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Photo by Scott Dexter, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Best time to visit Kars
Turkey · Middle East
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Kars
Tap a month for its page
- JanJKars in January: avoid
- FebFKars in February: avoid
- MarMKars in March: ok
- AprAKars in April: good
- MayMKars in May: good
- JunJKars in June: sweet spot
- JulJKars in July: sweet spot
- AugAKars in August: sweet spot, busy
- SepSKars in September: good, busy
- OctOKars in October: good, busy
- NovNKars in November: ok
- DecDKars in December: avoid
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
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Things to do
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Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
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These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.
Month by month
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 0° | 3d | 68% | 7.5h | avoid | bitter cold: 0C daily max |
| Feb | 2° | 3d | 68% | 8.6h | avoid | bitter cold: 2C daily max |
| Mar | 6° | 9d | 66% | 8.6h | ok | 6C max, 9 rainy days |
| Apr | 13° | 9d | 64% | 10.1h | good | 13C max, 9 rainy days |
| May | 17° | 14d | 67% | 11.5h | good | 17C max, 14 rainy days |
| Jun | 22° | 9d | 64% | 13.2h | sweet spot | 22C max, 9 rainy days |
| Jul | 26° | 6d | 63% | 13.5h | sweet spot | 26C max, 6 rainy days |
| Aug | 27° | 4d | 58% | 12.7h | sweet spot busy | busier than usual |
| Sep | 23° | 4d | 58% | 11.4h | goodbusy | busier than usual |
| Oct | 15° | 4d | 63% | 9.4h | goodbusy | busier than usual |
| Nov | 9° | 4d | 68% | 8.3h | ok | 9C max, 4 rainy days |
| Dec | 3° | 4d | 70% | 6.9h | avoid | bitter cold: 3C daily max |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at the centre, 5 km from the airport (KSY): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Kars's August days now average 27.0°C, 4.1°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 9 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | -1.9° | -0.7° | 3.7° | 11.2° | 15.6° | 19.8° | 23.3° | 22.8° | 20.1° | 13.0° | 5.1° | -0.1° |
| 2017–26 | -0.1° | 1.6° | 6.4° | 12.7° | 16.7° | 22.0° | 25.5° | 27.0° | 22.5° | 15.4° | 8.5° | 3.3° |
| Change | +1.8° | +2.3° | +2.8° | +1.4° | +1.1° | +2.3° | +2.2° | +4.1° | +2.4° | +2.4° | +3.4° | +3.4° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
How far Kars is depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Kars, flying or not.
Before you go
Type C and F plugs at 230 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the Turkish lira. UK Foreign Office: avoid all travel to parts. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise a high degree of caution (with regional advisories). US State Department: Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution. Everything for Turkey: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — Cards are widely accepted in cities, often with a PIN; carry lira for dolmuş minibuses, street food, markets, small shops and tips.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
- Tipping — About 5-10% in restaurants, left in cash because tips cannot go on a card; let taxi drivers keep the change.
Getting around Kars
- Apps — Rides: BiTaksi, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: WhatsApp. Uber and BiTaksi book licensed taxis.
Most sights of interest are in a small walkable area around the castle and Kümbet mosque. The tourist bus to Ani leaves from Faik Bey Cd at the intersection of Gazi Ahmet Muhtar Paşa Cd. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Kars, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — 112 (any emergency).
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 3 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (10)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/turkey/getting-help
- uber.com/global/en/cities/istanbul
- roughguides.com/turkey/travel-tips
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbulkart
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Turkey
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Istanbul
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
- apple.com/ios/feature-availability
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/AnnualReport/PDFs/09PAYMENT290526C6588B796E664822A2BD0DEB6452CAD4.PDF
Kars in pictures
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Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Kars is like
Kars is a city in Eastern Anatolia with a population of 91,500 in 2022. The main reason to visit is the Armenian ruined city of Ani, and Kars town itself has several attractions. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- Here and there are black basalt townhouses in what's called "Baltic style", especially to the southwest, but mostly it's late 20th century tat. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Hamams are traditional Turkish baths. The historic bathhouses have closed down. More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- Kars Harakani Airport (KSY IATA) has daily flights from Istanbul (both IST and SAW) and Ankara, and several days a week from Izmir. It's reasonably clean and efficient, with the usual facilities including car hire. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Kars, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Kars
Also in Turkey
- Antalya best Apr, Jun, Oct
- Bursa best Jun, Aug, Sep
- Cappadocia best Jun, Jul, Aug
- Edirne best Jun, Sep, Oct
- Ephesus best Apr, May, Oct
- Fethiye best Apr, Jun, Oct
- Istanbul best Jun, Jul, Aug
- Konya best Apr, Jun, Sep
- Pamukkale best Apr, May, Nov
- Trabzon best Apr, Jun, Jul
- İzmir best Apr, May, Jun
Nearby
Kind of place
Kars is in Turkey, Middle East. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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