Turkey · Black Sea · Travel guide
What a week between tea plantations and high pastures costs, when Ayder is empty and how to experience the Fırtına valley without a tour bus.
Photo: Ne Hayaldesin / Pexels
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Estimates for orientation, not booking prices. Flights and hotels vary strongly by season: current prices are behind the links below.
Money & payment: You pay in Turkish lira (TRY). The exchange rate moves a lot, which is why all prices here are given in francs and euros. Cards are accepted almost everywhere; you need cash for the dolmuş, markets and tips. Flight time: 3 to 4 hours.
Nine options in three price ranges, each among the best-rated on Booking.com.
Budget
Small family guesthouse with nine rooms on the edge of Ayder, a minute on foot from the plateau and the hiking trails. Simple, clean rooms, a breakfast buffet in the morning, helpful hosts who organise the jeep tours up to the pastures for you. No alcohol on the premises. Cheap by Ayder standards, and noticeably quieter outside high season.
Wooden lodge on the upper edge of Ayder with a view over the whole valley, away from the bustle of the main road. Simple rooms with bathroom, a warm lounge with a stove, breakfast with muhlama. The owners organise jeep tours up to the pastures. Best spot for photos in the morning.
Simple city hotel in the centre of Rize, a few minutes from the bus station and the waterfront promenade. Functional rooms, clean, Turkish breakfast. Only makes sense as a stopover before or after your flight, not as a base for the valleys. In return it is cheap, uncomplicated and has parking in front of the building.
Mid-range
One of the established hotels in Ayder, built in wood, with balconies facing the valley and a restaurant that brings the whole of Hemşin cuisine to the table. Rooms are warm and clean, and the heating works even in September. Central location, so lively in midsummer. A good choice for two nights with half board.
Wooden chalet hotel on the hillside with large rooms, wooden balconies and a view of the waterfalls opposite. Its own restaurant with trout and muhlama, parking at the door. A bit pricier than the simple lodges, but reliable and with good service. Popular with families, half board available.
Wooden bungalows and a treehouse right on the Fırtına river near Çamlıhemşin, between forest and water and with absolute peace and quiet. Its own restaurant, breakfast from the garden, a fire pit in the evening. Only reachable by car. If you want nature without the Ayder crowds, you are better off here than up in the high valley.
Luxury
Five-star thermal hotel in the İkizdere valley south of Rize, with a large spa, thermal pools, hamam and modern rooms. Not a mountain lodge but a resort, well suited to rainy days or as a finale after the yaylas. 45 minutes from the city, own car park.
The biggest hotel in town, a tower right on the sea with indoor pool, hamam, sauna, gym and a breakfast room on the 15th floor looking out over the coast. Two restaurants, a bar, free parking, reliable chain standard. Practical for the first and last night, with the airport and the tea gardens minutes away.
The most comfortable hotel in Ayder: large wooden rooms with panoramic windows, a small spa, a restaurant with views over the valley and heated rooms for cold nights. In Ayder, luxury means wood, quiet and views, not a marble lobby. The best the village has to offer, and in demand accordingly in midsummer.
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High valley at 1,350 metres with wooden houses, waterfalls and thermal baths. Bookable as a day tour from Rize or Trabzon, better with an overnight stay. Quiet in June and September, full, loud and expensive in high summer.
The drive along the storm river over stone bridges up to Zilkale castle is the finest half day in the region. Start before 11 a.m., when the view from the tower is still free of fog.
From Ayder, jeeps drive up to Huser, Pokut and Sal, the pastures above the cloud line. Half day or full day, overnight stay on the pasture possible. June to early October only, bring warm clothing.
From May to September the river has enough water for grade two to three rafting. Operators in Çamlıhemşin and Ardeşen, wetsuit and guide included, around two hours on the water.
The public tea garden above the town with terraces, tea house and views over Rize and the sea. The best place to understand the plantations, and free. 20 minutes on foot from the centre.
Ziplines and a suspension bridge span the valley and lead to the slope opposite. Not necessary for nature lovers, but fun for families on a dull afternoon, prices around CHF 10 (about EUR 11).
Multi-day treks through the Kaçkar massif with glacial lakes and the summit at 3,937 metres. With a local guide and tent, July to September. For experienced hikers one of the best mountain tours in Turkey, tent provided.
Above Çamlıhemşin the Palovit stream plunges 15 metres over a rock step into a forest pool. Short walk from the car park, often combined with jeep tours to the pastures. Most impressive after rain, hiking shoes are enough.
Byzantine castle walls above the centre with a tea garden and views over the rooftops to the sea. Then through the bazaar with its tea merchants and down to the waterfront park. Half a day, ideal in rain or before your flight.
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Rize is Turkey's tea capital, and the cuisine of the Hemşin and Laz valleys is mountain food: muhlama made from butter and cheese, pide from the stone oven, black cabbage soup, trout from the streams and honey from the high pastures. You eat in lodges, pide shops and on the yaylas, not in tourist restaurants.
Rize tea, brewed strong and drunk from a tulip glass, in the middle of the tea terraces above town. A glass CHF 0.30 to 0.60 (about EUR 0.30 to 0.65), a kilo of good tea in the supermarket CHF 5 to 8.
Tip:Go up in the late afternoon when the light lies on the terraces; the garden is free to enter.
Cornmeal, plenty of butter and kolot cheese, stirred in the pan until the cheese pulls threads. The breakfast of the Hemşin valleys, CHF 4 to 6 (about EUR 4.30 to 6.50) per pan, with bread and tea a whole meal.
Tip:Eat it hot while it pulls threads; with tea, not coffee, and not before a hike, the butter sits heavy.
Closed pide from the stone oven with minced meat, cheese or pastırma, brushed with butter at the end. CHF 4 to 7 (about EUR 4.30 to 7.50) per pide; the region argues with Trabzon over whose is best.
Tip:Order at lunchtime; pide "tereyağlı" with extra butter is the local way.
Soup of black cabbage, beans, cornmeal and sometimes meat, hearty and slightly bitter, the everyday dish of the Black Sea. A bowl CHF 2 to 4 (about EUR 2 to 4.30).
Tip:As a starter before pide or in the evening at the lodge, with cornbread (mısır ekmeği) if there is any.
Trout from the mountain streams, grilled or fried in butter, with salad and cornbread, served in places right beside the rushing river. A trout with sides CHF 8 to 12 (about EUR 8.50 to 13).
Tip:Stop in after a hike in the valley; the fish come from the tanks next door and are guaranteed fresh.
Honey from the Anzer high pasture in İkizdere, from over 400 kinds of flowers, one of the most expensive honeys in the world: a kilo costs CHF 150 to 250 (about EUR 160 to 270). A spoonful at breakfast is enough to understand why.
Tip:Buy only with a certificate; cheap "Anzer honey" at the roadside is not Anzer; a small jar as a gift is enough.
Layered pastry with vanilla custard, drenched in syrup, the dessert of the Laz coast, baked almost everywhere in Rize and Çayeli. CHF 2 to 4 (about EUR 2 to 4.30) per piece.
Tip:Have it with afternoon tea, ideally lukewarm when the tray has just come out of the oven.
Dark pudding of grape juice and cornflour, sprinkled with walnuts, tangy and not very sweet, an autumn dessert from the villages. CHF 2 to 3 (about EUR 2 to 3.20), not found everywhere.
Tip:Ask in September and October, when it is cooked from the fresh grapes of the valleys.
Rize lies where the Pontic Mountains drop most steeply into the Black Sea, and because of that position it was hard to reach for centuries. The Laz, a Caucasian people with their own language, lived here long before the Greeks and Romans, and to this day you can hear Laz spoken in the villages around Pazar and Ardeşen. In antiquity the town was called Rhizaion and belonged to the Empire of Trebizond, whose fortresses, such as Zilkale in the Fırtına valley, guarded the passes to the south. The Ottomans took over the region in 1461. The real turning point came only in the 1940s: because tea could no longer be imported from Georgia, the young republic tried planting tea bushes on the damp slopes around Rize. The experiment succeeded beyond all expectations. Today practically all Turkish tea leaves grow here, the state company Çaykur is the biggest employer, and from April to October women pick by hand on the terraces above the town. The Hemşin valleys behind, with their high pastures, stone arched bridges and wooden houses, remained almost untouched by tourism until the 1990s. Only the thermal springs of Ayder and the hiking trails into the Kaçkar Mountains turned Rize into a travel destination.
Ayder is the postcard image of the region: a high valley at 1,350 metres with wooden houses, waterfalls and cows, 90 kilometres from Rize. It is also the place where tourism is most noticeable. In July and August tour buses fill the valley, quad bikes rattle about, and the lodges charge CHF 100 (about EUR 107) and more for a simple wooden room. In June and September Ayder is a different place, half empty, green, with mist drifting over the meadows in the morning and prices around CHF 50 to 70. The thermal baths of Ayder, with water at 50 degrees, are pleasant after a hike but architecturally plain, so do not expect a spa. From Ayder the tracks start up to the Huser, Pokut and Sal high pastures, the real highlights of the region. If you use Ayder as a base and spend the days up top, you avoid the bustle in the valley.
The Fırtına valley, the storm valley, leads from Ardeşen on the coast 30 kilometres up to Çamlıhemşin and beyond. The river is turquoise green and wild, spanned by Ottoman stone arched bridges, the finest at Şenyuva and Çamlıhemşin. From Çamlıhemşin the road narrows, and after 15 kilometres Zilkale appears, a 14th-century castle on a rocky spur above the valley. Entry is around CHF 3 (about EUR 3), and the view down the valley is spectacular, especially in the morning before the fog rolls in. Further up, at Çat, the asphalt road ends. The drive is worth it even on a rainy day, because the valley feels almost mystical in fog. Rafting on the Fırtına costs around CHF 25 per person and is possible from May to September. Best to start the day early and reach Zilkale before 11 a.m.
The yaylas are summer settlements at 2,000 to 2,300 metres, to which the families from the valleys used to move with their livestock. Pokut and Sal sit on a ridge above the Fırtına valley and are known for the sea of clouds in the morning: if you sleep up there, at sunrise you watch the valleys disappear under a white blanket. Huser above Ayder is similar, with a view of the Kaçkar peaks. The access roads are gravel tracks, drivable with a normal hire car but slow and tricky in rain. Easier are jeep tours from Ayder for CHF 20 to 30 (about EUR 21 to 32) per person, which cover several yaylas in a day. On the pastures there are simple wooden guesthouses with a stove and breakfast for CHF 40 to 60 per person including dinner. June to early October only, after that there is snow. Bring warm clothing, the nights are cold even in August.
The tea terraces begin right behind the town of Rize and climb the slopes up to 800 metres. The botanical tea garden above the town, Ziraat Botanik Çay Bahçesi, is freely accessible, with a tea house and a view over the sea, and it is the best place to understand the landscape. The pickers work from May to October with shears and cloth, and the sacks are sent down to the valley by cable. The Çaykur factories are generally not open to the public, but some small producers in Çayeli offer visits. Turkish tea is drunk differently from the way it is in most of Europe: brewed strong, diluted with water, from small glasses. Buy it at the supermarket or directly from Çaykur, not in the souvenir shop: a kilo of good Rize tea costs CHF 5 to 8 (about EUR 5 to 9). The Çaykur Rize Turist variety is the standard everyday choice.
Rize gets over 2,200 millimetres of rain a year, more than any other Turkish province. That does not mean it rains constantly, but you should not plan a single day without a plan B. A hire car is almost indispensable in Rize: the dolmuş services from Pazar to Çamlıhemşin and Ayder run only a few times a day, and you cannot reach the high pastures at all without your own vehicle. At Rize-Artvin airport and in Trabzon hire cars are available from CHF 30 to 40 (about EUR 32 to 43) per day. The coastal road is a well-built motorway, the valley roads are narrow but surfaced as far as Ayder. Plan the yaylas for the days with the best forecast and save the museum, tea garden and town for the wet days. A rain jacket with a hood, not an umbrella: it is windy up on the pastures.
The valleys between Rize and Artvin are home to the Laz and the Hemşinli, two groups with their own languages and traditions. The horon, the fast line dance with trembling shoulders to the kemençe, is danced here at every wedding and at the summer festivals on the yaylas. If you are up there in July or August, you are almost certain to come across a pasture festival. In the kitchen, muhlama, the fondue-like cornmeal porridge with cheese and butter, is part of every breakfast, along with hamsi in winter, trout from the mountain streams in summer and Laz böreği, a sweet pudding pastry, for dessert. In Çamlıhemşin and Ayder there are no tourist restaurants in the classic sense; the lodges cook for their guests, so half board is worth it. Expect CHF 25 to 35 (about EUR 27 to 37) per day. The Hemşin women wear colourful headscarves, and a few words of Turkish open many doors.
Four to five days: one day for Rize town and the tea gardens, one day for the Fırtına valley with Zilkale, two days for Ayder and the high pastures with an overnight stay up top. If you want to hike in the Kaçkar Mountains, you need a week and generous weather reserves.
June to September, with a preference for June and September: the yaylas are free of snow, Ayder is not overrun, and prices are normal. July and August are high season with many guests from the Gulf states and from Turkey itself. In winter the high pastures are unreachable.
With a connection in Istanbul to Rize-Artvin airport (RZV), which opened in 2022 on an artificial island in the sea, or to Trabzon (TZX), which has more connections. From Trabzon it is 90 minutes to Rize by hire car. Expect CHF 320 to 450 (about EUR 340 to 480) for a return flight.
Almost essential. The valleys are reachable by dolmuş only a few times a day, the high pastures not at all. A hire car costs CHF 30 to 40 (about EUR 32 to 43) per day and is what makes the region accessible in the first place. If you do not want to drive, book jeep tours from Ayder for the pastures and taxis for the Fırtına valley.
The Kaçkar summit at 3,937 metres is technically not a climb, but it is a long, demanding two to three day trek with tent camp, usually starting from Yukarı Kavron above Ayder. Weather changes come fast. A local guide costs CHF 80 to 120 (about EUR 86 to 128) per day and is strongly recommended for the inexperienced.
As relaxation after a hike, yes; as the main reason, no. The water comes out of the mountain at over 50 degrees, there are separate sections for men and women and a family area. Entry is around CHF 5 to 8 (about EUR 5 to 9). The facility is basic and not comparable with a European thermal spa.
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