Hidden Gems in Türkiye

• Why it is here: Türkiye's first UNESCO biosphere reserve, painted wooden mosques and forest lakes
• Location: Northeastern Black Sea, on the Georgian border
• Best season: June to October; September and October for autumn colour at Karagöl
• Access: Rize-Artvin airport or Trabzon; a car is essential, some lake roads are partly unpaved

Artvin is the corner of the Black Sea that the Trabzon and Rize circuit usually stops short of. Macahel, the old name for the Camili valley in Borçka, is Türkiye's only UNESCO biosphere reserve: a valley of Colchic forest closed in by mountains and by Georgia on the far side. Its villages keep timber mosques with painted interiors, like the one at İremit, and the valley is known for its pure Caucasian honeybee.

Further east, Şavşat holds Karagöl, a dark landslide-dammed lake (heyelan gölü) inside the Karagöl-Sahara National Park, ringed by forest that turns orange in autumn, and the medieval Georgian church at Tibeti. The roads are slow and the weather is wet; that is the price of a forest this green.

Choose Artvin over Rize if you already know Uzungöl and want the same Black Sea forest on a quieter circuit, where village life sets more of the pace than tour itineraries do.

For the full province see our Artvin guide and the longer Artvin travel story. To combine it with Rize and Trabzon, the Black Sea Highlands route is the obvious frame.

• Why it is here: Rock-carved Phrygian monuments in open steppe, with the volcanic geology but not the crowds
• Location: Western Anatolian plateau, between Eskişehir, Kütahya and Afyonkarahisar
• Best season: April to June, September to October
• Access: Both cities are on main roads and rail; a car is needed for the valley

Long before the Romans, this plateau was the heartland of the Phrygians, the kingdom remembered through King Midas. They left their mark in soft volcanic tuff: carved rock facades, altars and tombs scattered across a landscape of pale outcrops. The best known is the monumental facade at Yazılıkaya, often called Midas City, south of Eskişehir. Around İhsaniye near Afyonkarahisar, rock-cut settlements such as Ayazini add Byzantine rock-cut churches.

It is sometimes described as a quieter Cappadocia, and the geology is related. The experience is different: no balloons, few facilities, more driving between sites, and long stretches where yours is the only car. Bring food and water for the day.

Base in Eskişehir for the northern sites and the Odunpazarı old town, or in Afyonkarahisar for Ayazini, the castle rock and the 13th-century wooden Ulu Cami, part of the UNESCO-listed group of medieval wooden hypostyle mosques of Anatolia.

• Why it is here: Seven landslide lakes in a beech forest that turns copper in autumn, a national park since 1965
• Location: North of Bolu, in the western Black Sea mountains between Istanbul and Ankara
• Best season: October into early November for colour; late spring for green and full lakes
• Access: About 40 km north of Bolu by the direct road, closed in winter; the longer Yeniçağa–Mengen road is the all-season way in. A car is needed

Yedigöller means "seven lakes", and that is exactly what the park is: Büyükgöl, Seringöl, Deringöl, Nazlıgöl, Küçükgöl, İncegöl and Sazlıgöl, formed by old landslides and strung along a forested valley at around 800 to 900 metres. Beech dominates, with oak, hornbeam and pine around it, so for a few weeks each autumn the whole valley turns yellow, orange and red and the lakes carry the reflection.

It is well known in Türkiye and busy on autumn weekends, which is why Bolu's national parks are moving to an advance-booking entry system from 2026; check the current rules before you drive up. Go midweek, walk the lake circuit early, and climb to the Kapankaya terrace for the view over the whole valley. The park has bungalows and a campsite if you want the morning mist to yourself.

Yedigöller sits a short detour off the Istanbul–Ankara highway, so it pairs naturally with Kastamonu and Safranbolu on a northern loop, or makes a two-day stop on the way east.

• Why it is here: A flooded forest behind the Black Sea dunes, the largest single stretch of longoz in Türkiye
• Location: Between Karasu and Kaynarca on the Sakarya coast, under a kilometre from the sea
• Best season: May to July for water lilies and high water; autumn for colour
• Access: About 190 km and three hours from Istanbul; 14 km from Karasu town, which has buses, hotels and the beach

A longoz is a forest that stands in water: the sea blocks the rivers, the land behind the dunes floods, and alder and ash grow out of a still, dark lake. Acarlar is Türkiye's largest single stretch of it, about 7.5 km long, a protected wildlife area since 2006 with more than 200 bird species counted. In spring the water rises to the tree trunks and the surface fills with water lilies; by late summer it drops and the forest floor reappears.

Visiting is simple. A boardwalk of roughly 1.5 km runs out over the water from the visitor area run by the metropolitan municipality, with an observation tower at the end; walk it slowly and early, when the birds are active and the light comes through the canopy. Boats were taken off the water years ago to protect the wildlife, so this is a place to walk and look, not to paddle.

Combine it with Karasu's long beach next door, or with Yedigöller and Kastamonu for a north-west loop of forest, lakes and an Ottoman town. From Istanbul it also works as a long day out with no mountain driving.