Artvin is steep mountain country cut in two by the Çoruh. The provincial directorate describes long, sheer-sided valleys, peaks climbing to 3,900 metres, untouched forests, glacial lakes known locally as Karagöl, green high pastures, and old churches, castles and arched bridges. There is hardly any flat ground: apart from the coastal strips at Arhavi and Hopa, the province has no plain at all, and its northern border is with Georgia. The directorate's own list of things not to miss starts with the Camili basin, the two Karagöl lakes at Borçka and Şavşat, and the İşhan and Barhal churches near Yusufeli.
The lakes and pastures are the main sights. Şavşat's Karagöl, 8 to 10 hectares, is reached on 30 km of dirt road, by your own or a hired vehicle; Borçka's Karagöl lies 20 km along a dirt track that leaves the Borçka–Camili road at kilometre 27, with trout in the water and lynx, brown bear and wild goat in the surrounding forest. The Sahara–Karagöl National Park near Şavşat is forested with spruce and fir; the Maçahel–Gorgit–Efeler protected areas keep old-growth forest with the character of a rainforest, under some 3,200 mm of rain a year; and the Hatila Valley National Park is 10 km from the city on a gravel road. Kafkasör, a pasture at 1,250 metres reached on 10 km of asphalt from the city, has bungalows and springs the locals hold to be healing, and in the last week of June hosts three days of bull wrestling.
