Turkey
Artvin
Georgian monasteries cling to cliffs above whitewater gorges in Turkey's wildest northeastern corner.
The road climbs through granite gorges where the Çoruh River crashes white below, and then a 10th-century Georgian church appears on a cliff ledge, its frescoes still holding colour inside walls that should have collapsed centuries ago. Artvin is Turkey's wildest northeastern corner — forests so dense they block the sky, rivers so fast they define the landscape.
Artvin province in Turkey's eastern Black Sea region contains some of the country's most dramatic mountain scenery and its densest forest cover — over 55% old-growth woodland. Georgian churches at Dörtkilise, İşhan, and Barhal date from the 10th century and retain original frescoes. The Çoruh River valley offers Grade IV-V whitewater rafting through granite gorges. The annual Kafkasör Festival features bull wrestling on alpine meadows at 1,300 metres.
Solo
Artvin rewards the self-sufficient traveller — the roads are winding, the churches are remote, and the forests are primeval. This is exploration, not tourism.
Friends
Whitewater rafting the Çoruh, hiking to forgotten Georgian churches, bull wrestling at Kafkasör — Artvin is a group adventure in terrain that most visitors to Turkey never see.
- The Georgian churches at Dörtkilise, İşhan, and Barhal date from the 10th century and retain original frescoes.
- The Çoruh River valley below Artvin offers Grade IV-V whitewater rafting through granite gorges.
- Artvin's Kafkasör Festival features bull wrestling on alpine meadows at 1,300 metres each June.
- The province contains Turkey's densest forest cover — over 55% of the land is old-growth woodland.
Black Sea pide — boat-shaped flatbread loaded with butter, egg, and local cheese.
Laz böreği — a sweet custard-filled pastry unique to the eastern Black Sea.
Pedra de Lume
Cape Verde
Float in a salt lake inside an extinct volcano, crater walls rising on every side.
Vale do Paúl
Cape Verde
Sugarcane terraces spill down a volcanic crater into the greenest valley in the archipelago.
Monastery of St. Anthony
Egypt
Earth's oldest inhabited monastery, wedged into a Red Sea mountain canyon since the fourth century.
Hoang Su Phi
Vietnam
Rice terraces so vertiginous they look like topographical maps carved directly into the sky.
Mount Ararat
Turkey
Turkey's highest peak rises alone from the plain, perpetually snow-capped and steeped in flood mythology.
Hasankeyf
Turkey
A 12,000-year-old Tigris settlement now partly drowned by a dam — cave dwellings and minarets half-submerged.
Cappadocia
Turkey
Hundreds of hot air balloons drift through a forest of stone pillars at dawn.
Ephesus
Turkey
Marble streets still grooved by Roman chariot wheels lead to a library that held 12,000 scrolls.