Kazakhstan, a country you fly across and enjoy on the ground
Ten days covers the Kazakhstan most first visitors come for. Fourteen adds Kyrgyzstan over the land border. Twenty-one reaches Uzbekistan and makes the whole thing a Silk Road trip rather than a mountain one.
Plan my Kazakhstan trip Read the complete guide
- Best time to go
- May to September
- How many days
- 10 to 14
- Entry
- Visa-free for many nationalities
- Getting around
- Internal flights between regions, car within them
Start with the size, because it decides everything else. Kazakhstan is about 1,050,000 square miles (2,725,000 km2), the ninth largest country on earth and larger than all of Western Europe together. Almaty to Astana is roughly 750 miles (1,200 km). There is no version of this country you drive across in a fortnight, and the itineraries that try are the ones people come home unhappy from. Internal flights are usually the right answer, they are cheap, and using them is not a failure of ambition.
Why plan Kazakhstan with us
We are straight about how we operate here. GO EAST staffs its own offices in Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. Kazakhstan is not one of them. We run it through an Almaty partner we have worked with for years, whose drivers, guides and desert crews meet you on the ground. We would rather name who is actually there than imply an office we do not have.
A named specialist, not a queue. Your file belongs to one person: our Head of Consulting Mai Est, or our Central Asia specialists Osnat Angerman and Paz Prosianoy. Groups go to Daniella Eitan.
We will tell you the unwelcome thing. That Charyn canyon and the Kolsai lakes as a single day trip from Almaty is a very long day in a car for a few hours of scenery, and that a night at Saty changes them completely. That much of the country is flat steppe and stays flat for hours. That Astana is a planned capital built from nothing in a generation, that some travellers find it fascinating and others find it empty, and we will not guess which one you are without asking. Our rating is 4.9 from 93 reviews largely because of that.
A WhatsApp group while you travel. Your consultant here, our Almaty partner there, from take-off until you land home.
The short answers
| Question | Short answer | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Best time to go | May to September | The mountains want July to September. The desert and steppe want May or late September. |
| How many days | 10 to 14 | Under 8 means Almaty and the mountains around it. Over 14 opens Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan. |
| Entry | Visa-free for many nationalities | We confirm the current rule for your exact passport in writing before we quote. |
| Getting around | Internal flights between regions, car within them | The Almaty to Astana train is a genuine alternative. Nothing else is. |
| Typical budget | $125 to $560 per person per day | Land only, excluding international flights. Desert days cost more. |
| Winter | Cold on a different scale | Astana regularly sits at -22°F (-30°C). Almaty is milder and has real skiing. |
The full breakdown is in our complete guide →
Eight ways to travel Kazakhstan
Every route below is one we actually build, day by day, with honest drive times. Start from one and we rebuild it around you.
- Classic Kazakhstan in 10 days, Almaty, Charyn, Kolsai, Astana, Turkistan
- Kazakhstan with children, 10 days, mountains, a singing dune, short flights
- Trekking the Tien Shan, 12 days, Almaty peaks, Kolsai passes, Sayram-Ugam
- Romantic Kazakhstan, 8 days, three slow bases, mountains and a lake
- Steppe, city and table, 11 days, Almaty kitchens, Turkistan, eagle hunters
- Boutique Kazakhstan, 10 days, four places worth the rate
- Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, 14 days, two mountain countries, one border
- Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, 21 days, steppe, mountains and the Silk Road cities
Kazakhstan in the magazine
Kazakhstan month by month · Almaty in three days · Charyn and Kolsai, done properly · Is Astana worth it? · Mangystau, the desert most people miss
Kazakhstan itineraries
Every one of these is a starting point, not a fixed departure. We change the length, the pace and the hotels to fit you.
Classic Kazakhstan in 10 days: Almaty, Charyn, Kolsai, Astana and Turkistan
The first-visit route and the one we build most often. Three nights in Almaty, two in the mountains at Saty below the Kolsai lakes,…
Kazakhstan with children in 10 days
The obstacle to family travel in Kazakhstan is not safety, food, hygiene or attitude. Kazakh families are large, children go everywhere, and nobody will…
Trekking the Tien Shan in 12 days: Almaty, Kolsai and Sayram-Ugam
Kazakhstan's walking is concentrated in a narrow band along its southeastern border, where the Tien Shan comes up out of the steppe. That band…
Romantic Kazakhstan in 8 days: mountains, a canyon and a lake
Kazakhstan is not an obvious honeymoon country and we are not going to pretend it is a soft one. There are no beach resorts…
Steppe, city and table: Kazakhstan in 11 days
Kazakh food is nomadic food and it makes sense once you understand what it is for. A cuisine built around animals that walk, milk…
Boutique Kazakhstan in 10 days: four places worth the rate
The honest position first. Kazakhstan does not have a boutique hotel circuit. Almaty has a genuinely good set of hotels, several of them small…
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in 14 days
These two countries share a mountain range, a language family and a nomadic history, and they feel completely different once you are in them.…
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in 21 days
This is the Central Asia trip that makes the region make sense. Kazakhstan is the empty half: steppe, mountains, desert, a nomadic culture, and…
What is in every Kazakhstan trip we build
- Internal flights priced against the alternative, with the honest travel time for both
- Real drive times on real road surfaces, not straight-line estimates
- Overnights where the scenery deserves them, which is why Charyn and Kolsai are never a day trip here
- Vehicles matched to the ground, up to a desert 4x4 with a crew who work Mangystau for a living
- Honest accommodation notes, including which nights are a guesthouse and which are a tent
Planning Kazakhstan, in detail
What we would skip in Kazakhstan
This is the article that costs us money, and we write one for every country we sell because it is the only…
What to eat in Kazakhstan, and where
Kazakh food is nomadic food, which means it begins with the two things a herding people can carry and keep: meat and…
Kazakhstan month by month
Most countries have a season. Kazakhstan has four regions that each have a different one, and the single most useful thing we…
What a trip to Kazakhstan really costs
Kazakhstan surprises people twice on price. The first surprise is how cheap the ground is: food, taxis, guides, entries and domestic flights…
Kazakhstan with children
Every question people ask us about Kazakhstan with children has the same answer, and the answer is the driving.
Walking the Kolsai lakes and Kaindy
Let us start with the sentence that will save some people a disappointment and others a wasted permit application.
Frequently asked questions
Is Kazakhstan safe to travel?
Is Astana worth going to?
Do we have to fly internally?
How green is Almaty really?
Can we combine Kazakhstan with another country?
Tell us roughly what you want. We will tell you honestly what works.
A named consultant in Tel Aviv, our own people on the ground, and a written plan you can argue with before you commit to anything.