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Date of the journey:- October 2019
Distance travelled:- 87 miles
After visiting Soumela Monastery, our next planned destination was the beautiful lake at Uzungol. Travelling along the north Turkish coast is really easy, as the main road runs right along the coast. Public transport along this route is only in the form of buses and minibuses.
There is no train network in this part of Turkey. Buses and minibuses are easy to use, frequent and cheap. However, should you wish to venture off this main road, travel gets a little more complicated. Travelling inland requires careful planning and potentially multiple bus/minibus changes. But it can be done.
As we wanted to see certain sites we chose to hire a car for our visit to Uzungol lake.
Already having hired a car for our visit to Soumela Monastery. It had to be returned to the pickup point in Trabzon. So after our visit to Soumela Monastery, we drove back to Trabzon to return our hired car to Ali’s rent a car.
Walking the 5 mins back to Trabzon Otogarı. We made our way to the Prenskale Turizm office to purchase our bus tickets from Trabzon to Rize. A 2-hour journey at a cost of 16 Turkish Lira each.
The bus from Trabzon arrived at the Rize Şehirler Arası Otobüs Terminali Otogar. From the bus station, we walked the 4 mins to the Billet car hire company office.
The drive out to the lake took about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Passing through wonderfully scenic countryside and following the not so full river. In places, the river looked nice, with the water cascading down the rocks.
Our accommodation in Uzungol was at the Grand Uzungöl Otel, we hadn’t pre-booked the accommodation, instead, we were just a walk-in booking.