Almaty + Astana: mountains at the doorstep and a city built from scratch
In Almaty a cable car lifts you from the centre to the snow; in Astana there is steppe wind and architecture thirty years old. Two hours by air or a night by train between them.
Why both
Kazakhstan is often reduced to one city, and that is a mistake: Almaty and Astana are different countries in pace and meaning. Almaty is pressed against the foothills, green, full of cafés and markets, and forty minutes from the centre you are at the snow. Astana is steppe, wind and a manifesto of a city where buildings stand apart and are signed with their architects' names. Neither explains the country alone.
Almaty: four days
Day one is the city itself: the Green Bazaar, Panfilov Park with its wooden cathedral, and Kok-Tobe in the evening. Day two is the mountains: Medeu and Shymbulak, reached by cable car straight from the skating rink. Day three is Big Almaty Lake, turquoise and cold, about an hour up. Day four is worth spending on the Charyn canyon: three hours each way, and one of those cases where it is worth it.
Astana: three days
Bayterek, Khan Shatyr, the mosque, the Ishim embankment, the district around the Expo site — Astana is seen quickly and best on foot along a single axis. Leave an evening for a viewing platform and a day for the National Museum, which is unexpectedly good, especially the archaeology hall: the Golden Man and the finds from Saka burial mounds explain where all of this came from.
Between the cities
The flight takes about two hours, the train a night. The overnight Talgo saves a hotel and works humanely: board in the evening, step off in the centre in the morning. Tickets go quickly in summer, so buy early. The route is convenient as a loop — fly into one city and out of the other rather than doubling back.
About the weather, honestly
Astana is one of the coldest capital cities in the world: minus thirty with wind across the steppe in winter, and it feels stronger than it sounds. Almaty is milder in winter, and that is precisely when it makes sense to go there to ski. The best window for the pair is May–June and September: Almaty is green (or still green) with the mountain roads open, and Astana is warm without the wind chill.
What to eat in Kazakhstan
Beshbarmak is the main dish: boiled meat with thinly rolled dough, served on a large platter and shared by seniority. Kuyrdak, kazy (horse sausage), baursak with tea. Tea is drunk with milk and in quantity. In Almaty you add Uyghur and Dungan cooking: hand-pulled lagman, manti, samsa from the tandoor — whole streets of places that make nothing else. And the Green Bazaar, where you should arrive hungry: they hand you everything to taste.
Choosing a season for the task
If mountains and lakes are the point, it is June–September: earlier the passes and high lakes are under snow, later it is already cold. If skiing is the point, December–March: Shymbulak works off a city cable car with slopes twenty minutes from the centre, which is rare for a large city. Astana is hot and dusty in summer and extreme in winter; May and September suit it best. Forced to pick one month for both — September.
Practical matters
No visa is needed, up to 90 days. Russian is universal in both cities. Russian bank cards do not work, but cash changes everywhere and taxis come through an app. The one thing worth checking in advance is the road to Big Almaty Lake and to Charyn: after rain and in early spring they are closed, and the barrier is a bad place to learn that.
Moscow → Almaty → Astana
Route and nights go into the form — adjust the date and passengers.