The road out of Almaty.
Charyn Canyon and the Kolsai lakes in one long day, Shymbulak under snow, Astana on the far side of the steppe. What each trip is like, what it costs, and where to book it.
Seven trips that earn the drive.
The canyon-and-lakes run is fifteen hours door to door; the mountain days are shorter and steeper. These are the seven that fill first, with what each costs and how much of it you spend in the car.
Kolsai Kaindy Lakes with Charyn Canyons 2-day tour
2 days from Almaty to Kolsai and Kaindy lakes plus Charyn Canyons, with A/C transport, yurt camp, and meals included.
From $130 per person
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The canyon opens without warning.
Two hundred kilometres of flat steppe, and then the ground splits and the Valley of Castles drops away in red sandstone. Most trips walk the three kilometres down to the Charyn river, eat lunch by the water, and pick up the lakes on the way home.
One day or two for the canyon and the lakes?
Charyn, Kolsai and Kaindy all lie east of Almaty, but not within the same hour of each other. Doing them together costs you a fifteen-hour day; splitting them buys a night in Saty. Three shapes, all of them common here.
Dawn to dark
Everything in one go
16 hours · from $43 · 505 reviews
Out of Almaty around six, the canyon by mid morning, both lakes in the afternoon, back in the city well after dark. Fifteen hours with roughly five of them in the car. It is the shape most people book, and in summer it works.
See the one-day trips →
A night in Saty
Split it over two days
from $130 · 392 reviews
Charyn on day one, a guesthouse in Saty village, then Kolsai and Kaindy unhurried the next morning. You walk further, you get the lakes in early light, and nobody sleeps sitting up in a minibus.
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Your own car
Go private
from $149 · 98 reviews
A driver and a vehicle for your group, your own start time, and room to stop at the Bartogai reservoir or skip a stop entirely. It costs more per person until there are four of you, then it stops costing more at all.
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Almaty stays up later than you expect.
Cafes that turn into bars around ten, a craft-beer run in the streets off Panfilov Park, and guides who know which unmarked door on Kabanbay Batyr is worth the queue. Come down from Shymbulak, shower, start again.
A turquoise reservoir at 2,500 metres.
Big Almaty Lake sits an hour above the city on a road that climbs through spruce and then runs out of trees. Border-zone rules apply past the dam, which is why almost everyone goes with a driver who has the paperwork.
Skating at 1,700 metres, skiing at 3,200.
Medeu is the highest Olympic-size rink in the world and it is twenty minutes from the city centre. The cable car carries on from there to Shymbulak, which is why one ticket usually covers both and one afternoon rarely does.
The yurt is not a museum piece.
Eagle hunters, horse breeders and felt makers still work the valleys east of Almaty, and most of the visits here go to families who do this for a living rather than for a stage. Expect a working household, kumis you are welcome to decline, and a horse if you want one.
Pick the direction, then the day.
Nearly everything leaves Almaty and comes back to it. East for the canyon and the lakes. Straight up for the ice rink and the ski lift. North-west across the steppe for the dunes. A short flight north for the capital.
Know how long you have?
Half a day inside the city, a full day east, or a week that reaches the dunes and the capital. Twelve ways to cut the same country, each already priced and written up.
Three days out of Almaty.
Altitude first, distance second. This is the order that works if you land on a Thursday and fly home on Sunday night, and it leaves the long drive for the day your legs are ready.
Day 1
Get your bearings, and your altitude
The Green Bazaar first, Panfilov Park and the wooden Zenkov Cathedral after, then the cable car up Kok Tobe for the wall of mountains behind the city. Gentle on jet lag, and you see what tomorrow is climbing.
Plan day one →
Day 2
The canyon and the lakes
The long one. East before dawn, the Valley of Castles by mid morning, Kolsai and Kaindy through the afternoon, back in the city late. Take a warm layer even in July; the lakes sit above 1,800 metres.
Plan day two →
Day 3
Straight up from the city
Medeu, the cable car, and as far up Shymbulak as the season allows. Half a day if you want a slow morning, the whole one if the sky is clear and you keep going toward the Talgar pass.
Plan day three →
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