TravelTill

Travel to Almaty


JuteVilla
By air

For people from most countries, the easiest way to get to Kazakhstan is by air. Several airlines have regular flights into Almaty, including the low-cost carrier air Baltic from Riga, Lufthansa, CSA, Etihad Airways, KLM and Turkish Airlines, (twice daily) to name a few. It's roughly a 7-8 hour flight from Europe. Air Astana, with a fairly modern fleet of Airbuses and Boeings, has direct flights from major European cities such as London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam, and is a comfortable and reasonably priced alternative to the European airlines. Easy connections from Almaty include Moscow, LondonHeathrow, Amsterdam, Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Istanbul Ataturk, Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen, Seoul, Beijing, Hong Kong, Delhi,Tehran IKA and Dubai, Antalya(summer only), Bodrum-Milas (summer only) with direct flights.

Visas must be obtained in advance of arrival, as they are no longer available on arrival at the airport, (unless you are arriving from a country that has no consulate, and that type of plane-side visa usually needs to be coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at least one week in advance).

The airport is small, and sometimes several flights depart around the same time, meaning shocking queues and waits for no apparent reason. Be early, and expect delays to your flight. Lots of departures from Almaty end up leaving a bit late, but most arrivals are pretty timely.

A taxi from the airport to the city costs about $20-25 (3000-3500 Tenge.)You can also take a bus to the center, which starts at 7AM and costs 80 Tenge. The best is to ask at the airport information booth to order you a cab (it will be about a 10 minute wait for one to arrive), which they will, and it will cost you half the price of getting one outside the airport (1200 Tenge).

Check-in desks open around 3 hours before flight departure and you are not permitted into the check-in area until the desks for your flight have opened
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