Kyrgyzstan Trekking and Hiking Trips

A varied trip providing an excellent taster to Kyrgyzstan. Aisuluu our tour guide was passionate about their country and was keen to showcase the culture and scenery, all with a wonderful sense of humour. The yurt camp experience was excellent and well worth bumping along the roads to get there. Food and beer were great too. A wonderful country that is worth a visit.

Kyrgyzstan is a country of huge adventure and great surprises. From wide open plains of nomadic herdsmen to towering mountains and freezing cold lakes and streams. The trip was both beautiful and challenging, definitely not one for the uninitiated hiker.

This trip exceeded my expectations in many ways! There is so much to see and enjoy on this tour. It is a tale of two halves: the first half, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, focus more on the stunning scenery and nature. The beauty of Kyrgyzstan was a revelation to me. And the Eagle-hunting workshop was an absolute highlight for everyone in the group. I did also enjoy the 'brutalist beauty' of Bishkek (expect your first day to be a long day, as you land in the morning and do a city tour in the afternoon - I basically skipped a night's sleep, but it was worth it!). A personal highlight for me was the walk from the yurt camp (most of the group cited the overnight stay in a yurt as their highlight) to the red rocks - absolutely stunning. The Grand Canyon in Kazakhstan was also a great experience. The second half of the trip, Uzbekistan, is more cultural: you will see many impressive mausoleums, madrasas and mosques. Samarkand especially blew me away! Khiva is also very beautiful but seems a bit more geared towards tourists - it was definitely more expensive than other parts of Uzbekistan, although still cheap. In Tashkent we also visited a market and some metro stations, which was a little different and a very interesting interlude. There is just so much to see and do. Some might find the many mausoleums a bit repetitive towards the end, but I found they all had something different to offer and it truly is a unique opportunity to visit these beautiful places before it gets to overcrowded with tourists (especially Uzbekistan is geared towards receiving more tourists and is getting more coverage in the international press as an up and coming tourist destination!).

This was a trip of a lifetime and the itinerary and guides were exceptional. My only criticism would be to make the booking of the tour easier. Living on the west coast of Canada I had a very difficult time reaching G agents. The chat bot was not live and after waiting in a queue of 8, I was disconnected. It would be good to say how long the expected phone wait is and to know the approximate time of the call back. It was often an almost all day effort to get a question answered. Roxanne is amazing but with a 9 hour time change it was often difficult to reach her even by email. The only glitch was the day room we though we had booked for arrival in Biskek - a place for 3 of us to rest and freshen up after our overnight flight. Instead two rooms were booked and ready and I had to wait several hours to sort out the reservation confusion. The transfer for 3 was great though.

This was a wonderful tour in an amazing part of the world, with stunning varied scenery, friendly people, and beautiful ancient buildings. Our G Adventures tour was excellent, and this company will be the first I consider for future travels.

If you love hiking, learning about new cultures, and experiencing pristine and diverse landscapes, this G Adventures trip would be right up your ally. Everything was carefully organized so that we had time each day to hike, to explore, to travel, and to rest. I am a vegetarian and there were non-meat options at every meal, and our guide, Dina, was intentional about finding restaurant options that catered to everyone's dietary restrictions. I've done 4 G Adventures trips, and this is by far my favorite.