Byzantine Anatolia with Toldinstone: 12-Day Trabzon, Black Sea & Cappadocia Journey

Trace the churches, walls and neighborhoods of a Black Sea empire.

Discover the Byzantine heritage of Trabzon, beginning at the city’s celebrated Hagia Sophia, whose architecture and surviving decoration reflect the artistic world of the Empire of Trabzon. Continue to Trabzon Castle and the former Panagia Chrysokephalos Church before visiting the Trabzon Museum at Kostaki Mansion. Later, explore the historic Gülbahar Hatun neighborhood, where monuments from different periods reveal how the city evolved after the Byzantine era.

Enter a cliffside sanctuary shaped by faith, forest and isolation.

Travel into Altındere National Park to visit Sümela Monastery, dramatically built into a cliff above the forested valley. Explore the complex and learn how its remote setting, rock-cut spaces and painted surfaces made it one of the Black Sea region’s most remarkable monastic centers. After time in the national park, stop in Maçka for lunch before returning toward Trabzon. Conclude the day at Atatürk Mansion, set in landscaped grounds with broad views across the city and surrounding hills.

Follow the coast through fortresses, islands and sweeping sea views.

Leave Trabzon and follow the Black Sea coast west to Tirebolu Castle, positioned above the harbor and historic coastal route. Continue to Giresun Castle for panoramic views over the city and sea. Weather and sea conditions permitting, take a boat trip to Giresun Island, the only significant island off Türkiye’s eastern Black Sea coast and a place associated with layers of ancient tradition. Continue to Ordu and ascend to Boztepe for views over the coastline before checking into your hotel. Note: The Giresun Island boat trip operates only when weather and sea conditions permit.

Turn inland from the Black Sea toward fortified towns and old caravan routes.

Travel inland to Niksar, ancient Neocaesarea, and explore its imposing castle. Continue to Yağıbasan Medrese, among the earliest surviving madrasas in Anatolia, before visiting the Yeşilırmak River and picturesque Yılanlı Bridge. Proceed to Tokat and walk through Sulusokak, the historic core of the city, where Ottoman mansions, mosques and traditional commercial buildings line the old streets. Visit Taşhan, a restored seventeenth-century caravanserai, before settling into your hotel.

Cross from the Hittite capital to the modern capital of Türkiye.

Depart Tokat for Hattusa, the UNESCO-listed capital of the Hittite Empire. Explore the Great Temple, Lion Gate, King’s Gate and royal citadel before continuing to Yazılıkaya, the extraordinary open-air sanctuary carved with processions of Hittite deities. Continue across central Anatolia to Ankara. On arrival, visit Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and one of the defining monuments of the modern Turkish Republic, before transferring to your hotel.

Discover the ancient city beneath Türkiye’s modern capital.

Begin at the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations, where finds from across the country provide essential context for the cultures encountered along the route. Continue to the Erimtan Archaeology and Art Museum. Explore Roman Ankara through the ancient theater, the surviving line of the Roman road, the Temple of Augustus and Rome, the Roman Baths and Julian’s Column. End in the Hacı Bayram district and Ankara Citadel, where historic streets and panoramic views bring together the city’s Roman, Ottoman and modern layers.

Leave the capital for Cappadocia’s volcanic valleys and rock-cut sanctuaries.

Travel south toward Cappadocia, pausing for photographs at the broad white expanse of Tuz Gölü, Türkiye’s Salt Lake. Continue to Ihlara Valley, where churches and settlements were carved into the steep volcanic canyon. Later, visit Selime Monastery, one of Cappadocia’s largest rock-cut religious complexes, before continuing to your hotel and settling into the region’s distinctive landscape.

Read Cappadocia’s Byzantine story in painted churches and abandoned settlements.

Begin at the UNESCO-listed Göreme Open-Air Museum, home to some of Cappadocia’s finest rock-cut churches and Byzantine frescoes. Continue to Çavuşin, where houses and churches rise through a dramatic cliffside settlement. Explore Zelve Open-Air Museum, an extensive abandoned community shaped by monastic and village life. Later, see the distinctive fairy chimneys of Paşabağ, also known as Monks Valley, before ending among the surreal formations of Devrent Valley.

Step away from the busiest routes into Cappadocia’s quieter Christian heritage.

Travel to Soğanlı Valley, known for its peaceful scenery, traditional villages and rock-cut churches. Continue to Sobesos, where archaeological remains preserve traces of the region’s Roman and early Byzantine past. Later, explore Mustafapaşa, historically known as Sinasos, with its stone houses and Greek Orthodox heritage. Visit the Church of Saints Constantine and Helena and enjoy lunch at a carefully selected local restaurant. Return to the hotel, with the balance of the afternoon at leisure.

Descend beneath the earth before returning to Cappadocia’s highest viewpoints.

Explore Derinkuyu Underground City, an extensive subterranean settlement of passages, chambers and communal spaces carved deep into the volcanic rock. Continue to Gümüşler Monastery, one of Anatolia’s best-preserved Byzantine monastic complexes, celebrated for its rock-cut architecture and surviving frescoes. Conclude at Uçhisar Castle, the region’s highest natural citadel, with panoramic views across the valleys of Cappadocia.

Carry home the stories of empires, monasteries and landscapes written in stone.

Enjoy free time according to your flight schedule before the journey comes to an end. Transfer arrangements to Kayseri or Nevşehir Airport will operate according to the final published inclusions. Depart with a deeper understanding of Anatolia’s Byzantine heritage and the many Hittite, Roman, Seljuk, Ottoman and modern layers encountered along the road.