Kazakhstan Capital and Mountains: Astana, Burabai and Almaty, 6 Nights

You are met at Astana airport, usually around midday, and taken to your hotel. In the afternoon a guided tour introduces the capital, moved here from Almaty in 1997 and built up since on open steppe: the Baiterek tower with its golden sphere, the vast Khan Shatyr tent, the Hazret Sultan Mosque and Norman Foster’s pyramid, the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, all seen from outside unless entries are added.

A long day north to Burabai, about three hours each way by road. After the flat steppe the park comes as a surprise: clear lakes, pine and birch forest and hills of weathered granite, including the rock called Okzhetpes and the stone of Zhumbaktas rising from the water of Lake Burabai. There is time to walk along the shore before the drive back to Astana in the evening.

After breakfast you are driven to Astana airport for the flight south to Almaty, about an hour and three-quarters. The flight is not part of the land package, but we can book it with your trip. On arrival in Almaty you are met and taken to your hotel, with the rest of the day free beneath the mountains that fill the city’s southern skyline.

A guided day in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city and its capital until 1997. The tour takes in Panfilov Park and, at its centre, the Zenkov Cathedral, a colourful Orthodox church built of wood in 1907 that stood through the earthquake of 1911, along with other landmarks of the centre. In the late afternoon the cable car rises to Kok Tobe hill for views over the rooftops to the peaks.

The longest day of the trip: roughly 600 kilometres of driving, leaving at dawn and getting back late at night. First comes Charyn Canyon, about three hours east, where a path runs down between the red rock towers of the Valley of Castles. Two more hours bring you to Kolsai Lake in the spruce forests of the Tien Shan, then it is four and a half to five hours back. An overnight near the lakes can be quoted instead.

A gentler day after yesterday. You drive up past the Medeu ice rink to Shymbulak and ride the gondolas to the top station, above 3,000 metres, where glaciers fill the view and the air is cold even in July. Back in town you stroll along the Panfilov Street promenade and the Arbat, the pedestrian stretch of Zhibek Zholy, busy with cafes and street performers.

If your flight leaves later in the day, the morning is for the Green Bazaar, piled with dried fruit, nuts, honey and cheeses, and the shop of Rakhat, the chocolate factory that has been part of Almaty life since the 1940s. Then you are taken to the airport, about half an hour away. With an early-morning flight, the transfer comes first and the bazaar is skipped.