Kazakhstan Travel Guide - Getting There

Air Astana (website: www.airastana.com) is the national airline.

From London to Almaty is 8 hours, and from Frankfurt/M is 10 hours.

Almaty (ALA) (website: www.almatyairport.com) is located 10km (6 miles) northeast of the city. To/from the airport: Buses connect the airport with the city centre (journey time – 20 minutes). Taxis are also available. Facilities: Car hire, duty-free shops, restaurant and post office.

Astana (website: www.astanaairport.kz). To/from the airport: Taxis are available. Facilities: Duty-free, restaurants, cate, ATM, currency exchange bureaux and baggage storage.

None.

Main ports: Aqtau, Atyrau, Oskemen, Pavlodar and Semey. Freight is carried on the Caspian Sea to Iran and the Russian Federation.

There are international rail connections with China, the Russian Federation, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Services run regularly from Almaty to Urumchi in China and daily to Moscow (journey time – 3 days) and connect with the entire Russian Federation railway network.

The Tashkent–Novosibirsk Express passes through Almaty in both directions. The lines from Almaty in the north connect with the Trans-Siberian Railway running west to Chimkent and finally to Orenburg in the Russian Federation. The Trans-Asian Railway's Northern Corridor links Kazakhstan to China, Mongolia, the Russian Federation and the Korean Peninsula.

A new railway line is being built to connect Kazakhstan to Iran and Turkey. Foreign visitors should exercise caution when using trains other than the Almaty–Moscow train; violent crime against Westerners is on the increase.

There are good road connections into the Russian Federation, the other Central Asian states and China.

Bus: Buses leave Chimkent for Tashkent. The journey is 160km (100 miles) (journey time – 3 hours). There are also buses from Chimkent to Bishkek.