Guided Walking City Tour in Almaty
Description
You will have a unique tour with a professional guide, who will be with a sense of humor and you will have fun. We will look at the city through the decades and sometimes even through the centuries; We will get to know Almaty as a small provincial town at the Asian borders of the Russian Empire, as rapidly developing capital of the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan and as an independent state of modern times. We will see the house in the shape of a string-bag and the “Stalin cake house” We will find out how did they were solving the problem of running water in the 20th century and where did they get the local sea shells to face the houses in the 1960s being thousands of kilometers away from any sea. We will speak about the nature catastrophes of the region and how did the city survived it different times.
Tour Options
Itinerary
We will start our walk at the train station “Zhibek Zholy” (ticket is included), the metro system is new and very special, each station has its own story to tell, and “Zhibek Zoly” logically takes us to very ancient times of the history of this land - the times of The Grate Silk way which the decoration of the station describes in quite bright artistic way.
We will reach the pedestrian Panfilov street with lots of pretty cafes and restaurants and find a house of the most unusual architectural style for the conservative USSR times – the building of central telegraph that truly looks like a shopping net. Right from there we will get the view of the Kazakh opera and ballet theater that represents an outstanding combination of Asian motives and European classicism.
We will get to Kunaev street and passing few more examples of Stalin architecture and living areas of 1940-60s we will walk by the so called Gymnasium block where the buildings of the pre revolution high schools survived founded by the royal Russian government.
Our way continues to the oldest park of Almaty – the park of 28 Panfilovcev where we will get to see the oldest cathedral in the city that survived the most devastation earthquake of 1911, the wooden old Russian style officer club building and the ambitious monument to the victory in the 2d World War put up in soviet times.
Upon your wish we may continue our walk towards the Green bazar – the local farmers market or go back to the original point of our tour passing on the way the Arasan bath house – quite significant complex of traditional baths constricted in 1980s.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(5)
This is a scam. I paid 70$ and no one showed up in the meeting point. I was there for 30 minutes and no one came. Despite my multiple messages, calls and emails I wasn’t able to connect with the tour agency “TJ Travel”. I made the booking last minute but got confirmation that the tour was confirmed so there is no excuse. To this date I am still waiting for a response and at the very least a refund! If you don’t refund me ASAP I will place a dispute and will report it to TripAdvisor
Dear Daniel, Thank you for your review. We appreciate feedback from our clients. However, your opinion shows our company in a completely wrong light. We are sorry for not being able to accommodate your booking due it was made just a couple of hours before the official tour start time. All our guides were already on duty, so we have cancelled and refunded your booking just as we have received it. As far as we know, Viator has given a full refund to you just on the same day. We would kindly ask you to remove your review because is doesn't reflect the real situation and drives our potential clients and Viator customers into confusion. Wishing you only the best tours, Tatyana
It was basically a tour about architecture and very little else. Was not what I expected from the tour description.
Amazing city tour. Our guide, Maria, was fantastic and incredibly knowledgable about the city and also great fun. 10/10 would recommend.
Spent a great day walking around Almaty with our guide, Maria. Apart from the history of the city, we were treated to a variety of sights in Almaty, from parks, to buildings, to monuments, the cathedral, the bazaar and of course the local sweet shop! Maria has has a warm and open personality, a great sense of humour, excellent English and a huge amount of information about the city. We had an absolutely fabulous day. Highly recommended.
