Kazakhstan · Tian Shan
Almaty
A city of apple orchards and long cafe lunches with a 4,000 m mountain range at the end of the street - and ski lifts inside the city limits.
Kazakhstan's largest city sits on a tilted grid of poplars, wide avenues and Soviet plazas, with the snow wall of the Tian Shan standing over the end of almost every street. A bus and a gondola from the last stop put you on ski slopes above 3,000 m, and the gorges behind hold glacier-fed lakes and spruce forest. Down in the city it is apples, bazaar food and some of the best eating in Central Asia. Most people arrive on their way somewhere else and stay longer than they meant to.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
Kazakh, Russian
Currency
KZT
Timezone
UTC+5
Why you'll love Almaty
The mountain wall The Ile-Alatau rises straight off the southern end of the grid, so a morning in a cafe and an afternoon on a glacier trail is an ordinary Almaty day.
Food Beshbarmak and hand-pulled lagman, tandoor samsa, and the Korean salads that Koryo-saram families deported here in the 1930s turned into a Central Asian staple.
Layers Russian fort, Silk Road foothill town, Soviet capital - a wooden cathedral, marble metro stations and Saka gold from the burial mounds all within a few blocks.
Apples The wild ancestor of every eating apple still grows in these foothills, and the city is named for it.
Best time to visit
Apr-Jun, Sep-Oct
Green spring · 17-28° days
43.236° N, 76.946° E
UTC+5 · Asia/Almaty
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Weather & when to go to Almaty
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Apr-Jun, Sep-Oct
Snow prime Jan-Mar
Hiking prime May-Sep
Activity seasons none fair good prime
Conditions Jan Cold, ski season · Feb Cold & snowy · Mar Thawing · Apr Green spring · May Warm & lush · Jun Warm · Jul Hot · Aug Hot & dry · Sep Mild & clear · Oct Autumn color · Nov Cold · Dec Cold & snowy
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Almaty
No bad season, just different cities: the lifts and the ski slopes carry the cold months, the foothills run green and loud with meltwater in spring, and autumn is clear. The real local quirk is smog - Almaty sits in a bowl, and still winter air traps coal smoke and traffic fumes at the lower, northern end.
Top things to do in Almaty
-
Shymbulak - ride the gondola chain to the Talgar Pass
snow adventure scenic 👍 PopularA gondola lifts from the Medeu gorge to a base around 2,260 m and on to the Talgar Pass at about 3,200 m. In the cold months this is Kazakhstan's main ski resort; the rest of the year the lifts run for the view back down over the city and into the glacier basins behind.
-
Medeu - skate the high-altitude rink
adventure scenic 👍 PopularThe speed-skating oval sits at about 1,690 m in a gorge above the city, wedged behind an enormous mudflow dam. Thin air and glacier meltwater made it the fastest ice in the world for decades, and world records fell here in batches. You can still take laps under the peaks.
-
Big Almaty Lake - turquoise water under the peaks
nature wildlife scenic hiking ⭐ Highly recommendedAn hour up a spruce gorge south-west of the city, a glacier-fed lake sits at roughly 2,500 m, ringed by summits with an astronomical observatory on the slope above. The colour swings from jade to slate with the light. Ground beyond the lake runs towards the Kyrgyz border, and the higher tracks need a permit arranged first.
-
Green Bazaar - kazy, qurt and Korean salads
food shopping ⭐ Highly recommendedThe city's main market, in the old quarter by Panfilov Park: rows of horsemeat sausage, hills of dried apricots and walnuts, salt-dried qurt balls, and a Korean counter selling the carrot salad Central Asia invented. Sellers push samples at you; take them.
-
Kok-Tobe - cable car to the hill under the TV tower
scenic 👍 PopularA cable car climbs from Dostyk Avenue to a wooded hilltop, with the grid laid out below and the steppe running north to the horizon. At the top sits an odd little fairground and a bronze of the Beatles on a bench.
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Zenkov Cathedral - the wooden church in Panfilov Park
history culture artsRaised from Tian Shan spruce in the 1900s and painted in sherbet colours, it stood through the 1911 earthquake that wrecked much of the town around it. It sits in a park of old elms beside the granite memorial to Panfilov's guardsmen.
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Central State Museum - Saka gold from the kurgans
history culture artsThe room that matters holds gold from the Saka burial mounds east of the city, including the warrior's suit of thousands of beaten plaques that Kazakhstan took as a national emblem. The rest runs from mammoth bones to the Soviet century.
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Kok Zhailau - the day hike every Almaty local has done
hiking adventure scenicA long climb from the top edge of the city onto a meadow plateau between two gorges, ridges of the Ile-Alatau on one side and the haze of the city on the other. Snow keeps it a boots-and-poles walk for much of the year.
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Arasan Baths - the Soviet bathhouse by the park
wellnessA heavy concrete bathing complex beside Panfilov Park, with separate Russian, Finnish and Eastern wings, built for a city that took steam seriously. Locals still book in for a birch-branch beating and then sit around with tea for hours.
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Almaty's table - beshbarmak, lagman and samsa
foodBoiled horsemeat and wide noodles on a shared platter is the national dish; around it sit Uyghur hand-pulled lagman, tandoor samsa, steamed manty, and a cafe culture that keeps the central blocks busy late.
Best areas to stay in Almaty
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
The Golden Square
First-time visitors $$Leafy central grid of cafes and boutiques
Explore hotels in The Golden Square →
Panfilov Park and Zhibek Zholy
Budget and bazaar $Old Verny blocks around the wooden cathedral
Explore hotels in Panfilov Park and Zhibek Zholy →
Upper Dostyk and Samal
Quiet and uphill $$$Quiet uphill streets with mountain views
Explore hotels in Upper Dostyk and Samal →
Medeu and Shymbulak
Skiers and hikers $$$Gorge hotels above the treeline road
Explore hotels in Medeu and Shymbulak →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Almaty
Getting to & around Almaty
Getting there
Fly into ALA on the city's north-eastern edge, then about half an hour by road into the centre.
Flight
Almaty International Airport (ALA)
Around 15 km north-east of the grid. Ride-hailing is how nearly everyone covers it, roughly 30 minutes outside rush hour, and city buses run the same road down to Raiymbek Avenue.
Train
Almaty-2 station
The central station, at the top of Ablai Khan Avenue. Fast Talgo and overnight services run from Astana, Shymkent and Turkistan; some trains use Almaty-1 further north instead. Cross-border services have long run towards Tashkent, Bishkek and Urumqi, though what is actually running changes.
Coach
Sayran bus station
Buses and shared taxis west and south. Bishkek is roughly four hours by road over the Kordai crossing, and shared cars leave through the day.
Drive
A highway runs west along the foothills towards Shymkent and Tashkent, and another east to the Chinese border at Khorgos. Distances between towns are long and empty.
Getting around
Metro
One line of marble and mosaic stations, from Raiymbek Batyr near the bazaar out to the south-west.
TBC
Bus
Dense network and the cheapest way across town; a city bus also climbs the gorge to Medeu.
TBC
Ride-hailing
The default after dark or uphill - apps are universal and cars are everywhere.
TBC
On foot
The centre is a walkable grid, but blocks are long and the whole thing tilts.
Free
Cable car
Kok-Tobe's line climbs from Dostyk Avenue; the Medeu gondola is a separate ride up the gorge.
TBC
Day trips from Almaty
Charyn Canyon
Full dayRed-rock canyon
The Valley of Castles, a corridor of red sandstone towers cut by the Charyn river and walked end to end in about an hour, down to a green strip of ash trees at the bottom. Trips often add the Black Canyon or the road on towards Kolsai.
Getting there
car | tour
About 3 hours each way by road, usually on a tour
Kolsai Lakes and Kaindy
1-2 daysAlpine lakes
Three spruce-ringed lakes stepping up towards the Kyrgyz frontier, plus Kaindy, where a 1911 landslide drowned a forest and the bare trunks still stand out of the water. The top lake sits on the border, so the ground above needs a permit.
Getting there
car | tour
About 4-5 hours by road, usually with a night in Saty village
Altyn-Emel National Park
2 daysDesert park
A semi-desert park holding the Singing Dune, which hums when the sand slides, the chalk-striped Aktau hills, and the Besshatyr burial mounds. It is a driving park with permits and long distances, which is why it is an overnight rather than a day out.
Getting there
car | tour
About 4 hours by road, then a vehicle and a park permit inside
Tamgaly petroglyphs
Full dayBronze Age rock art
Thousands of figures pecked into dark rock in a dry gorge, including the sun-headed deities that put the site on the UNESCO list. The drive crosses empty steppe most of the way, which is half the point.
Getting there
car | tour
About 2.5 hours by road north-west
Issyk Lake and the kurgan field
Half dayMountain lake and burial mounds
A mountain lake that reformed after a mudflow tore the original one apart in 1963, with the Saka burial field nearby where the Golden Man was dug out of a kurgan in 1969. Easiest of the eastern trips and doable in an afternoon.
Getting there
car | tour
About an hour east by road
A little history of Almaty
Almaty is young as a city and old as a place. A branch of the Silk Road ran along these foothills, and a settlement called Almatu minted its own coins here before the Mongols came through. The Russian fort of Verny went up on the same ground in 1854, and its grid of low houses, poplars and irrigation ditches is still the shape of the centre.
Earthquakes twice flattened it, the railway then made it, and it spent most of the Soviet century as the Kazakh capital, collecting theatres, institutes and an evacuated film studio. It lost the capital to Astana in 1997 and kept everything else: the money, the universities, the restaurants and the mountains.
Almatu, a Silk Road settlement in these foothills, mints its own coins.
Russian troops build the fort of Zailiyskoye, renamed Verny soon after.
Two earthquakes wreck the town; it rebuilds in Tian Shan spruce, and the wooden cathedral rides out the second.
Alma-Ata becomes capital of Soviet Kazakhstan as the Turksib railway reaches it.
Evacuated Soviet film studios work here; Eisenstein shoots Ivan the Terrible in the city.
Jeltoqsan: young Kazakhs protest a party leader imposed from Moscow, and the crackdown becomes a founding memory of independence.
The Alma-Ata Protocol, signed in the city, winds up the Soviet Union and sets up the CIS.
The capital moves north to Astana; Almaty stays the largest city and the business centre.
Know before you go
Payment
Cards & cash mixed
English
Limited
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type C / F
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+7
FAQs about Almaty
▸ How many days do you need in Almaty?
Three to five. One for the centre - bazaar, park, museums - one for Medeu and Shymbulak, one for Big Almaty Lake, and a spare for Charyn Canyon. Add a couple more if you want the Kolsai lakes properly.
▸ Can you reach the mountains without a car?
Medeu and Shymbulak, yes: a city bus climbs the gorge and the gondola takes over. Big Almaty Lake, Charyn and Kolsai realistically need a driver, a hired car or a tour, and the ground above the lake needs a permit sorted in advance.
▸ Is Almaty the capital of Kazakhstan?
No. The capital moved north to Astana in 1997. Almaty is still the largest city and the commercial and cultural centre, which is why the restaurants, galleries and universities are here rather than there.
▸ Is Almaty walkable?
The central grid is, though blocks are long and the whole city tilts - locals give directions as up, towards the mountains, and down. One metro line and a dense bus network cover the rest, and ride-hailing fills the gaps.
▸ What should you eat in Almaty?
Beshbarmak, the shared platter of boiled horsemeat and wide noodles; Uyghur lagman; tandoor samsa; manty. At the bazaar, kazy sausage, salt-dried qurt and Korean-style salads. And apples, from the foothills that gave the city its name.
▸ Is Almaty expensive?
Less than a European city of its size, and eating out in particular goes a long way. The mountain resorts and the newer uphill hotels are the exception, pitched at a business and weekend-ski crowd.
▸ What is the winter smog about?
The city sits in a bowl backed by mountains, so still, cold air traps coal smoke, heating and traffic fumes at the lower northern end. It lifts with wind or snow, and it is noticeably cleaner uphill - part of why people go up.
More in Kazakhstan
Aktau
A Soviet oil city with no street names, and behind it the chalk canyons and cliff-cut mosques of the Mangystau desert.
✓ best Apr-OctAstana
A capital conjured out of the steppe in a single generation, and one of the coldest cities anyone has ever chosen to govern from.
✓ best May-SepTurkistan
Kazakhstan's holiest building and its first World Heritage site: Timur's unfinished masterpiece, still a working shrine rather than a monument.
✓ best Mar-May, Sep-Oct