Kyrgyzstan travel guide

KYRGYZSTAN TRAVEL GUIDE

People would be forgiven for grouping the ‘Stans’ under one – albeit captivating – Silk Road umbrella. They each offer entirely different experiences though, and Kyrgyzstan, a land of vast mountain ranges that’s fast making headway as a leading climbing destination, is a country of varied landscape that gently shifts between golden granite cliffs, valleys packed with limestone fossils, and mountain cities decorated with colourful mosques and mausoleums.

Dominated by the celestial Tien Shan mountains, the Alpine wilderness, bubbling blue streams, and gentle people of Kyrgyzstan will command your attention from the minute you arrive.

Kyrgyzstan’s calling card is its wilderness. You can spend days on foot or horseback getting lost in its alpine treks, thick walnut forests and ice-blue glacial lakes that stretch for miles. As historical as its neighbouring Silk Road counterparts, but not overflowing with the art and architecture for which others are famed, a large part of Kyrgyzstan’s history is played out through the semi-nomadic people of its deeply ingrained shepherd culture.

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Kyrgyzstan is...

an 80 per cent mountainous country where the best way to travel is on horseback across the plateau, or on two feet up soaring peaks.

Kyrgyzstan isn’t…

the best place to relish the art and architecture of the Silk Road. Head to Uzbekistan for that.

Things to do in Kyrgyzstan...

Saddle up. With a network of trails suiting every rider from novice to expert, and traversing everywhere from low-lying valleys, to steep hills and every rider’s Shagri-la, the Tian Shan, or 'Mountains of Heaven', horse riding is the very lifeblood of Kyrgyzstan. Not only will you experience the landscape from a liberating perspective, but you’ll see herds of horses gallop freely in the towards their shepherd masters – a privileged insight into a very traditional culture. Understand local culture. Kyrgyzstan is still largely untouched and hugely undiscovered; centuries-old culture and tradition is still very much at its core, so much so that if Genghis Khan rode across its timeless landscape today, he’d feel utterly at home. The true adventure of the country is to be had when you seize the unexpected opportunities that come your way – the locals are known for their curiosity as much as for their hospitality, so if you’re asked into a family yurt for some food, or to join a nomadic shepherd on a ride, say yes. Travel with older children. Eschewing the ‘are we nearly there yets?’ and ‘I feel sicks’ that long-distance travel inevitably throws up (pardon the pun), Kyrgysztan is actually pretty family-friendly, and especially so for a ‘Stan’. It is best explored on horse back, by trekking around huge, shimmering lakes, climbing lofty mountains and spending nights under the starts in yurts – all things that teens will love.

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Things not to do in Kyrgyzstan…

Expect to dine on delicacies.There’s no two ways about it, Central Asian food is pretty unpalatable for most Western travellers. The Kyrgyz national dish is called ‘beshbarmak’, which consists of horse meat (with the occasional bit of added mutton if you’re lucky) boiled in its own broth for several hours and served over homemade noodles. Bar a sparse sprinkling of coriander, it is as bland you would imagine. The basics are all there: meat (read: sheep, or horse) and rice, but the fat to meat ratio is often difficult to digest. If you’re a nomadic carnivore, brilliant, if you’re a vegetarian, prepare for more bread than you’ve ever eaten and a shed load of tomatoes.

Try and do it all. The roads are uneven and potholed, distances are vast and mountains cause endless detours – it’s highly unlikely you’ll “do” all of Kyrgyzstan in a single trip. To enjoy the peace of this deeply traditional country, it’s best not to rush from place to place and get stressed out in the back of a tour vehicle. If you can’t explore all of Kyrgyzstan, though, you can still explore it deeply; make the most of wild swimming in lakes, trekking for days on horseback, and walking in the incredible Tian Shan ‘Mountains of Heaven’. Kyrgyzstan is all about boundless wilderness with some culture thrown in, so save the rest of the Silk Road for another visit.