Compared to the other cities in Turkey I’d been to, Kars felt so remote. This city on the Georgia-Turkey border is so out of the backpackers loop that it didn’t have any hostels. For someone traveling in a budget like me that meant settling for cheap hotels which, in my experience, can be worse than the cheapest hostels.

To confirm my belief, the 4 or so hotels in Kars within my budget had non-stellar reviews. There were stories of overly gropey hotel employees and single women being harassed. Ugh. Nothing too horrible but still something nobody wants to have to go through.