Getting around Kazakhstan: apps, trains, flights and drivers

What is the best way to get around Kazakhstan as a tourist?

Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country in the world, and that single fact decides most of your transport. The places a first-time visitor actually wants sit in clusters: Almaty and the Tian Shan in the south-east, the Silk Road towns of Shymkent and Turkestan in the south, the Mangystau desert on the Caspian, and the capital Astana in the north. Between clusters the gaps are 700–2,000 km of steppe. Inside a cluster the best sights are 100–300 km from the nearest city, often on roads no bus serves.

So the pattern that works is simple:

• Inside a city — ride-hailing apps, mainly Yandex Go. Cheap, quick, metered in the app.
• Between regions — domestic flights. A train is a pleasant experience but costs you a day.
• Out into the landscape — a car with a driver. Charyn, Kolsai, Kaindy, Altyn-Emel and the Mangystau canyons are realistically reachable only by private car or an organised group tour.

Our 7- and 10-day Kazakhstan itinerary is built on exactly this logic: drive inside a cluster, fly between clusters.

Do Yandex Go and inDrive work in Almaty and Astana?

Yes. Yandex Go is the default taxi app in Almaty, Astana and Shymkent: it has an English interface, shows the fare before you confirm, and lets you link a foreign Visa or Mastercard or pay the driver in cash. Most city rides inside Almaty cost a few dollars, but prices surge sharply in rain, snow and the evening rush — local media regularly report fares doubling on a wet evening. Order from inside the app, check the plate before you get in, and never agree to cancel the booking and "continue privately" for cash; that is the classic way visitors get overcharged.

inDrive, very popular in Kazakhstan, works differently: you propose a fare and drivers accept or counter-offer. It is popular for intercity seats, where you share the car with strangers and the driver collects everyone before setting off. The interface is in English, but drivers usually phone or message in Russian to confirm the pickup, so keep a translation app ready.

Two practical notes. First, you need mobile data: buy an eSIM before you fly or a local SIM at the airport — airport Wi-Fi asks for an SMS code to a local number. Second, at Almaty and Astana airports ignore the touts in the arrivals hall; use the official taxi desk, the app, or a pre-booked Almaty airport transfer from $40 with a name sign and 90 minutes of free waiting.

Should I take the train between cities?

Kazakhstan's national railway, KTZ, connects every major city, and the trains are clean, safe and very cheap by Western standards. The flagship is the Talgo, a Spanish-built articulated train used on several long routes. On the Astana–Almaty overnight run a Talgo takes about 16 hours; older sleeper trains take around 20. In February 2026 Kazakh media reported fares of roughly 10,200 tenge for a seat, 22,400 for a four-berth compartment (kupe) and about 33,000 for a two-person luxe compartment with its own shower and toilet — that is roughly $21, $47 and $70 at the October 2026 rate of about 475 tenge to the dollar.

• Where to buy: the official site bilet.railways.kz or a station ticket office, with your passport. Popular summer and holiday dates sell out, so book as soon as sales open.
• Which station: Almaty has two, Almaty-1 and Almaty-2, and Astana has Astana-1 and Nurly Zhol. Check the ticket — KTZ suspended boarding at Almaty-1 from July 2026 for works.
• Worth it when: you want the experience of a night across the steppe, or you are heading to Burabay — the Burabay Express from Astana is a sensible option.

For a short trip, though, a 16-hour train against a 1 h 45 min flight is a whole day of holiday spent on rails.

Which airlines fly inside Kazakhstan?

Three carriers cover almost every domestic route a visitor needs:

Rough flight times from Almaty: Astana about 1 h 45 min, Turkestan or Shymkent about 1.5 hours, Aktau about 3.5 hours. Astana–Almaty is the busiest route in the country, with many flights a day. When you compare fares, compare the final total with a 20 kg bag — a FlyArystan ticket that looks half the price often ends up close to Air Astana once baggage is added. In 2026 FlyArystan also added seasonal flights to Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, though for Issyk-Kul the road via Bishkek or the Kegen pass is usually simpler.

At the other end you still need a car: a Turkestan airport transfer, an Astana airport transfer or a driver for the region.

Can I rent a car and drive myself in Kazakhstan?

Yes — and plenty of confident drivers do — but go in with clear eyes. Traffic is on the right. You need your national licence plus an International Driving Permit (1968 Vienna format); rental companies and traffic police both ask for it. Most international rental brands have desks at Almaty and Astana airports, and local firms rent cheaper cars with larger cash deposits.

What makes it harder than it looks:

• Cameras everywhere. Almaty, Astana and the main highways are covered by automatic speed and red-light cameras. Fines are issued to the car's plate, and the rental company passes them on to your card, sometimes weeks later.
• Police posts. Expect fixed checkpoints at city exits and on routes toward the borders. Stop, hand over licence, IDP, passport and the car's papers, and stay polite. Conversations are in Russian.
• Signs and navigation. Outside the cities signs are in Kazakh and Russian. Use 2GIS or Yandex Maps offline; Google Maps is weaker for Kazakh roads.
• Roads. Main highways are mostly good, with toll sections paid electronically by plate. But Kaindy, the Aktau mountains in Altyn-Emel and most of Mangystau are dirt tracks where a 4x4 and local knowledge matter, and rental contracts often exclude off-asphalt damage.
• Winter. Winter tyres are mandatory roughly from December to March, and mountain roads above Almaty ice over from November.
• Border zones. Areas near the Chinese and Kyrgyz borders may need a permit; rental cars usually cannot leave Kazakhstan at all.
• Alcohol. Treat the limit as zero. Penalties include licence loss and heavy fines.

Self-drive makes sense for a couple who want total freedom on the Almaty–Burabay–Astana asphalt circuit. For the canyon-and-lake country, a local driver who knows which track is passable this week is worth more than the savings.

Taxi, train, flight, rental or private driver: an honest comparison

In practice most of our guests mix them: Yandex Go for a dinner in town, a flight to Turkestan or Aktau, and a driver for the days out. A private driver in Almaty is $160 per sedan for 8 hours and 200 km; a multi-day private driver starts at $180 a day with the driver's room and meals included; and fixed-price packages such as the 5-day Almaty loop or the 7-day Kazakhstan–Kyrgyzstan road trip remove the planning altogether.

Is it safe to travel around Kazakhstan?

Kazakhstan is generally a safe, relaxed country for visitors, and violent crime against tourists is rare. The real risks are on the road. Long straight highways invite speeding, overtaking is aggressive, and livestock — horses, cows, camels in the west — wander onto unfenced roads, especially at dusk. Many local drivers avoid long intercity stretches after dark, and so should you.

• Use apps rather than street-hailed cars, and avoid the unofficial drivers at airport arrivals.
• On intercity trips, prefer daylight and a rested driver; on mountain roads, a driver who knows the season.
• Carry your passport: police and park rangers check documents, and some parks near the border register foreigners by passport.
• Emergency number: 112; police 102.

Women travelling alone report few problems in Almaty and Astana; the usual city common sense applies.

How do I pay for transport in Kazakhstan? Does Kaspi work for foreigners?

Kazakhstan runs on Kaspi, a super-app that locals use for payments, transfers, shopping and even train tickets. Unfortunately it is built around Kazakh residency: registering needs a local ID number and phone, so for a normal visitor Kaspi effectively does not work. When someone says "just send it by Kaspi", ask for card or cash instead.

The good news is that Visa and Mastercard are widely accepted in Almaty, Astana and Shymkent — in hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, petrol stations, on Air Astana and FlyArystan, and inside Yandex Go. Contactless and Apple Pay or Google Pay usually work at terminals. American Express is rarely accepted. Most bank ATMs in big cities take foreign cards, often with no local fee, with a limit of around 100,000 tenge per withdrawal.

Still carry some tenge in cash — a few thousand per day — for village cafés, toilets, parking, park tickets and informal drivers, who mostly want cash. Outside the big cities, card terminals thin out quickly. With RideKZ the price is fixed in writing before you travel; day and multi-day trips are secured with a 30% deposit by Visa or Mastercard through a card link, and the balance can be paid by card or in cash.

Ways to do it, compared

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