Trabzon Practical and Summary: Airport and Transport Connections, the Complete Black Sea Circuit, Northeast Turkey 10-Day Itinerary, the Best Accommodation, and the Departure from the Last Byzantine City
The Trabzon practical and summary route covers the airport transport connections and the domestic flight network, the complete Black Sea coast circuit from Istanbul to Trabzon and Artvin, the northeast Turkey 10-day itinerary including Kars and Ani, the best accommodation in Trabzon and Ayder, and the departure summary of Trabzon as the most historically singular city on the Turkish Black Sea coast.
- 1
Trabzon Airport: Connections and Transfers
Trabzon Havalimani, the airport built on the reclaimed sea platform extending into the Black Sea 9 kilometers east of the city centre, is connected to the city by the airport bus to the city centre in 30 minutes and the taxi in 20 minutes. The Turkish Airlines, Pegasus, and SunExpress domestic services connect Trabzon to Istanbul Ataturk and Sabiha Gokcen, Ankara, Izmir, and 10 Turkish domestic airports. The international services to Baku, Tbilisi, Batumi, Kiev, and the Russian Black Sea cities make Trabzon the most internationally connected Turkish Black Sea airport.
- 2
Black Sea Coast Circuit: The Complete Drive
The complete Black Sea coast circuit from Samsun west to Ordu, Giresun, and Trabzon east to Rize, Artvin, and the Georgian border, covering the 400 kilometers of coastal road that passes through the hazelnut orchards, the tea plantations, the Ottoman stone bridges, and the Pontic mountain valleys, is the most scenically varied single overland journey on the Turkish Black Sea coast. The circuit is most rewarding in May and June when the rhododendron bloom colors the mountain slopes and the sea is still cool enough to appreciate the contrast with the mountain heat.
- 3
Northeast Turkey 10-Day Circuit
The northeast Turkey 10-day circuit from Trabzon east to Artvin and the Georgian churches, south to Erzurum and the Cifte Minareli Medrese, east to Kars and the Ani Armenian ruins, south to Dogubayazit and the Ishak Pasha Palace below Mount Ararat, west to Van and the Akdamar Armenian church island, and return to Trabzon by the northern route, covers the most historically and scenically diverse single circuit in Turkey and the journey that reveals the most complete picture of the eastern Anatolian landscape between the Black Sea and the Iranian border.
- 4
Trabzon Accommodation: City to Mountain
The Trabzon city accommodation ranges from the Novotel and the Hilton on the Black Sea waterfront for the business traveler to the boutique hotels in the citadel area above the bazaar for the cultural visitor. The Ayder plateau accommodation in the traditional Black Sea chalet hotels provides the most atmospheric mountain base for the Kackar trekking, and the Uzungol lakeside hotels offer the most scenic single location on the Black Sea. The Sumela Monastery area has the basic guest houses for the early morning monastery visit before the tour buses arrive at 10am.
- 5
Departure from Trabzon: The Historical Summary
The departure from Trabzon, whether by the early morning Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul or the bus west along the Black Sea coast, concludes the visit to the city where the Byzantine civilization most completely outlasted its own political history. The Sumela Monastery in the cliff that the monks built to be inaccessible is now the most visited heritage site in the eastern Black Sea region, and the Hagia Sofia that the Comnenian emperor built for the Christian liturgy now calls the Friday prayer from its Ottoman minaret, and together they constitute the most compressed single summary of the transition from the Byzantine to the Ottoman world available in any single city in Turkey.
- 6
Trabzon Farewell: The Black Sea Conclusion
Trabzon, the city that the Pontic Greeks called the most beautiful city in the world, that the Byzantine emperors made the cultural refuge of the last civilization in the east, and that the contemporary Turkish Black Sea community has made the most fiercely loyal football and regional identity in Turkey, is the final stop of the northeast Turkey circuit and the city that most completely defies the simplified national narrative with the complexity of its successive identities. The visitor who leaves Trabzon understands the Turkish Black Sea coast as the most historically layered and the most ethnically complex single region in Turkey, and understands why the Sumela icon, the Pontic kemençe music, and the hamsi anchovy are all expressions of the same extraordinary place on the Black Sea.