Samsun is Turkey's biggest city on the Black Sea, a long coastal port with trams, apartment blocks, sea air, and a very serious sense of republican history. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk landed here on 19 May 1919, and the city treats that moment not as a footnote but as its central identity.
The best day in Samsun starts with the Bandirma Ship Museum, then loops back through the Gazi Museum, Ataturk Park, and the old market quarter around Saathane Square. It is not an old-town showpiece like Amasya or Safranbolu; fires, earthquakes, and modern growth left it with a more workaday face.
That said, Samsun is better than a transfer stop. The waterfront is long and usable, Atakum gives the city a beach-town edge in summer, and Black Sea food appears in pide shops, anchovy plates, and roadside menemen places south of town.