Song-Kol
Four days and a two-day ride over the Kyzart pass and the Kilemche pastures to a lake at three thousand metres.
This is the riding version of the Song-Kol trip. Instead of driving up to the lake, you meet your horse in the village of Kyzart, spend a day getting used to it, and then ride over the pass and across the Kilemche summer pasture to the shore.
No previous riding experience is needed. Day two is deliberately a light warm-up — a short ride or an acclimatisation walk — so the long day in the saddle that follows is something you have prepared for rather than survived. The horses are local, and the herder who owns them rides with the group.
Four days end to end makes this the shortest way to do a genuine horse trek in Kyrgyzstan. Groups are capped at ten, and it runs from mid-June to mid-September, while the camps are standing.
Open any day to see where you sleep, how far you travel and what the day actually feels like.
Met at the airport and taken to the hotel. After check-in and a rest, a walk through the capital — the wide avenues, the mountain backdrop, the ordinary life of the place. In the evening a welcome dinner of traditional Kyrgyz food, a short briefing and introductions to the team you will be riding with.
After breakfast we drive south towards Kochkor and on to the village of Kyzart, where the mountain part of the trip starts. You meet the horses and the local guides, get the kit sorted, and finish the day with a short warm-up ride or an acclimatisation walk. The evening is quiet.
The long day, and the reason for the trip. The trail climbs over the Kyzart pass and out onto open rolling country, crosses the Kilemche summer pasture, and drops towards Song-Kol at just over three thousand metres. Time at the lake when you arrive, then dinner and a night in a traditional yurt camp.
Breakfast at the camp and an unhurried morning by the water before we say goodbye to the lake. The drive back runs through mountain country with a stop in Kochkor for lunch, then on to Bishkek, arriving in the evening. The tour ends there.
Most people on this tour have not. Day two exists to fix that: a short ride at walking pace before the long day. The horses are calm working animals used to visitors, and the herder rides alongside the group the whole way.
Song-Kol is at 3,016 m and the night is cold in any month. You share a yurt with three to five people on felt mattresses under heavy quilts, with a wood stove, a solar lamp and a long-drop toilet a short walk away.
Mid-June to mid-September only. Before and after that the Kyzart pass holds snow and the families have taken their yurts back down to the valleys, so there is nothing to ride to.
Send us a note and we will reply within one working day with availability and the exact plan.
Other routes that cover similar ground or pair well as an extension.
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Bishkek, Song-Kol and Kel-Suu in one loop — horse riding, two nights in yurts and two of the most striking lakes in Central Asia.
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The short version of the classic Kyrgyz trip: over the Too-Ashuu pass, two nights in yurts at Song-Kol, and back with time for an evening in Bishkek.
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