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A horse pulling a sleigh across the frozen, snow-covered surface of Çıldır Lake 3 more photos
Photo: Mehmet Polat KÜNTÜZ / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, resized

Nature · Kars / Ardahan · Çıldır

Çıldır Lake

Çıldır Gölü

A high lake on the Kars–Ardahan border that freezes solid in winter, when horse-drawn sleighs cross the ice.

  • Open space No opening hours, no ticket
  • Ticket Free

Directions See it on the winter map

Build a day-by-day plan with closing-day warnings and ticket totals.

What to see

From about December the lake turns into a white plain. Local people fish through holes in the ice, and horse-drawn sleighs take visitors out onto it; these are private rides, agreed on the spot.

Allow half a day from Kars, more if you stop in the lakeside villages. Whether the ice is safe to walk on is not something we can check: follow local advice and stay off it when in doubt.

Midwinter, roughly January and February, is the time for the frozen lake.

Getting there

By road from Kars, about an hour and a half to the lake shore; there is no scheduled service that we have checked.

Transport lines are general directions, not checked against the operator's timetable.

Open in OpenStreetMap See it on the winter map

Nearby

Open now near me →

Where to stay nearby

Arpaçay (Kars) has 4 places to stay licensed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Ministry list, counted on ilçemde on 30 Sep 2026).

Hotels and guesthouses in Arpaçay ↗

How we rank: Nearby Ministry-licensed places first (matched to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism list), then other places by distance band (within 5 km, 15 km, 40 km; straight line) and public map ratings and review counts. A licensed place never jumps ahead of a closer band. Places more than 25 km away in another town are shown only when there are few options nearby. No business pays to be listed. A high score from a handful of reviews counts for less than a slightly lower score from hundreds. Ratings and counts come from ilçemde's data (source shown on each card, checked 1 Oct 2026); read the reviews themselves on the map services.

Accommodation lists open on ilçemde, our sister directory of Turkish businesses (new tab). We do not take bookings or commissions.

Pharmacies on duty tonight in Arpaçay ↗ The list changes every day; on-duty pharmacies stay open when the others are closed.

About this page

Location: OpenStreetMap relation/371040 "Çıldır Gölü" (Nominatim, 2026-09-30); göl poligonunun merkezi. Ticket, hours and closing days: only from the operator's own pages; anything we could not confirm there is marked “Not verified”. Last checked 30 Sep 2026.