Rize
Rize is a rain-soaked, tea-thick port city where green mountains fall straight into the Black Sea and the pace of life is shaped by the harvest.
Rize sits at the far eastern end of Turkey's Black Sea coast, pressed between forested mountains and a grey-green sea. It is one of the country's wettest cities, and the surrounding slopes stay lush and heavy with moisture for most of the year. This moisture is what makes the region ideal for Turkey's most celebrated tea-growing area — Rize and its surrounding districts produce the vast majority of the country's tea, and the landscape around the city is striped with orderly bushes that cover the hillsides down to the water's edge.
Tea, Port and the Waterfront
Rize has a modest port that has handled trade for centuries, though its history as a commercial hub is less dramatic than some of the grander Ottoman ports further west. The city itself has an unpretentious, working-character that makes it an unusual destination for visitors accustomed to Turkey's tourist-oriented coastline. The waterfront is a long promenade where locals gather in the evenings, with the background sound of gulls and the low rumble of small fishing vessels. Rize is not a city designed for sightseeing — its appeal is in the texture of daily life, the tea houses along the seafront, and the green hills that rise immediately behind the town.
The Tea Country
To understand Rize you need to spend time in the tea fields of the surrounding district. Smallholder farms cover the steep hillsides in a dense green quilt, and in the harvest months the fields are busy with pickers. Ripe leaves are carried down to roadside stalls and small processing stations where they are rolled, fermented and dried into black tea. The best way to experience this is simply to walk inland from the coast — even a short distance from the waterfront brings you into tea gardens, village lanes and small tea houses where a glass of freshly brewed çay is poured and refilled without asking.
Getting Further Into the Mountains
The road south from Rize climbs steeply into the Kaçkar Mountains, a range of high, treeless ridges and glacial lakes that forms the western edge of the Lesser Caucasus. Highland villages such as Çamlıhemşin and Ardeşen are the starting points for walks into the alpine zone, where the landscape changes completely from the wet, cultivated hillsides near the coast to open, rocky terrain above the treeline. The area is known for its small wooden bridges, some of them centuries old, spanning the fast-flowing streams that tumble down from the peaks.
Find it on the map
- Rize City
Tours that visit Rize
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.
