In Summary…
Admittedly, we found that our time in Almaty, Kazakhstan was simply way too brief. In fact, based on how livable, enjoyable and walkable this city is, it seems very likely to sprout as a nomad hub in upcoming years. So, we’re putting it on our growing list of places we’d like to visit again for a month, which we’re envisioning as our way forward after October, with 2-3 “wild card” adventure trips each year, and one extended trip to the States to see family and friends. After 7 years, we’re still always trying to find the balance for what works best.
We designed this one week itinerary mostly because we wanted to get down to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan before trekking season ended, and to be honest, we didn’t think we’d like it as much as we did!
That said, below is our personal list of highlights, stats, money saving tips, and personal upsides and downsides for the country. If you’ve been to Kazakhstan, what would you add? And where else should we put consider for a return trip?
Time Spent: 8 nights/7 days
Our Itinerary: Almaty (8 nights)
Money Spent: $520.81 or $65.10/day in USD/two people, which breaks down to:
- $201 (Accommodation)
- $104 (Groceries)
- $54 (Transport)
- $33 (Restaurants)
- $130 (General)
Would we return? Yes, and stay a month, making sure to do Big Almaty Lake, Shymbulak and some museums. Also, probably checking out some other places in the country.
Our Top Five Highlights
- Sitting on the dock at Kolsai Lake
- Taste testing unusual Kazakh snacks at the Green Bazaar
- Simple walking through the lush neighborhoods and parks of Almaty
- Mandy’s Georgian birthday lunch
- Grocery shopping in a whole new world. Always a favorite thing!
Best Budget Saving Tips
- Get and load an Onay bus card from the airport when you arrive.
- Or, get a SIM card with a Kazakh number so you can use the Onay app.
- Or, stay near the metro line and use your phone to tap in and out.
- There are water refilling stations everywhere in residential neighborhoods, which cost about $.10 for 5 liters. Buy one large jug and keep refilling it.
- Yandex taxis (get the app in advance!) are about $4-8 depending on time of day. These are easy to use, and reasonable, but really added up for us due to our location
Our Upsides
- The walkability of the city streets, neighborhoods and parks
- Water filling stations are abundant in residential neighborhoods
- Groceries were significantly cheaper than Bulgaria or Türkiye, where we most recently spent time
- Fast and reliable internet
- Quick access to some really spectacular nature and mountains. This is unfortunately the part we missed out on the most. Fortunately, there is more of this to come in the next couple of Stans
- Credit cards and contactless transactions are widely accepted.
- The restaurant scene, from what we could tell looked like it had plenty of great options.
- There are very few tourists; a great off the beaten path place to visit.
Our Downsides
- Traffic can be bad and drivers can be worse
- The challenge of getting a transport card, as we’ve mentioned.
- The people weren’t overly friendly, minus a few exceptions; hospitality wasn’t really a concern
- Russian is quite different than our knowledge of Bulgarian, which we’d hoped would be a little more helpful.
- That said, don’t expect much English and it’s very helpful to know some Cyrillic.
- To book a long distance bus, you had to go in person to the station. Even though multiple blogs tell you can buy them online, in reality they only take Kazakh credit cards.
