Uzungöl, Sümela & Black Sea Highlands: The Complete 8-Day Guide

The eastern Black Sea coast is Türkiye at its most unexpectedly lush — a narrow strip of land where the mountains drop almost directly into the sea, catching rain from the Black Sea and turning the slopes into something closer to a rainforest than anything most visitors associate with Türkiye. Tea plantations terraced up the hillsides. Hazelnut groves in every valley. Rivers fast enough to raft, plateaus high enough to lose the clouds below, and a monastery built into a sheer cliff face eleven centuries ago. Our Uzungöl, Sümela & Black Sea Highlands Tour covers the full arc from Samsun to the Georgian border over eight days — one of the most varied itineraries we offer.

Day 1–2: Samsun & Ordu — Where the Republic Began

The tour begins in Samsun, the city where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk arrived by steamship on 19 May 1919 to begin organising the Turkish resistance — an event that marks the starting point of the Turkish War of Independence and is still celebrated as a national holiday. The Bandırma Ferry Museum displays a life-size replica of the vessel, complete with wax figures and period detail. The First Step Monument marks the exact landing point on the pier.

The second day follows the coast east through Ordu — the Pearl of the Black Sea — where the Boztepe hill rises 475 metres above the city and the sea, with views that on clear days stretch to the horizon in three directions. The Yason Cape, a dramatic headland halfway between the two cities, breaks the drive with one of the coast road's most photographed viewpoints.

Day 3: Giresun, Trabzon & the Hagia Sophia of the East

Giresun gave the world the cherry — the fruit's Latin name, cerasus, derives from Kerasous, the ancient Greek name for this city, from where Roman general Lucullus brought the fruit to Italy in 74 BC. Giresun Castle, built during the Pontic Kingdom, sits on a cliff above the sea. Kuzalan Nature Park, inland from the coast, contains the Kuzalan Waterfall and the Blue Lake (Mavi Göl) — a spring-fed mountain lake of unusual colour tucked into the forest.

Trabzon's Hagia Sophia is not the Istanbul original but a Byzantine church of comparable beauty built between 1248 and 1263 by the Komnenos dynasty of the Empire of Trebizond — a Byzantine successor state that survived the fall of Constantinople by eight years. Its frescoes, partially restored, survive in the apse and narthex. The Atatürk Mansion on the hillside above the city was the president's residence during his visits to Trabzon and retains its original furnishings.

Day 4: Sümela Monastery, Uzungöl & the High Plateaus

Sümela Monastery clings to a vertical cliff face in the Altındere Valley at 1,200 metres — a complex of churches, chapels, kitchens and dormitories built into the rock over fifteen centuries of continuous use, abandoned in the population exchange of 1923 and now partially restored. The approach through the national park forest, the monastery's position against the cliff, and the Byzantine frescoes in the rock chapel make this one of the most striking single sights in Türkiye.

The afternoon crosses the Zigana Pass — historically one of the most important mountain crossings in Anatolia, used since antiquity on the trade routes between the coast and the interior — before descending to Uzungöl. The lake at Uzungöl sits in a valley of extraordinary quiet, surrounded by spruce forest and the wooden houses of the plateau village. The minibus ride up to Karaster and Lustra Plateaus at 2,000 metres provides a view back over the valley and the lake below that explains why this corner of the Black Sea has become so widely photographed in recent years.

Day 5: Rize, Fırtına Valley, Ayder & the Kaçkar Mountains

A tea factory visit in Rize introduces the mechanics of an industry that produces almost all of Türkiye's tea — the May harvest, picked before the rains, is the most prized, its leaves smaller and more concentrated in flavour than later pickings. The factory visit includes tasting and the opportunity to buy directly.

The Fırtına Valley — its name means "storm" in Turkish — is one of the 50 global biodiversity hotspots and home to some of the oldest yew trees in the country. The valley road follows the Fırtına River through gorges and forest to Çamlıhemşin, where the film Bal (Honey), winner of the Golden Bear at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival, was shot. Zil Castle, balanced on a 100-metre cliff above the valley, provides the afternoon's vantage point. The Palovit Waterfall — the widest in the region — ends the valley section before the climb to Ayder Plateau at 1,350 metres, where the Gelintülü Waterfall and the plateau's distinctive wooden architecture provide the final images of the day.

Day 6: Pokut & Sal Plateaus, Mençuna Waterfall & Arılı Village

The highest plateaus of the day — Pokut and Sal, at 2,000 metres — sit above the treeline in an open landscape of grass, wildflowers and old stone houses. The views extend to the Georgian border on clear days. Below, the walk through the Kamilet Valley forest to Mençuna Waterfall — the tallest single-drop waterfall in Türkiye — follows a trail under a canopy of ancient trees, emerging at a cascade that drops into a cold pool surrounded by spray.

Arılı Village provides one of the tour's most memorable experiences: a meal in a local house, with traditional Black Sea dishes prepared by the family — cornbread, anchovy rice, kale soup and the butter-rich desserts of the highlands. It is the kind of hospitality that no restaurant can replicate.

Day 7: Borçka Karagöl — or Georgia (Optional)

The final full day offers a choice. Borçka Karagöl is a landslide lake in the mountains above the Çoruh River — its dark green water, surrounding beech forest and relative inaccessibility give it a quality of wildness that few lakes on this tour can match. The Georgian-origin villages and the Klaskur Valley Biosphere Reserve en route add to a day that feels genuinely remote.

The optional Georgia day trip crosses the Sarp Border Gate into the Adjara Autonomous Region, visiting the Roman fortress of Gonio-Apsaros and continuing to Batumi — a city of Soviet modernism, Ottoman mosques, Orthodox churches and a Black Sea boulevard that manages to feel simultaneously post-Soviet and subtropical. Subject to minimum 15 participants and valid travel documents.

What's Included

The tour covers 8 days and 7 nights with accommodation in quality hotels across Samsun, Ordu, Trabzon, Uzungöl, Ayder and Arhavi/Fındıklı (Hilton, Anemon, Sheraton and equivalents). Included: private vehicle throughout, minibus transfers to Sümela, Karaster/Lustra Plateaus, Zil Castle, Palovit Waterfall and Mençuna Waterfall, 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches or dinners, all museum and site entrance fees, professional guides, mandatory travel insurance and tour souvenirs. Rafting and zipline are available at extra cost. Not included: international flights, personal expenses, optional Georgia day trip.

Dates & Pricing

Two departures available: 11 April 2026 (12 spots) and 29 August 2026 (16 spots). Pricing starts from €1,199 per person in a double or twin room.

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