Үлкен Алматы көлі

Beautiful lake located very close to Almaty. Best time to visit is from August to end of October when water lever of the lake is the highest. In winter (November to April) lake will be frozen. The road to the lake is closed for private cars for the last 12 kilometers. But I can provide a car with special permission to go all the way to the lake. Hiking is now most common way of getting to the lake. But be ready for very steep wet trail if you go along the pipe which is the shortest way. Way up will take around 3-4 hours. Not an easy hike, think twice.

Wonderful place! No fees for entrance. About 1 hour by car from Almaty. Not possible to walk around lake. Refreshments around. Parking place is not large. Definitely worth to see. When Security goes for lunch, it is possible to come closer to the lake. It is not possible to drink there the water from lake. We went higher to the hill on the road and there were maybe even more beautiful views to the lake. We had a taxi from Almaty, rented it by hours and had the car with the driver for about 5-6 hours. In total we paid about 25 euros. I think it was better decision after all than renting a car from a rental.

Beautiful lake close to the city. It is an easy drive from city center right to the lake itself. Unfortunately, the size of the lake has shrunk when we went there. Nature is beautiful and the air is clean and fresh compared to polluted city. From the lake went hiking to Big Almaty Peak where there is snow even in hot summer days.

We visited May 2023 - you weren’t allowed to hike up to the lake because of rock fall. Only taxis were allowed past the police check point but they were charging 30,000 tenge for a round trip which seemed very expensive. Instead we got a map from the visitor centre and hiked up the old Japanese road which was lovely. We didn’t do the full route just 90 mins out and then turned back. The visitor centre is really good with a lovely cafe and friendly staff who speak good English

Absolutely beautiful!!! Stunning views indeed!!! Unfortunately there was just one Toilet and it was horribly dirty. And they don't let you go near the water. But still worth a visit.

The weather difference between the city and the lake area is about 15 degrees which is amazing. Lovely drive, do yourself a favour and rent a car to go there. You are not allowed to touch the water of the lake but you can take some amazing pictures

The road to the lake is closed, but you can hike up there from the gate. It takes about 3 hrs (10 km mostly uphill). Or there are a few cars there asked for 30,000 tenge to drive you up. Please note it will be a long unpleasant walk (1hr min) between the public bus stop (no.28 or 211) and the gate, there is a big construction site with no walking path with lots of cars driving around you. It's better to take a share taxi (500 tenge pp) to get to the gate.

Recommend doing this as part of your plan in Almaty. Cam in mid october. Half day trip no worries. We set out around 2:30pm via Yandex - took 50 minutes to get there, spent 45 minutes there (yandex has an auto calculator for wait time), then 50-60 minutes back by 5:30 ish. trip cost us 8000 tenge. On a monday there were already quite a few people there. As a result, recommend not to go on weekends. you can walk right up to the water despite having read otherwise on forums. There is a guy charging 5000 tenge to do drone vids of you which is pretty cool, but we didnt' do it. There are also coffee/refreshments to buy if you are balling. Oh and there also an eagle hunter for you to take photos with the eagle (just go to kok tobe and you can also wear the traditional clothes too) Recommend going while the sun shines onto the lake - the colours are much more vivid.