4 Days Issyk Kul & Chon Kemin: Horse Riding and Nomadic Yurt Stay

I visited Issyk Kul as part of a longer trip with Datka Travel, who I can’t more highly recommend as your tour company for Kyrgyzstan. Talgat communicates very well and provides professional material to prep for the trip. The yurt stay was lovely, the highlight being the musical evening with the local family singing and playing a variety of instruments. Really a lovely evening with beautiful music. The views over the lake from the yurt are beautiful.

We booked the tour 2 days before departure and Talgat had helped us to curate an amazing experience going round Kyrgyzstan in 7 days that is suitable for our 5 year old girl. We wasted no time from the moment we touched down to the city tour which our guide Faruk showed us around and brought us to an amazing breakfast. My girl enjoyed the Panfilov Park and the State History Museum before we called it a day to rest early for our amazing journey out from Bishkek. Our guide Andrei is very well versed in and out of Kyrgyzstan. He brought us to so many amazing places and local restaurants to try the local dishes. He had even responded to our emergency back to the town because my girl wasn't well when we were up at the Supara Chunkurchak. These are just some of the places we went city main attractions — Ala-Too Square, National History Museum, Philharmonic Hall, Opera & Ballet Theater, Victory Square, main mosque and Orthodox church, and the colorful Osh Bazaar. Ala Archa National Park (Nature & Mountains), Chunkurchak Gorge (Sky Bridge, Waterfall), Issyk-Kul Lake, Kok-Moinok Canyons, Skazka (“Fairy Tale”) Canyon, Jeti-Ögüz Gorge, Barskoon Waterfall, Karakol City, Dungan Mosque, wooden Orthodox Church, Cholpon-Ata, Ruh Ordo Cultural Complex, ancient Petroglyphs, an open-air hot springs, mini zoo and Chon-Kemin National Park. We managed to do a few short trails within 2 hours which gave us spectacular view and experience. The Eagle Hunting training is amazing and the horse riding at Chon-Kemin is definitely worth to try. We went Semenov and Grigoriev Gorges but we couldn't get to the end of due to road constructions and closure. We have just missed Song Kul region which the road has been closed due to snow. Both our guides are good English speakers and very well versed with the history and new developments of Kyrgyzstan. Talgat has amazingly curated our trip with good proper restaurants and meals for us (that is very important for us as we have a 5 year old tagging along). Accommodations and meals are also included except in Bishkek (our arrival and departure day). All the accommodations booked is cleaned and ensuite with bathrooms. Generally outside of Bishkek, you would need jackets as the region is on high terrain. The weather is amazing and the country is very clean! Trails and treks are doable for young kids. We enjoyed very much of our stress free travel in Kyrgyzstan as Datka Travel had made an amazing plan for us.

Taking a 4-day trip with Datka was one of the best decisions on our trip! Communication was great from the get-go. Itinerary was well thought out and well-paced. Food options were really, really good, and our guides were knowledgeable n fun to be with.

We are really happy to express our review about Datka travel, special mention to Talai byke as driver and Makhmout as our guide. Talgat, who owns this initiave, made us extremely comfortable and happy by assigning right team and supporting us in every step. Talai was very friendly, highly experienced and with fatherly affection took us through all authetic food outlets, covering all language barriers. Makhmout, an exemplary excited tourism student guided us learn more about the places, cuisine, history, supported all throughout journey. He also took a lot of beautiful photographs all through our 6days trip and shared with us. One day we had been with another guide Ali, who also was very impressive and helped us throughout. Overall it was an awesome trip, we loved the country, lovely people there and mouth watering cuisine. We were kind of sad by the time of return and really miss the place, people and cuisine. Highly recommend Datka travel and Kyrgystan is a must visit for all nature lovers out there.

The tour is as advertised- the activities are well thought out with great flexibility. Our tour won't be as good as it was without Talgat and our guide Ulan, who is extremely knowledgeble, friendly and fun to be with for the entirety of the tour. Worth every dollar we spent. Next time we are in Kyrgyzstan and thinking of another trip, we'll be sure to consider this again.