Turkey Black Sea road trip in 8 days

Collect the car at Trabzon airport and drive to your central hotel. The cost example starts at 14:00, so an arrival that cannot meet that collection needs a different quote. Once the bags are down, walk around Meydan and the neighbouring shopping streets. This first circuit helps you understand the centre without making the monastery an arrival-day deadline. Try a simple pide dinner and notice how the streets change from the open square to narrower commercial lanes. Trabzon has enough city life for an unhurried evening; you do not need to drive to Uzungöl to make the first day count. Buy water for tomorrow and keep the Sümela ticket and walking shoes together. The hotel’s parking arrangement is useful to settle once, before the first night, rather than during the next morning’s departure. Sleep in Trabzon.

• Central square and a nearby pide dinner
• Collect the seven-day airport rental

Overnight: Trabzon

Leave Trabzon after breakfast for Sümela, making the monastery the principal outing. Its setting is striking even before the visit: a long stone façade fitted against the mountain, with a forested valley below. Inside, the rock church and painted religious scenes explain why this was more than an isolated lookout. The official visitor page says that some sections remain closed, so the ticket does not promise access to every restored room. Allow a complete morning for the drive, parking, any local shuttle arrangement and the forest approach. The final entrance includes long, narrow stairs; this is a significant constraint for anyone who cannot manage steps. Daily hours are 08:00–17:00 with last entry at 16:30. Return to the coast for lunch and, if time remains, see Trabzon’s Hagia Sophia. Its red roof and stone church architecture make a useful contrast to the monastery’s sheer cliff. Sleep again in Trabzon.

• Sümela’s cliff façade and rock church
• Hagia Sophia on the return to the coast

Overnight: Trabzon

Follow the coastal corridor east and treat the move to Rize as a short transfer with time left for the city. Once checked in, start with the waterfront and the streets below the castle hill. You are entering a region where tea is part of ordinary work, rather than an attraction confined to a single visitor garden. The city-level castle viewpoint gives a first sense of how quickly the slopes rise behind the coast. If the hill is clear and the approach suits your energy, go up for that view; otherwise keep the afternoon to the centre and save the ascent for tomorrow. Ramada Plaza at Engindere is a driving base, while a central room puts dinner closer on foot. Make that distinction before choosing accommodation. A tea purchase is easiest after you have tasted the local brew, not simply because the first roadside stall has a large display. This is the first of two Rize nights.

• Coastal arrival and city orientation
• Castle hill when visibility is useful

Overnight: Rize

Spend the morning at Botanik, also called Ziraat, Tea Garden. It sits above the city with views towards the sea and Rize Castle, and it is a good place to slow the trip down. The park has labelled plants as well as a café serving tea and light food. The tourism directorate describes a steep walk of roughly twenty to thirty minutes from the centre; a municipal bus from the PTT area or a taxi offers an alternative to that climb. For lunch, look for regional pide or kavurma, then visit the tea market if you want leaves to take home. A countryside extension to Haremtepe near Çayeli is optional, not a required second circuit: its carefully shaped rows are working tea fields, so use visitor access and keep off planted rows. End the day back in your coastal room rather than changing accommodation for a single viewpoint.

• Ziraat tea garden and its city panorama
• Regional lunch and tea to take home

Overnight: Rize

Drive east towards Ardeşen, then turn inland along the Fırtına. The change from the open coast to a river corridor is the point of this move. Historic stone bridges provide short stops along the valley, but choose places where there is a proper pull-in and a clear walking approach rather than braking beside moving traffic for each bridge you notice. Reach the Dikkaya or Çamlıhemşin-area room in the afternoon. The Tabiat benchmark is in the lower valley; the plan does not put you up an Ayder or Pokut track. After check-in, take a short riverside walk on an established accessible path and find the dinner venue. Listen to the river from one place for a while: the valley is more rewarding when it is not only a series of roadside photographs. Tomorrow’s castle outing begins from this base, so keep the evening nearby and leave the car parked. This is the first valley night.

• Stone bridges on the river approach
• An afternoon in the lower valley

Overnight: Çamlıhemşin

Use the full valley day for Zilkale, about fifteen kilometres south of Çamlıhemşin according to the official regional guide. The castle occupies a rocky point above the western side of the Fırtına. Its tall keep, smaller rooms and surrounding walls are best understood together with the ravine below; the siting matters as much as the building. Combine the castle with the Şenyuva area for a bridge stop and lunch, using the lower valley road as the day’s backbone. There is no obligation to add several highland settlements afterwards. A café or a longer walk in the settlement gives the afternoon its own pace instead of another hour behind the wheel. Check current visitor access and the local admission charge before setting off; the budget includes a separate lira allowance for small site and transport expenses. Return to the same valley room for a second night, then pack for the next morning’s coastal and inland drive.

• Zilkale’s keep and ravine setting
• Şenyuva bridge area and a local lunch

Overnight: Çamlıhemşin

Return from the Fırtına valley to the coast, continue through the Arhavi and Hopa corridor, then turn inland towards Borçka and Artvin. This is the longest eastbound move, so start after breakfast and keep lunch on the road line. A detour to Borçka Karagöl would turn the transfer into another substantial excursion and is outside this eight-day schedule. After reaching Artvin, settle into the central hotel and walk around Atapark and Cumhuriyet Caddesi. The town’s stacked buildings and steep streets give a different view of the region from the coastal bases. If you still have a useful afternoon window, Atatepe adds the large Atatürk monument and a hillside perspective; it is an optional addition, not a reason to delay check-in until dark. Have dinner in the centre and prepare for an early westbound departure. Your one Artvin night is for experiencing the city, not moving the flight problem to tomorrow.

• A coastal-to-Çoruh road journey
• Central Artvin and an optional Atatepe view

Overnight: Artvin

Leave Artvin early in daylight and retrace the road through Borçka, Hopa and the coastal corridor to Trabzon airport. Allocate roughly five to six hours door to return, including a rest stop and refuelling, as an editorial planning allowance rather than a live traffic promise. This morning has no lake, church or tea-field excursion attached. The car example returns at 14:00; choose a flight late enough to leave a separate airport check-in margin after handing it back. Check the road and forecast before this final move. If disruption would prevent that schedule, an additional night and an agreed rental extension change both the trip length and price. For an early Trabzon departure, remove the Artvin overnight when planning the trip and sleep farther west instead. Rize–Artvin airport can be an alternative only after a real flight and an authorised rental return are arranged; its proximity alone does not make this same-office quote an open-jaw rental.

• Early daylight departure and refuelling
• 14:00 car return before a late flight

Overnight: No further hotel night