Eastern Türkiye
Baltic streets at the edge of the steppe
Kars looks like nowhere else in Türkiye: a Russian-planned grid of basalt buildings from an 1878-1918 imperial period, layered over a 10th-century Armenian cathedral and a Seljuk-Ottoman castle. Winter is when it comes alive - the Doğu Ekspresi sleeper train, a lake you can walk across when it freezes - and it's the standard base for Ani, 45 minutes east.
Every published place in one city guide
Start with the essentials, add what genuinely interests you, and leave the rest for another visit. Every place includes a concise story, practical timing, a Maps link, and a one-tap route planner action.
Make the route work
Kars Harakani Airport (KSY) is about 6km from the centre, with domestic flights from Istanbul and Ankara; the alternative is the Doğu Ekspresi overnight train from Ankara (a whole POI in itself, see below). Long-distance buses also run from major cities but take considerably longer.
Central Kars, the castle, and the old town are all walkable. Ani (45km), Çıldır Lake, and Boğatepe village all need a car, taxi, or organised tour - none has meaningful public transport, and winter road conditions to Çıldır and Ani can be genuinely difficult.
Turkish lira is standard; cards are accepted in most central hotels and restaurants, but carry cash for smaller places, Boğatepes village dairies, and the ice-safari operators at Çıldır.
Mobile coverage is reliable in central Kars. It weakens noticeably on the roads out to Çıldır Lake and Boğatepe, and can be patchy at Ani itself.
Kars sits roughly 40km from the closed Turkey-Armenia border, and Ani itself runs along the border river - stay on marked paths and follow any posted signage rather than wandering off-route near the fence line. This is a routine, well-visited tourist area, not a restricted zone, but it is a sensitive frontier and deserves that basic care.
Kars is one of Türkiyes coldest cities - winter cold snaps have reached -21C to -28C in the city itself, and it is colder still at Çıldır and on the open plateau. If you are here for the Doğu Ekspresi or Çıldırs ice season, real cold-weather gear is not optional: proper boots, thermal layers, and face protection for exposed waiting and platform time.
Essential
If you only have one day, this is the day.
Eastern Anatolia's second-largest lake, solid enough by midwinter to skate, sled and picnic on.
Straddling the Kars-Ardahan provincial border, the 123km2 lake freezes hard enough by December-February for horse-drawn sleds and skating; an annual February ice festival adds horse archery, wrestling and folk dancing on the ice itself.
Free to visit; horse-sled ice safaris and skating priced per local operator.
A 10th-century Armenian cathedral that's been a mosque, a Russian Orthodox church, a museum, and a mosque again.
Built 932-937 CE by Armenian Bagratid King Abas I as the Church of the Twelve Apostles, it became a mosque in 1064, a Russian Orthodox church during the 19th-century occupation, the city museum from 1964-1981, and has been an active mosque again since 1993.
Free; an active mosque.
A hilltop fortress rebuilt across four rulers and three empires, with the best view over Kars for free.
Originally built under the Armenian Bagratid dynasty, rebuilt in 1153 by the Seljuk-affiliated ruler Melik İzzeddin Saltuk II, destroyed by Timur in 1386, and rebuilt twice more under Ottoman rule after 1579 and again in 1616-36.
Free; no ticket booth or guard.
Turkey's most famous sleeper train, a wintertime crossing of the snow-blanketed Anatolian plateau to the country's coldest city.
The regular Ankara-Kars service has run for decades, but a winter-only touristic version - extended stops, proper sleeper cabins - turned the trip into a genuine phenomenon this past decade. The 2025-26 touristic season sold out completely in advance.
Touristic winter sleeper cabins run roughly 40,000-52,000 TL depending on date — confirm current pricing at tcdd.gov.tr, it moves fast with inflation. The regular service is far cheaper.
Worth your time
A second day earns you these.
A Russian-planned grid of basalt buildings that makes central Kars look like nowhere else in Türkiye.
Built 1878-1917 under Russian imperial administration using Dutch-trained engineers, roughly 170 buildings across the Kâzımpaşa, Ortakapı and Cumhuriyet neighbourhoods form a deliberate transplant of Baltic coastal architectural style onto an Anatolian city grid.
Free; a self-guided walking district.
A mountain village where exiled Russian dissenters and a Swiss cheesemaker built Turkey's gruyère tradition - and its first cheese museum.
Settled by Molokan Russians exiled here from 1878, joined in 1910 by Swiss cheesemaker David Moser, who established gruyère-style production; the village (formerly called Zavot) opened Turkey's first cheese museum, the Zavot Eko Museum, in 2005.
Small museum entry fee; tastings and cheese purchases priced separately.
If you have longer
Keep these compact stops in mind when you build your trip.
Built in 1579 by Lala Mustafa Pasha - the same commission that rebuilt Kars Castle - entirely from cut stone across the Kars River.
Free.
Getting there and away
Door-to-door times and fare ranges, checked leg by leg. Only routes where every leg verified are listed.
Türkiye, for scale
See this city in the wider shape of Türkiye.