Kolsay Lakes
Kazakhstan
Three lakes stacked up a valley of the Tien Shan, a drowned forest in a fourth, and horses to ride between them
Photo by GWANGJIN GO on Unsplash
Photos by GWANGJIN GO, GWANGJIN GO, GWANGJIN GO and GWANGJIN GO on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Kazakhstan
June to September (the road to the upper lakes is snow from late autumn; the larches turn gold at the end of the season)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 90mm in May
Where it is
42.95°N, 78.33°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
A week easily- Walk to the second lake and back in a day
- Ride a horse to Kaindy
- Sleep in a homestay in Saty
- Photograph the drowned forest at Kaindy in the morning
- Combine with Charyn on the way
Kolsay Lakes travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Kazakhstan
Good valueTenge. Exchange booths (obmen valyuty) are everywhere in the cities, honest, and post the rate in the window; dollars and euros both change well, and clean notes matter. Cards are taken almost everywhere in Almaty and Astana and less so on the road.
ATMs & cards
Kaspi and Halyk machines are everywhere and free with most foreign cards; decline the conversion. Kaspi’s QR payments run the country and a foreign card cannot join them, so carry some cash for the bazaar and the marshrutka.
Avoid these
- the standalone machines in the bazaars, which charge and push conversion
Use these instead
- Kaspi
- Halyk Bank
- ForteBank
Bank machines are free with most foreign cards. Kaspi’s QR payments run the country and a foreign card cannot join them, so some cash is always needed.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Kazakhstan
Very safeVery comfortable in the village. The mountain: the third lake is on the Kyrgyz border and needs a permit, the weather at 2,000 m turns in an hour, and the horses know the paths better than the riders. Kaindy’s water is glacial.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (4 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- the third lake — on the border; a permit and a guard
- the path to the second lake in cloud — it climbs a thousand metres and the weather turns
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Kazakhstan visa rules
No visa neededup to 30 days
Thirty days without a visa for about eighty passports. Registration with the migration police is done automatically at the border now; older advice about a registration slip is out of date.
Other passports
e-Visa requiredup to 30 daysabout USD 80
Through the visa-migration portal, with an invitation for some passports.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Kazakhstan
Good but costlyRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Tetanus up to date
- Tick-borne encephalitis for the Almaty mountains in late spring
- Rabies for a long or rural stay
Getting treated
Good private clinics in Almaty and Astana, used to foreigners and to insurance; adequate state hospitals in the other cities; thin on the steppe and in the mountains, where evacuation is the plan. Cheap by European standards.
Ticks in the foothills above Almaty from April to July carry encephalitis; long trousers on the trails and a check afterwards. Altitude at the lakes and on the Shymbulak lifts. The winter cold in Astana is a medical hazard in its own right. Tap water is chlorinated and most people drink bottled.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodHomestays in Saty feed you: laghman, plov, fresh bread, kumis and endless tea. There is no restaurant. Buy anything you want for the trail in Almaty; the village shop has biscuits and vodka.
Getting around
Car needed- Yandex GoWorks here
- inDriveWorks here
- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
inDrive You name the price and a driver accepts it
- From the airport
- From the airport to the centre 3,000–6,000 tenge on the app, or the city bus for a few hundred
- Against a taxi
- Cheaper than the cars waiting at the airport kerb, which quote three times the app.
Time zone and your working day
Asia/Almaty — 9 hours ahead of you
0 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — — your time, — theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 00:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 00:00–08:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Kazakhstan
Why these are Kazakhstan's numbers and not Kolsay Lakes's
Home broadband — Fair. Video calls and streaming for one or two people — fine for a holiday, thin for a household working. Broadband here runs at 70% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Fair. Maps, calls and streaming; tethering a laptop works for an hour, not a day. Mobile runs at 82% of the global median of 109 Mbps.
Ookla publishes no separate figure for Kolsay Lakes, so these are medians for all of Kazakhstan. Cities usually beat the national number and remote islands and national parks fall well below it — treat this as the country's shape, not as a measurement of the street you will be staying on.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Kazakhstan, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Kazakh
- HelloSälemetsiz besa-le-met-SIZ be
- PleaseÖtinemino-ti-ne-MIN
- Thank youRakhmetrakh-MET
- Yes / NoIä / Zhoqee-ya / zhok
5 more phrases
- Excuse meKeshiriñizke-shi-ri-NIZ
- How much is it?Bul qansha turady?bul kan-SHA tu-ra-DY
- DeliciousDämdidam-DI
- WaterSusu
- GoodbyeSau bolyngyzsau bo-LYN-gyz
The state language, moving from Cyrillic to Latin script over this decade, so signs are in both. Russian is spoken by everyone in the cities and is the practical language for a visitor; English is common among the young in Almaty and Astana.
Religion
Sunni Muslim and Russian Orthodox, in a secular state
About 70% Muslim and 20% Orthodox, and both worn lightly: alcohol is everywhere, headscarves are a choice, and the mosques and cathedrals are visited by tourists without fuss. Cover shoulders and knees inside either, and take shoes off at the mosque.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Take the tea, and expect the cup to be refilled shallow — that is the hospitality, not stinginess
- Greet with a handshake, men to men; a nod and a hand on the heart to a woman unless she offers hers
- Take your shoes off at the door of a home and at the mosque
- Accept the beshbarmak with your right hand when it is passed
Don't
- Do not refuse food twice; once is polite, twice is a refusal
- Do not photograph government buildings, and ask before photographing people at the bazaar
- Do not joke about Borat; it landed badly and it still does
- Do not put bread on the ground or upside down
Where to stay in Kolsay Lakes
No Holistay rentals in Kolsay Lakes yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Kolsay Lakes on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Almaty ALA
4hfrom the airport· 280 km as the crow flies
4h by road, the last hour on a track.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
