Kyrgyzstan: Karakol

Date: 1st 'to 6th June, 2026

Karakol is a small town near the mountains, a famous place where lot of tourists come here to hike for multi day hiking. The houses and the gardens are big so one has to walk a lot to get to different parts of the city. Since the place is dry, it could get lot of windy and dust. On my first day I felt lonely and immediately wanted to go back to Bishkek however, glad that I stayed for the good part.

Second day I relaxed more doing research about the hike and interestingly it was the children's day for Karakol. An event was held near the city centre park with music, games, food shops and performances. It was nice to see more families celebrating and enjoying.

The main place i felt is one of the oldest cathedral in the park, whose history goes back 1800s where church was demolished and renovated so many times. Especially what it went through WW2 where Christians are butchered but it still survived. One is not allowed to take pictures inside, I witnessed a young baby and his elder brother is getting baptised. The ritual was noval for me as this is the first time me witnessing. I was gracious enough to take a family photo of the family :).

There is an Aktilek bazaar to get shop around for the groceries, clothes, etc which is the bus stations for the minibuses. Do not forget to get some pilaf to eat.

For the hikers I came to know that at Duet Hostel there is a cafe where you can list your phone with date and hike you are doing then fellow hikers might ping you to join so that one can go in a group.

Next 3 days I went to the Ala-Kol lake, Altyn Arashan pass hike and it was amazing experience. Here is the link for it Kyrgyzstan: Ala-Kol lake hike

I stayed at two guest houses both are very nice, Four seasons guest house and Ali guest house. In both places the hosts are super friendly and accommodative.

I wanted to do another hike however, there is constant rain for next few days so decided to give up and return to Bishkek.