Kyrgyzstan with children

Get the drives right and you have horses, a lake to swim in, a yurt to sleep in, eagles, felt-making, dumplings and a family in every village who will take an interest in your children. Get them wrong and you have a ten-year-old in the back of a 4×4 for seven hours on gravel, which is the fastest way to ruin an otherwise excellent trip.

Here is how we build these, what works, what does not, and what we change.

The two rules for a family route

Halve the drive hours. An adult route accepts a six or seven hour day. A family route caps at four, with a break every ninety minutes and something to get out for. That means fewer places, and fewer places is the right trade.

Two nights minimum, everywhere. Children need a base and a day where nothing is packed. A route that moves every night is exhausting for adults and intolerable for a seven-year-old.

Applying both means a family trip covers roughly two thirds of what an adult trip covers in the same days. Nobody has ever regretted this. The general drive-hour argument is in how many days do you need in Kyrgyzstan.

Ages, honestly

Under five. We would generally suggest another country. The altitude, the drives, the cold nights and the long-drop toilets add up to a lot of friction for a child who cannot yet enjoy the horses.

Five to seven. Works well, with the route based on Issyk-Kul and Karakol, one gentle jailoo night at Kyrchyn rather than Song-Kul, and short drives. A lake week with mountains attached.

Eight to twelve. The best age for this country. Old enough to ride properly, to sleep in a shared yurt without complaint, to walk a valley and to be genuinely interested in a family that lives in a tent for four months a year.

Teenagers. Very good. Riding, trekking, the Ala-Kul route if they walk, and the fact that almost nobody their age at home has heard of the place, which teenagers value more than they admit.

Altitude, and the one change we make

Song-Kul is at about 10,000 feet (3,000 m). For an adult that means a headache and a poor first night. For a young child it is the same and harder to articulate.

So for families with children under about nine, we substitute Kyrchyn. It is a jailoo above Issyk-Kul at a lower elevation, reached in a fraction of the drive time, with the same yurts, the same horses, the same felt-making and the same night sky minus a couple of thousand feet. It is a real substitute rather than a consolation.

For children over nine we will build Song-Kul, one night rather than two, and we sequence the ascent through Bishkek at 2,600 feet (800 m), the lake at 5,300 feet (1,600 m) and Kochkor at around 6,000 feet (1,850 m) first.

What a yurt night involves, before you agree to it

Read this with the children in mind.

A shared yurt, four to eight mattresses on the floor with heavy quilts, unless you take a private one, which for a family is usually the right call and costs a supplement. An outdoor long-drop toilet, unlit, a short walk away. No shower. A solar panel that runs a light. Below freezing at four in the morning at Song-Kul even in July.

Most children love it. The mattresses on the floor, the stove, the animals outside and the total absence of a screen are, for a nine-year-old, an adventure rather than a hardship. The long-drop in the dark is the sticking point, and the answer is a head torch each and an accompanied trip before bed.

One or two nights across a trip is the right dose for a family. The full description is in Song-Kul and horse trekking, honestly.

What actually works

Horses. The single best thing about this country for children. A Kyrgyz horse is small, calm and knows the route, and a horseman walks beside a young rider. An hour on a horse across a pasture is the memory that survives the trip. Children who ride at home can do a half day.

Issyk-Kul. A lake 110 miles (180 km) long that reaches about 68°F (20°C) in August, with beaches. A swimming day in the middle of a mountain trip resets everybody, and it is the reason we base family routes on the shore. Use the south shore, which is quiet, rather than the north, which is a domestic beach town in August. See Karakol and the Issyk-Kul shore.

Felt making in Kochkor. A women’s cooperative, raw wool, hot water, soap and an hour of rolling, with a shyrdak pattern at the end. Genuinely hands-on.

Eagle hunting demonstrations. A berkutchi with a golden eagle on his arm, at Bokonbaevo on the south shore or near Issyk-Kul. Yes, it is staged for visitors. It is also a real practice with real birds and a real relationship, and the birds are extraordinary at close range. Twenty minutes, and children talk about it for months.

Horse games. Kok-boru is played seriously and is not for every family. The gentler demonstrations, picking a coin off the ground at a gallop and the kyz kuumai chase game, are excellent.

Skazka canyon. Red eroded rock on the south shore that children can climb over for an hour. A perfect stop in the middle of a drive.

Ala Archa. Forty minutes from Bishkek, a glacial valley with a walkable path and a picnic at the end. The right first day.

What does not work

Long drives. Bishkek to Karakol in one go is six hours. With children we break it on the shore. Karakol to Song-Kul is seven and we do not do it at all with a family: we come at Song-Kul from Kochkor instead, or we use Kyrchyn.

Song-Kul with a small child. The altitude and the cold. Kyrchyn instead, as above.

Kel-Suu and the border zones. Rough tracks, permits, weather risk and a long way from help.

Multi-day horse treks under twelve. Six hours in a wooden saddle is hard on an adult. Day rides yes, multi-day no.

Ala-Kul. A serious two or three day trek over a 12,500 foot (3,800 m) pass. Excellent for a fit fifteen-year-old and out of the question below that.

Where to stay with children

Bishkek has proper hotels with family rooms and, in one or two cases, a pool. Karakol has comfortable small hotels within walking distance of the market. The Issyk-Kul south shore has a handful of modern lakeside hotels, which is what we use for the swimming days, and they book out for July and August.

Guesthouses in Kochkor, Naryn and the villages are family homes with enormous breakfasts, and children are usually absorbed into the household within the hour.

Yurt camps. Take a private yurt for a family. It is worth the supplement for the simple reason that a family who keep a stranger awake at altitude have a difficult breakfast.

Food with children

Easier than most of Asia. Nothing is chilli-hot. Bread, jam and clotted cream are on every table. Boorsok is deep-fried dough, which needs no explanation. Laghman noodles, dumplings, fried potatoes, grilled meat, good dairy and, in season, apricots and walnuts.

Fussy eaters do better here than in Southeast Asia. Vegetarian children need advance notice to the camps and guesthouses, because on a jailoo there is no shop, and telling them on arrival is too late.

Practical notes for parents

• Car seats are not standard. We request them through our Bishkek partner and the fit and quality vary, and we would rather say so in advance.
• Medical care is adequate in Bishkek and thin elsewhere. Bring what you rely on. Evacuation from a jailoo is a drive, not a helicopter.
• Layers. A July day at Song-Kul goes from 75°F (24°C) at noon to below freezing at four in the morning. Children feel that more than adults.
• Sun. Fierce at altitude, including through cloud. Hats, high-factor cream, long sleeves.
• Head torches, one each, for the long-drop.
• Screens and motion sickness. No signal on a jailoo, so download things in Bishkek. Gravel switchbacks over a pass, so come prepared and sit older children in the front.

The shape we build most often

Ten days: Bishkek two nights, Issyk-Kul south shore three, Karakol two or three, Kyrchyn or a lower jailoo one or two, back to Bishkek. Four driving days, none over four hours, a swimming day in the middle and a horse day at the end.

That is our ten-day family route. If you want the nomadic culture at the centre of the trip rather than round the edges, nomad life and culture, 11 days does that and adapts well for children over ten. And for where Kyrgyzstan sits against the rest of the region for families, Asia with children.

Plan this trip

Tell us the ages and your dates and we will build the shorter-drive, lower-altitude, more horse-heavy version rather than the adult route with children attached. Free first proposal, no obligation.

Start planning

Keep reading

• Kyrgyzstan with children, 10 days
• Kyrgyzstan: the complete guide to planning your trip
• Song-Kul and horse trekking, honestly
• Karakol and the Issyk-Kul shore
• Asia with children
• All our Kyrgyzstan trips

Frequently asked questions