Song-Kol
Seven days and two thousand kilometres across the country's four best lakes, its mountain passes and a night above three thousand metres.
The Grand Tour is the most action-packed week we run. It links the four lakes people actually come to Kyrgyzstan for — Son-Kol, Kel-Suu, Issyk-Kul and Ala-Kul — into a single two-thousand-kilometre loop, and it does not pad the days out to make the distance look smaller.
You walk eight kilometres each way to Kel-Suu, ride twelve kilometres each way towards Ala-Kul and then climb the last kilometre on foot up a forty-degree slope, swim in Issyk-Kul, and spend two evenings around a fire at a yurt camp. Two of the seven days are long ones behind the windscreen; the rest are spent outside.
Groups are capped at twelve. The route needs a border-zone permit for Kel-Suu and an ex-military truck for the Altyn-Arashan track, and we arrange both. It runs from late June to mid-September — outside those dates the passes set the schedule, not us.
Open any day to see where you sleep, how far you travel and what the day actually feels like.
Pickup at 06:00 and out of the city by half past, south through the Boom gorge with a stop at the Kalmak-Ashuu pass. We reach the yurt camp on the shore around midday and eat at half one; the afternoon is yours. Dinner comes with a fire and the evening games the camp is known for.
Breakfast at seven and away by eight, over the pass locals call 33 Parrots and down to Naryn for lunch. Passports come out at the border-zone checkpoint in the afternoon, because this is a restricted area, and we reach camp around half six with dinner an hour later.
The day the route is built around. Eight kilometres on foot from camp, reaching the lake between eleven and half past, with the rest of the morning and the afternoon on the shore — there is a boat if you want it. We start back at four, and if the sky stays clear there is a fire after dinner.
Out of the mountains the way we came in: water canyons at ten, the border checkpoint at half eleven, lunch in Naryn. The afternoon is the long drive north, and by half six you are checking into a guesthouse on the southern shore of Issyk-Kul with the lake in front of you.
A day of stops rather than a drive: the Fairytale canyons in the morning, both Barskoon waterfalls before lunch, and the Jeti-Oguz gorge at half three. We reach Karakol at half five and change into ex-military trucks for the track up to Altyn-Arashan, arriving at the guesthouse around half seven.
An early breakfast and then twelve kilometres on horseback towards Ala-Kul. The horses stop where the ground steepens and the last kilometre is on foot, up a forty to forty-five degree slope. Time at the lake, then the same way back down to camp for dinner. This is the hardest day of the week.
Breakfast at eight, an unhurried morning, and back down to Karakol for lunch at noon. A last stop on Issyk-Kul in the afternoon — the final swim of the trip — before the drive west at seven. Bishkek around eleven at night, and the tour ends there.
There is no signal at Son-Kol, Kel-Suu, Altyn-Arashan or Ala-Kul. Calls and data work only in towns and on a few stretches of road, so expect to be offline for most of the week.
Guesthouses are two to three people per room; yurts are three to five. Meals are traditional Kyrgyz cooking, and a vegetarian menu is available if you ask for it when you book.
A minivan or small bus covers the two thousand kilometres of road. The Karakol to Altyn-Arashan section is different: the track is too broken for anything but an ex-military truck, and that hour and a half is rough.
Warm layers, thermals and a hat — nights at altitude are cold even in August. Add sunglasses, sun cream, a swimsuit and towel for Issyk-Kul, and a rain shell, because the weather here turns fast.
Send us a note and we will reply within one working day with availability and the exact plan.
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