Almaty & the Kolsai Lakes, 5 Nights

From the airport the drive runs south into the city, with the mountains ahead. Hotels usually hand over rooms by mid-afternoon. The first evening needs no plan: Almaty is a green, easy city to walk, with long avenues of poplars and irrigation channels running beside the pavements. Arbat, the pedestrian street, has cafés and buskers, and it is a pleasant place to try Kazakh tea with milk before an early night.

Start in Panfilov Park with Zenkov Cathedral, a pastel-painted wooden church completed in 1907, and the Soviet war memorial behind it. Then the Green Bazaar, a covered market of dried fruit, honey, spices and the region's cheeses, and Republic Square and the First President's Park at the city's southern edge, where the mountains fill the view. Finish with the cable car up Kok Tobe late in the afternoon, when the city below begins to light up.

A short drive into the mountains brings you to Medeu, an outdoor skating rink at about 1,690 m in a steep valley. From there a gondola rises to Shymbulak's ski base, and further lifts continue towards the Talgar pass at around 3,200 m. The top is cold and the air noticeably thin, so bring warm layers and move gently. In winter this is Central Asia's best-known ski area; in summer the slopes are open for walking. Pack a small overnight bag for Kolsai this evening.

A long, rewarding day. East across the steppe to Charyn Canyon, where the Valley of Castles path runs for about two kilometres between red sandstone walls down to the river. Then south-east into the mountains to Saty, the village at the mouth of the Kolsai valley, and the lower lake at about 1,800 m, with spruce down to the water. The night is spent here, in a simple mountain hotel or guesthouse. Evenings are cold even in summer.

Before breakfast, a walk down to the shore of the lower lake, usually glassy and still at this hour; with an early start there is time to follow the trail a little way up the valley. Then the drive back west. The natural break is Issyk lake, in its valley at around 1,760 m, partly refilled after a mudflow drained it in 1963, with trout cafés near the shore. Almaty by late afternoon, and a last dinner in the city.

Breakfast, and with the long drives behind you, a gentle last morning. If the flight allows, take a coffee on Arbat or a final look round the Green Bazaar for dried apricots, nuts and Kazakh sweets to pack. The transfer to the airport on the city's northern edge takes about half an hour, a little longer in the evening traffic, and is timed to your ticket.