Turgen Gorge Day Tour
Tour details:
Price: starting from 95 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
Food – picnic
Tour-guide (only for Standard option)
Water 1l per person
All fees & tickets
What to take with you:
Comfortable shoes
Hat
Sunscreen
Tour Overview:
Not every great adventure requires a long journey. Turgen Gorge sits just outside Almaty – and yet it feels completely removed from city life. Spruce forests, emerald hills, fast mountain rivers, waterfalls, and alpine lakes make up a landscape that surprises most people who visit for the first time. Your guide and driver will take you through it all, weaving in the stories of the Tian Shan mountains and the nomadic cultures that called this region home for thousands of years.
In Dostar Trips we treat each our guest as a friend whom we just didn’t meet yet (“dostar” means friends from Kazakh). If you take a trip with us – you can rely on our friendly support during all your stay, we will always be happy to help you with anything you wish – advise the best place to eat, buy a train ticket, meet locals. 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 or guide-driver;
- Two amazing locations during a one-day trip to the Turgen Gorge: Issyk lake and Bear waterfall;
- A full intensive day of sightseeing, walking, and enjoying great vistas.
Itinerary:
Your guide and driver collect you from your hotel and set off along the old Kuldzha tract – an ancient trade route where caravans passed for hundreds of years before the modern world caught up with it. Your guide fills the drive with stories of Kazakhstan: its culture, its people, its layered history.
The road to Turgen Gorge takes you through a landscape that feels like a different Kazakhstan entirely – mysterious coniferous forests, fast-running mountain rivers, alpine meadows scattered with wildflowers, and the kind of air that makes you want to slow down and breathe deeply.
The first stop is Lake Issyk, sitting at 1,756 metres above sea level in a valley of the same name. At first glance it’s simply stunning – a postcard-perfect alpine lake framed by forest and mountains. But it carries a darker story. In 1963, a catastrophic mudflow swept through the valley, destroying the lake and everything around it. What the disaster left behind, however, was extraordinary: the mudflow uncovered archaeological treasures that shed remarkable new light on the ancient civilisations of this region. Your guide will tell you the full story. We’ll have a picnic by the lake – scenery like this deserves to be eaten in.
The day ends at Bear Waterfall — 29 metres of cascading water tucked into a deep rocky niche on the southern slope of the Karash Ridge, plunging into a pool surrounded by ancient rock. One of the best things about this one: the trail is easy and accessible for all ages and fitness levels, so everyone in the group gets to experience it up close. One of those places that stops you in your tracks.
In the evening, your driver brings you back to Almaty – relaxed, unhurried, and full of stories to tell.
Your Turgen Gorge Day Tour on the map:
Prices for the Turgen Gorge Day Tour, USD:
This is a private tour. Each listed price is the total for your group size (1-5 guests), not a per person rate. 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
$230
total
Private only, no group matching. $230 for one guest.
2 people
$125 / person
$250 total
Private only, no group matching. $125 per person for group of two guests.
3 people
$125 / person
$375 total
Private only, no group matching. $125 per person for group of three guests.
4 people
$100 / person
$400 total
Private only, no group matching. $100 per person for group of four guests.
5 people
$85 / person
$425 total
Private only, no group matching. $85 per person for group of five guests.
Standard
Your own expert English-speaking guide, an experienced driver, and everything taken care of — accommodation, meals, entry tickets, and water. Just show up and enjoy.
Solo traveller
$340
total
Private only, no group matching. $340 for one guest.
2 people
$180 / person
$360 total
Private only, no group matching. $180 per person for group of two guests.
3 people
$165 / person
$495 total
Private only, no group matching. $165 per person for group of three guests.
4 people
$125 / person
$500 total
Private only, no group matching. $125 per person for group of four guests.
5 people
$105 / person
$525 total
Private only, no group matching. $105 per person for group of five guests.
What's included:
Transportation
Food – picnic
Tour-guide (only for Standard option)
Water 1l per person
All fees & tickets
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.
Testimonials from our guests:
