List of unique and beautiful places in and around the Almaty that I have visited during my trip. The region is pretty diverse, you could experience beautiful green mountains, lakes, canyons and sand deserts all around the Almaty. It is situated in the south-east region of Kazakhstan and near to the Kyrgyzstan border.
Ascension Cathedral & Green Bazar
Also called as Zenkov’s Cathedral, is second tallest wooden church of the world. It was walkable distance from my hostel (WanderLust) and the city center. You could also visit Almaty most popular market, called as Green Bazar. It is walkable distance from the Ascension Cathedral. If you want to visit the market, its better to go before the 6 PM because it closes early in the evening.
To visit the canyons and lakes, I took a tour package from ‘steppe_spirit‘(their Instagram account). It was 2-days trip which costed me around the 35,000 tenges = ~75 USD (including stay, transport, tickets, and 2 meals per day). I highly recommend the tour company, it was excellent experience, and worth the money I paid. I have listed the places below that I have covered in my 2-days trip.
Saty Village
We started our journey in the evening from the Almaty and reached the Saty village in the night. The village is located in between the beautiful mountains near to the Kyrgyzstan border. We home stayed there till morning, had a breakfast and headed to the next destination.
Kaindy Lake
From the Saty village we boarded a soviet union bus to the Kaindy lake, the lake is few kilometers from the village. The bus dropped us at the point where we can start the hiking for the lake (or can take another bus (cost 500 tenges, around 1 USD, one way for ~10 minutes to cover some of the distance towards the lake).
Kolsai Lake 1
After visiting Kaindy lake we went back to the Saty village at our homestays, had lunch their and went to the Kolsai Lake.
Moon Canyon
Next day we started our journey from Saty village, and headed towards the famous canyons.