Fly into Almaty and give it the first week: Charyn Canyon, the Kolsai lakes and Lake Kaindy are day trips and overnights from there. Add Turkistan and Shymkent for the Silk Road and the Yasawi mausoleum, the most important building in the country. Astana is a short flight north and worth two days with Burabay. The Mangystau desert behind Aktau is a separate flight, vehicle and three days. Pick two of the four and fly between them.
Fun fact
Every crewed Soyuz launch flies from Baikonur, a steppe enclave in southern Kazakhstan that Russia rents until 2050 for about $115 million a year. From the Space Shuttle's retirement in 2011 to the first crewed Dragon flight in 2020, it was the only route to the International Space Station.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityAlmost nothing in that film is Kazakhstan. The country banned the 2006 film and ran a counter-campaign, then by 2020 its tourism board had adopted "Very nice" as a slogan, judging name recognition worth more than the joke cost. Assume nothing about the place from it.
The realityThe steppe is the middle. The southeast is a wall of the Tian Shan with peaks over 4,000 metres, so close to Almaty that the Shymbulak ski slope is a city bus and a gondola away. The east climbs into the Altai, the west is chalk desert, and the flat part lies between.
The realityIndependent since 1991, Kazakhstan has put distance into the relationship: the capital moved north in 1997, the country took a single time zone in 2024, and Kazakh is switching from Cyrillic to Latin by 2031. Russian is still official on equal terms, and about 14 per cent are ethnically Russian.
The realityThe constitution declares a secular state. Most Kazakhs are Hanafi Sunni Muslims, but alcohol is sold in supermarkets, headscarves are a minority choice in the cities, and the Soviet century left an agnostic streak. Turkistan is a pilgrimage town; treat it as one. Almaty on a Friday night is not.
The realityThat was the 1990s. Citizens of the EU, the UK, the United States, Canada, Australia and around fifty other countries now enter visa-free for short stays, and hotels handle registration. The permit that remains is for Baikonur, leased Russian territory, arranged weeks ahead through a tour operator.
Cultural notes worth knowing
- Bread is treated with respect at the table. Nan and baursak sit in the middle of the spread, they are not turned upside down, and a guest who cannot stay is still expected to break off a piece before leaving.
- A guest is an occasion. The dastarkhan, the laid table, is a statement about the household, and refusing food or tea outright reads as a serious slight. Accept something, even a little.
- Tea comes half full, in a handleless piala, and it is poured again and again. A full cup is not generosity here, it is a hint that you should drink up and go.
- The seat of honour is the one furthest from the door, and it belongs to the eldest or to the guest. Wait to be placed.
- Take your shoes off indoors, in a flat as much as in a yurt, and sit cross-legged without pointing the soles of your feet at anyone.
- Toasts are made standing, at length, and in turn. If you are the visitor, expect to be asked for one, and make it about the host.
- Cash still matters outside the cities. Card payment is near universal in Almaty and Astana, and a long way from it at a canyon gate or a village guesthouse.
Famous Kazakh faces
Dimash Qudaibergen
Gennady Golovkin
Elena Rybakina
Denis Ten
Alexander Vinokourov
Timur Bekmambetov
Toktar Aubakirov
Nursultan Nazarbayev
Abai Qunanbaiuly
Mukhtar Auezov
Shoqan Walikhanov
Kurmangazy Sagyrbaiuly
Vladimir Smirnov
Must-try Kazakh food
Beshbarmak
National dish: boiled horse, mutton or beef over wide noodles, from a shared platter.
Kuyrdak
Liver, kidney and heart fried with onion and potato. The cheap hot canteen plate.
Laghman
Hand-pulled noodles under beef, peppers and tomato. Uyghur, and at home in the southeast.
Baursak
Deep-fried dough puffs piled mid-table, the first thing a guest is offered.
Shelpek
Flat rounds of fried dough, made in odd numbers for remembrance days.
Shubat
Fermented camel's milk, thicker and saltier than kumys. Mangystau will offer it.
Sorpa
The beshbarmak broth, served alongside in a bowl and drunk at the end. Hosts notice.
Kazy
Horsemeat sausage cured from the rib and sliced thin. Often the first thing served.
Shashlik
Lamb or beef skewers over charcoal with raw onion and flatbread. Every roadside stop.
Manti
Large steamed dumplings of lamb and onion, sometimes pumpkin, with sour cream.
Plov
Rice cooked in a cauldron with lamb, carrot and cumin. Uzbek, and at every southern feast.
Naryn
Chopped meat tossed through thin noodles and moistened with beshbarmak broth.
Samsa
Meat and onion pastries baked against a tandyr wall. Best with the pastry still blistered.
Kumys
Fermented mare's milk, sour, fizzy and lightly alcoholic. Sold by the roadside in summer.
Kurt
Hard salted balls of dried curd, sold by the bag. Strange for the first two or three.
Zhent
Toasted millet pressed with curd, butter and sugar into a crumbly block, eaten with tea.
Irimshik
Hard, faintly sweet cheese boiled down until it caramelises. Served with the sweets.
Chak-chak
Fried dough nuggets set in hot honey. Tatar in origin, on every celebration table.