Medeu and Shymbulak Tour from Almaty

Fifteen minutes from central Almaty, and you're already in the mountains. Medeu Almaty sits at 1,691 meters, right where the city ends and the Zailiysky Alatau begins — and it's usually the first stop on any trip that also includes Shymbulak ski resort, since the cable car connects the two directly.

The ice rink itself is the reason Medeu Kazakhstan shows up on every list of the region's landmarks. Its ice field covers 10,500 square meters, and over the decades skaters have set more than 200 world records here. Next to it, the Health Stairs climb 842 steps up the gorge — a local fixture almost as well known as the rink.

From Medeu, the cable car to Shymbulak does the climbing for you. Shymbulak mountain rises through several stations, with the resort proper sitting around 2,200 meters and cabins continuing up to Talgar Pass at 3,200. This is where Shymbulak skiing has its signature feature: a night-skiing slope that's the highest of its kind anywhere, according to Guinness World Records. In winter, this is where people come specifically for shymbulak skiing and the ski resort's slopes; the rest of the year, the same cable car ride is just as popular for the view and the walk around the pass, tea in a yurt included.

Getting from Almaty to Shymbulak on your own means dealing with the practial side first: a ticket line at Medeu, then a separate cable car ticket, then figuring out how to get back down in the evening. We can arrange Shymbulak tickets ahead of your visit so you're not standing in line for a skipass at the resort, though we'd rather confirm current shymbulak ski resort prices with you directly than post a number that's gone stale by the time you read this.

Every trip is private — the car and guide work for your group only, no strangers along for the ride. That's been the model for five years now, across roughly 3,000 travelers taken around the Almaty region. One in five of them wasn't from Kazakhstan at all — which is why English isn't a request you have to make, it's the default, right alongside Russian and Kazakh, with other languages arranged on request.

The same private setup works whether it's two people or a full corporate group — one request, one driver and guide dedicated to that group, not a seat sold on a shared bus. Around 95% of our guides hold certification, and experience across the team ranges from a few years to well over a decade.

We usually build the Medeu Almaty and Shymbulak ski resort visit into a half-day route that also covers Panfilov Park and the Green Bazaar, so you see the mountains and two city landmarks without arranging separate transport for each. The plan isn't fixed — if you'd rather spend longer at Shymbulak and skip the bazaar, or add a stop that's on the way, we adjust on the day, within reason.

Vehicles are matched to the group and the request — from compact SUVs to larger vans and buses, standard or higher comfort class on request. And you don't pay upfront: bookings run on a deposit of around 20%, with the balance settled once the tour is done, not before it's even started.