Where to go in Almaty? — 6+ best places to visit in Almaty, Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in the world, bordering Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It is widely known for its wonderful landscapes where you can experience different types of terrain at the same time. Whether it is a peaceful steppe or a dry desert, a dense forest or a beautiful lake along the Tian Shan, a mountain slope or canyons of millions years old, they all seems to gather here in Almaty region in southeastern Kazakhstan, and Almaty city is often the start of a journey to these pleasant surprises. So, where to go in Almaty (Almaty where to go)? Let’s check out our top rated Almaty places to go, Almaty attractions, Almaty places to visit as follows!

About Almaty

Located at the foot of the Tian Shan Mountains, Almaty is a city steeped in history, once a key stop on the Central Asian branch of the ancient Silk Road. Almaty was most prosperous around the 7th to 14th centuries, and the city gradually decayed due to the decline of commercial activities on the Silk Road around the 15th century. The tsar ruled Almaty from the nineteenth century until 1929. During World War II, Russia moved about 30 factories and some of its schools to Almaty. Later, Almaty became the capital of Kazakhstan.

Today, Almaty can still be described as the industrial, historical and scientific center of Central Asia. In 1997, the government of Kazakhstan moved the capital to Astana (Astana was renamed to Nur-Sultan in 2019). Despite this, Almaty remains the major cultural and commercial center, as well as the most populous city of Kazakhstan. Surrounded by beautiful scenery and nature, the city has many parks and trees, a unique charm resulting from the combination of the old Soviet past and the lifestyle of a new generation of Kazakhstan, diversified cuisine and friendly people. Almaty city deserves to be a destination of the journey to explore Central Asia.

What is Almaty famous for?

Almaty is recognized as one of many travel cities along the famous Silk Road. Almaty is also known as the ‘Golden Triangle’, as the city is located near three of the main attractions in Kazakhstan, namely Charyn Canyon, Kolsai Lakes and Altyn-Emel National Park.

• Charyn Canyon: an approximately-154km-long canyon on the Sharyn River in Kazakhstan (200 kilometres or 120 miles east of Almaty, close to the Chinese border).

• Kolsai Lakes: one of the most beautiful places in Kazakhstan, distinguished by the unique mountain watershed of three natural zones and amazing variety of rare plants and animals.

• Altyn-Emel National Park: located in the Ili River Valley, consisting of various landscapes, including sand desert, mountains, and flora.

Almaty – “the city of apples”. Almaty region – formerly known as Alma-ata meaning Father of Apples in Kazakh, is believed to be the birthplace of many varieties of apples and where they were genetically developed.

In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great on his way to conquer Persia accidentally discovered an apple while passing through this land and brought it back to Greece, thanks to which apples became widely known and became a popular symbol in Western culture. A typical example is a golden apple with the words “For the most beautiful” engraved on it, chosen by Paris as a gift to the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite. This was the cause of the Trojan War in Greek mythology. Another example is the forbidden fruit, which is also an apple that Adam and Eve ate. It is interesting that such popular symbol of the West has its origin in this very land in the East.

Main Attractions of Almaty City (#best places to visit in almaty)

Panfilov Park and the Memorial of Glory

Panfilov Park is one of Almaty’s most famous green spaces. The entire park is covered with green vegetation with an area of 18 hectares, divided by straight paths or walkways and surrounded by groups after groups of large old trees. The park is named after the hero Panfilov – who together with 28 Red Army soldiers died courageously while fighting the Nazis in the outskirt of Moscow. In the park, there is a memorial to these 28 soldiers and also to all the Kazakh soldiers who died in the first and second world wars.

I had the opportunity to visit the park on Kazakhstan’s Victory Day – May 9. There were plenty of flowers placed at the Memorial and in such atmosphere my heart was filled with gratitude and wishes for a peaceful world for all.

Zenkov Cathedral (#best places to visit in almaty)

Zenkov Orthodox Cathedral is a typical pre-Soviet architecture located in Panfilov Park. Built between 1904 and 1907, it is claimed to be the second tallest wooden building in the world. A special feature of this cathedral is that it still stands tall after many earthquakes although no iron nails are used in the structure.

Restored after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the exterior of the Zenkov church is a blue – white – yellow combination that looks as pleasing to the eye as an impressive multicolored ice cream. However, the atmosphere will be different when you gently push the wooden door and step inside. It is a quiet, dignified, splendid space with Christian murals and royal-inspired interiors. I chose for myself one end corner of the room, silently looking at the gentle smile of the Mother of God and felt so peaceful.

Museum of Kazakh Folk Musical Instruments

Located in Panfilov Park, the Kazakh Folk Musical Instruments Museum is a wooden building with a distinctive design created by the architect who designed Zenkov Cathedral. It is a must-see for anyone who is interested in traditional Kazakh music. The museum displays a variety of traditional musical instruments such as trumpets, bagpipes, wooden harps, and stringed instruments like the dombra and kobyz . Turkish, Kyrgyz and Uzbek folk instruments are also on display here.

Green Bazaar

Green Bazaar is a great place to shop and experience the typical atmosphere of Central Asian markets. It covers a large area, is divided into two floors and offers a real shopping taste of traditional Central Asian food as well as many other modern products. You will find spices, nuts and dried fruits from all over Central Asia, meat, fish, processed food, fermented food, medicinal herbs, dairy products, etc. A few restaurants can also be found around here serving some delicious laghman (noodle broth), kazy (horse meat sausage), beshbarmak (boiled noodles with horse meat), kurdyuk (salted or smoked lamb rump fat), kymys and shubat (fermented horse and camel milk). Apart from those, you can also find many stalls selling Kazakh souvenirs at affordable prices here.

Kök-Töbe Cable Car (#best places to visit in Almaty)

Kök-Töbe which means ‘Green Hill’ is a 1,100m high hill located in the far southeastern part of the city. Here you will experience Almaty’s most beautiful cable car going up the Kök-Töbe hill for a bird’s-eye view of the city partly-hidden behind the mountains of the surrounding Tian Shan. At the top of the hill is a 372m high TV tower that can be seen from afar. This is one of the most popular check-in points when visiting Almaty.

The Central State Museum of Kazakhstan

The Central State Museum of Kazakhstan is the largest museum in Almaty and one of the largest ones in Central Asia. It displays Kazakhstan’s most important collection relating to history, culture, politics, and modern archaeology in different areas with more than 200,000 artifacts, taking you from the Bronze Age, through World War II to the present day.

Some Tips for Travel to Almaty

Visa

Kazakhstan has applied a visa-free program to a number of countries including Vietnam, which citizens of these countries are allowed to stay in Kazakhstan for up to 30 days without a visa. You must make sure that your passport is still valid for at least 6 months from the date of entry into Kazakhstan and has blank pages for the entry stamp.

How to travel to Almaty

Almaty is the main air hub of Kazakhstan and it is well-connected to the outside world, so you can normally get there by air.

From Vietnam, only Vietjet Air offers direct flights to Almaty from Cam Ranh – Nha Trang airport, but the fare is often high, around 800-900 USD for a round trip.

Otherwise, you can choose to fly with Air Astana of Kazakhstan with transit in a third country such as Bangkok – Thailand, Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia, Seoul – Korea, New Delhi – India with a round-trip fare from 500 to 600 USD depending on time. You should check the visa application process in the transit country. My tip is transiting in visa-free countries for Vietnamese citizens such as Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur for your convenient movement.

Best Time to Visit

The best time to visit Almaty is in late spring and early autumn, which means from May to September. This is when the city bursts with green, an ideal time for exploring Almaty city and the region through trekking or hiking to its waterfalls, lakes and mountains.

Accommodation

Like other tourist cities, there are plenty of hotels, motels and dorms in Almaty for visitors.

Apart from those, short-term rental apartments are quite popular in this city. On booking.com, you can find many fully furnished apartments for rent in downtown area for 3-4 people at about 45 USD/night.

You can have a look at Heartwarming LOFT – Address: 131 улица Макатаева, 050000 Almaty, Kazakhstan where I stayed this time. It is an apartment in the center area, fully equipped, with lots of shops and restaurants nearby. The owner is especially friendly, you can ask for early check-in or late check-out at no extra cost if the apartment is available.

Check out more top and best hotels in Almaty on Agoda.com, Booking.com or Klook.com

Transportation

Taxi is a convenient and flexible means of transport in Almaty. Taxis here are quite cheap thanks to the low price of gasoline, which is only about 1/5 of the price in Vietnam. You can download the Yandex app to book a car. Almaty International Airport is located quite close to the city center and the price to the center by taxi ranges from 3,000 to 4,000 tenge, around 7-9 USD. However, airport taxis often offer relatively high prices, so be careful.

To get around Almaty city and its surrounding areas you can use the metro, city buses, rental cars or even bikes.

Remember that you need to buy Onay Cards (transport tickets) if you want to go by metro or buses.

SIM Cards

Two popular types of SIM cards in Kazakhstan are Kcell and Beeline. You should buy a SIM card of appropriate capacity depending on the length of your stay. It is advisable to buy a SIM card at the airport because there is a counter to help you with registration, which is quite convenient.

Money

Kazakhstan’s currency is tenge, 1 USD = 445 tenge. Whether you change your money at the airport or at a bank in the city, the exchange rate is not much different. Therefore, for travel convenience, you can make money exchange at a bank kiosk at the airport. They only accept USD, EUR and RUB (Russian Ruble).

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