Day trips from Almaty: Big Almaty Lake, Charyn and Kolsai

Which trips need a night away

Keep your Almaty hotel for Big Almaty Lake and Charyn Canyon: the lake is a day with a guided walk, and Charyn, about 200 km east according to the independent Charyn travel guide charyn.kz, is a long day with about three hours’ driving each way on the 2021 government tourism guide’s estimate. The Kolsai lakes and Kaindy lie further on, beyond Charyn, and are best done as a two-day trip with a night in Saty, the village that serves as the gateway to Kolsai Lakes National Park. Group tours join them up: Skyway’s leaves Almaty at 20:30, sleeps two nights in Saty, visits Kaindy and the Kolsai lakes on the second day and the Valley of Castles at Charyn on the third, and is back in Almaty at about 19:00. With a private driver, two days and one night in Saty are enough. One-day tours to Kolsai and Kaindy do exist, but they leave Almaty before dawn and return close to midnight, with about two and a half hours at Kolsai.

Our Almaty guide covers the trips closest to town, Medeu and the gondola to Shymbulak, and gives two hotels in the centre.

Big Almaty Lake: a day above the city

Big Almaty Lake lies in Ile-Alatau National Park at over 2,500 metres, in a basin of high peaks, and its water changes colour from azure blue to deep emerald. Scientists think the basin is the trace of an earthquake thousands of years ago.

The road up the Bolshaya Almatinka gorge is closed to private cars, motorbikes, electric scooters and electric bikes, so the lake is a walk. Cars stop at a barrier, and the last 7 km climb about 600 metres on foot through spruce forest, past waterfalls, in 2.5 to 4 hours; count on 6 to 8 hours door to door from Almaty. Zabugorshiki, an Almaty operator, runs a guided day walk with pick-up from your accommodation at USD 120 a person for a party of two. Border guards check documents on the road and at the lake, so carry your passport, not a copy.

Ile-Alatau’s published visitor-upkeep charge is KZT 649 per person a day, plus about KZT 1,298 per car per entry and KZT 433 per car per day for parking, at its checkpoints, where it takes payment through the Kaspi app. The lake is one of Almaty's two 24-hour mountain rescue bases, and the Almaty emergency numbers are 109 and 112.

Charyn Canyon and the Valley of Castles

Charyn Canyon was formed in the Paleogene, more than thirty million years ago, when the earth's crust split, and its best-known part, the Valley of Castles, is a 3 km corridor of red and ochre towers, 200 to 700 metres wide, at about 1,300 metres above sea level. The independent charyn.kz guide dates the park to 2004 and gives an area of 127,050 hectares, with two viewing platforms, a way down through the towers to the Charyn River and, on another route, a grove of relict ash trees.

From the rim you can walk the 3 km down through the valley to the river or take the park's shuttle, which charges KZT 865 per seat each way; the published visitor-upkeep component is KZT 865 per person a day with car entry about KZT 3,028 and parking about KZT 216 per day. The 2021 government tourism guide estimates about three hours by car from Almaty. Carry water: the valley is a walk on open ground.

Kaindy, the Kolsai lakes and a night in Saty

Kaindy was formed in January 1911, when an earthquake set off a landslide that dammed the river in the Chon-Aksu gorge. The flooded spruce trees still stand in the turquoise water, their bare grey trunks rising above the surface while the branches below are preserved by the cold. Kazpravda’s road-construction report describes the 12 km from Saty as an unpaved track needing an off-road vehicle, so tours and drivers in Saty use off-road vehicles for the last stretch.

The Kolsai lakes are a chain of three in the Kolsai gorge of the northern Tien Shan, Lower, Middle and Upper, called the “blue necklace” for their clear water among spruce forest. A night in Saty gives time to walk beyond the first lake rather than turning straight back to Almaty.

Saty is a small village at the foot of the Tien Shan ranges and the starting point for both lakes. Kolsai Lakes National Park, which includes Kaindy, lists a visitor-upkeep component of KZT 865 per person a day with car entry about KZT 3,028 and parking about KZT 260 per car per day. Book the Saty night with the tour, or through the hotel box below if you travel with a driver.

Border zones, permits and safety

All of these places lie in the 25 km border strip where foreigners need a permit, a propusk from the migration police that takes about ten days. The authorities have said that the sites and their access roads stay open to foreign tourists without one, so a tour on the normal routes needs no permit; a trek or detour off them near the Chinese or Kyrgyz border does, arranged in advance through the operator.

Mountain weather changes quickly, snow can fall at altitude even in summer, and avalanches, landslides and rockfall are real risks; carry warm layers on every trip. Flying a drone needs prior permission: the UK Foreign Office warns of fines, detention and confiscation without a licence from the Civil Aviation Committee. Other governments may advise differently, so check your own government’s travel advice before booking.

Tour or driver, and what the trips cost

A group tour covers transport and the inclusions listed for its own route: the lake walk and the Charyn–Kolsai trips below are separate bookings. Most start in central Almaty. A private driver gives you your own pace and lets you stay longer at Charyn or add Altyn-Emel.

Charyn in a day is the cheapest trip. On the kino.kz booking site, listed on 1 November 2026, Blast Tour's day to the Valley of Castles and the Kurtogai tract costs from KZT 9,500 a person, with transport, a guide and the park fee; it leaves Baitursynov Street 100 at 08:00 and is back between 16:30 and 20:00, so bring lunch. For a private day with a guide, Zabugorshiki charges USD 127 a person for two, with pick-up, lunch on the trail and the park fee.

Kolsai and Kaindy in a day make a very long outing. Blast Tour's express trip to the Kolsai lakes, Kaindy and the Black Canyon costs from KZT 13,500, including the off-road ride to Kaindy, and runs from 06:30 to about 22:30. Skyway's six-stop day adds Charyn, costs from KZT 19,400 with all park fees and the Kaindy off-road ride, and leaves at 04:40 from the Alatau metro station for a return between 22:00 and 23:00. Lunch on both is yours to buy, so take food for the long day.

The three-day group tour is the relaxed version. Skyway’s trip to Charyn, Kaindy and the Kolsai lakes, sold on the same site, costs KZT 29,100 a person in shared guest-house rooms for three to six, KZT 33,400 in Standard rooms shared by three to five, and KZT 48,400 in Comfort rooms for two or three; the bus leaves Abay Avenue 50 at 20:30, and the price covers two nights in Saty, meals, the off-road ride to Kaindy, the park fees and a guide, with the return to Almaty at about 19:00 on the third day. A double-room upgrade is advertised at +KZT 2,000, but its per-room or per-person charge unit is unpublished; the week budget uses the Standard shared rooms. The return-day programme names breakfast, then Charyn from 11:50 to 15:30 and Almaty at 19:00; lunch near Charyn is extra because no local meal price is supplied for that midday stop.

A car with a driver suits two or three travellers who want their own timetable. Welcome.kz, an Almaty tour operator, lists a Standard sedan for one to three passengers at KZT 86,000 for the round trip to Charyn's Valley of Castles with up to five hours' wait, KZT 104,500 for a one-day round trip to Saty or Lower Kolsai with a stop at Charyn, and KZT 136,000 for two days with the night in Saty. These are the operator’s published March–October 2024 rates, still displayed on 1 November 2026; its November–February 2024/25 Charyn rate is KZT 73,100. They are dated examples rather than current quotes. With a driver you also pay the park fees set out below, your own meals and the room in Saty; the last 12 km to Kaindy is an off-road ride hired in Saty, at a price Welcome.kz does not publish.

For independent visits the published visitor-upkeep components are, per person: KZT 649 a day at Ile-Alatau for Big Almaty Lake, KZT 865 at Charyn plus KZT 865 each way if you take the shuttle, and KZT 865 a day at Kolsai Lakes. For the three trips these known visitor-upkeep and shuttle components come to about KZT 5,000 per person if you ride the Charyn shuttle both ways and spend two days in the Kolsai park, or about KZT 10,000 for two. The guided Big Almaty Lake walk is USD 120 a person for a party of two. These park fees are already included in the packaged tours above; Zabugorshiki’s USD 120 per person for two also includes hotel pick-up and lunch on the trail, as listed on 1 November 2026.

Altyn-Emel National Park, north-east of Almaty, is the optional long day: about 250 km and three and a half hours by car, Kazakh Tourism says, for the Singing Dune and the striped chalk hills of the Aktau mountains. It is a full day's driving, so it suits travellers with an extra day and a driver.