In April 2024 I arranged a trip for a family from US. They were 3 people – father, mother and their 3-year-old daughter.

I was out of town – my previous trip finished in Almaty and I was going back to Bishkek, but unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to be in time to meet the family personally at the airport, so I asked my friend who also works as a guide to meet them, help them check-in to the hotel that we booked, and arrange for them a dinner in one of the restaurants near the hotel.

On the next day in the morning, I took a car from rental, because at that time I didn’t have my own vehicle. I rented a Toyota RAV4, which is a good car for our road conditions with some light off-road sections. A bit later I met the family near their hotel, we packed their luggage and started our tour. On our first day we drove to Ala Archa National Park – it is a scenic place not too far from the city. We took a light walk in the area to admire the views, we took some photos, and I was generally very pleased to be with these clients, as they were calm and relaxed people, being around them felt very nice.

After a walk and some great photos, we returned to Bishkek to take a stroll in the central area to get to know about the city. For dinner, clients asked me if I know any Indian or Pakistani restaurant. I knew couple of places, but we decided to go to the one which was the closest to their hotel – a restaurant called Gandhi. I have never been there myself and didn’t know much about that cuisine either, so we joked that on this dinner they are my guides in Indian / Pakistani cuisine. I don’t like spicy food, so they suggested to me some good options to try on the menu.

On the next day, we started our main program – a tour around Issyk Kul lake, which would take us several days. Our first stop was at Burana tower, an ancient minaret that dates to 11th century AD. Burana tower, aside from being an architectural heritage of the area, also offers great views of the mountains and an interesting open-air museum of stone monuments.

Our lunch stop was at a family living nearby, we tried home made local dishes and started our acquaintance with Kyrgyz cuisine.
Next was Chon Kemin – a mountain valley situated in the east from Bishkek, where we stayed overnight in one of the guest houses. As an optional activity we arranged horse carriage ride, which was a fun activity for a family.

Sometimes it happens that horse riding or other activities don’t start at designated time. As part of the local mentality, being late doesn’t mean much of disrespect, but rather a habit, which isn’t usually accepted well with other cultures. This time too, horses came approx. 30 min later than our agreed time. However, I felt relieved that guests were not angry with that and just accepted this as part of the journey. My previous tour was quite stressful as many things didn’t go as planned, and there was constant rush and trying to fix things. This time, everything went mostly smoothly, but even with inconveniences, this family was relaxed, so thank you guys!

We had a copious dinner, and we went to rest after the eventful day of our tour.

Next day was a transfer day from Chon Kemin to Karakol, with a detour to Grigorievka and Semenovka gorges on the north shore of Issyk Kul lake. We had meaningful conversations while we were driving on the main road, so it didn’t feel like a very long drive. While making a detour from the road in the mountains, we could enjoy the serenity of wonderful gorges and rivers and took great photos as well. Their kid also loved being outdoors.
We arrived in Karakol closer to evening, went to dinner at one of the local restaurants and checked in at the hotel.

When planning the itinerary, clients asked me to arrange one night in a traditional yurt in the mountains. Not far from Karakol there is a picturesque valley called Kok Jaiyk where I know a family that can provide this type of experience for tourists. They have a yurt camp that operates during summer, but on request they also can host the guests during other seasons too, even in winter. We went there in April, but still, it wasn’t quite warm either, so other yurt camps didn’t operate at that time yet.

Before reaching the yurt camp, we made a stop near Jeti Oguz red rocks, then kept going higher to the mountains and eventually reached the valley where yurt camp was situated. We were the only guests at the camp; the hosts warmed the yurt and prepared traditional meals for dinner for us. Bathroom was outside the yurt, but we discussed that when planning an itinerary, so they were ok with less conditions to experience more authenticity. In the afternoon we took a walk in the valley to see more scenery and enjoy the views.

At night it gets quite cold there, but the hosts took care of that and used the stoves in the yurt to heat it, so we won’t get cold. Night was quite warm and comfortable.

Next day in the morning we said our thanks and goodbyes to the family that hosted us in the camp and returned to the main road to go now along the south shore of Issyk Kul lake. Our 2 locations to visit were Barskoon waterfalls and Skazka canyon. In Barskoon we took a short hike to see a waterfall which was melting gradually after being frozen completely during wintertime. In Skazka canyon I offered the parents to go explore the place on their own, while I would look after their daughter. Some areas are steep to walk, so it wouldn’t be comfortable hiking there with a small child, so the parents relied on me and went hiking there by themselves. They were gone not for too long and were quite happy when they returned to see their daughter playing with me with sand. We then kept going and eventually arrived at Bokonbaevo village, where we stayed overnight in a cozy guest house.

Bokonbaevo is well known for its eagle hunters – keepers of the ancient nomadic tradition of hunting with golden eagles. We went to meet one of them in the morning, took some cool photos with eagle and saw how he trains his bird of prey. After this demonstration, we hit the road to Bishkek and arrived there in the afternoon.
Clients were happy to see the natural wonders of Kyrgyzstan and experience authentic activities, such as seeing eagle hunter training and staying in a yurt overnight.
My guests had the flight to Uzbekistan, Tashkent on the same day. I brought them to the airport 2 hours prior to their flight. That was the end of our journey through Kyrgyzstan with this great family.

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