Hi!

First of all, sorry for my spelling and grammar errors.

This blog is prepared according to my-past travelers-tourists experiences and local people knowledge. 

So in this blog, you can find non official travel informations about Kars.  I will try to tell you “things to do” in and around Kars. 

Food & Drink

In this part you cannot find information about the all restaurants and cafes in Kars. I will try to write to my recommends and especially my favorite places where iusually eat in my daily life. 

First of all, i have to tell you that, Kars is famous with its meat. And most of things that written below is not for the vegetarians. 

My favorite restaurants in Kars are ‘Güneş Et Lokantası’ and ‘Düşler Sokağı Restaurant’. 

Güneş Et Lokantası 

Güneş et lokantası serves between 4 am and 4 pm. Early in the morning they are serving soup. (I have not tried early in the morning yet) Local people from countryside usually prefers to eat in this restaurant. They cook delicious meet meals and doner. When i feel hungary, i m dreaming to eat a Doner in Guneş et lokantası. Unfortunately there is no English menu or someone knows English. If you dont know Turkish, you should show what you want to eat in th Kitchen or from the other tables.  Most of the customers are men, but me and my friends-guests (including girls) often going there and owner and the waiters are behaving quite friendly to us. Prices are around 8-10 Turkish Liras per each plate.

Location;

Adress: Yusufpaşa Mah. Karadağ cad. Nalbantlar sokak.  No 59. Kars.

Map : https://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.608278,43.096516&num=1&gl=tr&t=m&z=19

 Doner          Piti

Düşler Sokağı Restaurant

Serving in a wide kind of food spectrum. Fish, meat, kebab, liver and soups are highly recommended. Especially soups are delicious and some of them you can only find them in Kars. Warning; soup plates are quite big, do not forget to order ‘Az’ which means half. If you order a full plate of soup, probably you can not eat anything else. I like soups named ‘Evelik, Ayran aşı, Kesme aşı'. Evelik and Ayran aşı contain some kind of grasses which were collected from the mountains. Kesme aşı is a kind of noodle soop. Highly recommended healthy food!  In Düşler sokağı restaurant I like also fish, especially ‘Hamsi’ which is a very small fish from Blacksea. And 'Ciğer' which is liver, another special food for me.

Prices are between 8-12 Turkish Liras per plate. Soups 3-5 Turkish Liras.

Location: Yusufpaşa Mah. Halitpaşa cad. No:50 Kars

Map: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.608383,43.092981&num=1&gl=tr&t=m&z=19

Düşler sokağı balık evi - resturant

Kamer restaurant

Serving not only traditional Kars soups and food as well as some eurpoean food. My favorites in Kamer are Kesme aşı and Hangel. ‘Kesme aşı’ which is a soup that contains some noodles in it. And ‘hangel’ is a food cooked similar to dumplings. They are boiling the open dumplings and serving it with yogurt, garlic and onion sauce. [this is a very bad explanation, i know, you should try it] Garlic (sarımsak) and onion (soğan) is optional. 
Prices are between 8-15 turkish liras.

Location: Yusufpaşa Mah. Halitpaşa cad. No:45-50 Kars

Map: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.608292,43.092852&num=1&gl=tr&t=m&z=19

 Kamer cafe restaurant

Karstore Café

It is a nice touristic café which also sells some souvenirs. It locates just opposite side of Kamer restaurant and Düşler Sokağı restaurant. They are serving traditional breakfast, wine, beer, tea and coffee. 
My favorite in Karsstore is having tea after a dinner. Karstore is also serving alcohol and you can find live music in Friday and Saturday nights.

Location: In the same street with Kamer restaurant and Düşler Sokağı Restaurant

 Karstore cafe 

Anonim Türkü Evi -  Bar

It is located on the main street of Kars, just east side of the horse statue. (second floor) Sometimes they are organizing live traditional music concerts. 
Beer and Rakı prices between 7-10 Tl. 

Location: Faik bey cad. 100.yıl işhanı. [upper floor of GUNES ECZANESI]
Map: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.60538,43.096956&num=1&t=m&z=18


 Anonim türkü evi - bar

Visiting Ani

First of all, when you arrived there if you would like to see most of the things in Ani it will take at least 2 hours. If you would like to see all things it may take 4 hours. 

Do not forget to bring some water, food, hat and at least factor 30 sun cream with you J 

Going to Ani is little bit complicated because there is no regular public transport. Here i will try to tell you all options.

Minibus/Hitchhiking:  I know that some people tried to go there by hitchhiking, and they did it successfully. If you want to go there by hitchhiking, I recommend you to go to the junction of Ani way at outside the city center. And start to hitchhike from there.

There is one minibus, it starts in the morning from the village (Ocaklı) which is close to Ani and arrives to Kars at around 9 am and goes back to Ani at 1:00 pm. It takes approximately one hour. So if you want, you can take minibus from the city center for going there. You can find the minibus at the center around the ‘Halkbank’. Do not hesitate to ask people where is ‘HALKBANK’ and ‘OCAKLI MINIBUS’ at the center. To turn back, there is no minibus, so you should ask people at the parking lot of Ani to join them to come back to Kars. Please do not start to walk back to Kars and try to hitchhike on the way. Asking people at the parking lot (face to face) will be easier to find someone. Minibus is 7 Turkish Liras per person. Entrance of Ani is 5 Turkish Liras per person. And if you are short of money you can ask for discount at the entrance, officers may agree to give only one ticket for two persons.

Hitchhiking in winter is not recommended because of the cold weather.

Minibus starting point location: I can not give the exact adress, it can change. But if you can find this place it will we around there. Adress: Merkez mah. Bahri dağdaç caddesi.
Adress link: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.608597,43.097959&num=1&gl=tr&t=m&z=18

Taxi: Hiring a taxi will cost approximately 100 Turkish Liras. This price includes the drivers waiting wait you there for 2 hours. You can try to find a taxi in the center.

Touristic tour: There is one guide in the city, who is organizing tours to Ani and around Kars. You can find him in one of the hotels in the center of the city. Everybody knows him. His name is Celil. Prices of the tour depend on the number of people.

Rent a car: Renting a car for one day costs around 100 Turkish Liras. 

 The Holy Virgin Cathedral - The Cathedral of Ani 

How to get in Kars and travel around Kars?

In this part I will try to give some travel choices  for getting to Kars and travel around Kars.

First of all, please always take into consideration that; in winter time, it is not so easy to find a bus or to hitchhike after around 5 pm! And in winter time, it is usually under 0 Celsius degree, so hitchhiking is not a safe way to travel.

You can find a flight, train and buses to Kars daily.

Tblisi-Kars: Unfortunately there is no direct bus. I know from some people who hitchhiked from Tbilisi to Kars that it takes one day.

Shortest route is the Tblisi-Gori-Khashuri-Borjomi- Akhaltsike- Vale- BORDER-Ardahan-Kars.

It is 380 kilometers in total. The road has quite nice views. So travelling is a little bit difficult. All through the way you will want to stop and watch around. On Georgia side, if you have time in Gori you can visit Stalin’s museum. And in Borjomi you can camp in the national park (Borjomi Kharaguli National Park is one of the best places I have ever been for hiking).

In Georgia side you can stay in guesthouses, you will see many of them on the way. Most of the owners are quite nice people, they are cooking delicious Georgian food and serving delicious Georgian wine. And prices are around 15-20 Lari per person.

In Turkey side, if you have time and possibility, you can visit Şeytan Kalesi (kale means fortress) and Lake Çıldır. There is one fish restaurant named ‘Atalayın Yeri’ on the coast of the Lake Çıldır. It is at the north-east coast of the lake. 

Erzurum-Kars: It is a quite common route, it is 200 kilometers in total. Cheapest way is to hitchhike or  to take a buses. Almost every hour or every two hours you can find a bus between Kars and Erzurum. If you have possibility you can drink tea at Karakurt in local cafes which are called “kahvehane”. I have to say that usually men go there, and as you are strangers, firstly all people will stare at you. Just try to feel comfartable and show with your fingers how many tea you want and just say ‘chai’.  On this route, I ate in Horasan at a local restaurant, food was delicious and the prices are around 7 Turkish liras per plate.

Ardahan-Kars: It is a quite common route, it is 90 kilometers in total. Cheapest way is to hitchhike or  to take a bus. Almost every hour or every two hours you can find a bus between Kars and Ardahan in day time.

Iğdır-Kars: It is a quite common route, it is 135 kilometers in total. Cheapest way is to hitchhike or  to take a bus. Almost every hour or every two hours you can find a bus between Kars and Iğdır in day time.