KAZAKHSTAN · CENTRAL ASIA
Red rock canyons, turquoise lakes, the long way across the steppe.
Day trips out of Almaty, mountain lakes, the Charyn canyon and the modern capital up north. Kolsai, Kaindy, Big Almaty Lake, Astana, and the open country in between.
Start here
Plan the trip in three questions.
Most people fly into Almaty and work outward from there. Here is how to think about time, season and where to sleep before you book anything.
How many days?
Three days covers Almaty plus one big day out to the canyon or the lakes. Five to seven lets you string together Charyn, the Kolsai and Kaindy lakes and the capital without rushing any of it.
See day trips →When to go?
May to September is the window for the canyon, the high lakes and the steppe, when the passes are open and the water is full. December to March turns the slopes above Almaty into ski country.
Browse the parks →Where to base?
Almaty is the launch pad for almost everything in the south, with the mountains on its doorstep. Astana, the modern capital, is a ninety-minute flight north for the other half of the country.
Explore Almaty →Only in Kazakhstan
Three landscapes you won’t find anywhere else.
Plenty of places have mountains and lakes. A red sandstone canyon carved into open steppe, a spruce forest standing drowned and upright in clear blue water, and a glacier-fed lake an hour above a million-person city are harder to come by. Start the trip with these three.
Out on the steppe
Charyn Canyon
Three hours east of Almaty the flat steppe splits open into a gorge of red and orange sandstone towers. The famous stretch, the Valley of the Castles, runs about two kilometres between walls up to 150 metres tall. People reach for the Grand Canyon comparison, but the shapes and the colour here are their own.
- 1 Kolsai, Kaindy Lakes and Charyn Canyon Small-Group Tour
- 2 Almaty: Kolsai-Kaindy Lakes and Charyn Canyons Day Trip
- 3 Almaty: Kolsai Kaindy Lakes & Charyn Canyons 2-Day Tour
Up in the Tian Shan
Kolsai & Kaindy Lakes
A 1911 earthquake dammed a valley and drowned a spruce forest. The trunks still stand bare and upright out of the turquoise water of Lake Kaindy, a sunken forest you can see straight down into. An hour away the three Kolsai lakes climb the mountainside through the trees, the highest sitting near the Kyrgyz border.
- 1 Kolsai Kaindy Lakes with Charyn Canyons 2-day tour
- 2 Kolsai Kaindy Lakes with Charyn Canyons Day Tour (lunch included)
- 3 Almaty: 2-Day Tour to Kolsai-Kaindy Lakes and Charyn Canyon
An hour above the city
Big Almaty Lake
A glacier-fed reservoir sits at 2,500 metres in the mountains directly above Almaty. The water turns from grey to deep turquoise with the season and the light. You can be drinking coffee downtown in the morning and standing on the dam by lunch.
- 1 Big Almaty Lake Tour with Optional Hike
- 2 Big Almaty Lake: Choose Adventure on Foot or by Car
- 3 Big Almaty Lake tour private or group by car or hiking
The day everyone books
Start with the trip that fills up first.
If you only have one free day around Almaty, start here. The day out the region's whole tour scene is built around.
The big ones
Kazakhstan's Most Popular Tours
Charyn Canyon, the Kolsai and Kaindy lakes, Big Almaty Lake and the mountains behind the city. The trips most travellers come for.
By region
Pick a corner of the country.
Each one is its own day out, or its own trip. Charyn for the canyon. The Kolsai and Kaindy lakes for the high water. Big Almaty Lake for the quick mountain hit. Astana for the capital up north.
By tour type
Or pick how you want to spend the time.
A full day out to the canyon. A two or three day loop through the lakes. A morning walking Almaty, an afternoon in a museum, a winter day on the Shymbulak slopes. Pick the format.
If it's the lakes you came for
The lake days.
Kaindy's drowned forest, the three Kolsai lakes stepping up the valley, Big Almaty Lake under the glaciers, and Issyk out past Turgen. Three we'd put on any first trip into the mountains.
Before you head for the hills
A day in Almaty.
Soviet mosaics and tree-lined avenues, the Green Bazaar, the cable car up Kok-Tobe, and Medeu and Shymbulak in the mountains right behind town. The city earns a day before you leave it.
Up north
The capital, Astana.
A ninety-minute flight from Almaty, Kazakhstan built itself a brand new capital out on the steppe. Glass towers, the Bayterek monument, wide ceremonial avenues, and Soviet history an hour out at Karaganda.
When you've got more time
The longer loops.
Two and three day routes that string the canyon and the lakes together, plus the hikes and treks deeper into the Tian Shan. For when a single day out isn't enough.
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