Boutique Kyrgyzstan, 10 days: the best beds this country has

What this route does is take everything that can be made more comfortable and make it more comfortable, and then leave one night deliberately uncomfortable, because the yurt is the point and no amount of money improves it.

Who it suits: travellers who normally book at the top of the market and want to know, before they commit, exactly where the ceiling is in this country.

Your specialist: Osnat Angerman or Paz Prosianoy, our Southeast and Central Asia specialists, or our Head of Consulting Mai Est, working with our long-standing partner in Bishkek.

The season. June to September, and money does not extend it. When the passes close and the yurt camps are dismantled for the winter, Song-Kul is not available at any price.

Where the money actually goes here. Not on the hotels, because there are only so many. It goes on a newer 4×4 with a driver who has done these tracks for fifteen years, a guide who is one of the four or five best in the country rather than whoever is free, a private yurt with real bedding rather than a shared one, food organised rather than accepted, and slack in the schedule. Those five things change a Kyrgyzstan trip more than a thread count does.

Day by day

Day 1: Arrive Bishkek. Manas airport, a fast-track meet and a forty-minute transfer. The best suite in the best small hotel in the city, which is a converted merchant house rather than a tower. Nothing scheduled.

Day 2: Bishkek and Ala Archa. A private morning in the Osh bazaar and the Frunze-era architecture with the guide who wrote the city walking notes we use. Lunch in Ala Archa national park, set up at the mouth of the glacial valley, then a two-hour walk or not, as you prefer. Back for a dinner our partner books at the one place in Bishkek that requires it.

Day 3: Bishkek to the south shore of Issyk-Kul. Burana tower with the site archaeologist rather than a general guide, which is arrangeable with notice and is a different visit entirely. Then five hours to the quiet south shore. Three nights in the best lakeside room in the country, which is a small modern hotel with about a dozen rooms and a view straight at the Terskey Ala-Too snow line.

Day 4: The lake, unstructured. Skazka canyon at seven in the morning, empty, then the day free. A private boat in the afternoon, or a swim, or nothing. Around 68°F (20°C) in the water in August.

Day 5: Barskoon and a table at the top of the valley. An hour into the gorge, up past the waterfalls to where the road ends at about 9,800 feet (3,000 m), where our partner sets a proper lunch with a cook. Back down for the afternoon. This is the day that most often ends up as the favourite, and it is entirely a logistics exercise.

Day 6: Issyk-Kul to Song-Kul. Five to six hours west and up over the Kalmak-Ashuu pass at around 11,300 feet (3,450 m). We use the smallest, quietest camp on the northern shore and take a private yurt: your own, with proper bedding, a lit stove and a cook briefed in advance. Two nights at about 10,000 feet (3,000 m).

Here is the honest part. There is still no shower and the toilet is still an outdoor long-drop. That does not change at any price, at any camp, on this lake. It is a working summer pasture with no infrastructure, which is precisely why it is worth two nights of your ten. We would rather you knew that now than at half past nine on day six.

Day 7: Song-Kul. Nothing scheduled. Ride with a herder, walk the shore, sleep. The reason we hold two nights here rather than one is that the first afternoon is arrival and the second morning is departure, and the day in between is the trip.

Day 8: Song-Kul to Karakol. Six to seven hours east. Arrive late afternoon at the best hotel in Karakol, which is comfortable rather than luxurious and we would not describe it as more. A long shower and a private dinner with a Dungan family, which is better than any restaurant on the route.

Day 9: Altyn Arashan, or a helicopter. Two options and we price both. Either the 4×4 track up to Altyn Arashan, two hours each way of being thrown about, hot springs at the top and a lunch laid on. Or, where budget allows and weather permits, a helicopter transfer into the Karakol valley for the day, which turns a six-hour round trip into forty minutes and is the one genuine luxury upgrade this country offers. Night in Karakol.

Day 10: Karakol to Bishkek, departure. The wooden cathedral and the Dungan mosque in the morning, then six hours west along the north shore with a lunch stop, and the evening flight. Where the flight is very late, we hold a day room in Bishkek.

What is included

The best available room at every property, private yurt at Song-Kul with dedicated bedding, a stove lit for you and a cook, breakfast daily and full board at Song-Kul, a newer private 4×4 and an experienced driver for the whole route, one of our partner’s senior English-speaking guides throughout, the Burana specialist visit, the Barskoon valley lunch, the private lake boat, the Dungan family dinner, airport fast-track and transfers, all entries and permits, a day-by-day document with real drive hours, and a WhatsApp group with your specialist and our Bishkek partner where there is a signal.

The helicopter day is quoted separately, because it is weather-dependent and the cost moves.

What we would change, and when

• Want to skip the yurt entirely? We do Song-Kul as a long day trip from a good guesthouse at Kyzart and you keep a bathroom every night. You lose the sky, and we will tell you that is a real loss.
• Travelling in August? The lakeside hotels on the south shore are small and they sell out. Five to seven months ahead, or we move you to the east end near Karakol.
• Want more comfort, not more country? Ten days becomes eight, both drives to Song-Kul are broken with a night at Kyzart, and nothing is over four hours.
• Three weeks available? Add Uzbekistan, where the hotel stock at the top end is substantially better and the two halves balance each other.

Related

• Kyrgyzstan: the complete guide
• Romantic Kyrgyzstan, 9 days
• Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, 21 days