
At the end of August this year, my boyfriend Ali and I headed to Kyrgyzstan. Our goal was to get a first impression of the country and do some hiking in the many beautiful mountain ranges there.
The 2 or 3-day Ala-Kul hike is probably one of the most famous hikes for tourists to do. That said, it's still a beautiful and peaceful hike and we never had the feeling it was overly touristy.
We asked some locals if we needed a guide or not, and they said it's probably manageable without a guide, so we crossed our fingers and decided to brave it ourselves. Here's the story of how we faired...
Contents
Preparations
The day before the hike, we booked a yurt at Sirota camp for the first night of the hike through someone at Duet Hostel. We rented some poles and a little gas stove from Eco Travel. Poles were a lifesaver for me when going up or down steep slippy paths, but Ali got by without.
We didn't really need a stove for cooking but Ali wanted to be able to make hot tea whenever he wanted, so that was an essential for him! We also went to one of the big supermarkets and bought various snacks, food, tea and some basic cutlery.
We had 50l backpacks from Decathlon: great bags, but definitely too big as we weren't taking a tent.
Day 1
Our lovely hotel (Matsunoki) in Karakol let us leave our big bags there while we went away for the hike. They gave us an early breakfast at 7am then we walked into the town to find a taxi.

We started our hike from the entrance of the Karakol Nature Park at around 9 am. There is a gate across the entrance and to go inside you have to pay a small entrance fee. I think the entrance is marked as Schlagbaum on Google Maps, or it's not far from it.
We walked from there to the Sirota camp. It was ca. 19km in total. It seemed most people took taxis further into the park, and this caused a lot of dust on the first part of the road. So if you want to make your life easier (and less dusty), I would ask your Karakol hotel to arrange a taxi further into the park for you.

The further into the park we went, the more beautiful it became. It was a bit hilly and there were a few streams to cross. We filled our water up at a spring marked on my phone map. We stopped by the river for a hot tea, lunch and to admire the view of the horses.
The hardest part of day 1 all comes after this bridge. It is then a steep hike through forest and rocky terrain, with altitude increasing rapidly. I started to get very out of breath.


Finally, we made it to Sirota camp, around 5pm. It was extremely beautiful. I was exhausted and crawled into our mini yurt for a rest before dinner. My partner still had some energy and went for a dip in the little lake next to the camp! He said it was very cold and soon came back for a rest.
Dinner at Sirota camp was... alright. Happily for me, the meat delivery had failed so everything was vegan anyway. But I definitely heard a few grumbles among the other hikers. It was some kind of vegetable soup and a bit of bulgur, and lots of bread, sweets and biscuits. No protein really. After dinner, we had a lovely campfire and sat around with hot tea for a while. Nobody stayed up late because everyone was exhausted and wanted to sleep well before the early start the next day.

Due to the altitude, we did not sleep well. No matter how tired we were, it was really difficult to sleep. I went out of our yurt in the night for the toilet and the stars were breathtaking, that was definitely one of the highlights of the whole hike for me.
The yurt itself was very cozy. They provided sleeping bags, liners, and mattresses. Just make sure you get in the right-sized sleeping bag before you get too cozy to want to change it! I had a luxuriously spacious XL sleeping bag, but poor Ali had a small one we realised in the morning.
Day 2

On the second day, we left Sirota camp at around 7:40 am and it was a totally fine time. Breakfast was at 6:30 so you could go even earlier if you wanted, and lots of people did. Of all the many people staying at the campsite (it seemed about 20 or 30), we only bumped into a handful of people going up to the pass on the second day. It amazed me how so many people could spread out so much and it still felt very remote, peaceful and solitary.

The path becomes more and more beautiful the further you go. Especially in the early morning mist, when the sun is just starting to beam over the peaks, while the campsite and valley are still in shade. The path winds up the mountain, close to the stream, which becomes more and more like a waterfall the steeper it gets.
At the first fork in the path by the Ala-Kul lake, we had to take the lower path. How did we know? Because some kind person shouted to us to tell us to go on the lower path. Thank you to that person.

At a later fork, there is a path going higher and a lower path with a sign down to a campsite and cafe. We took the lower path and it ended up disappearing into thin air. It even got quite dangerous because the wrong path led us to a slope of rocks and boulders, which we then clambered across and finally reached the real path.
We definitely should have gone back, but it would have taken us half an hour to go back to the point where we'd taken the lower fork of the path instead of the higher one. Don't make this mistake! By luck or divine intervention, we didn't slide down the mountain amongst the very unstable rocks we were clambering over.

In any case, the main path itself is also just a very narrow groove in a slope of rocks, trodden a bit more flat than the surrounding rocks. Sometimes it goes over more grassy or flatter areas where you can sit and have a rest.
I was told that most rockslides happen in spring when snow is melting so that calmed my mind a little (we were there at the end of August). I didn't notice any rocks falling on our side of the lake, but there were definitely rocks crashing into the lake on the other side. It was an eerie and dramatic sight. We walked as quickly and quietly as possible over the part of the path signposted as potentially having rockfall.

Finally, we reached the top of the pass. The altitude sickness/nausea was hitting me full force, but I had a sit down and took in the view.

Thankfully we noticed another group ahead of us going a bit further along the pass instead of straight down. There is a slightly less severe path (marked in green on the above photo) down from there, albeit a bit more wiggly windy, but it was kind of enjoyable to slide-shimmy down the mountain so quickly after the painfully slow climb up. With every step downwards I quite literally felt my nausea and headache evaporate. So find this path! It is in the south-easterly direction (your right-hand side with the Ala Kul lake behind you).

On the other side of the pass, the terrain is much easier. It is golden, grassy lands that get greener as you descend. We stopped at a yurt for a hot tea and biscuits.
The only tricky part of the descent is knowing that you have to cross the river/stream at some point (from it being on your right-hand side as you face downhill, to being on your left side) and then again as you get into the forest part.
The first crossing was a little bit tricky to cross without getting wet feet as there was no path, just a few big rocks to hop (or stumble) between. There was also a strange yellow boat acting as a kind of bridge over one section. How that boat got all the way there into the mountains is a mystery.

Later on, BY CHANCE, we caught up with some other hikers who showed us where to cross the river (and not spend ages going through the forest on unclear paths). There was a raging yet small river to cross and a fallen tree being used as a kind of bridge. I don't know how permanent that is. I gingerly slid across it on my bum as I was so afraid of tripping and getting my boots wet (or worse).

When we got to Altynarashan, we enquired at the two hotels there to see if they had room. One of them did have many rooms, it was pretty cheap and seemed ok.
But we saw a truck taking people back to Karakol for about 25 euros each, and so we decided to take that as we just wanted to be back in our lovely Karakol hotel. The truck ride back down through the valley was an adventure in itself, and we got shaken up like a box of skittles as it carried us over the bouldery, holey road.
Do I need a guide for the Ala-Kul hike?
The benefit of having a guide is that you don't have to worry about being on the right path or keep stopping to check your unreliable phone map. You can just enjoy the scenery and focus on getting yourself up the mountain. I think if your level of fitness is on the lower end like mine, having a guide would make the whole experience a lot more manageable and less scary.

What level of fitness do you need to do the Ala-Kul hike?
I think if I'd had more time to acclimatise to the altitude and less jet lag, my level of fitness would have still made the hike very difficult, but manageable. I'm 28, can run 5k in about 35 minutes, I walk a lot and I do yoga a few times a week, so I'm not super fit but still quite active. I very nearly didn't manage the hike because of feeling so sick, and some moments were quite painful and scary for that reason.
My boyfriend (age 38) is quite athletic, goes to the gym often and he said it was challenging but fine for him and he could definitely have gone faster. We bumped into someone who had done the entire 2-day hike in one day, so that's also possible if you're feeling up to it.
Don't Underestimate Altitude Sickness
On the second day, the altitude sickness really affected me. At first, I thought maybe I just have a funny tummy from drinking the stream water, but it really got worse with every step higher. By the time we were at the highest point 3900m, I was feeling headachey and full of nausea. It probably didn't help that I'd barely been able to eat anything that day because food was just so unappealing to me. Plus I'd only slept 2 hours the previous night (another symptom of altitude sickness), so I was generally weakened.
But the reason I knew it was altitude sickness is because I could feel it evaporating with each step I took down the mountain. By the time we got down to the other side, my appetite was back, headache gone, nausea gone...
My boyfriend on the other hand didn't feel any altitude "sickness", but he also had trouble sleeping and he grew up in the mountains. Probably the jetlag didn't help either! Here is a record of the heights I went to and probably why I got altitude sickness:
Start: Hamburg 23m
1 night: Istanbul 39m
2 nights: Bishkek 753m
2 nights: Karakol 1792m
1 night: Sirota camp 2900m (trouble sleeping)
Next day: Alakul pass 3900m (feeling very nauseous)
Back down to Karakol on the same day and feeling totally fine again.

How beautiful was it?
It was breathtaking. Even in the rain on the first day, the valley of horses grazing, icy blue rivers, towering mountains and raging waterfalls were beautiful. And the stariest night sky I've ever seen was a spectacle in itself, especially for a city-dweller like me.
I especially remember the mist over the valley in the early morning of the second day, another tumbling waterfall surrounded by wildflowers and greenery up to the lake. The bright blue Ala-Kul lake with the glacier in the distance, snowy mountains all around, and pure silence save for the occasional sound of rock fall ricocheting off the mountainsides. Then coming down from the pass first through golden fields, slowly into greener and more forested areas.
It is a heavenly place. Definitely made more beautiful by the kind and welcoming Kyrgyz people who live there and look after their land.

How busy was it?
This is one of Kyrgyzstan's most popular walks but for most of the route, we could see no one ahead or behind us. This gave us a very peaceful feeling. There was one small group that we kept overtaking and then being overtaken by. But it was nice to see some friendly faces, especially when we weren't sure which path to take. When we got to the campsite it seemed there were around 20 people and we bumped into some of them when we arrived in Altyn Arashan on the second day.
Toilet Situation

It was terrible. Haunting, even. But there's no choice so you just have to get used to it. It was a shack, made of corrugated iron, and a small hole in the ground... Hopefully, by the time you are there, there'll be a light and a lock on the door in place of the string (that you had to hold for your dear life otherwise the door swings wide open).
Alternatively: go into the bushes but there might be wolves or bears at night. Your choice! When we were there in August 2023, there was talk of getting better toilets for the next season so hopefully, this will be the case.
What map should I use?
We bought the map offered to us at the Eco Travel place. I trusted that it would be enough but it was a really large scale map without enough detail and almost useless. We took the wrong path several times, which could have been avoided with a more detailed map.
I recommend a more detailed map that shows actually noticeable geological features. It was also useful to have a downloaded phone map (we used Organic Maps) so we could get an idea of where we were with GPS, but that was also kind of unreliable sometimes. It was good for saying where we were and estimating the time left, but it didn't stop us from making some wrong turns. There were also some tricky river crossings and the map didn't help at all there.
The best thing would be to have a detailed physical map + a phone map and go through the whole route beforehand with someone who has already done the hike recently so they can advise you where to cross rivers.
Ala-Kul Hike Prices (in August 2023)*
260 SOM taxi to the national park entrance
300 SOM per person entrance fee
100 SOM cup of tea at a camp on the way
4000 SOM per person to stay in Sirota camp, incl. dinner and breakfast
*Please note prices are just a rough guide, I may not have got everything right.

✨ small disclaimer ✨
Please note everything written here is just a personal experience, it is not the advice of an expert by any means so you should really consult an expert before going ahead.
Love this Kate! A very interesting insight into your hiking adventure. 😊 It really does look breathtaking and I LOVE your 'doodle' (more like a masterpiece in my mind ;)). I love how you recorded how high you were each day. Altitude sickness is something I never would have even considered so good to know! Looking forward to more posts 🤗.
Ali xx