question on 4 day itinerary in Kyrgyzstan in April

[MrAOK]

My wife and I are going to Kyrgyzstan in April for a meeting and have several days free before the meeting in Bishkek.

While we are very experienced international travelers, we have some knee and back issues and while we can walk are pretty slow, which means as a practical matter that it's hard to travel with a group and any extensive walking isn't ideal. (We are pretty slow).

Anyway we'd like to get outside of Bishkek and considering two itineraries of 3 days or 4 days.

One is to do a short 4-day tour of the country offered on the site with stops in issyk Kul, Karako, Jeti Oguz and back to Bishkek

Another is to get a driver and do a wandering itinerary that goes from Bishkek to Osh and depending on the time it takes either fly or drive back to Bishkek.

We arrive on 15 April at like 6:30 a.m. after a long flight from the U.S. and are leaning toward spending that Easter Sunday recovering from jet lag at the hotel and then venturing out Monday. We need to be back by about 4 p.m. Thursday. But if that is really too tight a time frame, we could either leave Sunday or possibly arrive a day earlier.

Any recommendations?

[bwv812]

Most of the attractions in Kyrgyzstan are related to the outdoors, so things may be a little less interesting if you can't walk that much. Most of the attractions around Karakol involves hiking, and Jeti Oguz also typically involves hiking. Perhaps it would be more interesting if you can arrange a short 2- or 3-day horse trek? These are often done around Kochkor, and you could probably do one of the popular treks up to Song Kol in your time frame.

[bwv812]

Good point; didn't even notice the date.

[steven]

Hi MrAOK,

thanks for writing! Yurtstays and hiking are out because of your physical limitations, but also because it is still too cold in Kyrgyzstan at that time.

I think your original idea works well. Issyk-Kul is beautiful anytime of year and you can find much to enjoy there without having to hike up a mountain.

You can ask us to modify the itinerary a bit based on your personal preference: add more history with Burana Tower or petroglyphs in Cholpon-Ata (I personally always enjoy seeing petroglyphs, Burana Tower is not much of a crowd-pleaser to be honest); arts & crafts at Bokonbaevo, or visit the Buddhist stone in Tamga.

I have just written an overview guide to the Issyk-Kul area that might help you in deciding: http://caravanistan.com/kyrgyzstan/issyk-kul-lake/ Much detail remains to be written, but at least gives you an idea.

Look forward to reading your request!