Black Sea Coastline :: SRM Travel

A unique experience beyond the well-worn tourist map, and a surprising change from what most travelers expect of Turkey. The eastern Black Sea region unfolds with its oceanic climate, rainforests, tea plantations, mighty mountains, alpine meadows and mountain plateaus.

Traveling between the mountains and the coastline, you will explore breathtaking nature and a cultural mosaic from ancient Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, mixed with the living traditions of the villages. In highland yaylas pastoral families still following seasonal rhythms will welcome you, and on the coastline you will chat with the fishermen whose lives are bound to the unpredictable but fertile Black Sea. Defined by its distinct music and dances, the region carries a strong sense of identi — resilient, expressive and deeply connected to its land and roots.

With the tunes of local bagpipes and an a cappella choir in the background, you will listen to the stories of anchovies, hazelnuts, tea, and honey, all personified in local folk tales.

It is a place where history, nature, and local life blend smoothly, offering visitors a glimpse of Turkey that few Westerners have seen.

Tour Highlights

Macahel and Karagöl, a remote Alpine lake to the eastern end of the region
Excursions to mountain villages, surrounded by evergreen woods and tea plantations
Markevis quarter in Çamlihemşin, with traditional homes built to last for centuries
Nature hikes and picnics on the Pontic Mountains
Coastal towns Trabzon, Rize and Çayeli
The Monastery of Sumela in Trabzon

Tour can be re-designed to your specifications, travel plans and expectations.

Itinerary Details

Day 1: Arrival in Trabzon

Arrive in Trabzon where the Black Sea greets you. Meet your guide and driver, who will be waiting with your private vehicle at the airport, and together you will drive into the city. Once a key port on the Silk Road, frequented by Venetian and Genoese merchants meeting caravans arriving from Persia, today Trabzon is the leading city of the coastline, known for its vivid trade, lively cultural life, and beloved soccer team. You will visit the 13th-century Hagia Sophia Church with its colorful frescoes, Atatürk’s house set in a beautiful garden overlooking the city, the Fatih Mosque, and sip tea with locals in waterfront parks.

Day 2: Sumela Monastery above the Clouds

The morning will unfold with your first trip into the Kaçkar Mountains. You will explore the otherworldly Sumela Monastery — the Monastery of the Virgin Mary — perched on a sheer rock cliff overlooking a lush valley. It was founded in the 4th century by two monks who were said to have followed a vision of the Virgin Mary that led them up the cliffs to a cave with a spring, considered sacred ever since. The frescoes in the monastery include rare scenes of Mary’s life alongside unusual Old Testament episodes.

Later in the day, following the Silk Road, you will enjoy a nature walk to a caravanserai, where merchants and animals once rested for the night.

Sleep in Trabzon, 1 night.

Walking: 5 miles. Strenuous, partly on paths through cloud forest and untamed alpine meadows.

Day 3: Into Tea Country

The day will take us to Rize, the capital of Turkey’s tea culture, the leaf that accompanies every conversation, served in a tulip-shaped glass.
On the way, you will stop in a small fishing town, meet fishermen whose lives are intertwined with the Black Sea—sometimes rough, yet always fertile and nurturing. You will get familiar with the daily rhythm shaped by the sea after a casual conversation.

Then, drive inland to İkizdere to visit the Şimşirli Mosque, a fine example of wooden mosques, constructed by interlocking chestnut beams held together without a single nail. It was built in the 19th century, and it stands out for its carvings and intricate patterns worked into walls, pillars, and ceiling, the work of skilled craftsmen who drew beauty from the forests.

Before reaching Rize, stop at a tea factory to learn the steps the leaves take before arriving in kitchens across Turkey.

Sleep in Rize, 2 nights.

Walking: easy to moderate

Day 4: Mountain villages and pastoral life

Today you will take a day off from the modern world and travel into the untamed beauty of the mountain villages that are nestled in thick forests. You will hike to an off-the-beaten-path village, and spend the whole day with the locals, listen to the traditional tulum—local goat-skin bagpipe on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity— and stomp your feet with the villagers for horon, the energetic Black Sea circle dance inspired by the movements of anchovies in a net. A delicious homemade village lunch will spice up the day.

Sleep in Rize.

Walking: Moderate, unpaved village paths.

Day 5: Çamlıhemşin and Fırtına River Basin

You will visit Çamlıhemşin in the Fırtına River basin. The river runs wild down the mountains, hence its name, Fırtına, the ‘storm’ river. It is a small mountain town wrapped in mist, rain and mountains. You will take a stroll in the town and explore the stately 19th-century mansions of the Makrevis quarter, with their Russian inspired architecture. They were built by locals who prospered while working in Russia and invested in their homeland upon returning. These houses are still known by the names of families that once lived in them.

Built of timber and stone, these houses hang onto the steep slopes as if rooted in the mountain itself. They tell the story of families who once left to seek fortune abroad and returned to raise proud homes that today form one of the Black Sea’s most distinctive and evocative highland settlements.

Before bidding farewell to this magical valley, visit the romantic 14th-century Zilkale Castle rising on a steep rock 750 meters above the river.

Sleep in Hopa, 1 night.

Walking: moderate to strenuous, on groomed village paths, occasionally steep.

Days 6 & 7: Ethereal Macahel

You will spend the next two days in the out-of-this-world valley of Macahel, at the Georgian border and the six villages within. Thanks to the surrounding insurmountable high mountains, this valley has remained one of the top ecological wonders of the world, with nature untouched and culture intense. In this home of the pure Caucasian bee, you will be immersed in nature and culture, learn about beekeeping, which supports both families and biodiversity in the valley, and taste honey collected from wildflowers and chestnut trees. You will also listen to the a cappella senior choir—who never had formal musical training but learned from fathers and grandfathers—following the Georgian polyphonic tradition recognized by UNESCO on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Sleep in Macahel.

Walking: moderate to strenuous, on groomed village paths.