A Digital Nomad Guide to Almaty, Kazakhstan

First off: Why Almaty, Kazakhstan?

While planning a way to get back from East Asia to Crete (for my mom's 60th birthday celebration), we couldn't for the life of us find something within our budget that wasn't going to require more than like 27 hours of flying and many hell-ish changeovers. Suddenly some flights popped up in Skyscanner that peaked my adventurous side: Air Astana flights from Seoul to Almaty and directly from Almaty to Heraklion (Crete) with over a 2-week layover.

I had been to Almaty back in 2014, and had tons of incredible, random, raw, local experiences and did my best to convince Fabio (who at that point pulled up a map on his phone, and for the first time, located Kazakhstan on it).

Soon after, we were booking those flights, and before we knew it, we were flying to Almaty, Kazakhstan, a name meaning The Father of Apples.

Us showing off plenty of Kazakh Pride at Charyn Canyon

Before You Go: Things to Prepare and Accommodations in Almaty

Before you head to Almaty, you are going to want to freshen up on the country, determine how long you are going to stay, figure out if you need a visa or not, book flights or other means of transportation, book accommodations, stock up on any necessary local apps, and ideally pick up a few words of Russian.

1) Drop your previous misconceptions about Kazakhstan (and Almaty)

Before we came to Almaty, Fabio stumbled upon this article when Googling "Is Almaty safe?" and it scared him so much that the first night he was afraid to go out (I had to pull him out the door). That article is written by a travel insurance company, and from firsthand experience as tourists, we felt extremely safe in Almaty. There are some areas outside the central part of the city that feel a bit rawer, but don't let an article like that dissuade you from coming to Almaty or Kazakhstan.

Additionally, inform yourself a bit on Kazakhstan and Almaty beforehand, and you will soon realize it is a pretty special place to visit! We recommend this YouTube channel, which provides some nice videos to get you inspired about the city and country.

And we also made two videos, so you can learn a little more about what Kazakhstan and Almaty are all about, as well as what it is like being a digital nomad in Almaty:

2) Figure out how long you can stay

Kazakhstan has come a long way in the last ten years in tourism. I remember I was one of the first few people to cross over the border from China with an allotted 15 days visa-free on my US passport back in 2014.

Today, all EU countries, the UK, and USA are some of the several countries that can now benefit from 30 days visa-free entry. This is enough time to really get a feel for the country and city in our opinion. Unfortunately, you cannot extend your visa-free stay by crossing the border to Kyrgyzstan and back, unfortunately.

But if you are looking to maximize your time there and stay longer, let's take a look at another option.

Kazakhstan's Digital Nomad Visa: Neo Nomad Visa

As of November 1st 2024, it's possible to apply for a Neo Nomad visa (this is a fitting name considering Kazakh people are historically nomads). Foreigners demonstrating they are earning over $3,000 per month can stay in Kazakhstan for up to one year on this visa scheme. While it is not available online yet, you can apply at a foreign institution of the Republic of Kazakhstan (embassy or consulate) in person.

3) Figure out how to get to Almaty

Almaty is arguably not nearby a lot, but on the other hand lies pretty centrally within the Eurasian landmass. We used it as a stopover point from East Asia to Europe, which is a good alternative to typical stopover points like Dubai and Qatar.

Flying to Almaty ✈️:

Check out Air Astana. It doesn't always show up on the 3rd-party sites, but I can highly recommend them! They have a very new fleet and economy class is not as depressing as other airlines. We found that booking on Skyscanner, we could put in a layover from Seoul to Crete, for example, and there was no price increase at all!

Flying in to Almaty on Air Astana

Ground Transportation to Almaty 🚎:

Well, this is all dependent on if you are in one of the neighboring countries. I did it once from China, and it was for sure a multi-modal adventure. For sure, you can get to Almaty by road from countries like Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, China, Russia, etc. but I will steer clear from too much information on this.

4) Where to Stay in Almaty and Accommodations in Almaty

For semi-long-term (2 weeks+), we used Airbnb to snag a pretty good deal. For under 30 euros a night, we found a basic flat with a fabulous, panoramic view of the business district and the mountains. This is without a doubt much more expensive than what locals will pay, but it came with everything we needed plus above average internet speed (often clocking in at 50 MB/s).

There are some places on Booking.com as well, so make sure to shop around:

Make sure to check on the internet speed with the host, as it isn't a country yet renowned for its Wi-Fi speeds.

We recommend the Almaly district, nearby Abay Avenue and Furmanov Avenue. It has everything you need in walking distance - like gyms, restaurants (including Soviet-style stolovayas -- more on that later), vibey parks, etc.

Our view from our Almaty AirBnb

5) Stock up on the necessary apps to make moving around the city easier

You won't need too many apps here, but the essential ones are Yandex (Яндекс) Taxi and Yandex Maps. We found out about these after arriving here, and never actually downloaded the iOS versions of them, as our App Store would not allow us.

Nonetheless, you can get away with googling either Yandex Taxi or Yandex Maps and then saving the site (they are progressive web apps (PWAs)) as icons on your phone for easy access.

We noticed that Yandex Maps had way more coverage than Google Maps did; showing way more places and points of interest around the city.

6) Learn a little Russian

While Kazakh is spoken natively by nearly 65% of the population, Russian is declared the "official" language of the country due to Soviet Union occupation all those years back.

We found that a few Russian phrases (hello, goodbye, thank you, please, this, that) and counting to ten helped immensely with basic communication. Also, since both Russian and Kazakh are written in Cyrillic (although the Kazakh language will transition slowly to a Latin alphabet), learning a little how to read the Cyrillic goes a long way.

Many years back, I used Duolingo to help me learn a few phrases as well as how to read Cyrillic, and it has stuck with me ever since. I Highly recommend doing this leading up to your Almaty visit.

That being said, Almaty has plenty of young people, and we noticed about half of them eagerly switch to English when ordering at a restaurant.

If you go outside Almaty, try to pick up some basic Kazakh phrases to impress those around you.

You've Arrived! How to Maximize Your Experience, Time, and Money in Almaty

Now that you're in town, you are going to want to get a SIM card, get to your new pad safely, learn how to get around Almaty, find some of the best food joints in the city, join a gym if that is your thing, check out the local culture and vibes, and plan some weekend trips.

Let's start with a map of some of our favorite places (along with some essential places) in Almaty:

7) Get yourself a SIM card

We tend to get an eSIM before heading to the country, and then switching over to a local SIM if we are there long enough, as it tends to be cheaper in the long term. ESIMs are great though, as you can install them from anywhere, and literally as you land, you will have the reassuring data that you'll need to contact friends and family back home.

If you skip the eSIM method and are eager to get a SIM card right at the airport, there is a tiny stand on the left side when you walk out into arrivals (next to the canteen). The stand does charge a bit more, but for about 6,500 Tenge, we had a SIM card with 13 GB of data in just a few minutes (we got Beeline, which has worked super well for us, including when we've hot spotted for a meeting or two, but here is a link to more detailed info about the other SIM cards).

If you can wait a bit, you can certainly get SIM cards at the designated mobile phone shops in Almaty, but we were happy to pay a little more to have it from the get-go.

8) Get to your flat from the airport

This part was a bit stressful at first since we weren't familiar with Yandex yet and the outside area after arrivals was packed with very little in terms of marked taxis.

After we realized Uber was not working, we kind of awkwardly walked around for a bit, unsure of what to do. Finally, a man approached us, and we worked out a deal of paying 4,000 Tenge to get to our apartment. There will be quite a few of these unofficial drivers walking around, and in our experience it was fine. You can definitely take one of these for 3,500 to 4,000 Tenge or if you already followed Step 5, just order a car from Yandex.

You won't have this slip up, since you will hopefully have data and Yandex at this point 🤣.

Make sure you get a bit of cash out at the airport ATMs beforehand. Whether you go the unofficial way or with Yandex, you will need to pay in cash.

There is also a bus that runs from the airport, but we didn't try it.

9) Learn how to get around Almaty

We basically walked the entire time we were there, but there are alternatives.

Almaty has a super inexpensive metro, an extensive bus system, and even rentable electric scooters. However, we could not get the scooters to work as we needed a Kazakhstani debit card at the time. This likely has changed at this point!

As mentioned before, Yandex taxis are inexpensive, but make sure you carry around cash for this purpose as it doesn't seem like they accept international cards in their system.

10) Explore Almaty

You are in this incredible country not just to work, I hope, so get out and explore! From the Green Bazaar to Ascension Cathedral to the grandiose First President Park to going ice skating or skiing up in Medeu (if you are in season), there is a lot you can do.

We won't go into too much detail about all the attractions, but there was A LOT to keep us busy for the few weeks we were there. Here is a bit more inspiration!

First President Park

11) Hungry? Head to the Stolovayas (столовая). Cheap food in Almaty.

These canteens, called stolovayas (similar to the Milk Bars in Poland), are scattered all over the city and are a must if you are looking for cheap, practical (and tasty) food. They are cafeterias reminiscent of the soviet era and are a great alternative to cooking, with plenty of healthy (and unhealthy) comfort food options.

You walk in, grab a tray and cutlery, and then point at whatever dishes you want to the servers. They will then microwave it up for you. Depending on the extravagance of the stolovaya, you could also have a large choice of desserts, drinks, salads. The selection at some of them are incredible!

We tested out a lot of stolovayas in our area and these happened to be our favorite - with links to where they are on Yandex or Google Maps:

• Art Lunch: Opened the latest (allegedly 24 hours) with the greatest selection of foods.

• Seli Poeli столовая

• Degirmen: Chain with more Turkish style food

The total cost ranged from approximately 3 to maximum 8 euro per person, so we made a daily (and sometimes twice daily) visit to these.

It was a bit hard to order with our limited Russian, but pointing will get you far in this scenario 😚.

Lastly, to find them easily, type in "столовая" in Yandex, and you will likely find one within five minutes of you (there are much fewer results on Google Maps).

With our favorite ladies at Вкусный мир - unfortunately this stolovaya is now closed.

12) Hungry for something nicer? Check out Almaty's Georgian food scene 🇬🇪.

It is hard to say why, but in Kazakhstan, I noticed the Kazakh food scene just isn't so easy to seek out, making trying Kazakh food something we really only did outside of Almaty. In Almaty, however, the city loves its international food culture, and food from Georgia is where it shines.

We felt like on nearly every corner in central Almaty boasted a Georgian restaurant and in the few weeks that we were there, we counted that we had eaten 8 khachapuri total 🤣. They all have a selection of Georgian wines and have beautiful interiors and spacious seating (a common theme with Almaty restaurants).

Maybe we've gone a little off-topic from Kazakhstan, but here is a quick intro to khachapuri:

They also often do have pretty massive menus that include other dishes besides Georgian ones, including a few central Asian specialties, like shashlik (big kebabs of meat).

At this point, when I think back to Almaty, my mind literally associates it with Georgian food and khachapuri.

Khachapuri, the most beautiful thing on this planet

13) Exercising in Almaty: Running and joining a gym

To work off the aforementioned Khachapuri and shashlik, you are probably going to want to exercise a bit.

Running in Almaty

One of the ways we did this was by running. The streets are organized in a grid with a steady incline going south towards the mountain, so you can run upwards or downwards depending on how much you want to challenge yourself. While running in the streets isn't exactly the most pleasant experiences, due to the traffic and pollution, there are lots of streams from the mountains heading down through the city, and along these streams are leafy footpaths void of traffic.

My favorite place to run was Terenkur - A nice place with a long, leafy, shaded park going up and down the stream. There are also plenty of cute cafés lining the area for when you finish your run.

Just watch out for the gradual incline if you go towards the mountain. It is tough in the moment, and even harder days after when your calves are still burning and yelling at you for ever having attempted it.

Gyms in Almaty

There are also a bunch of gyms scattered around within walking distance of anywhere. We joined one called Banzai fitness, which offered a 12 time pass (3 days per week for a month) for 8,000 Tenge. It was super organized and clean, so much so that the woman at the front made us put those funny slipper condom thingies over our outdoor shoes the first time we joined. From that point onward, we brought our outdoor shoes in a separate bag.

The wonderful visuals at Banzai

14) Change up your work environment, get a coffee

Sometimes, we would need a change of environment from the flat while we were working and would head out to a café. Almaty has a big café culture and thus the coffee scene is pretty good (and we have high standards for coffee).

They are good places to get some work done too, and I never felt like we were imposing by sitting for a few hours and just a cup of coffee. The Wi-Fi can be pretty fast, but I did find that the networks tended to be unprotected, so I always kept my VPN on (you can read more about this in this article).

If the Wi-Fi went out for some reason, I always had my SIM card from Step 7 handy in case I needed to hotspot.

My favorite was called JumpinGoat coffee, which didn't just serve up espresso-based drinks, but also had brews from Guatemala, Ethiopia and Kenya. Yes, you can get coffee from these countries in Kazakhstan 🤣.

15) Check out the nightlife in Almaty

Our nightlife experience consisted of going to Georgian restaurants and karaoke booths. This place, Mega Karaoke, cost less than 14 euros on a Thursday night with two massive beers each.

We attempted once to go to a techno club called Bult, but honestly couldn't find it.

Since we didn't make ourselves such an expert on this front, we will link you to our fav YouTube girl.

16) Get out of Almaty to Experience the Real Kazakhstan on Weekends

As soon as you leave the borders of Almaty, the scene changes from glitzy metropolis to vast rural-ness fast, and that is where the true fun begins.

Kazakhstan has some of the most gorgeous natural beauty on this planet, and it changes pretty quickly as you drive through it. One hour you will be in arid canyons, half an hour later you will be driving down flat green plains, and another half hour later you will be in the thick of snow-capped mountains.

These types of scenes are accessible nearby Almaty and one such itinerary we did was going to Kolsai and Kaindy lakes as well as Charyn canyon over the course of 3 days or so. While it is somehow possible with a mix of public transportation and hitchhiking, we rented a car for the duration and thus traveling on our own time and agenda became much easier.

When you come to Almaty, definitely try to get out and see some other parts of the country (or nearby countries too).

Fabio about to fall off Charyn Canyon

First Kolsai Lake

Some Extra Almaty Tips

Too inappropriate?

Getting weird in front of Ascension Cathedral, allegedly the highest wooden church in the world

Conclusion

Enjoy what this incredible city and country has to offer! We reckon in the next decade, this place will blow up as a destination, so make sure to get there before everyone else.

Рахмет, Almaty