Updates on Aksu-Zhabagly/Sayram-Ugam

[aknight]

I have a couple of nights spare after Shymkent before my flight home and thinking of visiting the Ugam national park/area to stay in a homestay. Has anyone done this before? Any recommendations? I was hoping to say somewhere for 2 nights so could spend the day doing some short hikes/exploring. I don't want to have to pay for a guide so hoping to find somewhere to stay that I could just walk to nice places from. Can't find much information online about the area!

thanks

[steven]

Langar is the gateway town - really friendly people there in our experience. See if the NGO Ugam still exists - Yubilejnaya street 22, Langar - Alikhan Abdeshev can set you up if he is still there.

There are homestays near to the park in the villages of Kaskasu and Dikhankol.

I highly recommend visiting: it's a great part of Kazakhstan, and not so often visited by foreigners.

Let us know if you make it out; I'd love to read what is new/what your experience was like.

[aknight]

Oh great- this is good to hear. I think I’m in touch via email with this guy you mention so will see what I can arrange and report back.

[Siberiade]

I saw the information in the article hasn't been updated in a couple years. So I wanted to share my expierence.

All of the homestay options listed for Sayram-Ugam are no longer valid on Booking and I couldn't find mention of them still being operational elsewhere. (This isn't definitive, but need more updates here either way.)

Also I feel the article is unnecessarily negative around the costs associated with Aksu-Zhabagly for small groups. I'm solo this part of my trip and I came to Ruslan's place and don't think the prices are that bad. A private room with board (shared bathroom) is 31,000 tenge including three excellent meals.

A horse tour of a couple hours is 11,000 tenge, and this includes the national park fee and guide/ranger. I arranged a pickup from the train station (90 minutes, 3,000 tenge from Shymkent) for 4,000 tenge. His price online is updated; Svetlana's seems old and is probably out of date.

Not rock bottom prices, but I think good value. (The meals were 10x better than what I had in Tajikistan, and the accommodation leagues better as well.)

The park only operates until mid October, as snow means it's not viable to do anything here later than that. It's pleasantly brisk compared to Shymkent here and the view is fantastic. Definitely worth considering as an add on to a trip through the South.

[steven]

Thanks! Very helpful stuff. Will update in the near future!

[RArmitage]

Oh great- this is good to hear. I think I’m in touch via email with this guy you mention so will see what I can arrange and report back.

Hi. Did you find somewhere to stay? If so where was it as also wanting to stay in Kaskasu. Thanks

[RArmitage]

Hi
Please can you give me details of where you stayed. Heading there tomorrow and can’t see accommodation so any advice would be appreciated. Thanks