Kazakhstan

Travel in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is a gigantic country, esp widely empty and stepped; However, the south-eastern corner has fantastic mountain landscapes, as well as canyons and very special lakes. The following photos and information in addition to the travel diary below will help you organize a vacation in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan is a former Soviet Union country that has a passage between the Russian steppes and the mountain regions of Central Asia. .. But the steppes are the dominant part! It is the south of the country to present the most fascinating natural landscapes.

Western travelers are few: Russian tourists or foreign workers is more often encountered, instead. The country, however, is now focusing a lot about tourism and eliminated the need for visa for several nationalities, including the Italian one, so things could change soon!

The capital of Kazakhstan is Astana, but the historically most important city is Almaty, which, being in the southern part of the country, is much closer to tourist destinations. Almaty is also a city where it is convenient to fly without spending too much to visit Central Asia. A travel itinerary in Kazakhstan can in fact be inserted enough easily into a longer vacation that also touches Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

When to go to Kazakhstan

Unless you want to enjoy the slopes of one of the ski resorts to Almaty (Medeu is the most famous), summer is the right season: ideal temperatures in the mountains to trekking and almost always present. When it goes down, and this also applies to Almaty and the Charyn Canyon, July and August are too hot: if possible, better to postpone in September ... even more so if your travel itinerary also includes Lake Aral Or the central part of Kazakhstan.

Main destinations

The Astana capital is very modern, while Almaty has more history and is very lively, even without having special monuments.
South of Almaty, Alpine mountains rise and, more east, between These mountains open the beautiful lakes of Kolsai and the extraordinary lake of Kainsty. Here you are also close to the Charyn Canyon, a small canyon. A few hours by car from here, to the north, there is the Altyn Emel National Park, with truly particular landscapes of colored hills, canyons and dunes. The mountains of the Tien Shan and the Altai plateau, on the border with China, are beautiful and wild.
further away from Almaty, always along the southern borders of the village, passed the Via della Silk, tapping historic towns like Turkestan . More at the east is Lake Aral, drained over the years to leave carcasses of ships to dozens of kilometers from the water.

How to travel in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is the world's largest country, so internal flights can be very useful for visiting different parts of the country. If you then focus on the east of Almaty, the rental car is the best solution, because it allows you to wander together between mountains and canyons. It is not so difficult to drive in Kazakhstan, because outside the capital the traffic is really limited. Obviously the car to the Nolo must be a jeep, because the most beautiful streets are dirt. The Italian license is sufficient. A known problem, in these parts, is the corruption of the police, which could invent apologies to accuse you of some infringement and therefore ask you a bundle of about fifty euros. It did not happen to us: even the frontier policemen with Kyrgyzstan were honest, although a bit cold.

Costs of a trip to Kazakhstan

The village is very cheap for Western standards: in large cities there are expensive luxury hotels, but otherwise you will find very simple accommodation at low prices, such as the yurts, le Typical fixed central Asian tents, where a mid-board night can cost about 15 euros per person. Car rental is often the most expensive part of the journey (50-60 euros a day for a discreet jeep, and in any case dated). Public transport and taxi have low prices for a western tourist.
Flights to Almaty in general cost no more than 500 euros a/r.

Dangers and Contracts

Kazakhstan is a very safe country, even if you can occasionally meet problems with locals, especially in cities. In particular, the mitimes could be born from corrupt policemen, people eager to rub a western or drunk at the exit of a nightclub ... they are still rare events.
Obviously the biggest dangers are related to activities such as trekking in Harvested places, mountaineering or extreme off-road vehicles, things to do carefully like anywhere. We have not had any marks with the local population, indeed very kind especially in the countryside.

Practical information scattered

The local currency is the tension (1 euro = 414 takes place in August 2018) which can be changed in the main cities more conveniently to the banks. Entering Kazakhstan from Kyrgyzstan along the Karkara Valley, for forgetfulness we didn't stop in Kegen, the only city within two hundred kilometers with banks. Fortunately, the owner of a Yurta has accepted the euro as payment, changing it correctly. However, you take this aspect into account if you follow our own travel itinerary.
To eat there is almost always some economic inn that invariably proposes mutton with vegetables. The menus are generally only in Cyrillic, a good translation app helps but still easy! Gasoline costs about 30 cents/liter (envyaaaa!). All hitchhiking is a normal way to travel: if you have a car to Nolo, you can take advantage of them to meet people; If you turn with public transport, you can find some cars that loads you. Along the itinerary we accompanied Kazakh and tourists.
To "Navigare" Use Google Maps, downloading the offline maps: better than any browser.

Travel Diary in Kazakhstan

Our journey to Kazakhstan started from Kyrgyzstan, where we had rented a jeep. We entered Kazakhstan from the customs of the Karkara Valley, a border crossing open only in summer, little used and really bucolic.

The urban guards Kazake controlled the car and suitcases with Soviet severity, but did not ask bazzette. We crossed Brulli Altopiani and we arrived at Saty, the first goal of our Kazakh itinerary, with the goal of visiting the lakes of Kolsai and Kainsty.
Saty is the support village to visit these tourist destinations, but it is not very equipped for the travelers. The field of Yurte at the entrance of the country was the only place where we could have lunch and stay.

A 12 km dirt in bad conditions, which can only be passed in jeep, brought us between splendid landscapes at Lake Kainsty.

You pay an entrance ticket and enter the national park; From the parking lot, a comfortable path that goes towards the lake. The Kainst lake was generated in 1911 following an earthquake that filled a beautiful valley between the mountains and still today by the lake the trunks of the trees that were flooded.

Of the paths allow you to walk along the lake and get to the beaches where you can immerse your feet in the icy water.
Left Kaindy Lake, we returned to Saty and from there I continued to Kolsai's lakes. These three alpine lakes are very suggestive, surrounded by fir trees and mountains. The first can be easily reached by car, while to reach the second lake of Kolsai there is a hiking itinerary of almost 3 hours.

We stayed in Saty and the next day we headed to the Charyn Canyon. The earth made Brulla, the very hot air! We arrived at the so-called Valley of the Charyn Canyon castles mid-morning and we started walking the path on the bottom.

The castles valley is a arid throat with red walls and strange rocks. Following the path we arrived at the canyon formed by the impetuous Charyn River.

There were other valleys to explore connected to the Charyn Canyon. We then turned the boring and straight road towards Almaty, which followed the plateau plateau Kazakh.

Once in Almaty, the city surprised us for chaotic traffic, so different from the places we had so far visited along our travel itinerary both in Kazakhstan and in Kyrgyzstan. We decided to test the Almaty thermal baths which, they say, are the most beautiful of Central Asia. Entrance for tourists, with private suites in which men and women can go, is expensive as in Europe, but the public spa, separate for men and women, costs 3 or 4 euros. We obviously opted for the latter. It was a great experience: inside the Terme di Almaty, as well as a swimming pool, Turkish bath and sauna (or Finnish bath), there was also a Russian bathroom.

The top view of Almaty does not give the right idea of the smog that produces.

We spent our last day of vacation by visiting the Big Almaty Lake, 2500 meters away.

We had to show the documents at a checkpoint (since we were not far from the Kazakhstan border) and we still climbed up to a ghost town surrounded by the mountains.

After a brief walk that also led us to admire Almaty from above, the time came to close our travel itinerary in Kazakhstan: Thus I drove towards the border with Kyrgyzstan, which crossed this time at the busiest customs that connects Almaty and Bishkek.
To read about the Kyrgize part of this travel itinerary Go to the page dedicated to Travel Diary in Kyrgyzstan !
To see all the photos of Kazakhstan, click on the images of the photogallery:

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