Basalt, cut grass and a gorge that stops the road
Grass to the horizon and a gorge that stops the road: reserve a six night stay on the Kars plateau
Six nights at altitude, from $1,690 per person, two sharing a double room. This is the second half of the line from Rize to the Ani plateau, and it stands on its own as a reservation. The season runs from late May to early October, while the plateau roads are open; winter here is long and often closes them.
Reserve this with the officeNothing is charged here. The form stays open at any hour and a person writes back inside one working day.
What stands on the Ani plateau
Kars sits above 5,700 feet on grassland that runs flat to the horizon and carries almost no trees. The town centre was laid out on a grid in the nineteenth century under Russian administration, so the streets are wide and the stone houses are square and heavy, which is not what most of the country looks like. Thirty miles east the ground ends at a gorge, and along the lip of it stand the remains of a city that was the seat of an Armenian kingdom a thousand years ago: a cathedral with its roof gone, a round church, long sections of wall, and grass growing over everything else. The far side of the gorge is Armenia. You look at it; you do not cross it.
How a day there passes
Mornings are usually spent out on the plateau site, because the light is low and the wind has not built yet. It is open walking on uneven turf, two to four miles across the day, with no shade at all and nothing sold on site, so you carry water. Afternoons go to the town: the grid streets, the heavy civic stone, the cheese market that is the reason half the region farms, and the long tea sittings that are the local way of ending a day. One day of the six is kept loose, and the operating company fills it with either a second run out to the gorge or a slow drive through the villages north of town, depending on the road and the weather.
Arriving costs you a night
This segment carries a move mark of 4, the heaviest on the site, and it means what it says: the journey in takes a night. Coming off the coastal valleys you climb out of the wet Pontic side, cross the pass country, and keep going east over ground that gets emptier by the hour. The operating company runs that as an overnight stage with a bed at the end, not a straight through drive. Count the whole of that day as travel and expect to arrive tired; the first evening in Kars is deliberately left empty for exactly that reason. If you reserve this segment alone rather than the full line, you make your own way to Kars and the six nights begin there.
Inside the figure, and outside it
From $1,690 per person, two sharing a double room. The figure holds six nights of accommodation, breakfast each morning, the ground moves inside the segment, the site entries, and a local guide on the days out at the gorge. It does not hold your travel into the country, lunches and dinners, drinks, tips, or anything you buy for yourself. This office charges you nothing: the company that runs the trip bills you directly, in its own name, and pays us afterwards. We take no card details at any point. The full line from Rize is $3,110 for eleven nights, which is exactly $1,420 plus $1,690. Nothing is taken off for reserving both, and nothing is added for reserving one.
| Nights | 6 |
|---|---|
| From | $1,690 per person, two sharing |
| Move into it | a night in transit |
| Part of | Pontic valleys to Kars |
| Taken alone | Yes. Nothing obliges you to take the rest of the line. |
| Inside the figure | Rooms, the ground arrangements named on this page, and the local operating company's own charges. |
| Outside the figure | Getting to the country, meals not named above, anything personal, and anything you add later. |
Asked before people commit
Can you get me into the country?
No. We arrange nothing by air and nothing by sea, and we hold a contract with no carrier. Your flight in is your own booking, made wherever you like, and we will not quote you for it. What we reserve begins where the ground stage begins and ends where it ends. Tell us your arrival date and we will fit the six nights around it.
Does this include crossing into Armenia?
No. That land border has been shut for many years and this segment does not cross it. You stand at the ruins and look over the gorge, and that is the whole of it. Anyone selling you a crossing at that point is selling something that does not exist. Seeing both countries means two separate trips reached from two separate directions, reserved separately.
What happens if the weather is poor?
Then it is poor. The plateau is exposed, and a grey day with hard wind is common enough in June and September that you should plan for at least one. The ruins are still there and the walking still works; what you lose is the long light. We will not promise clear skies and nobody honestly can. Weather brings no refund, and the operator says so in its terms before you commit.
Segment 2 of 2 on Pontic valleys to Kars
You can take this segment on its own and leave the rest of the line alone. Nothing here obliges you to walk the whole thing, and the figure for one piece is the figure for one piece.
Reserve one segment, or a whole line
This form is open at any hour, and whatever reaches it is read by a person who answers inside one working day. Nothing you send commits you, and no figure is charged at this end at any point.