What we would skip in Kyrgyzstan

Very little in Kyrgyzstan is bad. What there is, in abundance, is things that cost more hours than they return, and in a country where a hundred miles can take six hours, that is the only currency that matters. Almost everything below is on this list because of the drive rather than the destination.

Where we would skip something, we say what we would do with the day instead. If you disagree, tell us and we will build it anyway.

One night at Song-Kul

The most common mistake in Kyrgyz itineraries and the one we argue about most.

One night at Song-Kul means arriving at five in the afternoon after six or seven hours in a vehicle, eating, sleeping badly at 10,000 feet (3,000 m) because your body has not adjusted, and leaving at nine the next morning. You will have been to Song-Kul. You will not have seen it, ridden on it, watched a family milk mares on it or been outside on it at midnight, which is the entire reason people come.

Instead: two nights, always. If two nights will not fit, use Kyrchyn, which is lower, closer and a genuine jailoo, and save Song-Kul for a trip that has room for it. The full case is in Song-Kul and horse trekking.

The Bishkek to Osh road, as a scenic drive

Ten to twelve hours, 400 miles (640 km), two passes above 10,000 feet (3,000 m), and a permanent stream of freight trucks grinding up them. The scenery is genuinely fine and the road is genuinely tiring, and after hour seven nobody is looking out of the window.

Instead: fly. Bishkek to Osh is under an hour and cheap, and it buys back a whole day for the south. If you want a mountain drive, the Kochkor to Song-Kul pass and the road into Tash Rabat give you the same landscape in two hours rather than twelve.

Cholpon-Ata and the north shore

In July and August the north shore of Issyk-Kul is a domestic beach resort: apartment blocks, beach clubs, traffic and the holidaymakers of two countries. It is a perfectly cheerful place and it is not what anybody flew to Kyrgyzstan for.

The petroglyph field at Cholpon-Ata is a boulder-strewn area with Bronze Age and Saka carvings on it that are difficult to find without a guide and modest when found. Forty minutes.

Instead: stay on the south shore, which is quiet, drier and closer to the mountains, and stop at Burana Tower on the way east instead. The comparison is in Karakol and the Issyk-Kul shore.

The Issyk-Kul boat trip

An hour on a boat on a large lake with no landing and nothing to see that you cannot see better from the shore, usually with music.

Instead: swim. The water reaches about 68°F (20°C) in August and swimming in a lake at 5,300 feet (1,600 m) with snow mountains behind it is the actual pleasure here.

Burana Tower, as a destination

An eleventh-century minaret on the site of Balasagun with a field of balbal, carved stone grave markers, and a small museum. It is the clearest surviving link to the country’s urban Silk Road past and it is genuinely interesting.

It is also a half-hour stop, not a day, and every year somebody is sold it as a Bishkek day trip.

Instead: stop for forty minutes on the way east to the lake, which costs nothing, and climb the tower, which is a tight dark stair and worth it.

Kel-Suu, on a first visit

We love Kel-Suu. A long lake below sheer cliffs in the border zone near China, reached on a rough track, requiring a permit applied for days in advance.

It is also weather-dependent to the point of unreliability, a long way from anything, and it costs two days plus the permit lead time. On a first ten-day trip those two days come out of Karakol or Song-Kul, which is a bad exchange.

Instead: on a first visit, Tash Rabat, which is on the way, has the caravanserai and gives you the same emptiness for less. Put Kel-Suu into a fourteen-day trip, where it belongs, as in Tash Rabat and the southern mountains.

Trying to do the north and the south in ten days

The most common structural mistake after the Song-Kul one. Ten days with Bishkek, the lake, Karakol, Song-Kul, Osh, Arslanbob and the Alay is four hundred miles of gravel with a holiday attached.

Instead: pick the north, which is the classic ten days, or commit to fourteen and do both properly. The lengths are compared in how many days do you need in Kyrgyzstan.

Radon and mineral treatments at the sanatoria

The Soviet-era sanatoria on the lake are remarkable buildings and one night in one is a genuine experience: mosaics, marble, corridors, a dining room and a whole medical philosophy preserved in aspic.

The treatments themselves, radon baths and mineral courses, are designed around a three-week stay under supervision. As a novelty for a visitor they are pointless, and in the case of the radon baths we would simply not.

Instead: stay a night for the architecture and the strangeness, eat elsewhere, and use the hot springs at Altyn Arashan instead, which are natural and better.

A yurt “show camp” near the road

There are camps within twenty minutes of the main road that exist for coach groups: yurts erected for the season with no animals, no family living there and a dinner served at seven.

They are comfortable enough. They are also a stage set, and the entire value of a yurt night is that a family is living in it and there is somebody to talk to.

Instead: a working camp on a real jailoo with a family on it, which is what our proposals name. It is often the same price and always the better night.

Bishkek’s museums, as a priority

The State Historical Museum reopened after a long closure and is worth an hour if you have one. The rest of the city’s museum offering is thin.

Instead: Osh Market for two hours, Ala Archa national park for half a day, and lunch. Bishkek’s pleasure is its trees, its food and its street life rather than its collections.

Winter, if you have come for yurts

Not a sight, and the most important thing on this list.

From October to May the passes are shut, the yurt camps are dismantled and in storage, and Song-Kul is not reachable. The families and their animals are down in the villages, which is where they should be. No budget creates a summer pasture in February.

Instead: if your dates are winter, come for the skiing at Karakol and Suusamyr and for Bishkek and Ala Archa under snow, which is a good trip. If you want the jailoo, move your dates to June through mid-September. The calendar is in Kyrgyzstan month by month.

The multi-day horse trek, if you have never ridden

We sell these and we would rather you enjoyed one than endured one. Six hours a day in a wooden-framed saddle, on a small horse ridden with almost no rein contact, at altitude, for four days, is a great deal for a first-time rider.

Instead: an hour at a camp on day one, a half day later in the trip, and commit to the multi-day version only if you are still keen. We build routes so that decision can be made on the ground.

What we never skip

For balance, the things that always stay in.

Two nights at Song-Kul. Three nights in Karakol. Ashlan-fu at the Karakol market. The Sunday animal market if a Sunday falls right. The Dungan mosque. An hour on a horse for everybody, including people who do not ride. A guesthouse night in a village where the family eats with you. And a drive over the Kalmak-Ashuu pass, which is the drive that justifies every hour of gravel elsewhere.

Plan this trip

Tell us your dates and we will build a route with the drive hours honest and the filler removed, and tell you what we left out and why. Free first proposal, no obligation.

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Keep reading

• Kyrgyzstan: the complete guide to planning your trip
• The best two weeks in Kyrgyzstan
• Song-Kul and horse trekking, honestly
• Karakol and the Issyk-Kul shore
• How many days do you need in Kyrgyzstan?
• All our Kyrgyzstan trips

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