Karkara valley (Kegen – Tup/Kensu) border

[Ojac]

Crossed this border going from Almaty to Karakol April 2025. It is possible to get to the Kazakh side via shared taxi to Kegen then a further taxi from Kegen to the border. However if you don’t mind spending cash easiest is to arrange a driver with InDrive. We arranged one a couple days prior, he originally quoted us 50,000 tenge for two people but we negotiated down to 40,000. This ended up getting us a pretty comfortable and clean van that could easily fit 5 people. (You can try arranging transport via his WhatsApp, tell him you got his number via InDrive +7 (775) 385-78-81)

Driver arrived at 6:45 am at our accommodation in Almaty, the drive took about 3.5-4 hours so we arrived to the border 11:00 Kazakh time. Border formalities were extremely quick and easy. Bags were checked on Kazakh side with x-ray scanner. Total time crossing was 10 minutes and border guards on both sides were extremely helpful.

On the Kyrgyz side there is nothing save for small village of Karkara about 8 km down the road. I highly suggest you arrange a taxi with your accommodation in advance to pick you up as very few cars do this crossing making hitchhiking quite difficult and those that do are usually full. Easiest is just ask your accommodation in Karakol or nearby to arrange a taxi. Ours quoted us 4000 som for two people and the drive to Karakol took about 2 hours.

In short, very scenic and easy border crossing just arrange yourself some transport prior as otherwise very difficult to rely on hitchhiking or public transport.

[staff.krona]

Hi Ojac, thanks a lot for your report!

Can you share which accommodation in Karakol organised the 4000 som transfer from the border? I am doing the same crossing in a couple of days and keep getting quoted 8000 som (for a car from the Kyrgyz side of the border to Karakol).

Thanks!

[Ojac]

Hi Ojac, thanks a lot for your report!

Can you share which accommodation in Karakol organised the 4000 som transfer from the border? I am doing the same crossing in a couple of days and keep getting quoted 8000 som (for a car from the Kyrgyz side of the border to Karakol).

Thanks!

I stayed at D&N Karakol (Cottage town D&N on Gmaps) and they arranged the taxi for me. I’ve seen others on here say snow leopard hostel arranged it for 6000 som so it might depend on season.

[Miika]

24/5/2025 Karakol-Saty-Almaty

We paid 5000 som to the host from our apartment in Karakol to take us to the border. We walked over with no problems. There wasn’t much traffic and after 20 minutes someone who brought a borderguard to work agreed to take us to Kegen for 10,000 Tenge. He warned that there wouldn’t be many people going to Saty and it could take hours. He offered to take us for 50k tenge and we declined.

We started flagging down cars and in less than 5 minutes we had a ride to Saty for 15k tenge. Karakol to Saty took us 4 hours.

We planned to stay in Saty for 2 days but didn’t bring enough cash and there was no atm. We left after 1 night and paid 15k each for a shared taxi booked by our bookingcom host to almaty.

[mat1]

Hello - summary of our journey from Almaty to Karakol in May 2025 for if it helps anyone

Almaty to Kegen

Shared taxis still depart from the location shared before a few minutes east of the train station (43.2730072, 76.9530363).

Construction has begun to replace the old bus terminal with some apartment buildings. It definitely appears possible the location may change in the future as there were no buses anymore, only around 10-15 taxi drivers waiting here, but for the moment it was still good.

We arrived at 7am (Sunday) and at this point the place was dead and we were basically the only people travelling including to other locations. Around 8am more people started arriving however and by 830, the taxi was full and departed.

We paid 4000 KZT per person, which was the same price the locals paid.

We were also offered a private taxi from this location to Kegen for 30 000 KZT. This offer decreased to 20 000 KZT once the driver realised we were really planning on taking the shared taxi. (This offer seemed pretty reasonable and we were considering taking it up, but by this point the taxi was nearly full)

Kegen to Karakol

We were picked up from Kegen (town, not the border!) by the Snow Leopard hostel. Their offer was 6000 KGS if we did not stay with them and 5000 KGS if we did.

There was a surprisingly high number of taxis driving around in Kegen itself for such a small town, so availability of taxis from here would definitely not be a problem, although could not comment on cost/willingness to go to the border.

The border was in an extremely picturesque spot between mountain ranges. Passing through was short and without incident. We were one of two vehicles present at the time, process took 15mins max.

Related to the road quality, can happily report that on the KG side they have finished laying brand new tarmac all the way from the border down to roughly the town of Tup. The finishing touches were literally being made during our journey. So the days of dreadful road quality are probably in the past.

[mosaic7854]

Thanks for the informative post. I’m assuming this can be done in reverse, starting in Karakol? There’s a taxi company there quoting $250 for door-to-door Karakol to Almaty service for the entire vehicle.

[Gman69]

For those travelling by car from the Kazach to Kyrgyz side:

Apparently, Kazachstan has a new law, which forbids taking gasoline out from Kazachstan in anything other than the car's fuel tank.
Taking just 5L of petrol in a jerrycan will warrant a fine.
The official rate is 40000 tenge, but the border guards are corrupt as shit and will settle for about 4000 instead.

We thought this was bogus (just corrupt border guards trying to pry money from tourists), but a Kazach guy we met later explained that this is indeed true, he emptied his jerrycan in his car before crossing.

[inbatonrouge]

Can anyone let me know the first place to get Soms when you get into KG are? Or if they are available in KZ prior to the border crossing?