Kyrgyzstan small group holidays

Planet

We work closely with local individuals and companies in Kyrgyzstan to design journeys in an optimal way to limit our impact on the environment.

On this adventure we are hiking through very natural environments, including beautiful National Parks such as Ala Archa National Park and horse riding (optional) up the winding valley trails up to the top of a high pass (4000m) where (weather permitting) we will have an incredible view of Chatyr-Kol Lake.

We work with the policy of ‘Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints’. This means that we do not leave any foreign materials or waste in these environments from our camps, nor do we take any objects from the environment nor disturb its equilibrium by our presence or actions.

Throughout the trips we will stay with local families in their felt gers, all of which use solar power for lighting at night. These are summer gers and are packed down for the winter.

We also stay with local families in traditional yurts and in locally owned hotels in the city of Bishkek, and travel with local guides to learn about the customs, traditions and culture along the way.

Finally, we are very proud to have partnered with Water-To-Go, specialists in personal and expedition water purification, instantly, and on-demand. Their unique, 350L water bottles incorporate advanced filtration technology to convert even the dirtiest water to drinking water as you fill up.

Being able to produce safe drinking water from sources off the beaten track, of sometimes dubious quality, offers incredible benefits to our adventure travellers and eliminates the need for single-use plastic bottles. We subsidise this product to make it more accessible to you.

People

This trip gets right under the skin of Kyrgyzstan and is a very interactive trip using experienced local guides and staying in locally owned yurt camps. Alongside Lake Issyk-Kul travellers can watch the ancient art of falconry where Nomads display how they hunt with eagles. Staying in the Yurt camps we will only eat food prepared by the Kyrgyz families experiencing their generous hospitality and delicious range of traditional foods.

Our travellers also pay the families for the use of their horses for short day treks around the lakes or up to a high pass in the Tian Shan mountains where we also employ the services of local guides.

The wonderful thing about this kind of interactive tourism is that everyone gains – the nomads financially and us with the wonderful welcome and experience they give us.

It is important we help our travellers to learn about and appreciate the local cultural and customs of this wonderful country.

Some examples of this include not passing close to a yurt without loudly informing the occupants first; failure to do this means the group or a client can be attacked by the guard dogs and will cause great discomfort and embarrassment to the occupants and possible injury to the dogs which then have to be forcibly restrained when they were only doing their job.

We actively encourage the giving of tips for meaningful services an the purchasing of locally sourced goods/souvenirs to support families and communities. We believe that partnering with local families not only enriches the overall experience of this trip but it also allows our clients to understand local traditions in Kyrgyzstan.