10 days
Nomad heartland, 10 days
Burana tower, two nights in yurts on Song-Kul, Naryn and the Silk Road caravanserai of Tash-Rabat, felt makers in Kochkor, an eagle hunter and Skazka canyon on Issyk-Kul, and Karakol.
Ten days across the middle of the country, built around what is genuinely Kyrgyz rather than borrowed from the neighbours: summer pastures worked by herding families, horses used for a living, felt cut into rugs, and the stone stopping places left by the Silk Road traffic that crossed these passes. It is a moderate trip: long days in a jeep, riding if you want it, and three nights of thin air.
What the days feel like
The route runs from the Chuy valley, where the 11th-century minaret of Burana stands alone in a field of carved grave markers, up onto the pasture at Song-Kul for two nights at 3,016 m, then south over the passes to Naryn and the stone caravanserai of Tash-Rabat at 3,200 m, and back north to Issyk-Kul. The high days are open and empty: grass running to the skyline, herds drifting over it, and after dark a sky that no town lights reach. The lake days are softer — clay towers at Skazka canyon, the spruce gorge behind Barskoon, the wooden cathedral and Dungan kitchens of Karakol.
How hard it is
There is no trekking day. Walking is an hour here and two hours there, on canyon paths, up to a waterfall or along a shoreline. The work is in the driving: 90 km and three hours of gravel over the Kalmak-Ashuu pass at 3,446 m to reach the lake, four hours more over the Terskey-Torpok switchbacks down to Naryn, three hours to the caravanserai. Four to six hours in a vehicle is a normal day here.
Altitude and the nights
Three of the nine nights are above 3,000 m, and the first follows a day that starts at 1,800 m in Kochkor; expect shallow sleep and some breathlessness. Four nights are in yurts, two guests to a yurt on mattresses with a stove lit in the evening, and the rest are rooms in the towns. Above the passes there is no mains power, no shop and no dependable signal, so carry cash in som.
When it runs
June to September. The lakeside camps stand from about mid-June to mid-September and the caravanserai valley works from June to September; both are under snow the rest of the year. July and August are the months when the herders are on the high pasture, which is most of what makes the route worth doing.
Changing it
The shape stretches. A night at At-Bashy makes room for the fortress walls and the Sunday livestock market on the way south, and the horse days at the lake can be swapped for a ride in from Kyzart. Ask us before the beds are held.
Day by day
The route
Day 1
Arrival in Bishkek
Overnight: Bishkek
- Bishkek: standard double room
- Bishkek walking tour
- Private transfer Manas airport to Bishkek, minivan for up to 4
Day 2
Burana tower and Kochkor
Overnight: Kochkor
- Burana tower site entrance
- 4x4 with driver, up to 4 passengers
- Kochkor: double or twin hotel room with breakfast
- Kochkor: lunch or dinner at the hotel
- Kochkor: shyrdak felt carpet demonstration
Day 3
Up to Song-Kul
Overnight: Song-Kul
- 4x4 with driver, up to 4 passengers
- Song-Kul: lunch or dinner at the camp
- Song-Kul: comfort yurt for two with breakfast
Day 4
Horses on the summer pastures
Overnight: Song-Kul
- 4x4 with driver, up to 4 passengers
- Song-Kul: full-day horse ride
- Song-Kul: traditional horse games show
- Song-Kul: lunch or dinner at the camp
- Song-Kul: comfort yurt for two with breakfast
Day 5
Song-Kul to Naryn
Overnight: Naryn
- 4x4 with driver, up to 4 passengers
- Naryn: guesthouse double room, dinner and breakfast
Day 6
Tash-Rabat caravanserai
Overnight: Tash-Rabat
- 4x4 with driver, up to 4 passengers
- Tash-Rabat caravanserai entrance
- Tash-Rabat: horse ride, one hour
- Tash-Rabat: yurt for two, all meals included
Day 7
Back to Kochkor
Overnight: Kochkor
- 4x4 with driver, up to 4 passengers
- Kochkor: double or twin hotel room with breakfast
- Kochkor: lunch or dinner at the hotel
- Kochkor: folk music show during dinner
Day 8
An eagle hunter and Skazka canyon
Overnight: Tamga
- 4x4 with driver, up to 4 passengers
- Skazka canyon entrance
- Eagle hunter demonstration
- Tamga: comfort yurt for two, half board
Day 9
Barskoon waterfalls and Karakol
Overnight: Karakol
- 4x4 with driver, up to 4 passengers
- Karakol: double room in a small hotel with breakfast
- Dungan family dinner in Yrdyk village
Day 10
Along the north shore to Bishkek
- 4x4 with driver, up to 4 passengers
- Cholpon-Ata petroglyphs open-air museum entrance
What the price includes
- —Nine nights: hotels and guesthouses in the towns, four nights in yurts
- —Airport transfer on arrival and a 4x4 with a driver for the whole route
- —Guided walking tour of Bishkek, about three hours
- —Entry to Burana, Tash-Rabat, the Cholpon-Ata petroglyphs and Skazka
- —Felt-making demonstration in Kochkor and a folk music evening
- —A day on horseback at Song-Kul, horse games and a ride at Tash-Rabat
- —Eagle hunter demonstration on the south shore of Issyk-Kul
- —Breakfast daily, camp dinners, a Dungan family dinner, full board at Tash-Rabat
Not included
- —International flights to and from Kyrgyzstan
- —A visa, if your nationality needs one
- —Travel insurance
- —Lunches and the dinners not listed above, and all drinks
- —Personal spending, laundry and souvenirs
- —Tips for the driver, guides and host families
On this trip
Places you stay
Good to know
Questions travellers ask
- How fit do I need to be?
- Not especially. There is no trekking day in the ten, and the walking comes in stretches of one to two hours on canyon paths, forest tracks and lakeshore. What the trip does ask for is tolerance of long days in a vehicle on gravel passes, and of thin air at night. Anyone who can walk a couple of hours on uneven ground and sit out a four-hour drive will be comfortable.
- How high does it go?
- Two nights at 3,016 m on Song-Kul and one at 3,200 m in the Tash-Rabat valley, with passes of 3,446 m and 3,132 m crossed between them. The route climbs to that gradually, through nights at 800 m, 1,800 m and 2,040 m, which is the sensible order. Most people feel the height as poor sleep and breathlessness walking uphill from the camp, and it settles after the first night.
- How many nights are in yurts rather than rooms?
- Four of the nine: two at Song-Kul, one at Tash-Rabat and one on the southern shore of Issyk-Kul. Those mean mattresses on the floor, a stove lit in the evening, an outdoor toilet and no mains power. The other five are hotel and guesthouse rooms in Bishkek, Kochkor, Naryn and Karakol with hot water and electricity, and they are deliberately spaced between the high nights.
- When is the best time to travel?
- July and August are the most dependable, with mid-June and the first half of September also workable. The yurt camps at Song-Kul and Tash-Rabat are seasonal: they go up when the passes clear and come down with the first snow, roughly mid-June to mid-September. Outside that window there is nowhere to sleep on the high sections and the route has to be rebuilt entirely.
- Who else will be on the trip?
- The itinerary is built around a private vehicle and driver for your own party rather than a seat sold on a coach, so the group is the group you book with. Cars and jeeps here seat four, and camps sleep guests two to a yurt on this route. If you are a larger party, or hoping to join another, say so when you enquire and we will tell you what we can put together for your dates.
- Can the itinerary be changed?
- Within the season, yes. Days can be swapped, nights added at the lake or the caravanserai, and the horse riding scaled up or down. A night at At-Bashy or a detour to the Kel-Suu valley, which needs a border permit arranged weeks ahead, are the usual extensions. Once family camps are holding beds for you, what can still be moved depends on them, so ask us before you commit.
Your route is one conversation away
Tell us your dates, your pace and what you would like to see. We will put together a route from our own suppliers.