Rize

Turkey

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

Entrance to Rize Castle

  • Rize Kalesi.
  • 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.

Rize Kalesi.

Ethnographic Museum.

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

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

Buy tea (çay)!

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

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.

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.