Charyn Canyon Day Tour
Enjoy epic views without crowds and rush even if you have only one day in Almaty!
Tour details:
Price: starting from 105 USD per person (see full info below)
Type of Tour: Private
Duration: Full or Half Day (you decide)
Pick up and drop off at your hotel or anywhere else you’re staying in Almaty. Airport pick up and/or drop off are also available.
Meals: full lunch box with meat, vegetables and side dish; vegetarian or vegan options are available.
What's included:
- Transportation: 4×4 Jeep
- Guide
- Lunch-box (please let us know if you have any dietary restrictions)
- Water
- All fees & tickets
What to take with you:
- Comfortable shoes
- Hat
- Sunscreen
Tour Overview:
Stand at the edge of a canyon carved over 12 million years. Smell the sage on the open steppe. Feel the scale of deep time all around you. Charyn Canyon is one of Kazakhstan’s most iconic natural wonders — and on this private day tour from Almaty, you’ll experience it the way it deserves: at your own pace, without the noise of a group tour, with an expert guide who brings the landscape to life.
This is Kazakhstan as it really is: vast, ancient, and quietly breathtaking. Your private guide and experienced driver handle everything, so you can lose yourself in the landscape, not the logistics.
At Dostar Trips, “dostar” means friends in Kazakh — and that’s genuinely how we think of the people who travel with us. From the moment we pick you up to the moment we drop you back, we’re here for whatever you need.
Check out what our previous guests are saying about us on TripAdvisor. Let’s be friends!
Highlights:
- Pick up and drop off at your hotel or Airbnb flat;
- Lunch is included (please message us if you prefer vegetarian, vegan, or gluten-free options);
- Friendly English-speaking guide and experienced driver;
- Three amazing locations during a one-day trip to Charyn Canyon: Valley of Castles, Moon Canyon, and Bartogay Lake;
- A full intensive day of sightseeing, hiking, and enjoying great vistas.
Itinerary:
Your guide and driver collect you from your hotel, then head out along the Khorgos-Almaty highway. Watch the countryside transform: green orchards fade into endless steppe, with nothing but sky, wind, and the occasional lone herder on the horizon. Your guide fills the drive with stories of Kazakh culture and the nomadic heritage that shaped this land – history most of the world has yet to discover.
First stop: a Uyghur village market buzzing with colour and the irresistible smell of meat sizzling over coals and tandyr samsa fresh from a clay oven. A perfect taste of the region before the road opens up again.
Next, we turn off the main road and follow a quieter track out to Bartogay lake – a wide, still expanse of water set against the dry steppe, with the mountains as a backdrop. Depending on the season and light, it can feel almost surreal. A place to pause, breathe, and take it all in.
Then the canyon. You descend into the Valley of Castles – a world of towering sandy-beige and clay formations, layered with dark streaks of ancient magma closer to the river. The Charyn River glitters below, quietly going about the work it has been doing for millions of years. After exploring the valley, we head to lunch at a wonderful little local café nearby, run by a talented female entrepreneur whose home-style cooking has become a favourite stop of ours. A meal worth looking forward to.
The afternoon takes you to Moon Canyon – Charyn’s most secluded and rarely visited section, a place of otherworldly silence and raw geological beauty. No tour groups, no noise. Just you and one of Central Asia’s most compelling hidden corners.
Late afternoon, your driver takes you back to Almaty – tired in the best possible way.
Don’t forget to pack sturdy shoes with good grip for the canyon trails.
Photography from Slawomir Adamczak, Pawel Plocienniczak & Stephen Bridger
Your Charyn Canyon Day Tour on the map:
Prices for the Charyn Canyon Day Tour, USD:
This is a private tour. Usually we don’t match solo travelers or combine separate bookings, sometimes we can do it only if participants agreed and their dates match, however unfortunately it rarely happens.
If your party size changes, the price will adjust to the corresponding group tier.
For groups of 6+ guests, please contact us for options.
Basic
Everything included — meals, entry tickets, and water — just without the guide. A practical choice if you'd like to see the highlights while keeping costs manageable.
Solo traveller
$360
total
Private only, no group matching. $360 for one guest.
2 people
$190 / person
$380 total
Private only, no group matching. $190 per person for group of two guests.
3 people
$145 / person
$435 total
Private only, no group matching. $145 per person for group of three guests.
4 people
$115 / person
$460 total
Private only, no group matching. $115 per person for group of four guests.
5 people
$95 / person
$475 total
Private only, no group matching. $95 per person for group of five guests.
Standard
Your own expert English-speaking guide, an experienced driver, and everything taken care of — meals, entry tickets, and water. Just show up and enjoy.
Solo traveller
$460
total
Private only, no group matching. $460 for one guest.
2 people
$240 / person
$480 total
Private only, no group matching. $240 per person for group of two guests.
3 people
$175 / person
$525 total
Private only, no group matching. $175 per person for group of three guests.
4 people
$140 / person
$560 total
Private only, no group matching. $140 per person for group of four guests.
5 people
$115 / person
$575 total
Private only, no group matching. $115 per person for group of five guests.
Frequently Asked Questions
What vehicle will be used for the tour, and is it a 4×4 with rear seat-belts and child seats?
For our tours we usually use such cars as Toyota Land Cruiser or Toyota Sequoia.
We utilize only 4×4 vehicles to ensure a safe and reliable journey. Our fleet consists primarily of Toyota Land Cruisers and Toyota Sequoias.
Each vehicle is maintained to a high standard and undergoes a comprehensive safety inspection before every departure. For your safety, all cars are equipped with functional seat belts in the rear seats. Furthermore, if a child seat is required for your trip, we will provide one to ensure the comfort and safety of your younger travelers.
In Basic option - will the driver speak English?
Our drivers have a basic level of English — enough to get by, but don’t be surprised if a phone dictionary makes an appearance now and then. It’s all part of the adventure! If you’d like the full story behind every destination — the history, the geology, the culture — the Standard option with an expert guide is the way to go.
In Basic option - will the driver lead the hikes?
For safety reasons we prefer our drivers to stay rested and alert for the road ahead, so they won’t be leading longer hikes. That said, shorter walks and quick explorations are absolutely fine. If guided hiking is important to you, the Standard option is the better fit.
What will I get by choosing Standard?
You will get everything from Basic — accommodation, meals, entry tickets, and water — plus your own expert English-speaking guide. Here’s what that means in practice:
- your driver stays focused on the road, while your guide is fully dedicated to you.
- They’ll bring every destination to life with stories about history, geology, and culture;
- lead every hike; and be by your side throughout the entire tour for whatever you need.
It’s the difference between seeing a place and truly understanding it.
Is it possible to arrange vegetarian meals?
Absolutely! We are happy to arrange vegetarian meals for you. Just let us know your dietary preferences when booking and we’ll take care of the rest. We can also accommodate vegan, raw, gluten-free, dairy-free, and most other dietary requirements — no one should have to worry about food on a trip like this. Just let us know and we’ll make it work!
Is this a fully private tour for our family, or could other guests be added?
This will be your fully private tour, no other guests will be added.
I see similar offers from other tour companies with cheaper prices, why your price is higher?
Great question — and we’d rather be upfront about it than defensive.
Our drivers. We work with a small, trusted group of professionals who drive well-maintained premium 4WD vehicles. They don’t speed, they know every rough stretch of road in every national park we visit, and they’ve spent years mastering routes that less experienced drivers find genuinely challenging. If our regular drivers are unavailable, we don’t run the tour — we’d rather reschedule than compromise on who’s behind the wheel.
Our guides. Every guide we work with has gone through our own training programme, speaks confident conversational English, and will take you through the history, geology, geography, flora and fauna of every place you visit. Many have been with us for years. Same rule applies: if our guides are unavailable, the tour doesn’t run.
Our support. Behind every tour is an office team available to help with anything — customising your itinerary, answering questions, and making sure every detail is taken care of before and during your trip.
Our values. We pay our team fairly, because people who take genuine pride in their work deserve to be compensated well for it. That’s how we retain the same trusted faces year after year — and why our guests keep coming back.
Our accountability. We are a fully licensed, tax-paying tour operator — a legitimate company with real accountability to our guests, our team, and the law.
Cheaper options exist, and we respect that budget matters. But when you’re travelling far from home in remote national parks and on rough mountain roads, the question worth asking is: who do I trust to get us there and back safely, and make it truly memorable? We’d love to be the answer to that question.
What's your cancelation policy?
Cancellation policy:
– If you need to cancel your tour and it’s more than 7 days before the start date, you’ll get your full deposit back.
– If you cancel less than 7 days before the tour, unfortunately, you won’t be able to get that deposit back.
In the event that the weather does not permit us to visit the planned locations, your guide will propose an alternative itinerary that is suitable for the current conditions. While we cannot control the weather, please rest assured that we always strive to ensure you have a wonderful experience, no matter the circumstances.
I want to book the tour, how do I proceed?
1. Choose your date — use the calendar to select your preferred departure date. Greyed-out dates are sold out, but you can join the waitlist if needed.
2. Select your group size — pick the package that matches your group. The more people, the better the price per person.
3. Fill in participant details — you’ll be asked for basic information about each person in your group. There’s also a Notes to Organizer field — feel free to use it for any special requests or questions for us.
4. Agree to the terms & conditions — a quick read before you confirm.
5. Travel insurance — you’ll have the option to add travel insurance powered by Trawick International, covering trip cancellations, missed flights, and medical emergencies while travelling. Entirely optional, but worth considering for peace of mind.
6. Payment — choose whichever payment method works best for you: credit or debit card, US bank account, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. All transactions are secure and encrypted. You only pay a 10% deposit today — the remaining balance is due closer to the tour date. Prefer to pay in full upfront? That option is available too.
Hit Confirm Booking and you’re all set. We’ll be in touch shortly to take care of everything else. Looking forward to showing you Kazakhstan!
What is your booking software, is it safe?
We use WeTravel – a secure, user-friendly Dutch platform designed to book and pay for multi-day, specialized group trips. It allows travelers to pay in multiple currencies, set up flexible payment plans, and securely upload necessary documents, all while providing a clear overview of their itinerary and payment status.
Key features for guests include:
– Secure Payment Options: Guests can pay for trips using credit cards or, often, fee-free local bank transfers (ACH, SEPA, etc.), reducing extra costs.
– Seamless Booking Experience: Guests can easily view itineraries, sign up, and manage their trip details in one place.
– Personalized Profile: Guests have access to a dashboard to check their booking status, payment history, and necessary travel documents.
– Communication: Through WeTravel, travelers can receive updates and communicate directly with trip organizers.
– Essentially, it acts as the secure booking portal for boutique travel companies, retreats, and specialized group tours, providing peace of mind for the consumer.
