Loading destination…
Kazakhstan eSIM
7 data plans · from $5.99 · one-tap install by email
Choose your plan
Travelling as a group? Buy everyone an eSIM in one checkout and the discount is applied automatically — no code needed. See group pricing
7 data plans · from $5.99 · one-tap install by email
Travelling as a group? Buy everyone an eSIM in one checkout and the discount is applied automatically — no code needed. See group pricing
5 GB
30 days
Maps, messaging, everyday travel
$9.99
$2.00/GB
Buy →
Connects automatically to the strongest signal across Beeline, ZET, MegaFon.
Setup
Set up your eSIM before you travel — it takes about a minute. Scan once, switch it on when you arrive, and you’re online.
On iPhone (iOS)
On Android
24 plans for Kazakhstan, from 3 to 50 GB. Validity runs from 1 day to 180 days. 10 of them run on 5G where the local network has it.
15 plans can be topped up without installing a second eSIM. Plans run on Beeline, ZET, MegaFon, Jazz.
Counted from our live catalogue, not a marketing figure — the plan list above this section is the same data.
26 regional plans include Kazakhstan. The widest covers 5 countries — worth it if Kazakhstan is one stop of several, rather than the whole trip.
Regional coverage starts at $2.99 for 0.48828125 GB over 1 day.
A travel eSIM for Kazakhstan is a digital SIM your phone downloads — no plastic card, no airport pickup counter. You buy online, tap the install link we email you (a QR code is included too), and it installs a second line alongside your existing SIM. It stays dormant until you arrive in Kazakhstan, then connects automatically to Beeline, ZET, MegaFon on 5G where available and LTE everywhere else. Your home number keeps working for calls and texts; the eSIM simply carries your data.
Maps, messaging and rideshare apps are light — roughly 300–500 MB a day. Add photos, social and the occasional video and you’re closer to 1 GB a day. For a one-week trip a 5 GB plan is comfortable; for two weeks, sharing, or heavy use, choose 10 GB or more, or a reloadable plan you can top up on the go. Kazakhstan plans start at $5.99 across 7 sizes, with the per-GB price shown on every one so the right choice is obvious.
No. A travel eSIM for Kazakhstan is a local data plan, not international roaming — you pay the price you see up front, with no per-megabyte bill from your home carrier. Set the eSIM as your data line and switch data roaming off on your home SIM, and there are no surprises when you get home. Full refund any time before you install, so there’s no risk in buying ahead.
Beshbarmak
Boiled horse meat or lamb laid over wide sheets of dough with onion broth poured over. The name means five fingers and it is traditionally eaten by hand from a communal dish, with the sheep's head offered to the most honoured guest.
Traditional restaurants and any family celebration; the yurt-style places outside Almaty and Astana.
Kazy
Horse rib meat cured in its own casing and boiled, then sliced cold. Horse is prestige meat here rather than a curiosity, and kazy is what appears when guests matter.
The Green Bazaar in Almaty, where whole lengths hang at the meat counters.
Kuyrdak
Liver, heart, kidney and lung fried hard with onion and potato in tail fat. Traditionally the first thing cooked after an animal is slaughtered, because it will not keep.
Traditional restaurants and roadside cafes.
Baursak
Squares or spheres of dough deep-fried until puffed, piled in a bowl and served with tea, butter and jam. Present at every table, every occasion, without exception.
Everywhere. Markets sell them warm by the bag.
Kurt
Dried salted balls of strained sour milk, hard as chalk and intensely salty, made to keep without refrigeration through a nomadic year. An acquired taste that Kazakhs are fond of testing on visitors.
Markets and roadside stalls; sold by weight.
Manty
Large steamed dumplings of minced lamb and onion, or pumpkin, eaten with sour cream and black pepper. Steamed in stacked trays and served hot enough to burn.
Manty houses in Almaty and Shymkent; ubiquitous at bazaars.
Laghman
Hand-pulled noodles with lamb, peppers and tomato, either in broth or fried. Brought by the Dungan and Uyghur communities and now thoroughly local.
Dungan cafes; the ones near the Green Bazaar in Almaty are the standard recommendation.
Plov
Rice cooked with lamb, carrot and cumin in a wide cast-iron kazan. Southern Kazakhstan makes it close to the Uzbek style; further north it is lighter on the fat.
Shymkent and Turkistan; bazaar kitchens cook it in vast quantities before noon.
Shashlyk
Skewers of marinated lamb, beef or chicken grilled over coals, served with raw onion and flatbread. Eaten outdoors from spring onward.
Roadside grills on every intercity route.
Kumys and shubat
Fermented mare's milk and fermented camel's milk. Both are sour, slightly fizzy and mildly alcoholic, and both are drunk for health as much as pleasure. Spring kumys is considered the best.
Bazaars, where it is ladled from churns, and roadside stands on the steppe highways.
AlmatyAlmaty
The old capital, backed by the Trans-Ili Alatau range, with the wooden Zenkov Cathedral built without nails in Panfilov Park, the Green Bazaar, and a leafy grid of streets that make it the most liveable city in Central Asia.
two days
Medeu and Shymbulakabove Almaty
A high-altitude speed skating rink in a mountain gorge twenty minutes from the city, and a cable car continuing up to the Shymbulak ski area above it. Snow in winter, walking in summer.
a day
Big Almaty Lakenear Almaty
A turquoise reservoir in a bowl of mountains above the city, reached by a steep road. The area beyond it toward the Kyrgyz border is a controlled zone — do not continue past the signs without the right permit.
half a day
Charyn CanyonAlmaty region
A red sandstone gorge cut into the steppe, with the Valley of Castles section walked from rim to river in about an hour each way. Comparisons to the American southwest are lazy but not wrong.
a day
Kolsai and Kaindy lakesAlmaty region
Three linked mountain lakes in spruce forest, and nearby Kaindy, where an earthquake drowned a forest and the bare trunks still stand upright out of the water.
two days
Altyn-Emel National ParkAlmaty region
A vast desert park holding the Singing Dune, which hums when the sand slides, and the striped Aktau mountains. Entry requires a permit and the tracks inside need a proper vehicle.
two days · book ahead
AstanaAstana
A capital built from nothing on the steppe in thirty years, arranged along a ceremonial axis with the Bayterek tower, the Khan Shatyr tented mall and a great deal of ambitious architecture. Bitterly cold in winter.
two days
Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed YasawiTurkistan
A Timurid mausoleum, UNESCO-listed and never finished, the most important pilgrimage site in the country. The surrounding town has been heavily rebuilt to receive visitors.
a day
Mangystaunear Aktau
Chalk and limestone desert on the Caspian, with the Bozzhyra escarpment, the spherical concretions at Torysh, and underground mosques cut into rock. Reached only by 4x4 with a driver who knows the tracks.
three days · book ahead
BurabayAkmola region
Pine forest, granite outcrops and lakes in the northern steppe, a few hours from Astana and the country's traditional summer escape.
two days
Domestic flights
Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country on earth and flying is often the only sensible way to cross it. Air Astana and its low-cost arm FlyArystan link Almaty, Astana, Shymkent, Aktau and the regional centres.
moderate
Train
KTZ operates an enormous network of long-distance sleepers. The Talgo services between Almaty and Astana run overnight in reasonable comfort; the ordinary trains are slow, sociable and very cheap.
low
Almaty metro and buses
A single clean metro line under the city, plus a dense bus network. Both use the Onay card, bought and topped up at kiosks and machines rather than paid in cash.
very low
Shared taxi and intercity bus
Buses connect the towns, and shared cars leaving when full fill in the gaps at the bus stations. Agree the price before you get in, and expect the driver to want a full car.
low
Hired 4x4 with driver
The only realistic way to reach Altyn-Emel, the Mangystau desert or the tracks beyond Kaindy. Arranged through agencies in Almaty or Aktau, usually as a multi-day rate including fuel.
high by local standards
Ride-hailing
Yandex Go, inDrive
Both are used constantly and are inexpensive. inDrive works on an offer-and-counteroffer model rather than a fixed fare, which foreigners find odd at first. Unofficial taxis — anyone who stops when you raise a hand — remain common but the apps are safer and settle the price in advance.
Paying for things
Basics
| New Year | 1 and 2 January | The largest secular holiday. Businesses close for several days in practice and domestic flights are full. |
| International Women's Day | 8 March | Taken seriously as a public holiday; restaurants fully booked and flowers sold on every corner. |
| Nauryz Meyramy | 21 to 23 March | The spring new year and the biggest holiday of the year. Yurts go up in city squares, nauryz kozhe is served publicly, and the country largely stops for three days. Book transport well ahead. |
| Unity of the People of Kazakhstan | 1 May | Public holiday marking the country's many nationalities; parades and concerts. |
| Defender of the Fatherland Day and Victory Day | 7 and 9 May | Two holidays within three days, usually bridged into an extended break with heavy domestic travel. |
| Kurban Ait | Eid al-Adha, moving about eleven days earlier each year | Public holiday; family gatherings and busy intercity roads. |
| Republic Day | 25 October | Public holiday marking the 1990 declaration of sovereignty. |
| Independence Day | 16 December | Marks 1991. Deep winter, so the impact is more on opening hours than on travel. |
Recurring dates — the day these fall on moves year to year.