Amasra

Amasra sits on a small peninsula with a bay on each side - Büyük Liman and Küçük Liman - and a Roman-founded, Byzantine-rebuilt, Genoese-occupied castle covering the headland and a rock island joined to it by a bridge. People live inside the walls, so the fortress is a neighbourhood: lanes of houses, a Byzantine church converted to a mosque, gateways with Genoese coats of arms still set in them, and the Kuşkayası road monument, a Roman relief cut into the rock outside town. What Amasra is actually famous for in Turkey is lunch. The fish restaurants along the harbour serve the Black Sea catch, and the Amasra salatası - a finely chopped salad of a dozen or more vegetables and herbs - is ordered by everyone. Woodcarving is the local craft, sold in the streets. The town is small, walkable and crowded in August, and it is one of the more attractive stops on this coast.

What you actually see

• The castle walls - Genoese and Byzantine work with houses inside.
• The two bays - harbours on either side of the peninsula.
• The bridge island - the rock joined to the headland.
• The fish restaurants - the harbour strip and the famous salad.

When to go

May to June and September to October. August fills the town completely and accommodation prices spike; winter is wet and quiet.

Honest expectations

It is small - a day covers it. Parking in the old town is close to impossible in season. Black Sea weather is unpredictable and rain is common in any month.

Nearby

Safranbolu is about an hour and a half inland; the Küre mountains and Cide are west along the coast.