KYRGYZSTAN: Explore the Hidden Treasures

Drive: 3–4 hrs   |   Stay: Guesthouse   |   Meals: L, D

Meet your guide and group at the CBT office in Bishkek (Gorkiy St. 58) at 9am and depart for Chong-Kemin. En route, make a one-hour detour to the remarkable Burana Tower complex — a towering 11th-century minaret that once rose over 45 metres and marked a major caravanserai on the Great Silk Road. Explore the site's open-air museum of ancient Balbals (stone grave markers) and take in the sweeping views of the Chuy Valley. Continue to Chong-Kemin — a lush, 500-hectare protected valley of extraordinary scenic variety — where a home-cooked lunch at a local homestay and an evening walk through the village await.

Drive: 5–6 hrs   |   Stay: Guesthouse   |   Meals: B  (lunch & dinner at café)

After breakfast, set off along the northern shore of Issyk-Kul — the second largest saline lake in the world and the crown jewel of the Tian Shan. En route, stop at the open-air petroglyph gallery near Cholpon-Ata, where thousands of ancient rock carvings dating back to the Bronze Age are scattered across a hillside field. A fascinating and rarely visited site. Continue east to Karakol, pausing for lunch along the way. On arrival, visit two of Karakol's most striking landmarks: the ornate Dungan Mosque — built without nails in a uniquely Chinese-Islamic style — and the colourful Russian Orthodox Church, a vivid reminder of the town's Tsarist-era past.

Trek: 18 km   |   Max Elevation: 2,800m   |   Stay: Yurt Camp   |   Meals: B, L, D

Transfer 40km from Karakol to the Kyzyl-Suu valley trailhead, where the three-day trekking traverse begins. Today's route climbs over the Jety-Oguz Pass at 2,800m — a long but rewarding day through open mountain terrain with wide views over the Terskey Ala-Too range. The trail covers 18km, following river valleys and high ridge paths before descending to a yurt camp where your local guide team has prepared dinner. The first of several nights under a vast mountain sky.

Trek: 14–16 km   |   Max Elevation: 3,400m   |   Time: 5–6 hrs   |   Stay: Yurt Camp   |   Meals: B, L, D

The most demanding day of the trek, and one of the most spectacular. The trail climbs steadily to the Kum-Bel Pass at 3,400m — the highest point of the entire journey — with sweeping panoramas of the surrounding peaks opening up as you gain altitude. The descent into the Yrdyk Valley is long and satisfying, arriving at a yurt camp in the early evening. Tonight's setting is remote and utterly peaceful — the kind of place that reminds you why you came to Kyrgyzstan.

Trek: 9–10 km   |   Time: 2–3 hrs   |   Drive: 3 hrs   |   Stay: Yurt Camp   |   Meals: B, L, D

A shorter final trekking day with big rewards. The descent through the Yrdyk Valley passes the striking Red Cliffs — vivid vermilion rock formations that glow in the morning light — before reaching the famous Jety-Oguz gorge, home to the iconic Seven Bulls rock formation and the aptly named Broken Heart cliff. After lunch at a local guesthouse, the afternoon's drive takes you to a panoramic viewpoint and then on to the dramatic Skazka (Fairy Tale) canyons before settling into a yurt camp near Bokonbaevo village for the night.

Drive: 3 hrs   |   Stay: Guesthouse   |   Meals: B, L, D

After a relaxed late breakfast, transfer to a mountain area above Bokonbaevo for one of the most memorable experiences of the entire journey: a traditional Kyrgyz eagle hunting demonstration. Berkutchi (eagle hunters) have practiced this ancient art for over 2,000 years, and watching a golden eagle fly to the hunter's call against a backdrop of Tian Shan peaks is a genuinely extraordinary sight. Lunch is taken at a mountain yurt camp before the drive to Kochkor village, a charming market town known for its felt craft workshops and warm local hospitality.

Trek: 5–6 hrs   |   Drive: 2 hrs   |   Pass: Chaar-Archa (3,061m)   |   Stay: Yurt Camp   |   Meals: B, L, D

Drive from Kochkor to the Kyzart pass trailhead, where your Song-Köl guide team and pack horses are waiting. The two-day trek to Song-Köl follows an ancient nomadic route through some of the most beautiful highland scenery in Kyrgyzstan. Today's trail crosses the vast, open grasslands of Kyzyl-Kiya jailoo before climbing over the Chaar-Archa Pass (3,061m) into the lush Chaar-Archa Valley, where lunch is taken beside a racing glacial river with views of the sacred 4,400m Baba-Ata Mountain. The afternoon leads across the rolling green carpet of Kilemche Jailoo — a landscape so perfectly verdant it looks almost unreal. Dinner and overnight in a yurt.

Trek: 4–5 hrs   |   Pass: 3,400m   |   Stay: Yurt Camp at Song-Köl   |   Meals: B, L, D

The morning begins with a climb to the Jalgyz-Karagai Pass at 3,400m — rocky, exhilarating, and worth every step. From the top, Song-Köl gradually reveals itself below: first a distant shimmer, then a widening expanse of brilliant blue water ringed by open hills and distant peaks, growing larger and more magnificent with every downward step. Arriving at Song-Köl (3,016m) feels like stepping into another world entirely — vast, silent, and impossibly beautiful. Lunch at the Jaman Echki pasture, then transfer along the lakeshore to the Batai-Aral yurt camp, where a Kyrgyz shepherd family welcomes you for the night. This is nomadic life at its most authentic.

Drive: 6-7  hrs   |   Stay: Yurt Camp   |   Meals: B, D  (lunch at café in Naryn)

Bid farewell to Song-Köl and head south over the dramatic 32 Slopes Pass — a serpentine mountain road with sweeping views at every bend. En route, stop for photos at key viewpoints and take a short walk to a waterfall below the pass. Lunch in Naryn town, the largest settlement in central Kyrgyzstan, before continuing towards the remote Kel-Suu area near the Chinese border. Today you'll cross into the Kyrgyz-China pre-border zone, for which a border permit is included. Arrive at the yurt camp as the sun sets over the canyon landscape.

Trek/Ride: 7 km each way   |   Stay: Guesthouse, Naryn   |   Meals: B, L, D

An early start for the highlight of the journey's final days: Kel-Suu lake. Reached by a 7 km trek or horse ride through a beautiful Kel-Suu Valley, towering canyon, this extraordinary lake sits in one of the most dramatic natural settings in all of Kyrgyzstan — sheer canyon walls rising hundreds of metres from the water, with the Tian Shan peaks visible in the distance. On the lake, take a boat ride through the flooded canyon corridors for a perspective that few travellers in the world ever experience. A picnic lunch on the shore, then ride or trek back to camp before the drive to Naryn for a final night in a guesthouse.

Drive: 7-8 hrs   |   Meals: B

The final morning begins with breakfast in Naryn before the long but scenic drive back to Bishkek via a high mountain crossing that offers one last sweeping panorama of the Kyrgyz landscape before the descent to the capital. Arrive in Bishkek in the late afternoon, where your 11-day journey through the heart of Central Asia comes to a close. You leave with full memories, empty legs, and — almost certainly — plans to come back.