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 are all inexpensive by Western standards. The second is how quickly a badly designed route spends that saving, because every extra region means a flight, a new
Here is the honest version, in US dollars, with the arithmetic shown.
Everything below is land only, per person, based on two people sharing a room. It excludes international flights, because those depend entirely on where you fly from. It includes internal flights, accommodation, food, ground transport with a driver, entries and the guiding we would normally build in.
Daily cost by traveller type
These are the four anchors our consultants price against, and they are the same numbers as in our complete Kazakhstan guide, because the guide and the magazine should not contradict each other.
| Style | What it looks like | Per person, per day |
|---|---|---|
| Careful | Guesthouses and simple hotels, shared legs where they work, minimal guiding | $125 |
| Comfortable | Good three to four star hotels and the better guesthouses, a private car and driver, three or four guided days | $200 |
| Boutique | Design hotels, mountain lodges, private vehicles throughout, guiding where it changes the day | $330 |
| Luxury | The best rooms in the country, private guiding and vehicles throughout | $560 |
Two things to notice. The gap between careful and comfortable is mostly hotels in Almaty and Astana, which have full international markets with international prices. And the gap between boutique and luxury disappears entirely at Saty and in the Mangystau desert, where there is no premium room to buy at any price.
What the same trip costs at each tier
| Style | 10 days | 14 days | 21 days with Uzbekistan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Careful | $1,250 | $1,750 | $2,625 |
| Comfortable | $2,000 | $2,800 | $4,200 |
| Boutique | $3,300 | $4,620 | $6,930 |
| Luxury | $5,600 | $7,840 | $11,760 |
Ten days is the shape most first visits take and it is our classic route. Fourteen adds either Altyn Emel or the Mangystau desert. Twenty-one turns the trip into a Silk Road one with Uzbekistan.
Accommodation, night by night
Rates are per room per night for two sharing, as planning guidance rather than a quote. We confirm the live rate for your exact dates before anything is booked.
| Type | What you get | Per room, per night |
|---|---|---|
| Village guesthouse, Saty or Aksu-Zhabagly | A clean twin room, sometimes a shared bathroom, home cooking | $30 to $55 |
| Simple hotel, Turkistan or a provincial town | Functional, clean, no atmosphere | $50 to $90 |
| Good three star, Almaty | A real room in a walkable district, breakfast | $70 to $110 |
| Four star, Almaty or Astana | Space, a view, a bar worth sitting in | $130 to $210 |
| Boutique or design hotel, Almaty | Small, particular, and the reason you remember the city | $180 to $320 |
| Mountain lodge above Almaty | Trees, quiet and the Trans-Ili Alatau out of the window | $150 to $280 |
| The best rooms in the country | A short list, in the two cities | $350 and up |
Mangystau is the exception that does not fit the table. There you are in simple guesthouses or in tents with a crew, and the cost sits in the vehicles rather than the beds.
Internal flights, which are not an extravagance
This is the line most first drafts get wrong, usually by leaving it out.
Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country on earth, about 1,050,000 square miles (2,725,000 km2), and larger than all of Western Europe together. Almaty to Astana is roughly 750 miles (1,200 km). Domestic aviation here is good and cheap, and using it is not cutting corners.
| Sector | Time | Planning range, one way |
|---|---|---|
| Almaty to Astana | 1 hour 50 minutes | $60 to $120 |
| Almaty to Shymkent, for Turkistan | 1 hour 20 minutes | $50 to $100 |
| Almaty to Aktau, for Mangystau | About 3 hours 30 minutes | $90 to $180 |
| Talgo overnight train, Almaty to Astana, two-berth | Overnight | $40 to $90 |
Fares move with demand and season, so we price your actual sectors at the time of booking rather than asking you to trust a table. The overnight train is the one land alternative we genuinely recommend, because it is comfortable, punctual and saves a hotel night.
Ground transport, which is where the real money sits
| Vehicle day | What it covers | Per day, per vehicle |
|---|---|---|
| Sedan or minivan with driver | Almaty city, Medeu, Shymbulak, Big Almaty Lake | $70 to $110 |
| Transfer day, Almaty to Charyn and on to Saty | About 125 miles (200 km) then two hours more | $120 to $180 |
| 4×4 for Kaindy and the upper Kolsai track | Rough ground, a specialist driver | $90 to $150 |
| Altyn Emel with a permit | Singing Dune and the Aktau hills | $150 to $220 |
| Mangystau 4×4 with an experienced crew | Spare fuel, satellite communication, a second vehicle | $250 to $400 |
| Licensed guide, full day | Almaty, Turkistan, a canyon day | $70 to $120 |
The Mangystau line is the one that surprises people, and it is not a margin. The desert runs on 4x4s with crews who work it for a living, carrying spare fuel and satellite communication, because fuel stations and mobile coverage out there are a long way apart. That is why a route with Mangystau in it prices materially above one without, and it has nothing to do with the rooms.
Food, which is the good news
- Samsa baked on the wall of a tandyr oven: $1 to $2
- Laghman or plov at a canteen: $4 to $7
- Lunch assembled at the Green Bazaar in Almaty: $6 to $10
- Beshbarmak for a table to share: $12 to $20
- Dinner in a good Almaty restaurant: $20 to $40 a head
- Tasting menu at the top of the Almaty market: $60 to $110
A realistic daily food budget for someone eating well and eating widely is $25 to $45. Almaty has a serious modern restaurant scene working with steppe meat, wild herbs and Caspian fish at a fraction of Western prices, and it is worth planning evenings around rather than eating in hotels.
Three complete ten-day budgets
Each is ten days, nine nights, per person, two sharing, land only, on the Almaty, Charyn, Kolsai, Astana and Turkistan shape.
The careful trip, about $1,250
Guesthouses and simple hotels, the overnight train instead of one flight, dinner in the house at Saty, a driver only on the days that need one, two guided days.
| Line | Total |
|---|---|
| Accommodation, 9 nights | $370 |
| Food | $270 |
| Internal flights and the overnight train | $190 |
| Ground transport and shared legs | $310 |
| Guiding, entries and incidentals | $110 |
| Total | $1,250 |
The comfortable trip, about $2,000
Good three to four star hotels in the cities, the better guesthouse at Saty, two internal flights, a private car and driver throughout with a 4×4 for Kaindy, three guided days.
| Line | Total |
|---|---|
| Accommodation, 9 nights | $760 |
| Food | $360 |
| Internal flights, two sectors | $220 |
| Private car and driver, 8 days | $470 |
| Guiding, three days | $170 |
| Entries and incidentals | $20 |
| Total | $2,000 |
This is the most common shape of trip we build here and the one we would choose ourselves for a first visit.
The boutique trip, about $3,300
A design hotel in Almaty, a mountain lodge above the city, the best available room at every stop, private vehicles including a 4×4, private guiding on four days, and the Almaty restaurants booked ahead.
| Line | Total |
|---|---|
| Accommodation, 9 nights | $1,620 |
| Food | $520 |
| Internal flights, two sectors | $300 |
| Private vehicles including a 4×4 | $610 |
| Private guiding, four days | $220 |
| Entries and incidentals | $30 |
| Total | $3,300 |
What actually moves the number
- How many regions you try to cover. Every region added means a flight, a new ground team and half a day lost to airports. Two regions properly in ten days is a good trip. Four is an expensive tour of terminals.
- The desert. Mangystau costs two to three times a normal ground day because of the vehicles and crews, and it is also the most remarkable landscape in the country.
- City hotel rates. Almaty and Astana are priced for business travel. Outside them there is often no premium option at all, which pulls the average down.
- Whether Charyn and Kolsai are done as a day trip or an overnight. The overnight adds one night in a simple guesthouse and transforms both places. Charyn and Kolsai, done properly explains why we never build the day-trip version.
Plan this trip
Tell us your dates, your rough budget and how many regions you want, and a Kazakhstan specialist will build you a first outline with real hotels and real numbers. Free, and with no obligation.
Keep reading
- Kazakhstan: the complete guide to planning your trip
- Kazakhstan month by month
- How many days do you need in Kazakhstan?
- What we would skip in Kazakhstan
- Classic Kazakhstan in 10 days
- All our Kazakhstan trips
Frequently asked questions
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