Top Almaty Day Trips

Dimesh was an excellent tour guide. This was an epic tour that crams the highlights in a single day. Other people take multiple days to see everything we covered in this one day. The canyons and lakes were incredibly beautiful. Dimesh was deeply knowledgable and shared the history and facts about the areas we visited. Our driver was good and our group was prompt. The tour had good options for people who want a more intense, all hiking experience or to use local taxis for a less strenuous experience. I went in August and it was very hot in the canyon. They provided a bottle of water but I bought extra water at rest stops along the way. The lunch was a homestyle meal in a small village in a family’s house. It was nice to experience a local family’s hospitality. The only thing I would improve upon is the air conditioning in the van. It was very hot and the A/C was not sufficient to cool the van to a comfortable temperature between stops. This was a very nice tour and I would do it again. Just be prepared for a long and rewarding tour!

This was a great tour to book. The van was super comfortable and our guide Zhenis was great. He contacted us in the morning to make sure we would be at the pickup location when he arrived and helped us order at a local restaurant. The waterfall is about a ~25mins easy to moderate hike and the lake was around a 15 min walk downhill to be sure to wear comfortable shoes.

One day tour to Altyn Emel and Singing dunes was intense but very cool experience! The driver picked us up and drove to the gas station where we met our guide John and could buy some snacks/coffee. After arriving to the the reserve the guide did some historic introduction and shared fun facts about the nature and animals living in the reserve. Our group was small (7 people + guide + 2 drivers) and I really liked it! John turned out to be really cool and funny guy. We drove to the Altyn Emel and walked around beautiful desert and chatted with the guide and other tourmates. John explained how the mountains were formatted and took some cool pictures of us. Also our drivers was so nice to help some tourists with their car as it stopped driving in the middle of nowhere (driving there alone sounds really risky!). Then we drove to the lunch spot. Everything was homemade and really good! I really appreciate they have prepared vegetarian option of the soup and lagman for me. After that we drove to the Singing Dunes and unfortunately the weather got worse. The wind was getting stronger and stronger so the sand was everywhere! I recommend leaving your belongings in the car and wearing long pants, a hat/scarf and sunglasses (i had sand in my eyes anyway! would not wear contact lenses if I knew) and don’t reapply SPF before going to the dunes - the sand will stick to all of your skin and there is a long way back in the car ahead of you 😅 Sliding down the dunes was fun and we could really hear the vibrations! That was pretty long and instense day, but it was planned well and I really liked chill atmosphere and a small group. Definitely recommend!