Kazakhstan trip cost 2026: prices in tenge and dollars

01

Is Kazakhstan expensive to visit?

Not for getting around or sightseeing; the bill grows with your hotel. A metro ride in Almaty costs 120 ₸ (about $0.27) and most museum tickets for foreigners are 2,000–5,000 ₸ ($4.50–11). A day in an Almaty hotel averaged 35,821 ₸ ($80) in August 2026.

That hotel figure comes from the Bureau of National Statistics, which records the average price of one day's stay in a hotel in 20 cities every month for its consumer-price index. Almaty tops the August 2026 table. By our calculation it is about 70% above Astana (20,982 ₸) and 28% above the national average of 27,962 ₸. Turkestan, the pilgrimage town north of Tashkent, averaged 16,413 ₸.

Dollar figures on this page use the National Bank of Kazakhstan rate for 24 September 2026, 1 USD = 445.65 ₸, and are rounded. Your bank or card will use its own rate. Every price below includes the date we checked it; train and flight fares also change with the day you travel.

If you are adding Kazakhstan to an Uzbekistan trip, our Uzbekistan cost guide uses the same worksheet method with Uzbek prices. We found no official Uzbek hotel average to set beside the Kazakh one, so we do not rank the two countries on price.

02

How much does a night in a hotel cost?

Plan on about 21,000 ₸ ($47) a night in Astana and 36,000 ₸ ($80) in Almaty if you pay the average, and less in the south. These are statistical averages, not quotes: your price depends on dates, area and room.

The table does not say whether the price is for a room or for a person, or whether breakfast is included. In the worksheet below we treat it as a room for one traveller. Once you have a real quote for your dates, use that instead.

Lake and mountain holiday bases are priced differently. In June 2026 Zakon.kz surveyed open offers from holiday bases, guesthouses and campsites. It found prices from about 6,000 ₸ a day for a basic cabin up to 120,000 ₸ at the dearest complexes. In the cheaper regions, Turkestan region among them, options with all facilities and breakfast rarely went above 40,000–50,000 ₸ a day. That survey covers summer holiday bases, not city hotels.

Almaty charges foreigners no tourist fee. The city council set the rate at 0% of the cost of stay in decision No. 50 of 15 September 2023, as amended on 21 February 2024. We read the current text on 24 September 2026. If an Almaty hotel bill shows a tourist-fee line, ask the hotel what it is for.

03

What does getting around a city cost?

Public transport costs 110–200 ₸ a ride. A taxi ordered through an app starts at 400 ₸ in Almaty.

In Almaty the metro sells a 120 ₸ token, valid for one day, and its ticket offices take cash and Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay cards. Buses need an Onay transport card: 800 ₸ for the card, then 120 ₸ a ride. The airport buses, No. 92 by day and No. 3 by night, cost 120 ₸ with Onay, and the card is sold on the ground floor of the international terminal's arrivals area. Arriving by air is covered in our Almaty airport guide.

In Astana the new light rail between the airport and Nurly Zhol station charges 200 ₸ a ride, 500 ₸ for a day and 7,500 ₸ for a month, under tariffs in force since 1 August 2026 (Zakon.kz, 30 July 2026). Visit Astana, the city's tourist office, says city buses take an Astra Plat card or a contactless bank card. It puts a taxi from the airport to the centre at 2,000 ₸ and up.

Yandex Go starts Almaty rides at 400 ₸, which covers the first 3 minutes and 1 km. After that it charges up to 58 ₸ a km and 27 ₸ a minute, before busy-time surcharges. The tariff page marks this tariff valid to 29 September 2026, so check the fare in the app.

04

What do trains, buses and flights between cities cost?

Trains are the cheap way between cities: from 8,368 ₸ ($19) for a seat from Almaty to Astana and from 10,225 ₸ ($23) for a seat from Tashkent to Almaty. Flights cost more but are far faster.

The train fares below come from the Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) booking search for travel on 15 October 2026, read on 24 September. They are "from" prices for the cheapest free place in each class, and they move with demand and the date. The Almaty–Astana Talgo is not fast any more: KTZ's own search shows 16 h 04 min to 16 h 41 min northbound, overnight.

Yandex Schedules, a flight aggregator, showed Almaty–Astana flights of 1 h 40 min to 1 h 55 min. On 24 September its lowest fare on the route was 13,229 ₸ ($30), and flights leaving that same day cost 27,000–39,000 ₸. The airline's own site sets the price you pay.

By road, the Sayran bus station in Almaty sells route 701 to Bishkek at 3,425 ₸ ($7.70), with five departures a day, before its e-ticket service fee. The bus, taxis and the border are in Almaty to Bishkek.

05

How much are museum tickets, cable cars and park entry fees?

Most paid sights cost foreigners 2,000–12,000 ₸ ($4.50–27), and the state museums charge foreigners more than residents. Mountain parks add a small daily fee per walker.

Prices below come from each site's own price list, read on 24 September 2026. The National Central Museum charges foreign visitors 5,000 ₸, against 1,500 ₸ for adult residents; the Kasteev Museum of Arts charges 5,000 ₸ against 2,000 ₸. The Yasawi mausoleum in Turkestan has three rates under a culture-ministry order in force since 1 July 2025: 1,000 ₸ for Kazakh citizens, 1,500 ₸ for citizens of other CIS countries and 2,000 ₸ for everyone else. Kok-Tobe, Shymbulak and the two Astana landmarks (Baiterek, Palace of Peace and Reconciliation) list one adult price.

National park fees are set in MRP, the monthly calculation index, which is 4,325 ₸ in 2026. Tengrinews reported on 9 January 2026 that walkers pay 0.15 MRP (648 ₸) a day in Ile-Alatau park, which includes Big Almaty Lake, and 0.2 MRP (865 ₸) in Charyn park. Charyn tours usually include the fee; our Charyn, Kolsai and Kaindy guide covers how to get there. For the ticket total of a three-day Almaty visit, see our Almaty in 3 days plan.

06

What does food cost?

A set lunch in a canteen or café costs about 1,500–2,500 ₸ ($3.40–5.60), a restaurant business lunch 3,000–4,500 ₸ ($6.70–10), and a latte 1,200–1,400 ₸ ($2.70–3.10). These are media samples, not official averages.

Zakon.kz (10 June 2026) put a canteen set lunch of soup, main course, salad and tea at 1,500 ₸, a standard set lunch at 2,000–2,500 ₸ on average, and a restaurant "business lunch" at 3,000–4,500 ₸. National Business (20 September 2026) reported that a 300–350 ml latte or cappuccino in Almaty now averages 1,200–1,400 ₸, against 800–1,000 ₸ four to five years ago.

For shop prices there is an official source. The Bureau of National Statistics recorded these Almaty averages for August 2026: 308 ₸ for a kilogram of wheat bread, 683 ₸ for a litre of full-fat milk, 782 ₸ for a kilogram of apples. Petrol (AI-92) averaged 249 ₸ a litre in Almaty, which matters if you rent a car.

In the worksheet we assume two sit-down meals a day at the business-lunch range, with breakfast at the hotel or bought separately. That is our planning assumption, not a survey.

07

What do mobile data and a SIM cost?

A month on Beeline's cheapest listed smartphone plan costs 7,999 ₸ ($18). The catch is registration: a phone brought from abroad must be verified within 30 days, or it loses service on a Kazakh SIM.

Beeline Kazakhstan listed its "Mega for 7999" plan on 24 September 2026: 7,999 ₸ a month with 15 GB, another 15 GB under a promotion, and 100 minutes to Kazakh numbers. The tariff page does not say which plans are sold to holders of a foreign passport, so ask in a Beeline shop before you pay.

Bes.media (15 December 2025) explains that a phone bought abroad must pass IMEI verification within 30 days of first use on a Kazakh network, and that foreigners do this through the QazETA app. The UK Foreign Office adds that verification also needs a Kazakh individual identification number (IIN), and that an unverified local SIM is blocked after 30 days. For a short trip, a travel eSIM avoids the question; our SIM and eSIM guide explains how they work, though its operator details are for Uzbekistan.

08

Which currency, and can you pay by card?

The currency is the tenge (₸, KZT). Cards are widely accepted in the cities: the Astana tourist office says Visa, Mastercard and UnionPay work, and the Almaty metro takes all three at its ticket offices.

Visit Astana lists banknotes from 200 to 20,000 ₸ and ATMs in every district of the city. It also says many cafés, shops and transport services take contactless payment, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay. We have not tested foreign cards at markets or small kiosks, so carry some tenge.

The UK Foreign Office advises changing money only at banks or authorised exchange offices. It warns that official booths may refuse damaged or marked notes, and US dollars issued before 2013, so bring clean, recent notes if you plan to exchange cash. It also suggests using ATMs inside banks where you can.

09

What does a week in Kazakhstan cost? A worked example

About 256,000–277,000 ₸ ($574–621) for one traveller staying in a private room, or 181,000–202,000 ₸ ($406–453) each for two sharing, before international flights. These are our sums of the dated prices above, not a quote.

The example: three nights in Almaty, Talgo 003 overnight to Astana in a coupe berth, two nights in Astana, then the light rail to the airport. Hotels use the August 2026 averages; replace them with your own quotes. Day tours such as Charyn, insurance, visas, the flight home and shopping are not included. The two-sharing total halves the hotel rows only, which assumes the average is a room price.

Swap the train for a flight and you pay for an extra Almaty night instead of the berth: 13,229 + 35,821 − 22,603 = 26,447 ₸ ($59) more, at the lowest fare on the aggregator's board.

10

What pushes the cost up?

Almaty hotels, foreigner prices, the ski season and short-lived tariffs. Any of these can matter more than the daily food line. For the seasons themselves, see when to visit Kazakhstan.

• Almaty hotels. The city's average day in a hotel, 35,821 ₸, is the highest of the 20 cities on the statistics bureau's August 2026 table.
• Foreigner prices. Foreign adults pay 3.3 times the resident price at the National Central Museum and 2.5 times at the Kasteev museum.
• Ski season. Last winter Shymbulak's full-day adult ski pass was 26,000 ₸ ($58), Tengrinews reported on 8 January 2026. Prices for 2026–27 had not been published when we checked. Lifts and passes: Shymbulak and Medeu.
• Taxis. App fares rise at busy times, and the UK Foreign Office advises pre-ordering a licensed taxi rather than flagging a car down, to avoid being overcharged.
• Tariffs that expire. Yandex Go's Almaty tariff was marked valid only to 29 September 2026, and the Astana light-rail fares changed on 1 August 2026.
• Train fares move. KTZ quotes "from" prices. On Almaty–Astana the cheapest fare for 12–18 October ranged from 8,368 to 9,720 ₸, depending on the day.
• Cash exchange. Booths may refuse damaged notes and dollars issued before 2013, and your card applies its own exchange rate.

11

Adding Kazakhstan to an Uzbekistan trip

We arrange the Uzbekistan part and can advise on the rest. In Kazakhstan we give advice only: we do not book hotels, trains or tours there.

The usual link between the two countries is the daily Talgo or a flight; see Tashkent to Almaty. A ready two-country plan is our Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in 10 days. Before you go, read the entry rules and QazETA and our safety advice. For a longer loop through Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, see the three-week Central Asia route. Contact us with your dates and we will plan the Uzbekistan days around the Kazakh ones. More on the country: all our Kazakhstan guides and the Almaty city guide.

Common questions