Kazakhstan Road Trip

Hi there!

I’m heading to Kazakhstan—a country I don’t know at all—at the start of October 2025, and I’d love to see all the different biomes it has to offer!

There’ll be three of us flying from Paris to Almaty, and we’re planning to do a road trip by either renting a car or hiring a guide to get to Astana and then return to Almaty, seeing as much as possible along the way!

If anyone knows a good route or has any tips, I’d love to hear them!

Hi there, I didn’t quite get your plan. You want to visit Kazakhstan, especially its geographical features—is that right? First off, something simple: you don’t need a guide to get around the country. With a rental car, you can easily travel on the regular road network. That said, there are lots of remote and really beautiful "spots" that are only accessible by 4x4. It’d help to know what you’d like to see… the Mangystau Desert, the Aral Sea area, Lake Balkhash region, Charyn Canyon, national parks, etc…

Kazakhstan is a tiny country!!! but you can leave a lot of tracks there.

@BertrandLess As Perju asked you, if you clarify your request, we can give you some tips.

Almaty and we’d like to do a road trip next, either by renting a car or hiring a guide to get to Astana and then return to Almaty

Via the highway or the national road?

Hey, yes exactly—it’d be for 2 weeks, and I don’t know the country at all! That’s a really good tip about the guide and the rental car. I noticed while looking around that there’s a ton of really different scenery, and basically we’d like to do a round trip between Almaty and the capital while seeing as much as possible!

We want to see as much as possible, so even if we only have 12-14 days, we’ll spend 5 days on the road round-trip just to make sure we have time to explore the cities too

I’ll share some general things to know about this country. First off, it’s huge, with beautiful sights to discover, but they’re quite far apart, so it’s tough to see "everything" in just a few days. Also, depending on the region, the road network can be in better or worse condition, which adds to travel time. As for cities, there are lots of small rural towns and mid-sized cities that aren’t particularly interesting. They’re typically Soviet-era, so they can feel pretty austere—you’ll either love them or hate them... I’m in the former camp! Astana is definitely worth seeing with its futuristic buildings. Almaty is a nice city near the mountains and also worth visiting. Between these two cities on a "direct" route, it’s mostly steppe landscapes with a few hills—interesting if you have a 4x4 and can take the many off-road tracks. By road, it’s pretty monotonous. There’s a stunning desert (Mangystau) that’s unfortunately too far from your route—too bad, because it’s the most beautiful thing in Kazakhstan, in my opinion. You’ll need a 4x4 for that too. A bit closer, the northern part of the Aral Sea is worth a visit, but to get the most out of it, you’ll need time and a 4x4. You can also visit the city of Baikonur, but you’ll need a Russian visa to enter and see the space museum. However, you can go to the entrance of the city on Kazakh territory... though there’s not much to see besides saying you’ve been to Baikonur. Near Almaty, there’s a beautiful site of ancient petroglyphs. You can easily drive there, buy your ticket on-site, and then explore freely on trails among the carved rocks. It’s the Tamgaly site—you can find its location online (about 50/60 km from Almaty). A bit further east, the Charyn Canyon is worth seeing. You can drive there and then hike down to the river at the bottom. The canyon itself is dry, so it’s just a walking trail. The area around Lake Balkhash, a sort of inland sea... Lake Geneva is 30 times smaller... That said, it’s pretty austere from what I’ve seen (on the Almaty side) and bordered, in that area, by abandoned Russian military bases that feel quite eerie... a unique atmosphere. Otherwise, there are mountains south of Almaty... but since I’m from Haute-Savoie, I don’t think they’ll feel very exotic to you—nothing spectacular, at least. Anyway, that’s a start for info. Our friend Cricri (Lescs) will probably have more ideas for you—he was there recently. Happy planning under the cloudy skies... 😉

Hi there,

You’ll find PDF files to download and read on a computer in the links below. You’ll see descriptions and photos of the places we visited during the summer of 2024. Then you can explore our website (https://www.lescs.fr/), where you’ll find more info and videos.

https://www.lescs.fr/Asie-Centrale-2024 https://www.lescs.fr/IMG/pdf/240621_kazakhstan.pdf https://www.lescs.fr/IMG/pdf/240713_kazakhstan.pdf https://www.lescs.fr/IMG/pdf/240718_kazakhstan.pdf https://www.lescs.fr/IMG/pdf/240723_kazakhstan.pdf

As Perju mentioned, Mangystau is a stunning place but really far from Almaty or Astana. Almaty’s a nice city—if you love constant traffic jams, you’ll be in heaven. The tracks in Altyn Emel Park are all in rough shape. Make sure you’ve got good suspension and shock absorbers. Happy planning.

Doesn't look like much... but they're working hard at customs 😏

Thonex, Bardonnex? 😉

Right now I'm in Martinique and I'll be back around Lake Geneva in September 😉

Thanks for the info—we're thinking we'll take some domestic flights to make things easier

Right now I'm in Martinique and I'll be back around Lake Geneva in September 😉

Well, enjoy the sun while you can... because we haven't seen much of it here for quite some time. I can't remember the last time the weather was this crappy around Geneva.