Kazakhstan & Kyrgyzstan Active

The adventure starts straight away. After landing in Almaty at about 8:00 you are met by the guide, and our private vehicle heads east across the steppe towards the Chinese border, with breakfast in a roadside café on the way.

Charyn Canyon, the “younger brother of the Grand Canyon”, stretches for 150 km of red walls carved by the Charyn river. We walk along the floor of the Valley of Castles, between formations that look like towers and battlements, down to the river. In the afternoon we continue to Saty, a small village at about 1,900 m at the entrance to Kolsai National Park. Dinner and overnight in a family guesthouse. The day is long after a night flight, so the longest drive comes early and the afternoon is calm.

A day of the two most remarkable lakes of the northern Tian Shan and our first mountain walk. By 4x4 we reach Kaindy Lake, created by the 1911 earthquake that flooded a spruce forest — the bare trunks still rise out of the turquoise water, one of the most photographed views in Central Asia.

Then the Kolsai trek: a trail through spruce forest along the cascades, from the lower lake (1,820 m) to the middle lake (2,250 m), about 8 km each way. It is a perfect warm-up for the high mountains ahead. Back in Saty, dinner and packing for the border crossing.

An early start to reach the Karkara border at opening time. This seasonal mountain crossing (May–October) is passed on foot, and on the Kyrgyz side a new vehicle and crew are waiting. Clocks move one hour forward.

In Karakol a short tour: the wooden Dungan Mosque, built without a single nail in the style of a Chinese temple, and the wooden Holy Trinity Cathedral, with time for last shopping before the trek. By 4x4 we climb the steep, rocky road along the Arasan river to Altyn Arashan (2,600 m), where an evening soak in the hot springs at the foot of Palatka peak ends the day. Overnight in a yurt camp.

The king stage of the journey. From Altyn Arashan the trail climbs a long, gentle traverse above the tree line and across moraine fields to the Ala-Kul Pass (3,860 m), the highest point of the trip, with views of the glaciers of the Terskey Ala-Too.

From the pass we descend to the glacial Ala-Kul lake, a sheet of turquoise enclosed in stone, and camp on its shore (about 13 km, +1,260 m). The expedition is fully supported — tents, pack horses for the luggage and a mountain cook — so participants walk with a day pack only. This direction is gentler than the reverse, as the ascent is spread over a longer distance.

A long descent from the camp through the Sirota valley and the spruce forests of the Karakol valley (about 15 km) — the end of the trekking part. On the way to the lake we stop at Jety-Oguz, the “Seven Bulls”: red sandstone cliffs rising from a green valley at the mouth of the gorge.

We settle on the south shore of Issyk-Kul, near Tamga. A hot shower, dinner and an evening by the water of the second-largest mountain lake in the world.

A calmer day along the south shore after two days in the mountains. Skazka Canyon, the “Fairy Tale Canyon”, is a maze of red and orange clay sculpted by the wind into dragons, castles and walls — an easy and very photogenic walk.

We continue to Kochkor, a small crafts town at the gateway to the mountains, known for its felt shyrdak carpets made by local women’s cooperatives. Overnight in a family guesthouse. Optional: an eagle hunting demonstration with a falconer in Bokonbaevo, a Kyrgyz tradition listed by UNESCO.

We drive up to the high plateau where herders bring their flocks every summer — a landscape that has barely changed for centuries. The road climbs the Kalmak-Ashuu Pass in hairpins to over 3,400 m, with a panorama of the whole plateau.

At Song-Kul (3,016 m) we spend a few hours on horseback with local herders across the meadows along the lake shore; horses and handlers are included. In the evening we join a shepherd family in their nomad camp for kumis, fresh bread and sunset over the steppe. Overnight in yurts.

A morning at Song-Kul as the mist lifts from the water and the flocks move out to pasture, then we descend from the plateau to Issyk-Kul. The afternoon is free on the beach at Balykchy, at the western end of the lake — swimming, rest and an early dinner at your own expense.

Around 18:40 we board the summer train through the Boom Gorge of the Chu river, arriving in Bishkek around 23:10 in the light of the setting sun, in an upgraded carriage. Main luggage travels separately by road straight to the hotel. Transfer from the station.

After the late arrival, a slow morning and departure around 9:30 for Ala Archa National Park, a gorge walled by peaks up to 4,800 m, just 40 minutes from the capital.

We hike to the Ak-Sai Waterfall through juniper forests along the glacial river, about 4–5 hours return — a last taste of the Tian Shan. Back in Bishkek, a farewell dinner to Kyrgyzstan.

Morning in Bishkek: Ala-Too Square with the Manas monument, the shady Oak Park and the bustling Osh Bazaar. In the afternoon we cross back into Kazakhstan at the 24-hour Korday border (clocks move one hour back).

Almaty, the former capital at the foot of the snowy Trans-Ili Alatau, welcomes us for the last evening: a walk along the Arbat pedestrian street and through Panfilov Park with its wooden cathedral, and dinner in town.

Depending on the flight time — for afternoon or evening departures — a ride on the Kok-Tobe cable car to the viewpoint above the city, or a trip to the Medeu high-altitude ice rink and the Shymbulak resort. Then transfer to Almaty airport. End of the tour.