In our travel guide, we tell you the best way to visit Charyn Canyon and make most of it, give you tips which save you time & money, and you also get to see other two canyons along the way! Charyn Canyon is a popular day trip from Almaty. However, finding out how to get there is quite a challenging task.

We visited Charyn Canyon at the end of June 2022. Yet still, no public transportation runs from Almaty, making it a pretty challenging trip if you want to visit independently. Not talking about the number of businesses that, after the pandemic, don’t work anymore. We spend a lot of time researching the best way to visit Charyn Canyon together with a camping trip to Kolsai Lakes, which are, in the Kazakh way, quite close to each other. 

Why visit Charyn Canyon 

Charyn Canyon is a Kazakh version of the Grand Canyon in the US. It is truly a majestic place, like nowhere else in Central Asia, and we were really excited to explore it. The Charyn Canyon National park has a length of about 154 km and follows the steam of the Charyn River, which is the deepest river in the Northern Shan Mountains. With some places as deep as 300 m, the most popular part of the Charyn Canyon is, without a doubt, the Valley of Castles, which is a dramatic red rock formation making it so photogenic, especially at sunset. 

The way from Almaty is an amazing show, as you drive through the mountain scenery of Almaty first, over the endless green steppes, to the dry, out-of-this-world area of Charyn canyon. 

Essential reading: Visit Almaty: The largest city in Kazakhstan

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How to get to Charyn Canyon from Almaty 

Cheap Local Tour 

Visiting Charyn Canyon is a popular day trip from Almaty. Don’t take the expensive tours that aims at tourists. Instead, go with a local company that is very cheap. Onyx tours and Joinme.Asia are the best providers, with frequent tours and low prices. A day tour to Charyn Canyon costs KZT 7500 ($15), or you can combine it with visiting Kolsai Lakes for KZT 11500 ($24). This is what we did, and we stayed in Kolsai Lakes, camping by ourselves for two nights, and then used the same company to go back to Almaty, with a stop at Charyn Canyon. 

This is the cheapest and most convenient way to visit Charyn Canyon. Don’t look at these tours as tourists aimed. Instead, think about it as an inexpensive way of transportation between places. We were the only tourists on the bus anyway, it’s held in Russian, and it is also fun to interact with local tourists. Not only that, but you also get to see different canyons and lakes on tour. Our exact Charyn Canyon itinerary is below. 

It is roughly 220 km from Almaty and takes around four hours. If you go from Kolsai Lakes, it will take you around two hours and 110 km. Coming with the tour, the entry fee of around KZT 1000 ($2) is included. 

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Shared Taxi/Hitchhiking 

Even though it is a popular weekend location amongst the locals, don’t expect any public transport going there. You can take an early morning shared taxi that leaves from Sayakhat bus station in Almaty. Find one that goes to Kegen and ask them to drop you off at the turnoff to Charyn Canyon. 

From there, it’s another 10 km walk to reach the entry gate of Charyn Canyon. And then a 4 km hike through the Canyon to the river, where you can pitch your tent. In the sweltering heat of Kazakhs summer, which in this part of the world is quite brutal (mind: you go through a desert without any shade or possibility to refill water), we didn’t want to take the risk. That’s why we decided to skip camping in the Charyn Canyon. You can try to hitchhike. Especially on the weekends, many locals come this way. 

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Hitchhiking

We are adventurous travellers, and earlier this year, we hitchhiked our trip through Iraqi Kurdistan. But this option really sounded too off limits for us. To carry food, water and all camping gear between Kolsai Lakes and Charyn Canyon, the remote location and heat. We simply don’t recommend you this option. Instead, combine the cheap tours as transfers and stay in places overnight camping, or in yurts.

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How to get from Charyn Canyon to Almaty

For the way back, you again need to get back to the intersection. It’s a 10 km hike from the entrance or a 14 km hike from the camping spot by the river, through the desert. Then you get to the main intersection, which is in the middle of nowhere. From there, you need to wait for a shared taxi that runs between Almaty and Kegen in uncertain times. Or hitchhike. 

Or, let know the Onyx tour you want to go with them back, and jump in on their tour bus that is every day, except on Tuesdays, coming to Charyn Canyon. 

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Onward travel 

It would be a shame to leave Charyn Canyon without visiting nearby Kolsai or Kaindy Lake. To learn more about how you can travel between Charyn Canyon and Kolsai Lakes, read our detailed travel guide.

Essential reading: How to visit and camp by Kolsai Lakes from Almaty

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Charyn Canyon what to expect

Once you arrive at the Charyn Canyon car park, you can go straight down to the Canyon by the stairs in front of the car park. Or you can turn left and follow the 2.5 km path to the back from where you get the best panoramic view over the Valley of Castles. Along the way, many side paths can take you to get different points of view. Some of them are already forbidden to go, we guess, because of safety issues. There are picnic spots and toilets along this way. 

If you go down the Canyon first, it is a roughly 2 km hike through the Canyon to reach the Valley of Castles. Or there are frequent 4WD taxis that drive you there. One way costs KZT 500 ($1). If you come on tour, this saves you a lot of time. Since you usually have only a couple of hours in Charyn Canyon.

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Where to stay in Charyn Canyon 

Things weren’t as easy as we first imagined. Well, like going to other destinations around Kazakhstan, the travel network is unfortunately not good for tourism. We planned to be camping in Charyn Canyon, as once you hike 4 km through the Canyon to the end, there used to be an Eco Camp, with facilities for camping, yurts and some cottages. We contacted them, and unfortunately, this place is completely closed after the pandemic. Making it an abandoned place. 

Since wild camping is allowed in Kazakhstan, you can pitch your tent basically anywhere. There is a chance the guard will show you where it is possible and where not since they currently placed signs forbidding entry in multiple places in the Canyon. 

Camping: that being said, as of June 2022, wild camping is the only option to spend overnight in Charyn Canyon. Since we visited it in late June, the temperatures were unbelievably hot, and the area was very dry and humid; we decided not to camp there. 

After we visited the Canyon, we were happy we decided to skip the camping part. Given its lack of water, sweltering summer heat and the remote location with the necessity to hike 14 km back to the main road intersection the next day, it sounded too complicated and even dangerous in summer (heat & water). For your information, we hadn’t seen anyone camping in Charyn Canyon when we were there. 

TIP: If you want to stay overnight, we recommend you take a tour with Onyx. They have a day tour for KZT 7500 ($15), and it is easy to order it through WhatsApp (+77777306598). They speak Russian, but it is ok if you send messages in English. Ask to go with them to Charyn Canyon and tell them your plan to be camping there, and come back with them the other day. They have this tour on weekends. Or they also have an everyday tour to Charyn Canyon + Kolsai Lakes, so you can hop on this bus to get back to Almaty. This is exactly what we did, but with Kolsai Lakes.

Read: How to cross the borders from Almaty to Bishkek (Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan)

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Where to eat in Charyn Canyon 

Currently, there are no restaurants in Charyn Canyon, so you need to bring all your food by yourself. One water refill station is located on the top of the canyon on the way to the panoramic viewpoint of the Valley of castles. Roughly 10 minuted walk from the car park. To refill water from the river down the canyon, you need to hike 4km through the canyon until you reach it. Otherwise, ensure you bring plenty of water with you as in summer it gets sweltering in the sun.

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TRAVEL INSURANCE

To enter Kazakhstan, it is not necessary to have travel insurance. However, make sure you have one that covers all range of activities you might do in Kazakhstan – hiking, horse riding etc. We found that IATI Insurance has the best deals with excellent coverage. Therefore we recommend you check out their insurance packages. In addition, as a reader of our blog Broken Navigation, you get an exclusive 5% discount.

Get your 5% discount with IATI Insurance here.

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Our exact itinerary for Charyn Canyon + Kolsai Lakes

This is the exact itinerary we followed to reach both Charyn Canyon and Kolsai Lakes. Half is with a tour, and the camping part in Kolsai lakes is done independently. Don’t be afraid to reach out to the tour providers and try to organize everything to your liking. 

DAY 1

6am leaving Almaty with a Joinme.Asia (Onyx) tour. Then we visited Bartogay lake before we got to the first Kolsai Lake, where we left the bus and went for a 2km hike to the camping spot on the other side of Kolsai Lake.

DAY 2

6 km hike to the second Kolsai Lake. It took us around 4.5 hours. Camping by the second lake. Making fire and dinner, enjoying the quietness of the place and swimming in the lake. 

DAY 3 

On this day, we planned to wake up early in the morning (4am), hike back to lake one and find a taxi to Kaindy lake (It shouldn’t cost more than KZT 15000 ($31) for a return trip for two). However, the hike back took us much longer than expected, and we arrived out of energy after almost 4 hours. Therefore we didn’t have enough time to visit Kaindy lake. 

More of Kazakhstan: Travel to Aksu Zhabagly Natural Reserve from Shymkent

Then we found a guide from the bus company (it’s easy as they all wear green uniforms from Joinme.Asia company) and told him we go back with them. It worked without a problem. Then we visited Charyn Canyon and also stopped at the viewpoints of Moon Canyon and Black Canyon. Around 10pm, we returned to Almaty. 

NEXT TIME: Next time, on the first day, we would jump out of the bus at Saty and start by going to Kaindy Lake first, where we could either spend a night and the following day go straight to Kolsai Lake two. Or you can return from Kaindy lake straight to the Kolsai Lakes on the same day and follow the same itinerary as above. 

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Useful Tips

• If you stay overnight and want to explore off-the-beaten path tracks, you should have GPS or a good map. There are no facilities beyond the Valley of Castles, so make sure you’re self-sufficient. 

• Have enough food

• Bring a water filter for water from the river. But also have enough water with you since to reach the river is quite a walk.

• Bring sun protection

• In general, be prepared for a remote location, bloody hot and humid weather and inhospitable surroundings of the Canyon 

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