5 Days Istanbul and Trabzon Tour: Bosphorus, Uzungöl and Sumela Monastery (Group Tour)

After landing in Istanbul you are met at the airport and driven to your hotel to check in. Between 19:30 and 20:00 you are collected again for a dinner cruise on the Bosphorus. From the deck you see Dolmabahce Palace, Ortakoy Mosque, the Maiden's Tower, Rumeli Fortress, Beylerbeyi Palace and both the Bosphorus and Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridges lit up against the night. Dinner is served on board, followed by music from a DJ and traditional show programmes, or simply a quiet drink with the view. The cruise ends around midnight and you are returned to your hotel. Overnight in Istanbul.

After breakfast the guided city tour starts at the Hippodrome, once the arena of chariot races and still home to the Obelisk of Theodosius, the bronze Serpent Column and the Column of Constantine. You then visit the Blue Mosque, completed in the early 17th century and named for the blue Iznik tiles inside. Hagia Sophia, the 6th-century masterpiece of Byzantine architecture, Topkapi Palace, seat of the Ottoman sultans for four centuries, and the vast Basilica Cistern are seen from the outside; if you wish to go in, the entrance tickets to Topkapi and the cistern are paid on site. After the tour you return to the hotel, and dinner is served at an Indian restaurant. Bring a scarf for the mosque visits. Overnight in Istanbul.

An early breakfast is followed by a transfer to Istanbul Airport for the flight to Trabzon. On arrival the tour drives into Altindere National Park to visit Sumela Monastery, a 4th-century foundation built into a steep cliff above a forested valley. Next you cross the Zigana Mountain, where the road offers sweeping views over villages scattered across the Pontic range, and continue to Gumushane for Karaca Cave, regarded as one of the most colourful caves in Turkey thanks to its richly tinted stalactites and stalagmites. In the evening you check in at your hotel. Overnight in Trabzon.

The morning is spent among Trabzon's landmarks: the 13th-century Hagia Sophia church with its remarkable Byzantine frescoes, Ataturk's Mansion on Soguksu Hill above the Black Sea, the Panagia Theoskepastos or Girls' Monastery on Boztepe Hill, and the calm waters of Sera Lake. On the way towards Akcaabat you stop at a local restaurant where the region's famous Akcaabat meatballs are on the menu. In the afternoon you drive up to Uzungol, a lakeside village hidden in the Pontic Alps, for a walk around the lake and through the village before checking in at a wooden hotel. Dinner is included. Overnight in the Trabzon region.

After breakfast you are transferred to Trabzon Airport for your domestic flight back to Istanbul, where our services end. We hope the contrast between Istanbul's grand monuments and the misty highlands of the Black Sea stays with you long after the trip.