DESTINATION 01 — THE CITY & THE MOUNTAINS
Almaty
A city that ends where the mountains begin. Fifteen minutes from your hotel the road turns to switchbacks, the air turns cold and clean, and the steppe falls away beneath you.
Why Almaty
Almaty is the only capital in the region where you can eat a long breakfast, ride a cable car above the treeline before lunch, and be back for dinner at a table that never ends. Soviet boulevards, Kazakh hospitality, and the Tien Shan wall of ice that owns the southern sky. It is the natural first chapter of any Central Asian story — and for most of our travellers, the one they least expected to love.
What we build around it
Mornings in the Green Bazaar with a guide who knows which stall has the wild honey. The Medeu skating rink and Shymbulak cable car. Big Almaty Lake at the hour when the light turns the water an unreal turquoise. Kolsai and Kaindy lakes — the "sunken forest" — on a long day trip through the Kungey Alatau. Charyn Canyon at sunset, when the red rock stops looking real.
MOMENTS YOU SHOULD EXPECT
- ✦Coffee in a courtyard off Panfilov, the wooden cathedral creaking nearby
- ✦Standing at Big Almaty Lake at 2,511 m, ten minutes from traffic
- ✦The sunken birch forest of Lake Kaindy, water cold enough to hurt
- ✦Charyn Canyon in the last hour of light — no wind, no sound
SOUND LIKE YOUR KIND OF TRIP?
Let's shape it together.
Private, flexible, and built around your pace. We answer within one working day.
Plan this journey