Make the most of your time by going through my travel itinerary and experience.
Hello All, I started my journey from the New Delhi, India in August 2023. I had a direct flight from the New Delhi to Shymkent, Kazakhstan. At New Delhi airport I was asked about the return tickets and the hotel booking only, nothing was asked at the Shymkent airport they directly stamped my passport.
Kazakhstan is visa free for 14-days for the Indian passport holders. Indian can visit thrice in 180 days with each time you can stay for maximum of 14 days. If you visit another country from the Kazakhstan and and come back to the Kazakhstan you new 14 days period will start again.
Before going to the Kazakhstan
Wall Adapter – Carry one wall socket adapter that complies with the European wall socket type. Kazakhstan has European standard wall sockets.
2GIS App – Used for detailed public transport routes (which bus needs to be taken etc.), offline maps, real-time traffic updates and comprehensive business listings (restaurants, ATMs, etc.).
Yandex Go – like Uber and Ola, for booking the taxi.
After reaching Kazakhstan
Shymkent airport is very small airport, but you will get lots of ATM in the departure hall. There is also a tourist information center in front of the arrival gate, you can get the city map or other information from there. There is bus stop after walking for like 100m towards the taxi stand where you can get the bus for the city center. You can get the bus to the Gul’zhan (city center) in 100 tenge.
I purchased a local SIM from the city center for 1000 tenge and recharged it with 3500 tenge for 25GB of data. It was a tele2 SIM with good coverage around the cities but didn’t got any network in the remote places. You could purchase Beeline SIM which has got coverage in the remote places. You could also purchase the eSIM from the Airalo app from you home country. The SIM gets activated automatically when you arrive in Kazakhstan (when you phone found the supported service provided signals). Airalo is good if you have less data requirements and need short time validity, otherwise its expensive.
In the evening, I went to the Arbat street, Shymkent. It was a colorful street with full of children play area and food corners.
Next day, I had a train to the Almaty (around 14hrs journey from Shymkent to Almaty). There are good number of train from the Shymkent to the Almaty, most of which start in the evening and reach in morning. There is no shortage of the tickets, you could easily get the tickets at the day of departure also.
I reached Almaty in the morning, there are two stations in the Almaty, Almaty-1 and Almaty-2, later one is the main station of the Almaty, where you could easily get the buses and taxies for the city center. The buses in Almaty have fixed fare of 150 tenge.
In Almaty, I stayed in the ‘WanderLust’ hostel, hostel has great common area, and location is near to the Zenkov’s Cathedral. But dormitory room doesn’t have air conditioning at the time of my stay. So, it may become little uncomfortable for some people in the hot summer time (August).
