The main city of the green, rain-soaked eastern Black Sea coast — old Trebizond, the cliff-hung Sumela Monastery, and the gateway to a wall of misty highland pastures.
Last reviewed on 3 June 2026.
Trabzon is the largest city on Türkiye's eastern Black Sea coast and, for most travellers, the natural base for the whole region. It sits on a steep shelf of land between the sea and a wall of mountains, and the contrast defines the place: a working port and university city at the bottom, dense green slopes above, and beyond them the high summer pastures that draw people up into the cloud. The city was the Greek Trebizond, founded as a colony in antiquity and later the seat of a small Byzantine successor state, the Empire of Trebizond, which held out as a trading power long after Constantinople had its own troubles. That long history as a port — a terminus for caravan routes reaching deep into Anatolia — left Trabzon outward-looking in a way that still shows.
The landscape is the other half of the story. This is one of the wettest corners of the country, and the rain feeds an intense, almost subtropical greenery: tea terraces, hazelnut groves and forest cover the hills, and fog sits in the valleys for much of the year. Visitors usually come for two things at opposite ends of a day's drive — the Sumela Monastery on its cliff, and the highlands behind the coast.
The Sumela Monastery — in Turkish Sümela Manastırı, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary as Meryem Ana — is the single image most associated with Trabzon. It clings to a near-vertical rock face high in the Altındere valley, around fifty kilometres south of the city, with forest dropping away below and the cliff rising sheer above. From a distance it reads almost as part of the rock itself, a band of pale buildings set into a dark recess in the stone.
Its history is Byzantine and Pontic-Greek. Tradition dates a foundation here to the late Roman or early Byzantine centuries, and the monastery grew over more than a thousand years into a substantial complex of chapels, monks' cells, kitchens, a library and a guesthouse, with the rock cave at its heart serving as the principal church. The interior and the exposed rock face are covered in frescoes — layers of them, painted and repainted across centuries, ranging from formal Byzantine scenes to later, rougher work. The monastery was abandoned in the early 1920s when the region's Greek Orthodox population left, and it stood empty and decaying for decades.
In recent years a long programme of restoration and stabilisation has secured the rock above the buildings, repaired structures and conserved the most fragile frescoes; the site has reopened in stages as that work has progressed. Sumela is on Türkiye's UNESCO tentative list — that is, a candidate the country has proposed for possible future consideration — but it has not been inscribed as a World Heritage Site, and it is worth being precise about that distinction.
A visit is as much about the approach as the building. From the valley floor the monastery is reached by a climb up a stepped forest path, fairly steep and often slippery underfoot, that brings you out at the entrance set into the cliff. The walk is the part many remember most: cool air, the sound of water, and the buildings appearing through the trees as you rise. Because access arrangements and which sections are open shift with the ongoing conservation work, it is sensible to check the current situation before setting out.
Trabzon itself rewards a day of unhurried walking, and its own monuments are easy to underrate after Sumela. The finest is the city's Hagia Sophia — Ayasofya — a 13th-century church built under the Empire of Trebizond, standing on a low rise near the sea to the west of the centre. It keeps an unusually complete cycle of frescoes for its date, along with carved stone reliefs on the exterior, and a detached bell tower nearby. Like its far larger namesake in Istanbul it has shifted between church, mosque and museum over the centuries; today it functions partly as a place of prayer and partly as a monument, and visitors should treat it accordingly.
Above the city stands the Atatürk Köşkü, a white late-19th-century mansion set in gardens on the hillside, built by a local merchant family and later associated with Atatürk's visits to the city. It is now open as a small house-museum, and the gardens give a calm view back over Trabzon and the sea.
The old quarter of Ortahisar sits around the line of the former Byzantine citadel, with the city's oldest mosque — once the main cathedral — and a tangle of stepped lanes and stone houses spilling down towards a ravine. It is the part of central Trabzon where the older town is still legible beneath the modern city. For the wider view, locals head up to Boztepe, the hill on the eastern side of town, where tea gardens look out over the whole sweep of the coast; it is an ordinary, pleasant way to spend the end of an afternoon.
Behind the coast the land climbs fast into the Pontic mountains, and with it into a different world of yaylas — the high summer pastures where coastal families have traditionally moved with their animals once the lowland heat and humidity set in. In summer the yaylas come alive: wooden houses, grazing herds, festivals, and a cool, damp air that sits in welcome contrast to the muggy coast. Many of these settlements are reachable by road, and a few have become destinations in their own right.
The most visited is Uzungöl — literally "long lake" — a narrow lake in a forested valley about a hundred kilometres south-east of Trabzon, with a village strung along its shore beneath steep wooded slopes and a slim minaret reflected in the water. It is genuinely beautiful and, partly because of that, can be busy and built-up in season; arriving early, or walking up out of the village into the surrounding yaylas, restores the quiet. Further east, beyond the city's own province, Ayder sits among the Kaçkar mountains and is the best-known base for walking into the highest pastures and peaks of the eastern Black Sea. Throughout, this is tea and hazelnut country, and fog and rain are constants rather than occasional inconveniences.
A lake and village in a forested valley south-east of Trabzon. The easiest highland trip from the city; lovely but popular, so go early.
Summer pastures such as those around the Altındere and Of valleys, alive with grazing herds and festivals from roughly midsummer onwards.
Further east in the Kaçkar mountains, beyond Trabzon's province. The main base for walking into the highest eastern Black Sea peaks.
The eastern Black Sea has a distinct and confident cuisine, shaped by what the land and sea actually give in a cool, wet climate. The defining ingredient is hamsi, the Black Sea anchovy, which appears in an almost comic number of forms in the cold months: fried, grilled, layered into a rice pilaf (hamsili pilav), baked, even worked into bread. Locals treat it less as a fish than as a staple.
The other regional signature is muhlama, also called kuymak — a fondue of cornmeal, butter and a stretchy local cheese, cooked down into something rich and stringy and eaten straight from the pan, usually at breakfast. Corn rather than wheat has long been the regional grain, reflecting a climate that suits maize better, and it turns up as cornbread and in the muhlama. Bread itself has a local celebrity in Vakfıkebir, a town west of Trabzon known for large round sourdough-style loaves baked in wood ovens. Alongside all this the region leans heavily on greens — wild and cultivated leaves cooked into soups, fillings and side dishes — and, of course, on glass after glass of locally grown tea.
Summer, broadly June to September, is the season most people aim for, and for the highlands it is really the only sensible window: the yaylas are at their greenest and liveliest, the high roads are open, and the coastal heat is offset by cooler air as you climb. Spring and autumn are quieter and can be lovely on the coast and around the city's monuments, with the hills at their most vivid.
Trabzon has its own airport on the coast just east of the centre, with frequent domestic flights — Istanbul and Ankara above all — and some international connections. For most visitors flying in is far quicker than the long overland journey along the coast. Buses also run the coastal highway, the fast road that hugs the shoreline and links the Black Sea towns; it makes east–west travel along the coast straightforward, if not especially scenic where it runs on viaducts past the sea.
Once based in Trabzon, the practical way to reach the main sights without a car is by dolmuş and minibus. Services run up the Altındere valley towards Sumela and out to Uzungöl, typically leaving from set points in the city; frequencies and exact departure spots change with the season, so ask locally or at your accommodation on the day. A hired car gives more freedom for the highlands, where public transport thins out, but the mountain roads are winding, sometimes foggy, and best not rushed.
Yes, particularly if you are drawn to green, mountainous landscapes rather than beaches and sun. The combination of the Sumela Monastery, the city's own Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia and the highland yaylas behind the coast is hard to find elsewhere in Türkiye. It rewards travellers who allow a few unhurried days and accept the region's weather.
The monastery is around fifty kilometres south of Trabzon in the Altındere valley, reachable by car or by minibus from the city. From the valley floor you climb a stepped forest path to the entrance in the cliff. Because the site has been through a long restoration programme, access arrangements and which sections are open change over time, so check the current situation before you go.
Summer, roughly June to September, is best for the highlands, when the yaylas are green and the high roads are open. Spring and autumn are quieter and pleasant for the coast and the city. Whenever you go, expect rain: this is one of the wettest regions in the country and cloud can settle on the mountains in any month.
The signature dish is hamsi, the Black Sea anchovy, cooked in countless ways. Also iconic is muhlama (also called kuymak), a fondue of cornmeal, butter and cheese. The region relies heavily on corn, greens and locally grown tea, and the town of Vakfıkebir is known for its large round wood-oven bread.
Uzungöl, meaning "long lake", is a narrow lake and lakeside village in a forested valley south-east of Trabzon. It sits beneath steep wooded slopes and is the easiest and most popular highland excursion from the city. Because it is so well known it can get crowded in season, so arriving early or walking up into the surrounding yaylas helps.