Guide
Ayvacık, sixty kilometres from Samsun, is mostly forest, with areas that lost their woodland over time turned to farmland. Almost everyone here works in agriculture — hazelnuts are the main crop — though some live by trade and fishing. Two dams built on the Yeşilırmak where it passes through the district created the reservoir that changed the character of the place, and the combination of forest, greenery and lake led to its declaration as the Ayvacık Tourism Protection and Development Region by government decree on 23 June 2010.
The villages on the two sides of the reservoir cross between them by a small ferry, which is itself worth the trip. Visitors come for the reservoir and the picnic grounds around it, and for the fish caught in it — mirror carp, mullet, perch and catfish. The turn for Ayvacık is at the Çarşamba entrance.
