Tea plantations, alpine yaylas, the rainy green Turkey nobody photographs.
The Pontic Mountains drop straight into the Black Sea — tea fields wrap the slopes, monasteries cling to cliffs, and the high-altitude yayla pastures (Ayder, Pokut, Sal) feel more like Switzerland than the Mediterranean. The Turkey that locals visit when they want to escape Istanbul or Antalya.
June–September (dry-ish summer; Black Sea is wetter than the rest of Turkey). May for blooming tea fields. Avoid winter (snow blocks yayla roads).
The Black Sea region is essentially a road trip — fly into Trabzon (TZX), rent a car, drive east through Rize and into the Pontic Alps, fly out from the same airport or continue overland. The headline routes are coastal (Trabzon → Akçaabat → toward Samsun) and inland (Trabzon → Sumela → Uzungöl, Rize → Ayder → Hemşin). Limited public transport once you leave the main coastal cities.
The Black Sea is the only Turkish region where the headline isn't sea or ruins — it's the Pontic Alps. Tea plantations, alpine yaylas (highland villages), wood-clad chalet hotels, mist-and-mountain landscapes that don't exist anywhere else in Turkey. Food is regional — hamsi (anchovy) in every form, Akçaabat köfte, kuymak/muhlama (cornmeal-and-cheese fondue). It rains here, year-round; pack a real rain jacket.
Black Sea works as a 4-night detour from Istanbul (1-hour flight). Pair with another inland region (Cappadocia or Eastern Anatolia) for a 9-night non-coastal Turkey trip. Less commonly paired with the Aegean or Mediterranean coasts — too much travel for a single trip.
The exact plan we'd give a friend visiting Istanbul. Where to eat, what to skip, how to avoid tourist traps.
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