Kazakhstan month by month

The country is about 1,050,000 square miles (2,725,000 km2), the ninth largest on earth. In one week of May the wild tulips are out in the southern foothills, the Kolsai lakes are still cold and half-frozen at the top, Mangystau on the Caspian is at its best, and Astana is grey and windy. Those are all the same country on the same day.

Here is the calendar as our consultants actually use it.

The quick version

Spring, April and May

April is the tulip month and it is a real reason to time a trip. Kazakhstan is where the domestic tulip comes from, and the Greig and Kaufmann species flower in the southern foothills and in the Aksu-Zhabagly reserve near Shymkent from mid-April into early May. Nobody plants them. They come up in gravel on a hillside, which is a different experience from a botanical garden.

Almaty in April and May is green, tree-lined and in the sixties and seventies Fahrenheit (high teens to mid twenties Celsius). The city is genuinely lovely. The mountains above it are not yet open: Big Almaty Lake at 8,200 feet (2,500 m) may be reachable by late May but the high tracks are not, and the walk between the Kolsai lakes is cold, wet and often still under snow at the upper end.

Mangystau, the desert on the Caspian, is at its best from late April through May. Cool enough to be outside all day, clear light on the chalk escarpments, and the ground firm. If the desert is the reason you are coming, this is the month, and it is the one time of year we will build a route around the west rather than the southeast.

The steppe in May is the underrated part of this. It is green, it is covered in small flowers, and the light lasts until nine in the evening. Astana is pleasant rather than remarkable.

What we would not do in spring: a trekking route. The passes are shut and the walking is limited to low ground.

Summer, June to September

This is the main season and it is the only season for the mountains.

June opens things. The road above Saty clears, the second Kolsai lake becomes a comfortable walk rather than an expedition, and Big Almaty Lake is reliable. The city is warm without being oppressive.

July and August are hot everywhere that is flat. The south and Astana both sit regularly in the nineties Fahrenheit (mid thirties Celsius), and Charyn canyon at two in the afternoon in August is a red rock oven. The answer is altitude and timing. The Tian Shan above Almaty is comfortable all summer, the Kolsai valleys are cool, and a canyon visited at five in the afternoon is a different place from the same canyon at noon. This is one of several reasons we build Charyn as an overnight rather than a day trip, which is set out in what we would skip in Kazakhstan.

Mangystau in July and August is very hot and exposed and we do not build desert itineraries in those months. That is not caution for its own sake. There is no shade, no water and no mobile coverage across much of it, and the trip stops being enjoyable somewhere around the second afternoon.

September is the month we would choose if someone gave us the whole calendar. The heat drops out of the south, the light in the canyons turns, the passes are still open, the horse festivals and games run in the south and around Almaty, and the desert becomes workable again. It is the only month in the year when almost every region of the country is at once available and pleasant. Prices are not meaningfully higher, which is set out in what a trip to Kazakhstan costs.

Autumn, October

A short and genuinely beautiful window, and a narrow one.

Until about the twentieth of October, Almaty is yellow. The poplars turn, the air is clear, and the mountains carry new snow above green valleys. Charyn is at its best of the year. The apple orchards in the foothills are being picked.

Then it goes. The high passes close through the month, the Kolsai upper track becomes unreliable, and Astana is already cold and windy by the second week. Mangystau, on the other hand, is good again: cool, empty and clear.

An October trip works if it is built around Almaty, Charyn, the lower Kolsai lakes and either Turkistan or the desert. It does not work as a trekking trip, which needs the summer months.

Winter, November to March

We will be direct. Winter is a viable Almaty trip and it is not a viable country trip.

Astana is one of the coldest capitals in the world and regularly sits at -22°F (-30°C) with wind across open steppe. There is no soft way to describe that, and no clothing that makes a two-hour walking tour of the government axis pleasant. If your dates are January and you want Astana, we will build it, and we will tell you first what it feels like.

Almaty is a different proposition. It sits around 20°F (-7°C) in January, the city functions completely, and twenty-five minutes above it is Shymbulak, which is real skiing on real terrain with a lift system, above the Medeu skating rink at 5,550 feet (1,690 m). A week of skiing above Almaty, with the Green Bazaar, the Arasan baths and the restaurant scene below it, is a good trip that very few Western visitors know exists.

What winter does not give you is the rest of the country. The steppe is inaccessible in any meaningful sense, Mangystau is cold and windy without being interesting, the Kolsai road is closed above Saty, and the lakes are frozen.

Choosing your month by what you want

Related

• Kazakhstan: the complete guide to planning your trip
• How many days do you need in Kazakhstan?
• Walking the Kolsai lakes and Kaindy
• Classic Kazakhstan in 10 days
• All our Kazakhstan trips

Frequently asked questions