Almaty runs out of city in forty minutes. Then the canyons start.
Which Charyn day trip actually reaches Kaindy. What a car up to Big Almaty Lake costs. Whether the flight north to Astana earns its day. Reviews of every tour you can book in Kazakhstan.
A canyon, a reservoir, the ski road, and one night in the capital.
The four bookings a first week in Kazakhstan hangs off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The classic day eastCharyn Canyon, Kolsay, and Kaindy Lakes Day TripRed canyon walls in the morning, two mountain lakes after lunch, back in Almaty for dinner.
02The mountain afternoonBig Almaty Lake Tour with Optional HikeA turquoise reservoir at 2,500 metres, forty minutes above the apartment blocks, with the option to walk the last stretch.
03The city and the ski roadCity tour and Medeu, Shymbulak and Kok-TobeKok-Tobe by cable car, the Medeu rink in its gorge, the Shymbulak lifts above it, the Green Bazaar on the way down.
04The capital after darkAstana City Tour: Explore Night City with a Certified GuideBaiterek lit up and the left bank towers, with a guide who can explain the plan behind them.
The best days in Kazakhstan start with a drive east at seven in the morning.
The canyons and the mountain lakes are three to five hours from the city, so the choice comes down to how long you want to sit in a minibus and whether you sleep out there. Four shapes of day, and what each costs a head.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · Charyn Canyon, Kolsay, and Kaindy Lakes Day Trip
Charyn in one dayThe Valley of Castles, the river floor, back after dark.
Kolsai and KaindyTwo mountain lakes and the drowned spruce forest between them.
Two days, one guesthouseSleep at Saty and reach the lakes before the day minibuses do.
Issyk and TurgenThe cheap one: a lake in a gorge and the Bear waterfall.
All 159 days out of Almaty →
What travellers to Kazakhstan book before anything else.
Every tour we have reviewed →More people take these than anything else in the country. Almost all of them run east out of Almaty, and almost all of them leave at dawn.
1
Charyn Canyon, Kolsay, and Kaindy Lakes Day Trip
Leave Almaty before sunrise for Charyn and Black Canyons, Kolsai Lake, and forest-ringed Kaindy Lake. You travel in a Mercedes Sprinter, then switch to a Soviet-era UAZ for the rough road to Kaindy. Guides such as Karina, Rustam, Amina, and Nurtas are known for clear English, local stories, music, and lively group care.
From · $58
Read our review →
2
Kolsai, Kaindy Lakes and Charyn Canyon Small-Group Tour
from $58
3
Kolsai-Kaindy Lakes and Charyn Canyons Day Trip
from $43
4
Kolsay, Kaindy Lakes and Charyn Canyon Day Trip
from $43
5
Kolsai Kaindy Lakes & Charyn Canyons 2-Day Tour
from $130
6
Kolsai Kaindy Lakes with Charyn Canyons 2-day tour
from $130
7
Kolsai Kaindy Lakes with Charyn Canyons Day Tour (lunch included)
from $57
8
Esik Lake and Turgen Waterfall Day Trip
from $28
Kazakhstan gives you two cities and one very long road east.
Almaty sits under a four-thousand-metre wall of rock and sends its minibuses out to the canyons at dawn. Astana is flat, new and two hours north by plane. Between them is the drive almost every visitor ends up taking.
Kok-Tobe, the Green Bazaar, and a rink Almaty still skates on in March.
Almaty stacks its sights up a hillside, so the standard city day climbs: the cable car to Kok-Tobe, the Medeu rink in its gorge, the Shymbulak lifts above that, then the Green Bazaar on the way back down. In Astana the same day is flat and modern, and it is better after dark.
Almaty keeps its best view forty minutes up a dead-end road.
The road past the Medeu dam climbs to a reservoir the colour of antifreeze with the Tian Shan standing over it. Higher again are the Shymbulak lifts, running through summer as well as ski season, and the trailheads for the gorges either side.
What a day out in Kazakhstan actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs a head. The cheap end is city walking and the lake run east; the top end is a driver and a vehicle for several days.
Almaty on foot, the Green Bazaar, Issyk lake and the Turgen waterfall run.
The standard Charyn and Kolsai day trip, Big Almaty Lake by car, most Astana city days.
Two and three day mountain trips, Altyn Emel with its park permit, and private drivers with a vehicle that can take the Kaindy track.
Three things that only happen in Kazakhstan.
Mountains, canyons and empty grassland exist in plenty of countries. A spruce forest standing upright in a lake, a dune that hums, and a hunting eagle on a gloved arm do not.
The sunken forest at Kaindy
An earthquake in 1911 brought down a slope and dammed the valley, and the spruce forest below drowned where it stood. The trunks are still upright in the water a century later, bare and pale above the surface, because the lake is too cold to rot them. The track up is rough enough that most operators change vehicles for the last stretch.
- 1Charyn Canyon, Kolsay, and Kaindy Lakes Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,522 reviews
- 2Kolsai, Kaindy Lakes and Charyn Canyon Small-Group Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 642 reviews
- 3Kolsai-Kaindy Lakes and Charyn Canyons Day Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 505 reviews
The dune that sings
The Singing Dune stands alone on gravel flats in Altyn Emel, about 150 metres high, and when the sand slides down its face it makes a low drone you feel more than hear. The striped chalk hills at Aktau are in the same park on the same permit, which is why almost nobody sees one without the other.
- 1Singing dunes & Aktau mountains group tour to Altyn Emel★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 74 reviews
- 23 Days Tour: Altyn Emel NP, Charyn Canyon, Kaindy & Kolsay Lakes★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 8 reviews
- 3Two Day Tour to Altyn Emel: Singing Dune and Aktau Mountain★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 8 reviews
An afternoon with a hunting bird
Golden eagle hunting is still practised in the foothills, and the families who keep the birds take visitors through the whole of it: the hood, the lure, the weight of a bird that stands half a metre tall. Expect kymyz poured from a jug, a dombra played at you until you clap, and horses you are allowed to ride.
- 1Experience the Nomadic Lifestyle at ‘The Huns’ Ethno-village★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 25 reviews
- 2Discover Nomadic Lifestyle in ‘The Huns’ Ethno-village★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 25 reviews
- 3Kazakh Ethno-Village Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 22 reviews
Astana is thirty years old and it does not pretend otherwise.
The capital moved north onto the steppe in 1997 and the left bank has been a building site ever since: a glass tent with a beach under it, a golden ball on legs, a palace lit like an opera set. It reads best after dark, it is brutally cold from November, and Burabay is three hours further north when you want trees.
Every Astana day out →
From November the mountain roads close and Kazakhstan moves indoors.
Snow shuts the track to Kaindy and the upper Kolsai lakes for months, and the Big Almaty Lake road turns into a 4x4 job. What stays open is the winter half of the same mountains: the Medeu rink, the Shymbulak lifts, a city that keeps its museums warm, and a long lunch afterwards.
Four Kazakh bookings that will not wait for you to land.
Most of this country can be arranged from a hotel lobby the same morning. These four run on park permits, a short list of mountain beds, and families who take one group at a time.
- 01Singing dunes & Aktau mountains group tour to Altyn EmelThe park runs on permits and there is one road in. Group departures are weekly rather than daily.
- 022 Days Private Kolsai Kaindy Lakes with Charyn Canyon TourSaty has a handful of guesthouses and nothing else. In July the mountain beds go before the day seats do.
- 03Burabay Oasis Private Tour+ Lunch+ Pickup+ Bonus ActivityThree hours north of Astana, and the capital goes there at weekends. Friday and Saturday fill first.
- 04Trip to Kazakh family of Eagle hunters in Astana (6 hours)A family visit, arranged for one group at a time. It cannot be added the night before.
By place: two cities and the road east
Almaty, the canyon, the lakes, then the flight north to Astana.
MedeuThe newest Kazakhstan tour reviews.
Everything else we have reviewed →
Astana Private Custom Walking Tour with A Local Guide
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2 Days Tour: Charyn Canyon & Black Canyon, Kaindy & Kolsay Lakes
Read our review →
2 day tour to Altyn Emel Singing Dune and Aktau mountain
Read our review →
Personalized guided Car Tours to Charyn Canyon & Kolsay Lake
Read our review →
Private Big Almaty Lake Hiking Tour with alternatgive Pipeline
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Medeu and Shymbulak + Big Almaty Lake and Falcon show (Private day-tour)
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Private Day Tour to the Land of Canyons-UNESCO-of Kazakhstan
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2 Days Private Kolsai Kaindy Lakes with Charyn Canyon Tour
Read our review →