Lake · Uzungöl, Çaykara, Trabzon
Uzungöl
Uzungöl
A lake-and-village resort area in Çaykara district, Trabzon Province, at roughly 1,269 m elevation — a lakeside boardwalk, forested mountainsides, trout restaurants and wood-chalet hotels, reached by a mountain road that real winter snow can disrupt.
Where it is
40.6193, 40.2949
Why go
Uzungöl is a lake-and-village resort area in Çaykara district, Trabzon Province, about 90 km from Trabzon city centre and 15 km from Çaykara's own centre, at roughly 1,269 m elevation. The standalone Uzungöl municipality was abolished in 2014 and folded into Çaykara Belediyesi as a mahalle, so Çaykara Belediyesi is the local governing authority today, with Trabzon Büyükşehir Belediyesi (the metropolitan municipality) handling regional roads. Visitors come for the lakeside walk/boardwalk, mountain and forest scenery, trout restaurants and boutique wood-chalet hotels; a winter festival has run in recent years. There is no single ticketed entrance to the lake or village — the weight of available evidence (a regional nature-conservation directorate's own page, plus a secondary source's explicit FAQ-style statement) favours free access to the town-centre and lake-surrounds area, though a conflicting aggregator-sourced fee figure for the wider nature park has not been fully reconciled. Winter brings real access risk: heavy snow has been reported requiring winter tires and continuous road-clearing, and the wider area has seen at least one weather-driven road closure.
Getting there
About 90 km from Trabzon city centre and 15 km from Çaykara district centre, reached by road (regional minibus/shuttle services exist, e.g. a Çaykara-based operator's posted schedule) or private car; no single gated entrance to the lake/village. The 12th Regional Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks' own page for Uzungöl Tabiat Parkı describes visitor facilities with no fee mentioned, and a secondary source explicitly states no per-person or vehicle fee applies to the town-centre/lake-surrounds area — the weight of evidence favours free access, though a conflicting aggregator-sourced nature-park fee figure (₺25–30/₺15, 2024-dated, and not internally consistent across sources) has not been fully reconciled against a directly-read primary tariff document. Duration-based parking charges are reported by a secondary source, amount unconfirmed.
Best time to visit
No official closure calendar exists, but real winter snow (reported exceeding 1 m in February 2026) can require winter tires and trigger continuous road-clearing; a separate 2026 report describes a landslide/flood event cutting off road access to tourist facilities elsewhere in the wider area. A recurring winter festival has also run in recent years, so winter is not purely a deterrent, but real access risk should be planned around, not assumed away.
Through the year
Open year-round in principle — there is even a winter festival — but access can be materially disrupted by snow or, less often, landslide/flood, and winter tires are effectively required in season. This is a genuine access risk, not a scheduled seasonal closure.
Accessibility
No source read describes specific step-free or accessibility facilities for the lakeside boardwalk.
Near Uzungöl
Monastery
Sümela Monastery
A Greek Orthodox monastery built into a sheer cliff face about 300 m above the Altındere valley floor, in Trabzon Province — reachable only on foot from a national-park shuttle stop, never by direct road access.
54 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Mosque
Hagia Sophia, Trabzon
A 13th-century Byzantine church-turned-mosque on Trabzon's Black Sea coast road, with surviving frescoes including a Pantocrator Christ dome fresco — not to be confused with the far more famous Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, a different building entirely.
66 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Fortress
Castle of Kars
A hilltop citadel above Kars city and the Kars River, with 10th-century origins and its present form dating to a 1579 rebuild — a compact, in-town complement to the half-day Ani archaeological site 42 km away.
236 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Archaeological Site of Ani
A ruined medieval Armenian capital city on the closed Turkey–Armenia border in Kars Province — an 85-hectare walled UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site with cathedrals, churches and a caravanserai, once home to some 100,000 people.
277 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ