Black Sea Region
Green, wet and steep: tea terraces, cloud forest and monasteries built into cliffs.
Driving east from Istanbul toward the coast, the landscape changes within hours. The dry steppe of central Anatolia gives way to rolling green hills, forest canopy, and the first steady mizzle of what locals call "the Black Sea character" — a weather pattern that dumps more than 2,000mm of rain a year on these slopes. The Pontic Mountains run parallel to the shore, their lower slopes thick with tea bushes and hazelnut groves, their upper reaches forested in beech and spruce. It is one of the most wooded coastlines in the Mediterranean basin, and unlike anywhere else in Turkey.
Trabzon and the legacy of Trebizond
The region's historic heart is Trabzon, a port city founded by Greek colonists in the eighth century BC and later the capital of the Empire of Trebizond — one of the successor states that outlasted Byzantium by two centuries. The 13th-century Church of Hagia Sophia, built during that empire, stands in the hills above the city. Its frescoes include a rare depiction of the Byzantine emperorManuel I Komnenos. Below the citadel, the bazaar quarter still follows medieval street patterns, its tight lanes lined with workshops where coppersmiths and woodturners work much as their predecessors did. The city makes a natural base for visiting Sumela Monastery, a Greek Orthodox complex founded in the fourth century AD and carved into a sheer cliff face in the Macka district's mountain forest.
The tea coast
East of Trabzon, the road runs through Rize Province, where terraced hillsides are planted in tea as far as the eye can see. Turkey's tea industry was deliberately developed here in the 1930s after the state's early republic needed a domestic crop. Smallholder farms still dominate production; fresh leaf is bought by cooperatives and dried in factories at harvest. The result is a mildly astringent, dark brew served in small tulip glasses, drunk throughout the day withConversation and little ceremony. In the coastal towns of Rize, Ardesen and Findikli, wooden houses with elaborate bay windows — half-timbered, often painted red or green — crowd the seafront. Fishing boats come in before dawn. The smell of grilling anchovies, known locally as hamsi, drifts from every quayside in autumn and winter.
Taste of the coast
The Black Sea kitchen is distinct. Anchovies are the foundational ingredient — fried in cornmeal, stuffed with rice and walnuts, baked in börek. The region's trademark dish, muhlama, is a pot of缓缓融化的烧焦的特拉普奶酪, cooked at the table over a brazier and eaten with torn bread. Laz böreği follows a similar principle: thin pastry layers sandwiching white cheese, grilled until bubbling. Laz pasta — a dense spiced bulgur dish — reflects the same Aegean and Laz cultural overlap found in the region's music and dialect. On the table alongside, expect local honey from the mountain apiary, a sharp white cheese made from jersey cow's milk, and thin-crusted pide bread baked in wood-fired ovens.
Tours that visit Black Sea Region
No tours visit this place just yet — tell us where you want to go and we'll build one. See all tours
Before you book you should know
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Is this trip right for you?
Our groups are capped at eight travellers, which is about a third of what the industry calls a small group. Eight people share one vehicle, one table at dinner and one guide's attention, and the day can change on the road without anybody being left behind. If you are looking for a coach, a fixed script and a microphone, this is not that.
Most days involve real walking, often on ground that was laid two thousand years before walking shoes: marble worn smooth, cobbles, uneven steps and long site paths with little shade. Bring shoes you can spend a morning in.
Some days move between regions and are largely a drive, with stops along the way. Summers are hot — well over 35°C inland — and winters are colder than most people expect, so layers, a hat and sunscreen earn their place in the bag whatever the month.
How demanding a particular trip is, is written on the trip itself: the physical rating in the header, and the day-by-day itinerary above.
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Rooms, and travelling on your own
Trip prices are per person, sharing a twin room. Each traveller picks their own room while booking, so a party can mix the three:
- Twin share — two single beds, shared with someone you are travelling with or with a traveller of the same gender.
- Travelling as a couple — one double room.
- Individual room — a room of your own, for a single supplement on top of the trip price. Availability is limited, and the supplement for a given date is shown next to the option when you book.
Solo travellers are welcome on every departure, and most of our groups have one or two aboard.
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Accommodation
The hotels named in an itinerary are a guideline rather than a guarantee. Where one is full, or has dropped below the standard we booked it for, we substitute a property of a similar standard in the same area — we would rather change the hotel than the trip.
Check-in is usually mid-afternoon. If you arrive early we will ask for the room, but no hotel can promise one before its own check-in time; luggage can normally be left at reception in the meantime. If you want the room from the night before, ask us and we will add the extra night to your booking.
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Passports, visas and insurance
Entry requirements depend on your nationality and change without much notice, so the only reliable source is the official one: the government of the country you are travelling to, and your own foreign ministry's travel advice. Check both before you book a flight.
Many countries ask for a passport valid for at least six months beyond your travel dates, and for blank pages. It is worth looking at yours now rather than at the airport.
We ask every traveller to carry travel insurance covering medical treatment and repatriation, and we would strongly encourage cover for cancellation and for your luggage as well.
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Your departure is guaranteed — the day can change
Once a departure is on the calendar it runs. We do not cancel a trip for want of a minimum number of bookings, so a booked date is one you can plan flights and leave around.
What can move is the shape of a day. Museums and archaeological sites change their hours, roads close, weather turns, a local holiday lands in the middle of the week. Where that happens your guide reorders the day, or swaps a stop for one of the same weight, and tells you why. Changes to a booked itinerary are covered by our Booking Terms & Conditions.
