Issyk Kul Tickets and Tours

Explore Issyk Kul: Small-Group Day Trip from Bishkek

Great day

Trip was cancelled cause I was the only participant. They offered me change of date, refund or other tour (canyon + lake) I took the other tour and it was amazing!

10 Days tour Kyrgyzstan: Nomads, Legacy, Nature

Very nice trip with few downsides

We booked directly with Atlas in April. We were supposed to start on the 17th of september, but two weeks before, they asked us to change the start from the 18th to the 19th. We were confused as to why they would change it and why they thought we were to start on the 18th. Apparently another couple bought the trip via Tripadvisor and because they paid more, we were supposed to change starting date, to fit them. They also booked Tash Rabat instead of Kel-Suu (which we booked), so we again had to change to fit them, because they paid more. Poor communication from Atlas before the tour had even started. Regarding the trip itself, we had lovely 10 days with the guide, Marlen. He was very informative, nice, funny and in good spirit. Nothing bad to say about Marlen or the car. We saw alot of Kyrgyzstan (only missing Kel-Suu), stayed in Yurts, Guest houses and a single hotel. Quality was good and as expected. You should be prepared for alot of driving, but it is of course a big country. Also, we were suprised about how little horse riding there actually is and how little hiking there is. The only thing taking this from 5 stars to 4 stars is the poor communication from the managers before the trip.

Private 8 Day Tour in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan from Almaty

Magnificent tour of two countries

We booked an eight-day, seven-night tour through Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in July 2026 with Andrey and Kolsai Tours, and were extremely happy with their services. For the first six days, we basically followed the itinerary as outlined for the ‘Two countries in one trip’ tour on kolsaitour.com. We then customised the last two days to spend more time in Kyrgyzstan, as we didn’t “need” to go back to Almaty – our flight back home was from Bishkek. I can really recommend this setup, more details on places visited below. We had two guides, one for each country, and our man in Kazakhstan, Dima, was absolutely fantastic. He went out of his way to create unique experiences for us, understood what we were after and adapted accordingly. He generally was a friendly and fun guy to hang out with as well. That is important, since you do spend a lot of time in the car together with your guide. So we were quite sad to say goodbye to Dima at the Kazakh/Kyrgyz border. But fortunately, our Kyrgyz guide Altynbek turned out to be a great guy too – friendly, funny and informative. Any negatives? No, not really. But again, be prepared for long drives and many hours in the car. You should also be aware that you change accomodation every night (except one). There are a lot of roadworks in Kyrgyzstan (apparently due to a push from the government to upgrade infrastructure), so travel is sometimes slow. But it is all worth it! So all things summarised: no complaints at all. Accomodation was clean, comfortable and generally better than we’d dared to hope for. Food was good and included in the price most days. Kayaking and horseriding were available, but we opted to do neither. A summary of the places we visited: * Altyn Emel national park and the Aktau mountains. Arid and spectacular scenery. Dima took me (just me; my wife had some trouble with a knee and avoided the steeper climbs) for a walk up the mountain. No other people around up there and great views. * The singing dune. It didn’t sing when we were there since it had been raining and the sand was wet, but an awesome sight anyway. When we were there, we were totally alone. I walked up it, which wasn’t difficult per se but quite tough – I had to stop several times just to catch my breath. * City of Jarkent, near the Chinese border. Interesting mosque. * Charyn canyon. Grand Canyon-type of scenery. You can opt to walk the bottom of the canyon, but we stayed at the top. * Kaindy and Kolsai lakes. Kaindy presents weird scenery, with the flooded trees. Well worth visiting. Kolsai feels more like a holiday village, complete with cafes, commerce and a pedal boat rental outlet with long queues and a speaker system managed by a guy who in an angry voice remind people that their pedalling time is up. Although it would be silly of me to complain about too many tourists – after all, I am one myself – this wasn’t really my cup of tea. Nice setting though, with steep mountains “falling” into the lake. The Charyn and lake days were the only time where we stayed two nights at the same place; an excellent guest house in Saty village. * View of Bestobe reservoir, where Dima treated us to one of the best cups of coffee we ever had and golden eagles were circling above us. A fantastic, isolated spot. Then we crossed the border to Kyrgyzstan (not without delays, as the immigration guys on the Kyrgyz side had computer problems) and were greeted by Altynbek. * Town of Karakol, with mosque and a wooden church. Seemed to be a thriving little town. We stayed at the very nice Green Yard Hotel. * Jety Oguz and the Seven Bulls Rock. A walk through a hilly forest environment + see the rocks, but we liked the … * … Szazka Canyon (Fairytale Canyon) even more, with its peculiar desert scenery. You can really move from two completely different biotops – from woodland to desert – quite quickly in these parts of the world. * Glamping in a yurt (with in-suite bathroom and shower) byLake Issyk-Kul. Try a swim in the lake, it was around 20 degrees Celsius when we were there. Nice! * Barskoon Gorge, with waterfalls and a Jurij Gagarin monument. As mentioned above, we tailored the two final days to include the following: * An eagle show near Bokonbayevo. Highly recommend this, really interesting to see the eagles do their stuff up close. * A night at a yurt at Lake Song-Kul. Strongly recommended; the setting is remote and serene and absolutely magnificent. I’m really glad that we opted to do this, as suggested by Andrey. Definitely one of the highlights of the tour. These yurts didn’t have a bathroom inside, but the shared toilets and showers are of high standards. * Great views in Ak Say, great scenery along the mountain pass roads. Our tour ended in Bishkek, where we had a few quiet days before flying home. Again: cannot recommend Kolsai Tour more. Great guides who treat you to fantastic experiences.