Last updated: August 2026 · Written by the Kazakhstan Tourism Guide editorial team
Ten days is my favourite length for a first proper trip to Kazakhstan. A week keeps you tethered to Almaty; two weeks starts to demand the deserts of the far west. But ten days is the Goldilocks number — enough to pair the mountains and canyons of the southeast with a genuine slice of the Silk Road, and to feel the sheer scale of the place without spending the whole trip in transit.
Here’s the short version. This Kazakhstan itinerary for 10 days gives you three days in Almaty and its mountains, two days at Charyn Canyon and the Kolsai and Kaindy lakes, then a swing south to the Silk Road city of Turkestan and its magnificent mausoleum, before an optional finish in the futuristic capital, Astana. Cities, canyons and caravan history in one loop, with just one or two internal flights to stitch it together.
If you’ve already seen my 7-day first-timer route, think of this as that trip with the Silk Road bolted on — the addition that turns a great nature holiday into a fuller picture of the country. Below is the day-by-day, the transport that actually works, and honest advice on the one big choice you’ll face: south to Turkestan, or north to Astana, or (if you fly) both.
Your 10 days in Kazakhstan at a glance
Here’s the whole route in one view. It assumes you fly at least the Turkestan and Astana legs to keep the pace civilised.
| Days | Base | Highlights | Getting there |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Almaty | Old town, Green Bazaar, Kok Tobe, Medeu & Shymbulak, Big Almaty Lake | On foot, gondola, local car |
| 4–5 | Saty | Charyn Canyon, Kaindy & Kolsai lakes | Drive east (~3.5 hr) + 4×4 |
| 6 | Turkestan | Travel south from Almaty | FlyArystan flight or Talgo train |
| 7 | Turkestan | Khoja Ahmed Yasawi Mausoleum, old town, Arystan Bab | On foot / short taxi |
| 8 | Shymkent | Bazaar, parks, southern city life | Train/bus (~2.5–3.5 hr) |
| 9–10 | Astana or Almaty | Capital landmarks OR extra Almaty region | 1.5-hr flight |
Is 10 days enough for Kazakhstan?
For cities, canyons and the Silk Road — yes, comfortably. Ten days lets you do the whole southeast at a relaxed pace, add the country’s single greatest historical monument in Turkestan, and still have a day or two for the capital. It’s the shortest itinerary that feels genuinely varied rather than just a mountain break.
What it still won’t include is Mangystau, the Mars-like desert region on the Caspian in the far west, which is a flight away and deserves four or five days of its own. That’s a two-week job. Ten days also means picking your travel style: do it all by slow train and you’ll spend three nights on rails; fly the long legs (Almaty–Turkestan and Almaty–Astana) and those hours become extra time on the ground. I’d fly. Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country on earth, and distances here are not to be underestimated.
Best time to go and what it costs
Aim for late spring or early autumn — roughly May to June and September to early October — when the Almaty region is at its best and the south hasn’t tipped into its fierce summer heat. Turkestan and Shymkent can hit 35–40°C in July and August, which is punishing for wandering a mausoleum complex. Budget-wise, this trip runs from around 60–80 US dollars a day for careful travellers up to 130–180 for comfortable hotels, private drivers on the day trips and internal flights. The flights themselves are cheap if booked ahead: Almaty–Turkestan or Almaty–Astana can be 50–90 dollars one way on FlyArystan or Air Astana. See what a Kazakhstan trip costs for the full breakdown.
One more scheduling tip: the two internal flights are the pivots the whole trip turns on, so book them first and build the days around them. FlyArystan and Air Astana both run frequent Almaty–Astana services, and FlyArystan’s direct Almaty–Turkestan flight is the single biggest time-saver on this route. If you’d rather not fly at all, the itinerary still works by train — you’ll just want to accept a couple of overnight rail journeys and trim a day of sightseeing to pay for the hours.
Days 1–3: Almaty, the green city of the south
Start where every good Kazakhstan trip starts. Day one is Almaty on foot — Panfilov Park and the wooden Ascension Cathedral, the sprawling Green Bazaar, Republic Square, and a sunset up Kok Tobe. Day two goes up into the mountains that loom over every avenue: Medeu, the world’s highest skating rink, and the gondola to Shymbulak at over 3,000 metres. Day three is Big Almaty Lake, the turquoise reservoir an hour above the city, ideally paired with a lazy afternoon back in town. Three days here is enough to get under the city’s skin; my guide to things to do in Almaty has more if you want to swap something in.
Days 4–5: Charyn Canyon and the Kolsai–Kaindy lakes
Head east for the scenery that sells Kazakhstan. Charyn Canyon is about 200 kilometres and three and a half hours from Almaty; its Valley of Castles is a red-rock gorge you walk down into, and it’s every bit as dramatic as the photos. Rather than racing back, push on and overnight near Saty village. The next morning you’re perfectly placed for the two lakes: Kaindy, with its ghostly drowned spruce forest rising from turquoise water, and the stepped Kolsai Lakes, where the lower lake is an easy walk and the hike to the second is a lovely half-day. Carry your passport — this is border-zone country near Kyrgyzstan — and expect the Kaindy road to need a 4×4.
A note on pacing these two days, because it’s where people overreach. Charyn as a there-and-back day trip from Almaty is a 10–12 hour marathon of driving; splitting it by overnighting near Saty turns a slog into two relaxed half-days and lets you catch the canyon in soft morning or evening light rather than harsh midday. The lakes reward the same patience — Kolsai’s lower lake is beautiful in an hour, but the walk up toward the second lake, through spruce forest with the water flickering below, is the memory you’ll keep. If you only have energy for one lake, make it Kaindy for sheer strangeness; make it Kolsai for the classic alpine scene.
Day 6: south to the Silk Road
Back in Almaty, it’s time to change gears entirely. The fastest way south to Turkestan is a direct FlyArystan flight (a little over an hour) into Turkestan’s own airport; the romantic alternative is the overnight Talgo train, which trundles across the steppe in 14–16 hours and deposits you in the morning. Either way, you’re swapping alpine lakes for the flat, sun-baked south and 1,400 years of caravan history. Spend the evening settling into Turkestan; the main event is tomorrow.
Day 7: Turkestan and the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi
This is the day that makes the whole detour worth it. The Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi is Kazakhstan’s most important building and its first UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2003. Timur — Tamerlane — ordered it built between 1389 and 1405 over the grave of a revered 12th-century Sufi poet, and it was left deliberately unfinished when he died, so you can still see the wooden scaffolding poking from the vast front portal. At nearly 39 metres tall, with its ribbed turquoise dome, it’s one of the largest and best-preserved Timurid monuments anywhere, and the techniques perfected here were later used in Samarkand. Give it a slow half-day, then explore Turkestan’s revamped old town and, if you have wheels, the nearby Arystan Bab mausoleum, a traditional first stop for pilgrims. It anchors my wider guide to the Silk Road in Kazakhstan.
What surprises most visitors is how much Turkestan has changed. Once a sleepy pilgrimage town, it’s been rebuilt in the last few years into a polished tourist destination, with a new old-town quarter, a “flying theatre” attraction and a strip of hotels — a deliberate bid to make it Kazakhstan’s spiritual and tourist capital of the south. Some travellers find the new-build sheen a little theme-park; I think it’s worth seeing precisely because it shows how Kazakhstan is choosing to present its own heritage. Either way, the mausoleum itself is the real thing, and standing beneath that unfinished portal at dusk, with the call to prayer drifting across the complex, is a genuinely moving end to the day.
Day 8: Shymkent, the sunny south
A short train or bus ride (roughly two and a half to three and a half hours) brings you to Shymkent, Kazakhstan’s third city and the sunniest of its major hubs. It’s not a museum-piece like Turkestan; it’s a lively, fast-growing southern city with a big bazaar, leafy parks and a relaxed tempo that feels a world away from Almaty’s cafés or Astana’s boulevards. Wander the market, eat well and cheaply, and use it as a comfortable staging post. If Uzbekistan is on a future trip, note that this is the jumping-off point — the Tashkent border is only a few hours further.
Days 9–10: Astana, or go deeper in the Almaty region
Here’s the fork. If you want the full sweep of the country, fly north to Astana (about 1 hour 40 from Almaty or Shymkent) for a day and a half of the capital’s greatest hits: the Bayterek Tower and Nurzhol Boulevard, Khan Shatyr’s giant tent, the Nur-Alem sphere and the Palace of Peace pyramid. The contrast with the Silk Road you just left could not be sharper, and that whiplash is rather the point of Kazakhstan. My guide to things to do in Astana maps it out.
Alternatively, if flying north for two days feels like too much motion, loop back to Almaty and go deeper: the Singing Dune and wildlife of Altyn-Emel, the Tamgaly petroglyphs, or simply more mountain time. There’s no wrong answer — it comes down to whether you’d rather add a fourth landscape (the sci-fi capital) or savour the two regions you’ve already reached.
Where to stay along the way
This route means changing base a few times, but each one is straightforward. In Almaty, stay central — near Panfilov Park or Republic Square — for Days 1–3; it’s walkable, café-rich and close to the metro. For the canyon-and-lakes nights, a family guesthouse in Saty village is the move: basic, friendly, meals usually thrown in, and it puts Kaindy and Kolsai on your doorstep. In Turkestan, the newer hotels around the mausoleum complex and the “Keruen Saray” tourist zone are comfortable and well-priced. Shymkent has plenty of modern mid-range hotels near the centre. And if you fly north, book one night in Astana close to Nurzhol Boulevard so the landmarks are a short walk away. My guide to where to stay in Kazakhstan has the neighbourhood detail.
What to eat as you go
The food shifts as you travel, which is part of the fun. In Almaty you’ll eat everything — beshbarmak (meat and flat noodles, the national dish), lagman, plov, grilled shashlik and café brunches that wouldn’t be out of place in Europe. Head south and the Silk Road influence sharpens: Shymkent and Turkestan do superb plov, tandoor-baked samsa and fresh non bread, reflecting the Uzbek-leaning south. Everywhere, tea arrives with puffy baursak dough and, if you’re lucky, tart little balls of kurt cheese. Markets are your cheapest, best meals — graze the Green Bazaar in Almaty and the central bazaar in Shymkent. There’s a full primer in my guide to Kazakh food.
Which direction should you travel?
Most people run this loop exactly as written — Almaty and its mountains first, then south to the Silk Road, then optionally north to Astana — and there’s good logic to it: you acclimatise in the easy, comfortable southeast before the hotter, more demanding south. But there’s a case for reversing it if your international flight lands in Astana rather than Almaty, in which case start with the capital, fly to Shymkent for Turkestan, then finish with the mountains and canyons around Almaty and fly home from there. The one sequencing rule I’d hold to: don’t bookend the trip with two long travel days back to back. Put the Charyn-and-lakes overnight and the flight south on non-consecutive days so you always have the energy to actually enjoy where you’ve landed. However you order it, the loop is designed so you never backtrack over the same ground twice.
Getting around this itinerary
The golden rule for ten days is: fly the long legs, drive the short ones. Internal flights on Air Astana, FlyArystan and SCAT connect Almaty with Turkestan and Astana in well under two hours and are cheap booked ahead. The southern hop from Turkestan to Shymkent is an easy train or bus. For the Charyn-and-lakes days, hire a driver or join a small-group tour — the roads to Kaindy and Altyn-Emel demand a 4×4 and local knowledge. In the cities, the Yandex Go app handles taxis and Almaty has a tidy metro. Book train seats a few days ahead in summer; the comfortable Talgo services sell out. My full guide to getting around Kazakhstan covers the trains, planes and steppe roads in detail.
How to adapt this 10-day route
Depending on what pulls you, there are three sensible ways to reshape these ten days. Nature-max: skip the Silk Road detour and instead spend the extra days on Altyn-Emel’s Singing Dune, the Tamgaly petroglyphs and a slower turn around the Kolsai lakes — a great choice if canyons and mountains are why you came. Silk Road-max: give Turkestan and the south more room by adding the ruined caravan cities of Sauran and Otrar, both an easy drive from Turkestan and hauntingly empty. Cross-border: because Shymkent sits only a few hours from Tashkent, this exact route is the natural first half of a Kazakhstan-to-Uzbekistan Silk Road trip — carry straight on into Samarkand and Bukhara if you have a second week. Whichever you pick, resist the urge to also squeeze in Mangystau; the west genuinely needs its own trip.
A few practical notes
Most Western passport holders enter visa-free for 30 days (my Kazakhstan visa guide has the specifics for your nationality). Download 2GIS or Yandex Maps before you arrive — Google Maps is unreliable here — and the Yandex Go app for taxis. Carry some tenge in cash for park fees, small towns and the south, even though cards work well in Almaty. Kazakhstan is calm and welcoming for travellers, and the summer heat in the south is the main thing to plan around. Book internal flights and Talgo train seats a few days ahead in peak season.
Frequently asked questions
Is 10 days enough to see Kazakhstan?
It’s enough for a varied first trip: Almaty and its mountains, Charyn Canyon and the lakes, the Silk Road at Turkestan, and a taste of the capital. It’s not enough to add the far-western deserts of Mangystau, which need their own four or five days — that’s a two-week itinerary. For ten days, this cities-canyons-Silk Road loop is the most rewarding shape.
How do you get from Almaty to Turkestan?
The quickest option is a direct FlyArystan flight of a little over an hour into Turkestan’s airport. Otherwise the overnight Talgo train crosses the steppe in about 14–16 hours and saves you a hotel night. There are also trains and buses via Shymkent, which is only two and a half to three hours from Turkestan.
Is the Turkestan mausoleum worth the detour?
Absolutely. The Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi is Kazakhstan’s first UNESCO site and one of the finest Timurid buildings in the world — a genuine Silk Road treasure and the country’s most important monument. If you have any interest in history or architecture, it’s the single best reason to go beyond Almaty on a first trip.
Should I add Astana or stay in the south?
Add Astana if you want the full contrast of modern, purpose-built Kazakhstan against the ancient south — it’s a short flight and a striking day and a half. Stay south or return to Almaty if you’d rather not spend two of ten days on travel and city-hopping. Both make a satisfying trip; it’s a question of pace versus breadth.
What’s the best time of year for this route?
May–June and September–early October. You get comfortable weather in Almaty and avoid the 35–40°C summer heat in Turkestan and Shymkent. July–August works for the high mountains but is hard going in the south; winter is cold everywhere and best only for skiers.
Can you combine this trip with Uzbekistan?
Yes — and it’s a natural pairing. Shymkent is only a few hours from the Uzbek border and Tashkent, so this 10-day route makes an ideal first leg before continuing to Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva. If that’s your plan, weight the itinerary toward the south and cross overland after Shymkent rather than flying back to Almaty.
How much of this can you do by train instead of flying?
Almost all of it, if you have the time and like trains. Comfortable Talgo services link Almaty, Shymkent and Turkestan, and an overnight train reaches Astana. The trade-off is hours: the Almaty–Astana run alone is 12–20 hours. Over ten days I’d fly the two longest legs and take trains for the shorter southern hops.
Final thoughts
Ten days in Kazakhstan is the trip I recommend most often, because it captures what makes the country special: the whiplash between snow peaks and desert mausoleums, between café-lined Almaty and the sci-fi capital, all in one loop. Keep the pace honest, fly the long legs, and don’t try to cram the western deserts in — leave yourself something to come back for. Do that, and you’ll go home with a far richer sense of Kazakhstan than a week can give, and a soft spot for a country most people still can’t place on a map. When you’re ready to go longer, my two-week and month-long routes take it from here.
Photo credits
Images via Wikimedia Commons: Charyn Canyon by Bgag (CC0); Big Almaty Lake by Nessi Gileva red_fox (CC0); Kolsai Lake by Lfvelynis (CC BY-SA 4.0); Khoja Ahmed Yasawi Mausoleum by Adam Harangozó (CC BY-SA 4.0); Shymkent by Rassim (CC BY-SA 3.0); Astana skyline by Ken and Nyetta (CC BY 2.0). Reused under their respective CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA licences.
