The town itself contains little of interest for a
visitor, except a very pretty wooden mosque built by Chinese artisans for the local Dungans between 1907 and 1910 entirely without metal nails and a similarly appealing wooden Russian Orthodox church, the Holy Trinity Cathedral, completed in 1895, used as a club during Soviet times, but now being restored and in use again. The Regional Museum has exhibits on the Issyk-Kul petroglyphs and Scythian bronze artifacts. There also is a small section of Russian colonial "gingerbread" style residential buildings. The town is, however, a good starting point for excellent hiking, trekking and skiing in the Tian Shan. Przhevalsky's grave, a memorial park and a small museum dedicated to his and other Russian explorations in Central Asia are about 5 km from
Karakol at Pristan Przhevalsky, overlooking an inlet of Lake Issyk-Kul where the former Soviet torpedo testing facilities were located.
