Kazakhstan Silk Road and Two Capitals: Turkistan, Shymkent, Astana and Almaty, 8 Nights

You are met at Turkistan’s airport and taken to your hotel. Later a guided walk leads to the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, raised on Timur’s orders in the late fourteenth century over the grave of a revered Sufi poet and left unfinished, its great entrance arch still bare brick. It remains a place of pilgrimage for Muslims across Central Asia, and the tiled domes glow at dusk.

A long road day of some 350 to 400 kilometres. First come the ruins of Otrar, about an hour from Turkistan, a Silk Road city whose governor’s seizure of a Mongol caravan brought Genghis Khan’s army here in 1219, and where Timur died almost two centuries later. Then on to Akmeshit, a huge cave whose roof has partly fallen in, letting in light and trees, before you reach Shymkent in the evening.

After breakfast you are driven to Shymkent airport for the flight north to Astana, about two hours. The flight is not part of the land package, but we can book it with your trip. You are met on arrival and taken to your hotel. The rest of the day is free, and the Nurzhol boulevard, running past the Baiterek tower to the great Khan Shatyr tent, makes a good first walk.

A full day out to Burabai National Park, about three hours north of Astana across the steppe. The park is a cluster of clear lakes framed by pine and birch forest and by hills of weathered granite, with the pillar of Zhumbaktas standing in Lake Burabai below the Okzhetpes rock. You have time for a walk along the shore and back in Astana by evening.

A transfer to Astana airport for the flight of about an hour and three-quarters south to Almaty, which is not part of the land package; we can book it with your trip. You are met in Almaty and taken to your hotel. The change of scene is striking: from the flat northern steppe to a green city with a wall of snowy peaks along its southern edge.

Up the valley south of the city, past the high-altitude Medeu ice rink, to Shymbulak, Almaty’s ski resort. A chain of gondolas carries you to the third and highest station, above 3,000 metres, for a view over glaciers and ridges towards the Kyrgyz border. Bring a warm layer, as it is cold at the top in any season. The afternoon back in the city is free.

A guided tour of Almaty, the country’s largest city and its capital until 1997. In Panfilov Park stands the Zenkov Cathedral, a painted wooden Orthodox church completed in 1907 that survived the earthquake of 1911, and the war memorial to the soldiers of a local division. Later the cable car climbs Kok Tobe hill for a wide view over the rooftops to the mountains.

A very long day of roughly 600 kilometres, leaving at dawn and returning to Almaty late at night. It takes four and a half to five hours to reach Kolsai Lake among the spruce forests of the Tien Shan, then about two hours to Charyn Canyon for a walk between the red rock towers of the Valley of Castles, and about three hours back. An overnight near the lakes can be quoted instead.

Many flights from Almaty leave in the early hours, so the last morning often begins with a packed breakfast and the transfer to the airport, about half an hour from the centre. Because yesterday ends late, with a pre-dawn flight we recommend moving the Kolsai and Charyn day earlier in the Almaty stay, which we arrange when we quote.