Almaty
Apple trees, mountains at the end of every street, and the best coffee in Central Asia.
Central Asia
Kazakhstan
A canyon, a steppe and two very different cities
From Delhi
≈3 h 30 Delhi–Almaty, direct
Visa
Visa-free access for many passports; confirmed for yours before booking
Currency
Kazakhstani tenge (KZT)
Language
Kazakh and Russian
Kazakhstan is enormous and mostly empty, which is the point. Almaty sits directly under 4,000-metre mountains — you can ski in the morning and be at a pavement table by two. Astana, eighteen hours north by rail or ninety minutes by air, is the opposite: a planned capital built on flat grass in one generation.
The reason to come is between them. Charyn Canyon, the Kolsai lakes and the singing dunes of Altyn-Emel are a two-day drive from Almaty and look like nowhere else in Asia.
Where you will go
Where you will go
The places this country is actually about, and what each one is for.
Astana
A capital designed all at once. Worth two days, not five.
Charyn Canyon
The Valley of Castles — 150 metres deep, and almost nobody in it on a weekday.
Turkistan
The Yasawi mausoleum — the finest Timurid building outside Uzbekistan.
Know before you go
- Distances are continental. Almaty to Astana is a flight, not a drive, unless you want the overnight train — which is genuinely good.
- The mountain lakes need a 4×4 and the road is closed by snow well into May.
- Astana in January is routinely −25 °C. That is not a figure of speech.
Gallery — Kazakhstan
Journeys
Journeys in Kazakhstan
A landscape trip out of Almaty: the Valley of Castles, the sunken forest at Kaindy, and the Kolsai lakes from 1,800 metres up, with a city that knows what coffee is at either end.