Travel in Kazakhstan: open borders, long distances and a few closed towns

Who needs a visa to enter Kazakhstan

Many passports need none. The main Wikipedia article lists a visa-free regime for citizens of 54 countries, among them the European Union and OECD members, the United States, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and permanent visa-free stays of up to 90 days for citizens of a group of states that includes Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Ukraine. The British Foreign Office's advice, updated on 30 March 2026, gives British citizens up to 30 days without a visa for business or tourism, with no more than 90 days in any 180. Longer stays, work and study need a visa from Kazakhstan's own visa website, and applicants aged 17 or over give fingerprints.

The paperwork on arrival is particular to the country. A hotel or host must register a foreign visitor with the authorities within three working days. Customs rules on goods are strict, and anything that may be prohibited or liable to duty has to be declared. Cash worth more than US$10,000 has to be declared, and no more than that can leave in foreign currency; a larger declared sum may leave only in tenge. Police may ask to see original identity documents, and copies are not accepted. Under rules the Foreign Office added to its advice in March 2026, a local SIM card is blocked after 30 days unless the phone's IMEI number is verified on a government portal, which needs a border-crossing certificate from the QazETA app and a Kazakh identification number. Kazakhstan does not recognise dual nationality.

Money and language follow from the country's history. Cash in tenge comes from ATMs on most international cards, depending on the bank, and the Foreign Office advises using machines inside banks because card details are stolen from street ATMs. Russian is the language most widely understood across the country, by Britannica's account; medical staff seldom speak English, and road closures are announced by text to local SIM cards in Kazakh and Russian, with English alerts on the QazAvtoJol website.

Kazakhstan belongs to a customs union with Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Belarus, so a driver entering in their own vehicle needs a customs declaration and temporary import licence valid for the whole time spent in all four.

How travellers cross such distances

Kazakhstan measures about 2,930 kilometres from east to west, and its sights are far apart. Britannica records that air transport carries most passenger traffic, both inside the country and to the region, and the international airport at Almaty has a new passenger terminal financed with World Bank support. Astana's airport is linked to the main railway station, Nurly Zhol, by the first line of the Astana Light Metro, an elevated line of 18 stations and 22.4 kilometres that opened on 16 May 2026. Almaty has a short metro of 8.56 kilometres.

The railway reaches most cities, and in Astana the Nurly Zhol station, opened on 31 May 2017, was built for 35,000 passengers a day. The network ran to 15,333 kilometres in 2012, and the fast train from Almaty in the south to Petropavl in the north takes about 18 hours. The Foreign Office advises locking the compartment on overnight trains, where luggage is a target for thieves.

Driving is possible on a British licence only with a 1968 international driving permit, which must be bought before leaving the United Kingdom. Many roads are poorly maintained, roadworks are often unmarked, fuel stations are scarce outside the main cities and stray animals cross rural roads. Snow and ice make winter driving hazardous. Border crossings with neighbouring countries can close at short notice.

What Almaty and the mountains offer

Almaty, the capital until 1997, lies in the far south-east, where the Tien Shan forms the frontier with Kyrgyzstan. It is still the largest city and the main cultural and business centre, with the conservatoire named after Kurmangazy, the state film studios and the Ascension Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, also called the Zenkov Cathedral. Its mountain rescue services are based in the Shymbulak gorge and by the Big Almaty Lake, and they patrol the routes and search for walkers who go missing. The Charyn Canyon, about 200 kilometres east of the city, runs for 80 kilometres through a red sandstone plateau with walls 150 to 300 metres high, and a rare ash that survived the Ice Age still grows in its gorge.

The mountains carry the risks of height. Snow can fall at altitude even in summer, altitude sickness and sunstroke are possible, and the Foreign Office warns of avalanches, landslides and rockfalls on trekking routes and of heavy snow closing roads in autumn and winter. Almaty itself lies in an active seismic zone, and mudslides happen in the south-eastern ranges. Mobile coverage in remote areas can be very limited.

In the Tanbaly gorge of the Chu-Ili mountains, some 5,000 rock carvings dated from the second half of the 2nd millennium BC to the early 20th century were inscribed by UNESCO in 2004. The Western Tien-Shan, further along the southern frontier, has been on the World Heritage list since 2016.

Where the pilgrims go in the south

Turkestan, in the south, is the destination for the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi. Timur ordered it in 1389, and work stopped at his death in 1405 with the main entrance unfinished, so the incomplete parts show how such buildings were made. It stands 38.7 metres high, holds 35 rooms that served as mosque and mausoleum, and carries a conic dome over its main hall. Turkestan is also a special economic zone promoted as a centre of tourism and pilgrimage.

Kazakhstan also holds sections of the Silk Roads, inscribed by UNESCO in 2014 as part of the Chang'an-Tianshan corridor.

What Astana looks like on the steppe

Astana has been the capital since 1997, and most of what a visitor sees there was built since. It began as Akmoly, a Russian fortified post on the Ishim River founded in 1830, and was called Akmolinsk, Tselinograd and Aqmola before it took the name Astana, "capital" in Kazakh, in 1998. Britannica describes the city's transformation at the start of the 21st century as a construction boom paid for largely by oil revenue. The older districts lie north of the river and the new ones south of it.

The government built the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation in 2006 to host a congress of world religions, and the city has the Astana Grand Mosque, a Catholic cathedral and a synagogue. Outside the city lies ALZhIR, the Soviet camp for the wives of men declared traitors. Astana is a cold capital: average January temperatures in the north and centre run between minus 19 and minus 16 °C. The city stands 347 metres above sea level on a flat, semi-arid steppe, and a second phase of the light metro, under construction in 2026, is to reach its satellite towns.

Where the steppe and the Caspian can be reached

In the north the Naurzum and Korgalzhyn reserves of Saryarka protect lakes on the flyway of birds from Africa, Europe and South Asia to Siberia. In the far west, Mangystau province east of the Caspian holds the rock mosques and sacred sites added to the World Heritage list in 2026. The town of Aralsk, once a port, now stands more than 70 kilometres from the water of the shrunken sea.

Some places are closed. Baikonur launched Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957 and Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961, and all Russian crewed spaceflights still leave from it. The town of Baikonur, leased to Russia with the cosmodrome until 2050, cannot be visited without prior permission from the Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the National Security Committee. The same rule covers Gvardeyskiy village in the Almaty region and the Karmakchi and Kazalinsk districts of Kyzylorda region.

What visitors should know about local rules

Several laws differ from those of most European countries. Shops may not sell alcohol between 11pm and 8am, or drinks of more than 30% alcohol between 9pm and noon, and alcohol may not be sold to anyone aged 20 or under, although the drinking age is 18; drinking in the street can end in a fine or a night in a police cell. Photographs near military sites, border areas, airports and some official buildings can lead to the camera being confiscated, even where there is no sign. Demonstrations need advance permission, and attending an unauthorised one risks arrest.

Same-sex relations are legal, but a law of 30 December 2025 prohibits the "promotion" of information about non-traditional sexual orientation, and perceived breaches can bring fines, detention or deportation. Inciting social, national, racial or religious discord carries long sentences, and insulting someone with abusive language can bring a fine. During Ramadan cafés change their menus and the streets near mosques fill around prayer times.

Medical care is less advanced than in the United Kingdom and staff seldom speak English, so the Foreign Office advises insurance that covers evacuation. Insurance should cover any activity at high altitude, and remote treks may be out of reach of the emergency services. Ticks are a risk in the countryside, and the country requires a yellow fever certificate from travellers arriving from countries where it is transmitted.

How much Kazakhstan has invested in visitors

Tourism has been a small part of the economy. It accounted for 0.3% of GDP in 2014, and the World Economic Forum put travel and tourism at US$3.08 billion, or 1.6% of GDP, in its 2017 report. A government plan of 2015, the Tourism Industry Development Plan 2020, set out five clusters, around Astana, Almaty and the eastern, southern and western regions, and aimed to raise investment of US$4 billion and 300,000 jobs. The Guardian described the industry in 2014 as hugely underdeveloped, citing high prices, poor infrastructure and service, and the difficulty of travelling across so large a country; a Kazakh family could pay half as much for a holiday abroad as for one at home.

The number of World Heritage sites has since risen to seven, the latest being Mangystau's rock mosques in 2026, and the government has made Turkestan a special economic zone for tourism and pilgrimage. Large events bring visitors too: Astana and Almaty hosted the Asian Winter Games in 2011, Almaty bid twice for the Winter Olympics, and Barys Astana plays ice hockey in the Kontinental Hockey League.

When the seasons suit a journey

The climate decides the calendar. Britannica gives average July temperatures of 20 °C in the north and 29 °C in the south, and winters that fall to between minus 19 and minus 16 °C on average in the north and centre, with extremes of minus 45 °C and 45 °C. Spring can bring floods, as it did across the north and west in April 2024, and the high passes can hold snow into summer. Nauryz, the spring new year, gives three public holidays from 21 to 23 March; Kazakhstan: culture covers how it is kept and Kazakhstan: geography how far apart the regions lie.