Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan8 guides across 1 destination — where to go, when, what it costs and what to eat.
Destinations in Kazakhstan
Practical essentials for Kazakhstan
Kazakhstani tenge (KZT)
Kazakh is the state language and Russian is used on an equal footing in government; English is limited outside Almaty's hotels.
Type C/F, 230V 50Hz
Almaty's metro and buses run on the ONAY! card sold at metro kiosks; contactless bank cards work at metro gates but only inconsistently on buses.
Not expected but welcomed — about 10% in city restaurants, after checking whether a service charge is already on the bill.
Almaty's tap water is filtered and chlorinated to local standards, but visitors are generally advised to drink bottled water.
Right-hand side; carry an International Driving Permit alongside your national licence.
112 (unified); 102 police, 103 ambulance, 101 fire
Country-level guidance, checked against official sources. Currency, fares and entry rules change — confirm anything time-critical before you travel.
Recent stories from Kazakhstan
Almaty Is Two Cities Stacked on Top of Each Other
A four-day plan for a city that sits at 800 metres with a 3,000-metre range at the end of the street: which gorge goes where, how long the lifts really take, and why the long drive east costs more of your day than the map suggests.
Almaty Eats at One O'Clock
Almaty's restaurants change faster than its food map. The horse row and Korean trays of the Green Bazaar, the Uighur noodle canteens out on Yassawi street and the yurt cafés above the ice rink stay put — here is how to eat across them in the right order.
Almaty Runs Uphill, and Your Hotel Should Know It
Almaty is built on a tilted alluvial fan, and the neighbourhood you book decides which way you walk, which traffic you sit in and what you breathe in winter. Here is the arithmetic of the slope, and where it says to sleep.
Almaty Measured in Drive Times
The mountains start inside the city limits and the canyons are three hours out. Sorting Almaty's surroundings by drive time — half day, full day, sleep out there — is the difference between seeing the Tian Shan and photographing a windscreen.
Almaty for First-Timers: The Complete Guide to Kazakhstan's Mountain City
A wooden cathedral, a Green Bazaar, a turquoise alpine lake and a cable car to the peaks — how to plan a first trip to Almaty.
Book Five Days in Almaty and Leave Three of Them Loose
Almaty rewards a loose plan: five days, two of them fixed in the city and three held back for the mountains and assigned the night before by the forecast.
Almaty for Culture Lovers: The Best of Its Art, Museums and History
A wooden cathedral that survived earthquakes, Soviet-era grandeur and the arts of the steppe: the cultural side of Kazakhstan's mountain metropolis, ranked.
Almaty Off-Season: The Secret Best Months in the Mountain City
Almaty's shoulder months are its finest — golden foliage, the apple harvest, wild tulips and empty trails — provided you know that the mountain cable cars are usually switched off in exactly those weeks.