53 at the December solstice. Pickup falls roughly 60 to 90 minutes before sunrise depending on where you sleep, so a June pickup lands around 04:15 and launch windows run about 05:00-06:00 in summer and 06:00-07:00 in winter. Exact times are not fixed when you book; they are confirmed the evening before, once the next morning's flight plan is set.

That figure covers the whole morning. Reckon on about 30 minutes of inflation, 60-90 minutes airborne, around 30 minutes of ceremonies after landing and roughly 30 minutes of transfer in each direction. The full morning on this site is listed at 3.5 hours and the sunrise flight on this page at 3 hours, and both figures include the door-to-door driving.

No valley can be promised. The launch field, flight direction and landing area are chosen on the morning itself from the authorised area and the wind, and the landing site is not known in advance; when the wind allows, a balloon can land back on the same point it lifted off from. Flights commonly track over Göreme, Love Valley, Rose Valley, Red Valley and Çavuşin, and balloons often land in Love Valley. If you want those two valleys guaranteed at a fixed hour, the Sunset ATV Quad Tour from $40 includes sunset viewing over Love Valley and Rose Valley.

Lower than most people expect. Flights stay between tree level and about 900 metres (3,000 feet) above the ground, and most of the time you cruise at 300 to 1,000 metres. The Civil Aviation Authority caps balloons at 6,000 feet on weekdays and 8,000 feet at weekends. The flight area itself sits at 1,224 m elevation, which sets an upper air temperature limit of about 15°C for loaded passenger flights.

Fly in the morning. The morning period runs from 30 minutes before sunrise to 11:00, and a second period runs 14:00 to 30 minutes after sunset, weather permitting. Afternoon flying is heavily restricted: in 2019 that period was opened on only 28 days of the year and even then just 26 percent of its capacity was used, and the meteorological assessment treats it as unsafe in most months, with November, December, January and partly October the exceptions. Government figures describe around 150 flights daily at sunrise, which tells you where the product sits.

March and April are the windiest months in the flight area and the weakest for reliable take-off clearance, which makes the standard "April to October" advice only half right. Commercial passenger flights may only go when wind speed is at or below 10 knots. The regulator's own monthly data put October at the top and January at the bottom for flight volume, so late spring through early autumn is the stronger bet, with September and October preferable to the early spring. Rainy days peak at about 13.1 in March and 12.3 in January and fall to 1.7 in August.

Minimum age is usually about 6, with a height test of roughly 1.20-1.40 m so a child can see over the basket edge, and one Göreme operator sets five as the floor. Passengers must stand for the whole flight, climb in and out unaided, follow safety instructions and hold the landing position for about five minutes, which the briefings compare to sitting on a horse. Listed medical exclusions include recent surgery, severe hip or back pain, fragile bones, use of crutches, a cast on a broken bone and conditions affecting judgement. Pregnant passengers, and anyone who suspects they may be pregnant, are advised not to fly, with thresholds ranging from "more than two months" to no stage of pregnancy at all.

Layers and closed shoes. Average daily minima at the Nevşehir station are 13.7°C in July and 13.6°C in August, about 15°C below the daytime maximum, then 5.1°C in April, 8.9°C in May, 10.5°C in September, 6.8°C in October and −3.6°C in January. The briefings ask for everyday clothes in layers with closed walking or sports shoes that have grip and flat soles, and no sandals, slippers, high heels or loose items; taller passengers are advised to bring a hat because of radiant heat from the burners. In winter add a heavy coat, gloves, beanie and scarf, two layers of socks and thermal underwear.

You will be back on the ground with the morning still ahead of you, and Göreme Örenyeri opens at 08:00 every day on the Ministry's own record, closing at 17:45, about 2 km east of town and within a 30-minute walk. The official tariff is €20 for foreign visitors with the Dark Church charged separately at €6, and the rock-cut enclosure holds ten listed monuments from a monastic centre that ran from the 4th to the 13th century. On a no-fly morning, the Red (North) Tour from $33 or the Green (South) Tour from $33 covers the valleys with admissions handled, and the ATV sunset ride from $40 fills the evening. Book your flight for the first available morning of your stay so a red flag still leaves room in your trip.

Pick your morning before the summer dates fill.

Check availability

Cappadocia hot air balloon mornings, from pickup to landing

Cappadocia hot air balloon flights and day trips from Göreme

Hot air balloon flight

Green Tour, southern loop

Red Tour, northern loop

Sunset ATV ride