Kazakhstan is the biggest, and the most diverse country in Central Asia. It’s a country that doesn’t lend itself to pigeonholing like its neighbours. That makes it difficult to make sense of if you just started thinking about a trip.
Kazakhstan has an amazing breadth of experiences, but it is often not the traditional tourist stuff of “visit museum, hike up a mountain”. It’s more likely to be “check out unexplained desert balls, take a bath in boiled deer antlers”.
We whittled it down to 40 experiences, in no particular order, to stretch your imagination and help you on your way.
Table of Contents
Nature experiences
- Take a 4WD or campervan across the country for an amazing landscape safari
- See millions of birds during their migration on Lake Balkhash, or go birdwatching in the Altai mountains
- See kulan and ibex in Altyn Emel National Park, or visit one of 20-odd other national parks in Kazakhstan
- Dance in the tulip fields of Aksu-Zhabagly until you spot a bear
- See flamingos fly in the lakes of Korgalzhyn, snap seals on the Caspian shore or witness the embattled saiga in the desert
- Seek out the world’s original wild apple trees
- Hit rock bottom in the lowest point of the former Soviet Union – the Karagiye Depression – and hunt for fossils
Folk culture and village life
- Get invited for a dastarkhan and sample homemade kurd, baursak, kazy and beshbarmak
- Go eagle hunting in winter
- Milk a mare, then shave a camel
- Go on a pilgrimage to Beket-Ata, the Yasawi mausoleum or another one of Kazakhstan’s many unusual spiritual sites
- Get really clean in a black banya in Altai’s Poperechnoe
- Drink kymys (fermented mare’s milk), then wash it down with shubat (fermented camel milk)
- Celebrate Nauryz with a game of kokpar
Outdoor adventures
- Kayak Ili river and see a fake Silk Road movie set, or raft another river in Kazakhstan
- Go ice fishing on tranquil Lake Markakol, or on the Ishim river of urban Astana
- Ride a horse across the steppe or through the mountains
- Hike in the mountains around Almaty, or elsewhere
- Climb Khan Tengri or Mount Belukha
- Go skiing in the Tien Shan or Altai mountains
- Cycle Kazakhstan’s best bits
- Camp in the desert and count the stars, or stay up late in the village and hear the wolves howl
Dark and unique tourism
- See the Aral Sea surviving against all odds, or drive over its death bed at Aralsk
- Get shocked by the nuclear destruction at the Semipalatinsk Test Site
- Hunt for Cold War artefacts in Priozersk, and discover ghost towns and abandoned military installations across the country
- Watch a space launch in Baikonur
- Stand in awe of the enormous steelworks of Temirtau and the monstrous mining hole of Ekibastuz
Historic sights
- Talk to the mysterious balbal guarding the steppes of Ulytau
- See Scythian burial mounds in Esik
- Learn about the KarLag, the Kazakh gulag, in the museum of Dolinka
- Marvel at the 1000s of petroglyphs of Tamgaly
- Visit the atmospheric ruins of Sauran
City life
- Climb Baiterek and look out over booming Astana
- Party till dawn with hipsters and rich kids, mafiosi and new arrivals in Almaty’s diverse nightlife
- Picknick on Big Almaty Lake and take in a falconry show on the way back, then go ice-skating on the world’s highest skating rink Medeu
- Get pampered at Almaty’s Arasan baths
- Learn Kazakhstan’s history at Almaty’s History Museum, then admire the nation’s art in the Kasteyev museum
- Check out historic Semey, with its surprising array of interesting museums. And if you’re in the neighbourhood, why not historic Uralsk as well?
Things to do in other Stans
More on Kazakhstan
- The basics
- Transport
- Regions