 | Flytrippers cofounder |
My girlfriend Caroline and I spent about a month based in Almaty, Kazakhstan, earlier this year. It was a new country for both of us (#105 for me on the UN 193 list). We mostly stayed in that one city the whole time with a couple of nature weekends out of town, and we liked it enough that we already know we’ll be back.
Kazakhstan is increasingly popular with digital nomads like us, but it’s sure to become a tourism hotspot as well. We loved this trip, which was only our 2nd month-long stay of the year (after our stay in the Seychelles).
I’m sharing the overview here with a bit of logistics and some tips from the trip. Flytrippers aims to help you travel for less through our 3 types of content, namely flight deals, travel rewards, and tips/inspiration/news.
Here’s the overview of my trip to Kazakhstan.
Reason for my trip to Kazakhstan
I’m sharing why I’m doing this trip, to get straight to the point right at the beginning.
Here are the 4 main reasons:
- Explore more of the Stan countries (Central Asia)
- Redeem Turkish Airlines miles that were about to expire
- Redeem a Marriott certificate at a wonderful Ritz-Carlton hotel
- Settle somewhere for a month after moving a lot earlier in the year
Explore more of the Stan countries (Central Asia)
I’d already been to Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in late 2021 (I still haven’t written about those trips, but that might come if you’re interested; Andrew wrote about Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan a bit), and Turkmenistan earlier this year (this one is coming up soon).
They were great. So regardless of my goal of visiting every country in the world, I was very curious about this next Stan country.
Of those 4 I’ve now been to so far, Kazakhstan was the most expensive on the ground, but they’re all pretty different depending on what you want.
Redeem Turkish Airlines miles that were about to expire
There’s no time limit to redeem most main airline currencies available for Canadians, like Aeroplan points. But that’s not true for all programs worldwide. Caroline had Turkish Airlines miles that were about to expire, and we didn’t want to lose them.
We already knew we needed to end up in Bulgaria for the summer, so the question was basically where could we fly from to get to Sofia for about 60,000 miles for the 2 of us. Kazakh cities Almaty and Astana were the 2 best options that fit those parameters (not choosing the destination first is one of the best tips for saving money).
Kazakhstan had also been on our list of places we wanted to visit anyway, and we ideally wanted somewhere new, so the miles were the trigger that made it happen now.
Redeem a Marriott certificate at a wonderful Ritz-Carlton hotel
The fact that a wonderful hotel from one of Marriott’s most luxurious brands, The Ritz-Carlton, Almaty, was 601 USD per night but only 37,000 points was also a factor in our decision, albeit a secondary one.
We redeemed 1 of our 8 Marriott Bonvoy free night certificates; it was about to expire (there’s no time limit for points; there is for certificates, since these are annual). Breakfast was included and had caviar plus a bunch of interesting local food, and the gym was great. You can read my review of The Ritz-Carlton, Almaty.
That certificate is one of the best credit card benefits in Canada, and now is the absolute best time to finally get it: the record-high offers on both Marriott cards (and you should have both) are back, only until September 22!
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Settle somewhere for a month after moving a lot earlier in the year
In the first half of 2026, we’d already been through Djibouti, Ethiopia, Seychelles, UAE, Oman, Turkmenistan, Jordan, Indonesia, and the Maldives in a pretty short amount of time.
That pace was getting tiring, so it was really nice to settle into one apartment for a whole month.
Between Almaty and Astana, Almaty looked livelier in our research and had better apartment options, so we booked it. The city is very walkable and green, and the nature weekends are easy from there.
Itinerary of my trip to Kazakhstan
I’m sharing the general itinerary of my trip, to give you the outline of the destinations I visited (maybe you saw them if you follow me in my Instagram stories).
Here’s my itinerary on a map.
This trip lasted 30 days, from May 11 to June 9.
For Canadian and American passport holders, Kazakhstan is visa-free for 30 days. We had originally planned 32 days, but when our initial flight via Qatar was canceled because of the war in Iran, we changed our mind.
We decided we didn’t want to deal with an extension or extra trouble at the border on exit after all, so we flew 2 days later and stayed 2 more days in the Maldives to do some extra diving on a local island (much cheaper than the resorts).
Here are the destinations I visited during my trip:
- Almaty, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿
- 27 nights
- Kolsay Lakes area, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿
- 1 night
- Altyn-Emel National Park, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿
- 1 night
Almaty, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿
Almaty is the biggest city in Kazakhstan with a population of 2.3 million (a bit less than Vancouver). It’s located down in the southeast right at the foot of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains.
We booked one apartment for the month and just lived in the city. We could see the mountains from the apartment, and there was still snow on the tops when we left in June.
A normal day was getting up, making coffee at home, working most of the day, then dinner and drinks with friends in town some nights. Then exploring on weekends.
The cafés were nice and laptop-friendly, and the city felt spacious and very clean. We walked a lot and felt really safe doing so, even late at night.
One of the walks was the nice 45-minute one along a canal to The Ritz-Carlton, Almaty hotel for our night with the Marriott free night certificate. We got to explore a new part of the city.
Rides around town were about 2 USD to 3 USD pretty much anywhere once we figured out Yandex Go (we managed to set it up on my computer without needing a local phone number, unlike in the app). It’s the regional version of Uber.
Our Airbnb included airport transfers both ways (and 2 cleanings during the month), so arrival was really easy.
It was on the expensive side for Almaty though, around 1500 USD for the month. For comparison, our place in Bansko was 460 EUR a month.
We later found a Russian-language listing site with way more apartments for a lot less. Airbnb here seems to cater more to foreign tourists with more money. You’ll actually hear a lot more Russian than Kazakh in daily life in Almaty.
Credit cards worked most of the time, but we still needed some cash, mostly for during out-of-town excursions.
We ate a lot of local food at a great restaurant, Navat. The beshbarmak was great, and we liked the kazy (horse sausage). Meat was cheaper at the local market too. Overall, food was a bit more expensive than in Bansko, but still very affordable.
The bar scene was more interesting than we expected. We went to a speakeasy called Yellow Door, and right after our trip, it was added to the 50 Best Discovery list in July 2026.
Through NomadMania, 2 members who were in town messaged us. We went for beers at a craft brewery, then did a wine tasting at Arba Wine the next day.
We also hiked Shymbulak, a peak close to town.
On the way up, we stopped at Medeu, the world’s largest high-mountain skating rink.
Our last dinner was at Auyl, up in the Medeu area. It had a great view.
And we also did the Kok Tobe hike, which is a smaller hill in town.
We didn’t make it to Big Almaty Lake, and that was fine. We already knew we’d come back for more of this huge country (it’s the 9th-largest in the world).
Kolsay Lakes area, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿
We did a 2-day Get Your Guide Kolsay Lakes area tour out to the mountains, with a night in a traditional yurt.
The road toward the Kolsay Lakes area is just vast green steppe.
Those lakes were as nice as those in the Canadian Rockies.
On the way there, we also saw a couple of smaller canyons, and on the way back we did the bigger and more popular Charyn Canyon.
Altyn-Emel National Park, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿
The other nature overnight was a 2-day Get Your Guide Altyn-Emel National Park tour. We visited the singing dunes, but they didn’t actually sing for us (because it had rained not long before).
We also saw the mountains at the other end of the national park.
It’s far enough away that a day trip doesn’t make much sense, so we slept in Basshi at a simple guesthouse and came back.
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Summary
We spent 30 days in Kazakhstan, in the largest city, Almaty. We also did a couple of nature weekends to the lakes and to Altyn-Emel National Park. We enjoyed it and definitely could have stayed longer, so we’ll be back to this fascinating Central Asian country.
What would you like to know about my Kazakhstan trip overview? Tell us in the comments below.
See the flight deals we spot: Cheap flights
Discover free travel with rewards: Travel rewards
Explore awesome destinations: Travel inspiration
Learn pro tricks: Travel tips
Featured image: Kazakhstan (photo credit: Kevin Gagnon/Flytrippers)
