If you’re visiting Trabzon from within Turkey, the two main ways to visit the city are by plane or by bus. Trabzon International Airport (TZX) has regular flights between major cities like Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.
Trabzon is the biggest city in Turkey’s northeast and there are direct buses coming in from all over the country.
When it comes to buying long-distance bus tickets in Turkey, you have a number of options. The major bus companies, like Metro or Kamil Koc, often have offices in the city center where you can buy tickets in person. They may even offer a free shuttle bus from the city center to the otogar (bus terminal).
Of course, you can also visit the otogar itself to purchase your ticket in advance or on the day.
And you can also purchase tickets online, but it’s not totally straightforward for foreigners. There are so many different bus companies in Turkey, but I noticed that none of the online booking web sites showed all the different choices.
To see all of the options, you’ll have to check multiple sites. For example, I recommend checking both the Biletall and Obilet sites to see the full range of choices. The web site Busbud.com is also a very foreigner friendly site for booking bus tickets, but they don’t seem to feature all the companies either.
Note that at the time of writing in the coronavirus era, online booking sites will ask for an (Hayat Eve Siga) HES code. You can get this via an app but only once you get your Turkish SIM card.
As for those visiting Trabzon from Georgia, you can take a direct bus from the Sarpi border crossing with Batumi. But if you don’t see one, you’ll have to negotiate with the local taxi mafia for a ride to the nearest town of Hopa. From there you should easily find a coach bus to Trabzon and the ride should last about 3 hours.