Almaty In Kazakhstan - Unusual Travel Destinations

by Zam

Have you considered Almaty for your next travel destination? Have you? Great! It is the place to visit if you want to get to know Kazakhstan better. Many tourists prefer arriving in Almaty as their starting point to do their Central Asian Tour.

Firstly, there are many direct international flights arrive in the Almaty airport from many destinations worldwide. So it's a connecting point to countries around it like China, Russia and the countries of Central Asia.

It's the most dynamic and active city among all Central Asian capitals. It's very flexible to and on par with the changes taking place around the world.

Tourists like that Almaty is a rather compact city and yet holds quite a lot of venues and activities. Most of the tourist places are within an easy access from the city center, where the best Almaty hotels are situated.

Kazakhstan State Museum is one of the popular places for tourists, as it shows the history since the first traces of life have been found on the territory of todays' Kazakhstan. Each hall showing you the findings of a separate time and civilization, either settled or nomadic.

If you are more an active traveler, meaning adventure seeker, then you'll find many interesting geographic landmarks around Almaty, that are very worthwhile to visit. There is a mini version of the Grand Canyon. It is about two and half to three hours drive from the city. White water rafting is quite popular there.

You wonder what other activities you could have around Almaty? Well, you could go ice diving, skiing, skating, hitch hiking, trekking, offroading, biking and more.

On top of all this, you can also taste a mixture of national dishes from many parts of the world all in one place. Apart from Moroccan, Indian, Italian, Korean and other national restaurants offering their traditional food, you can find local food quite interesting. You can taste horse meat, drink fermented horse and camel milk, dried sweet melon and more.

Be aware, though, that the weather can get seriously hot in summer around July and very cold in winter. Some years the winters are colder than others. If you are visiting in winter remember you do need fur boots and a warm hat, and, of course, gloves and a warm coat.

And remember that "The whole object of travel is not to set foot on a foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." ;)