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Sümela Monastery clinging to a sheer cliff above a forested valley near Trabzon

Sample journey · 8–10 days

Green Turkey: tea slopes, mountain mist and the summer pastures of the Kaçkar

Trabzon, Sümela, Uzungöl, Rize, Ayder & the Fırtına valley

Photo: Adem Percem / Unsplash

Illustrative journey ideas — not bookable packages. No prices, dates or accommodation are implied.

North-eastern Turkey is the country's wettest and greenest corner. Between the Black Sea and peaks of more than three thousand metres the mountains rise steeply, and the damp sea air clothes them in dense forest, tea plantations and meadows. This is home to the Laz and Hemşin peoples, with their own languages, music and cooking: cornmeal muhlama with cheese and butter, anchovy dishes, butter churned on the summer pastures. Trabzon, once capital of the Empire of Trebizond, keeps its thirteenth-century Hagia Sophia, and close by, in the Altındere valley, Sümela Monastery is built straight into a fissure in the cliff.

This route climbs from the coast into the mountains: past the tea slopes around Rize to Ayder and the high yaylas, the summer pastures where families take their animals up in June and bring them down in September, and finally into the Fırtına valley with its stone arched bridges. It's a journey for active travellers who like to walk and don't mind rain or gravel roads: the tracks up to the higher yaylas are often narrow and rough, so we travel them with a local driver. The stays are simple but welcoming wooden guesthouses in the mountains and small hotels on the coast.

The route

The journey

  1. Trabzon
  2. Sümela Monastery
  3. Uzungöl
  4. The Rize tea slopes
  5. Ayder
  6. The Kaçkar yaylas
  7. Şenyuva & the Fırtına valley
  8. Trabzon or Rize–Artvin airport
  1. The stone church of Hagia Sophia in Trabzon under a clear sky

    01Days 1–3 · Trabzon & Sümela

    An imperial city and a monastery in the rock

    Two nights in Trabzon. On the first day, Hagia Sophia by the sea, a thirteenth-century church of the Empire of Trebizond whose frescoes and stone carvings recall the time when this port was part of the Silk Road; today it serves as a mosque again. Then the old-town market and a first Black Sea dinner. On the second day it's about an hour south into the Altındere valley. Sümela Monastery, founded according to tradition as early as the fourth century, clings to the cliff face some three hundred metres above the forest; a path leads up to it, and after restoration work the visiting arrangements can change, so we check them before you travel. Inside, centuries of frescoes on the rock and on the chapel walls. In the afternoon, a walk on the valley's forest paths once most visitors have gone.

  2. Uzungöl lake between wooded slopes, with a mosque on the shore

    02Days 3–4 · Uzungöl

    A lake among the spruce

    About two hours east and uphill lies Uzungöl, a mountain lake with a mosque on its shore and slopes of spruce. The village has grown a great deal in recent years and gets busy by day, which is why there's just one night: in the evening and early morning, when the mist lifts off the water, the lake finds its calm again. In the morning, a path up to the hillside pastures with a view over the valley or, for those who want a longer walk, a hike towards the higher tarns with a local guide. Dinner is trout, plentiful here, and kuymak, a thick cornmeal dish with melting cheese. The next day the road drops back to the sea and runs east along the coast towards Rize.

  3. A green hillside of tea gardens and trees, with houses, in Rize

    03Days 4–5 · Rize & the tea slopes

    Where Turkey's tea grows

    Almost all the tea drunk in Turkey grows on this narrow strip of coast between sea and mountains, and the bushes cover even the steepest slopes. One night in a guesthouse among the plantations near Rize or Ardeşen. In the picking season, roughly May to autumn, families harvest the leaves on the slopes and lower small sacks to the road on wire cableways. If it can be arranged, we'd visit a small farm or tea factory and taste fresh tea with a view of the sea. The afternoon is for Rize's market and the Laz villages on the coast; their language is related to Georgian, and their cooking is among the most distinctive in the country. In the evening, anchovies if they're in season, and a first taste of Laz music, led by the kemençe fiddle.

  4. A hilltop wrapped in morning mist on the Huser yayla above Çamlıhemşin

    04Days 5–8 · Ayder & the Kaçkar yaylas

    Summer pastures above the clouds

    From the coast it's about an hour and a half up the Fırtına and Kavrun valleys to Ayder, a mountain village at around 1,350 m with wooden houses, waterfalls and a hot-spring bathhouse. Three nights here. From Ayder, paths and gravel tracks lead to the high yaylas – Huser, Kavrun, Samistal – where families spend the summer in wooden huts with their animals. One day is a walk with a local guide among pastures and tarns beneath the peaks of the Kaçkar massif; another is gentler, with lunch on a yayla where the families may offer fresh butter and honey. Mist often rises out of the valleys in the afternoon, so we start walks early. For strong walkers, a multi-day crossing of the range can be arranged separately with an experienced guide.

  5. The medieval castle of Zilkale on its rocky hill among forested mountains

    05Days 8–10 · Şenyuva & the Fırtına valley

    Stone bridges and a castle above the river

    The last two nights are in a wooden guesthouse in the Fırtına valley near Şenyuva. Here the river runs through dense forest, crossed by old stone arched bridges, some of them built several centuries ago. In the morning, a walk between villages and bridges, then the road up to Zilkale, a medieval castle on a rock above the river, and, if the roads allow, on to the Pokut yayla, from which the mist often looks like a sea below your feet. In spring and early summer, when the river is full of snowmelt, there's rafting with local instructors. On the last day it's about an hour to Rize–Artvin airport, or about two and a half hours to Trabzon.

Experience highlights

  1. 01

    Sümela Monastery

    A monastery in a fissure of the cliff above the forest, and frescoes the mountains have kept for centuries.

  2. 02

    The tea slopes

    Steep plantations above the Black Sea, and fresh tea where it grows.

  3. 03

    Life on the yaylas

    Summer pastures, wooden huts and families who climb to the mountains with their animals every year.

  4. 04

    The Fırtına valley

    Stone arched bridges, the castle of Zilkale and the mist that fills the valley in the afternoon.

First, we listen. Then, we explore what's possible.

Make it your own

  • More walking

    For strong walkers, a multi-day crossing of the Kaçkar with a guide, sleeping on the yaylas or under canvas, in place of Uzungöl.

  • For food lovers

    More time for Laz and Hemşin cooking: a lesson in a home, the market in Rize and lunch on a yayla. Anchovy season is in winter.

  • By season

    From June to September the yaylas are alive, and July and August bring their summer festivals. In May and October the coast is quiet and green, but the high yaylas are often empty or still under snow.

  • With Georgia

    From Rize it's about two hours to the Sarp border crossing and Batumi, so the journey continues naturally into Georgia.

Practical considerations

  • The best time is roughly June to September, when the high yaylas and the tracks to them are open. This is Turkey's wettest region: rain and mist are possible in any month, so we often fit the day's plan to the weather.
  • The tracks to the high yaylas are narrow gravel roads with steep bends; we travel them with a local driver, and some can change after heavy rain.
  • Visiting arrangements at Sümela have changed since its restoration, so we check hours and access before you travel.
  • Mosques have a dress code: shoulders and knees covered, and a headscarf for women. In the mountains a waterproof jacket and sturdy boots are worth having even in summer.

General guidance only. Seasons, weather and wildlife are never guaranteed, and travel requirements are always worth checking before you go.

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