Travel · Türkiye
Above the Black Sea, Trabzon Steps Into the Spotlight
When Mohamed Salah signed for Trabzonspor this month, he did more than change clubs. He turned a spotlight on a corner of Türkiye that Gulf travellers have quietly loved for years. Trabzon sits where the Eastern Black Sea meets a wall of green mountains, a place of cool summers, cloud-level plateaus and a table unlike anywhere else in the country. The football is new. The appeal is not.
A Different Coast
A Different Face of Türkiye
Most first-time visitors picture Türkiye as sun and turquoise coast. The Black Sea north tells another story. Here the summers stay mild, daytime temperatures hover around 25 degrees, and the hills hold their green long after the rest of the country has turned gold. For Gulf families escaping the heat, that has made Trabzon a fixture, reachable on direct and seasonal flights from across the region.
The country welcomed 25.8 million international visitors in the first half of 2026, according to its tourism agency, and the Black Sea is a growing part of that picture. Salah’s arrival simply hands it a global stage.
Sümela Monastery
Carved Into the Cliff
South of the city, the Sümela Monastery clings to a sheer rock face above the Altındere valley, a centuries-old retreat half-swallowed by forest and cloud. It is Trabzon’s defining image.
The Landscape
The Nature Is the Attraction
What keeps travellers coming is the land itself. Uzungöl, a mirror-still lake ringed by mountains and mist, has become the region’s signature view. Above it lie the high plateaus, Hıdırnebi, the Sultan Murat highlands and others, where villages sit level with the clouds and the air turns cool even in August.
The valleys reward the active traveller, with hiking and paragliding, boating and slow scenic drives, waterfalls in the Altındere national park, and forest trails that suit an unhurried afternoon as much as a serious trek.
The Table
A Cuisine Worth the Trip
Trabzon’s cooking is its own argument for the journey. Rooted in the Black Sea, it leans on what is fresh and local: cornmeal, greens, dairy, anchovy and the region’s celebrated tea. The dishes are hearty and specific, from Akçaabat köfte to Vakfıkebir bread, mountain honey and hazelnuts by the handful.
Kuymak
A Morning, Not a Meal
No dish captures it better than kuymak, a molten blend of cornmeal, butter and stretchy local cheese, pulled slowly from the pan and eaten as part of a long village breakfast. Served with fresh bread, eggs and endless glasses of tea, it is less a meal than a morning, and the kind of ritual travellers remember longer than any monument.
The Black Sea Breakfast
Pulled From the Pan
Poured against a backdrop of lake and mountain, Trabzon’s kuymak is breakfast at its most photogenic, the cheese drawn into long threads before the first glass of tea is even poured.
When to Go
Every Season Has Its Reason
Trabzon is not a single-season destination. Summer brings the green highlands and the Gulf crowd; autumn turns the slopes copper and gold and suits wellness escapes and harvest visits; winter dusts the Mesouraş highlands with snow, adding modest skiing to the mix. Above all it is an easy place to travel with family, safe, relaxed and full of the shared, unhurried days that hold a trip together.
Where to Stay
From City Hotels to Mountain Retreats
Accommodation has kept pace with the interest. Travellers can choose from international hotels in the city to boutique properties, mountain retreats, private villas and family stays scattered through the highlands, close to the plateaus and the cool air that draws people here in the first place.
For Boujeez
A footballer’s transfer is a fleeting reason to look at a place. What holds the gaze is everything Trabzon already was: a green, generous, family-minded corner of Türkiye where the mountains meet the sea and the pace slows to match. For a Gulf traveller, the best destinations tend to be the ones that reward a second look, long after the headline has moved on.
Imagery courtesy of Go Türkiye.