Black Sea Turkey Tour: Trabzon, Sumela, Uzungöl and Ayder Guide

A Black Sea tour in Turkey usually means two to four days based in Trabzon, which is about 1 h 40 to 1 h 50 by air from Istanbul. The core sights are Sumela Monastery, the mountain lake at Uzungöl and the Ayder plateau in Rize. Sumela is open in November 2026, from 08:00 to 17:00 every day. The shortest way to see it is our 2-day Trabzon tour from Istanbul with flights, from $640 per person. Below you will find opening times, driving distances, rain figures by month and the plans we use for our own guests.

Getting there from Istanbul

Two airports serve the eastern Black Sea:

• Trabzon (TZX): Turkish Airlines flies from Istanbul Airport, and Pegasus and AJet mostly fly from Sabiha Gökçen. Flights take about 1 h 40 to 1 h 50. The airport is about 7 km from the city centre, so you can be at your hotel within 30 minutes of landing.
• Rize-Artvin (RZV): this airport is built on reclaimed land on the coast. Flights from Istanbul take about 1 h 50 to 2 h 10. Fly in here if you plan to spend most of your time in Ayder and the Fırtına valley.

Trabzon to Rize is 78 to 79 km along the coast road, a little over an hour's drive. Buses from Istanbul take a full day and night, so almost every visitor flies. Turkey has no rail line along this coast.

Inside the region you need a car or a tour. Local minibuses run to Uzungöl and Ayder, but they are slow and infrequent outside summer. With a private driver you can fit two sights into one day.

Sumela Monastery: current status, hours and tickets

Sumela is a Greek Orthodox monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary (Panagia Soumela), built into a sheer cliff in the Altındere valley. It is about 47 km from Trabzon and 17 km from Maçka, on an asphalt road.

Is it open? Yes. A long restoration began in September 2015 and covered the aqueducts, the entrance stairs and the 300-metre forest walkway. The site then closed again from November 2021 to January 2022 for rockfall-protection work, and the steel netting from that work is still visible on the cliff. It has been fully open since, and 514,596 people visited in 2025, a record. In 2026 the Ministry announced new entrance gates and extra ticket booths to cut queues.

Hours. The official museum listing gives 08:00 to 17:00 daily, with the box office closing at 16:30. The Trabzon culture directorate publishes seasonal hours: 10:00 to 19:00 from 15 March to 15 October, and 08:00 to 17:00 from 15 October to 15 March. Plan on the winter hours if you visit now. There is no weekly closing day.

Ticket. €20 for foreign visitors in 2026. The 2027 tariff, reported in September 2026, raises it to €22. Turkish citizens use the MüzeKart.

Practical points:

• The last stretch is a 300-metre walk through the forest, with steps inside the complex. Wear proper shoes, because the path is wet most of the year.
• Summer weekends are the busiest time, with up to about 6,000 visitors a day. Go on a weekday morning.
• Once a year in August an Orthodox liturgy is held in the courtyard. On that day the site closes to other visitors until early afternoon. In 2025 it reopened at 14:00.

Our private Sumela Monastery tour from Trabzon adds Karaca Cave, from $120 per person.

Uzungöl: the lake in the Çaykara valley

Uzungöl is a small lake surrounded by spruce forest, with a white mosque and wooden hotels along its shore. It is about 99 km from Trabzon city, and the drive takes 1.5 to 2 hours. The road follows a narrow river valley for the last part, so most visitors make it a day trip.

The classic photo is taken from the hillside viewpoints above the lake. The lakeside path is an easy, flat walk. Early morning is quietest, before the day-trip coaches arrive, and the valley is often in cloud. That is part of the appeal, but it can hide the view for hours.

Our private Uzungöl day trip from Trabzon also takes in the Karester and Lustra highlands, from $80 per person.

Ayder, Zilkale and Rize tea

Ayder plateau sits above the Fırtına (Storm) valley in Çamlıhemşin district, about 87 km from Rize city and 19 km past Çamlıhemşin town. It is a village of wooden guesthouses on a steep green slope, with waterfalls and walking trails into the Kaçkar mountains. On the way up you pass old stone arch bridges and Zilkale, a medieval castle on a rocky spur high above the river. Ayder also opens for a winter season now, but the summer months are the main time to go.

Our Ayder plateau and Storm Valley day tour from Rize includes Zilkale, from $85 per person.

Rize tea. Rize is Turkey's main tea province, and the hillsides between Rize and Hopa are covered in tea bushes. In 2026 the state tea company ÇAYKUR opened its buying season on 20 May. The first picking ended on 28 June with 259,000 tonnes of fresh leaf, and the second picking started on 8 July. From late May to early autumn you will see pickers on the slopes and loaded trucks at the factories. A glass of tea at a hillside tea garden is the simplest way to take part.

Best months to visit the Black Sea coast

This is the wettest part of Turkey, and Rize is the wettest province. Long-term figures from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM) show why the timing matters:

Our advice, based on these figures:

• June to August is the main season, warm with the fewest rainy days in Trabzon. Uzungöl and Ayder are busiest, especially at weekends and on Turkish public holidays.
• Late May and June are the greenest months and less crowded, and the first tea picking is under way.
• September is still mild, but rain in Rize rises sharply.
• October to December is wet and cloudy, with Rize getting close to 300 mm in October. Sumela runs on winter hours.

Rize gets about 2,300 mm of rain a year, several times the national average. Pack a rain jacket in any month.

How many days you need, with a sample plan

Two days covers Sumela and Uzungöl from a Trabzon base. Fly in early on Day 1, visit Sumela in the afternoon, then spend Day 2 at Uzungöl before an evening flight back.

Four days is the plan we recommend:

1. Day 1, Trabzon: Hagia Sophia, a 13th-century Byzantine church that has been used as a mosque since 2013. Add Kızlar Monastery and the view from Boztepe hill.
2. Day 2, Sumela: in the morning, with Karaca Cave or the old Hamsiköy village road in the afternoon.
3. Day 3, Uzungöl: a full day in the Çaykara valley.
4. Day 4, Rize and Ayder: tea gardens, Zilkale and the Ayder plateau, then fly out of Rize-Artvin.

Seven days lets you continue inland to eastern Turkey, which is how our longer Black Sea packages are built. If you want this region added to a wider Turkey trip, we can plan it on our tailor-made Turkey tour page. More options are on our Black Sea Turkey page.

Tours that cover this

• Trabzon Tour from Istanbul: 2 Days with Flights, Sumela & Uzungol, from $640 per person
• Istanbul & Trabzon Tour: 4 Days with Sumela Monastery & Flights, from $1,455 per person
• Black Sea & Eastern Turkey Private Tour: 7 Days from Istanbul, from $2,440 per person
• Trabzon Day Tour: Hagia Sophia, Kizlar Monastery & Boztepe Hill Tea, from $75 per person

Day tours already in Trabzon or Rize are listed under Black Sea tours.

Frequently Asked Questions