Turgen Gorge, Lake Issyk and Bear Waterfall tourТүрген шатқалы, Есік көлі және Аю сарқырамасы

We had an incredible time touring Big Almaty Lake, Turgen Gorge, Issyk Lake, and Assy Plateau with Nomad Outfitters. Our tour lead and guides Damir and Dayana were one of the best tour guides we have experienced. They were knowledgeable - Damir shared amazing insights into Kazakhstan's culture, history, nature, and traditions. They were very friendly and a great company on one-day long tours. The areas we visited were beautiful and definitely worth visiting. Assy plateau is unique in its landscape and natural beauty. Both Damir and Dayana are excellent drivers, especially Dayana and made the visits comfortable. We would definitely be back touring with them when we are return to Kazakhstan.

We spent 2 days travelling across, and in and around Almaty with the Damir and Diana from the Outfitters KZ team. Our first expedition was to the big Almaty lake. The Outfitters KZ team assigned Damir who organised for our pickup from the hotel, our hike to the big Almaty lake, as well as gave us an incredible cultural and historical glimpse of the Kazakh people. Or second expedition was to Assy Plateau via Turgen Valley and Issyk Lake. The road to the plateau isn't the greatest (requires 4WD) but Damir's Lexus and Diana driving alongside the easy conversions (in their impeccable english) made the long journey incredibly comfortable. We enjoyed learning about all things Kazakstan in our two days spent with Damir and Diana.

We went to the charyon canyon with Pavel and to Issyk lake with Yevgeniy. Both guides did a great job and were very patient with us as we were traveling with our 1 year old daughter. At the charyon canyon we went to places where there were no other tourists which was great. Pavel was a great driver as the roads seemed to be quiet challenging. Yevgeniy who took us to issyk lake was very talkative and told us interesting facts about different things on the way there and on spot. Very easy to talk with him. Would we have had more time we would have gone somewhere else with him. We booked both trips late and for the first trip we were a bit worried that we would not be able to go as we did not hear back from outfitters straight away, but once we did hear back from them everything worked out really well and we were able to go to Charyon canyon the day after and then later onwards to issyk lake. Both cars were clean and in perfect condition as well. I would highly recommend outfitters