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).
Activate these from home — cheaper and simpler than sorting them at the airport.