With some great day trip options available in the surrounding area, renting a car makes sense. Without one, it wouldn’t be half as easy to soak up all that Cheboksary, 25 miles away, has to offer. Among your first few stops here ought to be Monument of Mother, Chuvash National Museum and Museum of V.I. Chapaev. The locals are also likely to point you in the direction of Yoshkar-Ola, 60 miles away. If you can only see one attraction here, let it be Museum of the History of the Gulag. (But we’d also recommend Sapaev Mari State Opera and Ballet Theatre and Mari El National Shketan Drama Theater.)