Two weeks in Kazakhstan: Almaty, Astana and the road to Turkistan

Why base yourself in Almaty for a week?

Almaty was the capital until the late nineties and is still the country’s cultural and commercial centre: leafy streets on a grid, Soviet modernist buildings, and the Tian Shan range directly behind. A week in one apartment or hotel near the centre covers both the city and the mountains without repacking.

• Panfilov Park. And the wooden Zenkov Cathedral inside it, which survived a major earthquake.
• The Green Bazaar. The central market, for dairy, smoked horsemeat, dried fruit and honey.
• Medeu and Shymbulak. A city bus reaches the high-altitude skating rink at Medeu, and a cable car continues from there to the ski resort and the pass above it.
• Charyn Canyon. A long day trip east by road, to red sandstone cliffs.
• Kolsai and Kaindy. Alpine lakes near the Kyrgyz border. Kaindy is the one with drowned spruce trunks rising from the water. Seeing both needs a driver, and is better over two days.

Is Astana worth the flight?

For two nights, yes. Astana is the opposite of Almaty: a planned capital on flat, windswept steppe, laid out along one axis and filled with state architecture, including Norman Foster’s glass pyramid and the vast tent of Khan Shatyr.

Mind the season. From May to September the days are warm and dry. In winter it is among the coldest capitals in the world, and this route is not planned for it.

How do you get to Turkistan?

Through Shymkent, the main city of the south. Direct flights from Astana to Shymkent do not suit every day, and this route connects through Almaty; check what is running on the dates before booking. From Shymkent it is a few hours by taxi on a good road.

Turkistan is there for one building: the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, commissioned by Timur, with a turquoise dome and tilework that foreshadow what was later built in Samarkand. Stay the night to see it lit after dark, and return to Shymkent the next day.

How do you handle the early flight home?

The route flies back to Almaty for a last night, because the flight to Delhi leaves very early in the morning. Choose a hotel with a reception that is staffed all night, and book the airport taxi the evening before.

What should you know before you go?

• Apps. Yandex Go is the usual way to call a taxi in the cities and avoids bargaining over the fare. 2GIS, a local maps app, is generally more detailed than Google Maps in Kazakh cities.
• Paying. Foreign cards are widely accepted in hotels, restaurants and supermarkets in Almaty and Astana. Keep cash for bazaars and for the taxi to Turkistan.
• Language. Kazakh and Russian. English is spoken in the larger hotels and by airlines; a translation app helps in markets and taxis.