Explore The Black Sea coast
From Çaykara, it’s 45km on a paved road up to Uzungöl (Long Lake), the main attraction of this area. After Sumela, it’s the second most popular excursion out of Trabzon, and could be Switzerland were it not for the mosques. Frequent dolmuşes make the hour and a half trip up from Of, and tours are laid on daily according to demand by Trabzon travel agencies. The scenic lake, at just under 1100m, has a bazaar district around its outlet and is best seen by hiring a mountain bike from one of the teashops. Parascending from the surrounding hills is also popular.
Uzungöl makes an ideal base for rambles southeast up to the nearby peaks of Ziyaret (3111m) and Halizden (3376m), with a chain of glacier lakes at the base of the latter. It’s a very long day’s hike there and back – though you can go part-way by car to save time – so take a tent and food for two days if at all possible.
