Rize is a city on Turkey's Black Sea coast. Not a real tourist attraction, but a good base for exploring the northeast. It's the centre of the country's tea-growing humid northeastern coast.

View of Rize

Get in

By plane

Turkish Airlines offers daily flights into Trabzon Airport (havaalanı).

Pegasus offers discounted fares to Trabzon from Istanbul and Ankara.

By bus

One can reach Rize by taking a bus or dolmuş from Trabzon.

Get around

Much of Rize can be accessed on foot or by shuttle bus (Dolmuş).

See

Entrance to Rize Castle

• 1 Rize Kalesi (Rize Castle). 

• Ethnographic Museum. 

• Visit the Botanik Çay Baçhesi (Botanical Tea Garden) and drink Rize's famous tea and sample local desserts.

• Take a dolmuş to Tepebaşı from the mosque (cami) north of the central square. There are a number of excellent and affordable restaurants in Tepebasi that offer a full panorama of the city from a hilltop just outside of the city.

Do

• Drink tea and/or eat fish at a number of seaside restaurants along the coast opposıte from the cıty center.

Buy

Buy tea (çay)!

Eat

Try local Karadeniz specialties such as Muhlama, Hamsi Boreği, and Alabalik.

Drink

Rize is the capital city of TEA, you can drink tea. Also, except for neighboring Of, Rize is the most conservative city outside central-Anatolia. Don't expect to have an alcoholic drink anywhere except from a few remotely located liquor stores.

Sleep

• Dedeman Rize. A reputable 4+ star hotel in Rize. 

• Keleş otel. An acceptable (and unremarkable) two-star hotel near the city center. Rates for a two-person room started at 75 TL as of July 2009. 

Go next

Ottoman Bridge spanning the Fırtına River near Çamlıhemşin, south of Rize

• Take a dolmuş to Ayder, access-point for the Kaçkar Dağlar (Kaçkar Mountains).
• Çamlıhemşin with its stunning Ottoman Bridge spanning the Fırtına River.

Routes through Rize

Trabzon ← Sürmene ←

W  E

→ Ends at Turkish-Georgian border gate Sarpi