Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
AIR
There are at least eight daily lights to Almaty
by Air Astana (from 21,540T) and one or two
each by SCAT (from 15,915T) and Bek Air
(from 15,000T). Other domestic destinations
served direct by Air Astana include Aktau (from
27,650T), Aktobe (from 21,740T), Atyrau (from
25,545T), Ust-Kamenogorsk (from 17,360T) and
Shymkent (from 23,290T). SCAT also lies at
least ive times weekly to Atyrau (from 23,915T),
Aktau (from 25,915T), Semey (from 20,000T),
Taraz (from 27,100T) and Shymkent (from
23,150T). The airport website has full schedules.
Transavia is a useful air-ticket agency located
on the
Right Bank
(
%
58 05 06; Beibitshilik 44)
and the
Left Bank.
(
%
50 82 74; Konaev 14/1)
See p131 for information on international
lights.
Airlines
Air Astana
(
%
44 44 77) Branches at
Right
Bank
(Office 9, 2nd fl, Ramstor, Dom 11, mikro-
rayon Samal;
h
9am-6pm mon-Fri);
Left Bank
(Office 26, 1st fl, Konaev 14B;
h
9am-9pm);
airport
(
%
44 44 77;
h
24hr)
Austrian Airlines
(
%
59 58 888) Branches at
city
(Hotel Ramada Plaza, Abay 47;
h
10am-
7pm mon-Fri);
airport
(
h
midnight-2am mon-
Wed & Fri-Sat, 9-10.30pm mon-Wed & Sat)
Bek Air
(
%
28 65 39; Airport) Tickets sold by
Transavia (p106).
Lufthansa
(
%
28 64 82; Airport;
h
9-11pm
mon-Wed & Sat, 1-2.30am mon, Wed & Fri)
SCAT
(
%
28 65 01) Tickets sold by Transavia
(p106).
Transaero
(
%
call centre 91 14 00;
h
24hr)
Branches at
city
(
%
31 83 50; Druzhby 7;
h
9am-9pm);
airport
(
%
77 72 66)
Turkish Airlines
Branches at
city
(
%
57 08 49;
Respublika dangyly 5;
h
9am-6pm mon-Fri);
airport
(
%
43 33 22;
h
midnight-5am mon,
Wed & Fri)
Ukraine International Airways
(
%
800 333
3050;
h
24hr) Office in
city
(
%
50 82 74;
Konaev 14).
Uzbekistan Airways
(
%
32 82 44; Office 17,
Saryarka dangyly 31)
BUS, MINIBUS & TAXI
From the
bus station
(
%
38 11 35; www.
saparzhai.kz; gyote 5) buses and minibuses
travel slowly to many destinations including
Almaty (6500T, 19 hours, two daily), Karaganda
(1200T, 4½ hours, every 30 minutes, 7am to
9pm), Petropavlovsk (3000T, 10 hours, seven
daily), Semey (4700T, 15 hours, four daily) and
Ust-Kamenogorsk (6000T, 19 hours, two daily).
There's also daily service to Omsk in Russia. A
bus to Bayan-Ölgii (Ulgiy; 12,000T, 37 hours)
in mongolia, via Barnaul and gorno-Altaysk in
Russia, normally goes twice a month, with dates
known at the start of each month.
Private minibuses and taxis to Karaganda
(minibus/shared taxi 1500/2500T, three hours)
and Burabay wait outside the bus station.
TRAIN
From the
train station
(
%
38 07 07; gyote 7),
the speedy, comfortable Talgo (train 2) to Ka-
raganda (tourist/business class 2970/4920T,
2½ hours) and Almaty (10,230/16,900T, 12½
hours) leaves at 7.15pm, but can get booked
up days ahead. Other trains go to Karaganda
(1715T to 1910T, three to ive hours) at least 13
times daily, and to Almaty (5040T to 6380T, 19
to 21 hours) at least three times daily. There are
also daily trains to Petropavlovsk, Shymkent,
Aktobe, Yekaterinburg and moscow, and trains
to Semey at least every two days. Service to
Ürümqi, China, has been an on-of afair, but at
the time of writing train 54 with carriages to
Ürümqi (20,000T, 38 hours) leaves at 5.30pm
on Saturday.
8
Getting¨Around
Astana has an excellent city bus (60T) network;
check www.astana.kz for route maps in English.
Buses start between 6am and 7am and inish
between 10pm and 11pm.
Bus 10 runs about every 15 minutes from the
bus station to the airport (a one-hour trip), via
Zhenis, moldagulova, Beibitshilik, Seyfullin,
Respublika, Konaev (westbound) and Kabanbay
Batyr (and vice-versa). A taxi between the air-
port and centre is usually 2500T. Buses 25 and
31 run from the train station along Zhenis and
Kenesary to the
Kongress Kholl
(Congress Hall)
stop in the old city centre, then on to the south
end of Respublika dangyly.
Taxi drivers ask 500T to 700T for rides of 2km
to 3km. You can usually lag down a passing car
for less.
Around Astana
During the Stalin years
Malinovka
(also
called Akmol), 35km west of Astana,
housed ALZhIR, a notorious camp for
wives and children of men who were in-
terned elsewhere as 'betrayers of the moth-
erland'. The
ALZhIR¨Museum-Memorial¨¨
Complex
(http://alzhir-eng.ucoz.ru; admis-
sion 200T;
h
10am-6pm Tue-Sun)
poignantly
evokes the camp's horrors, displaying a
transportation wagon, a replica guard post
and photos and possessions of the prison-
ers, as well as explanatory material in Eng-
lish on the Gulag system in Kazakhstan.
