Maşukiye

About this place

The name gives the game away: Maşukiye comes from 'maşuk', the beloved, a nickname that, so the story goes, the village earned from the honeymoon couples who have favoured it since Ottoman days. Nobody comes for honeymoons now; they come for trout. The wooded stream valley that tumbles off Kartepe towards the south shore of Lake Sapanca has become one long ribbon of fish restaurants and tea gardens, their tables built out over the water so the cold stream runs under your feet while you eat. Sopeli, on the Mahmudiye side of the stream just across the provincial line, is the best-known complex, though it now works by reservation only and walk-ins get no further than its café; the dozens of smaller places along the strip need no booking and serve much the same thing: grilled or butter-fried trout, gözleme, and the smoked Circassian cheese the village is proud of. From Sapanca it is a 15-20 minute drive around the southern tip of the lake, roughly nine kilometres; from İzmit about half an hour, and from Istanbul around two hours on the TEM motorway. No ticket is involved: the valley, the waterfall and the village are open to all, and your only cost is lunch. Parking outside the restaurants is usually free for diners. The waterfall sits at the top of the restaurant strip, about two kilometres from the village centre, reachable by car or on foot up a climbing lane. A plain word of advice: do not build your day around it. It is small, photogenic in April and May when the snow on Kartepe melts, and shrunk to a thread by August that barely justifies the walk. The valley and a table over the water are the real point; the waterfall is a seasonal bonus. Maşukiye is also the gateway to Kartepe. From neighbouring Derbent, the Kocaeli metropolitan gondola climbs in about fourteen minutes to the Kuzuyayla plateau at 1,423 metres, a picnic ground in summer and a ski slope in winter; it runs Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00-19:00, closes on Mondays, and shuts for two weeks of maintenance each September before the snow season. For the Gulf families who fill Sapanca in July and August, know that summer weekends here mean a road jammed to a standstill, scarce parking and prices that rise with demand; a weekday gives you the same valley with half the noise. The streamside paths are earthen with steps, so a pushchair works at the restaurants but not up to the waterfall. In winter the village goes under snow and some restaurants close, but the ones that stay open, with a stove lit and hot trout on the table, are an experience in their own right.