ROLLING STEPPES
SPACE ROCKETS
ATOMIC BOMBS
MAY 01 ⇾ MAY 19
Bespoke departure dates and private tours available all year round
THE ROUTE
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DAY 1 • CASPIAN DEPRESSION
Meet-and-greet at Aktau International Airport and transfer to our seaside hotel in Aktau, an archetypical Soviet-planned city on the Caspian shores.
USSR-legacy stroll in Aktau, chill-out afternoon at the city beach, and traditional seafood dinner.
Overnight in Aktau.
DAY 2 TO DAY 3• TABULA RASA
Two-day off-road adventure across the unearthly environs surrounding Aktau, the barren region of Western Kazakhstan called Mangystau.
Highlights of our gallivanting around the windswept Mangystau badlands will include underground mosques and mausoleums, ancient necropolis, Soviet military outposts, Mad-Max-reminiscent oil settlements, and remote port towns.
Overnights in Mangystau.
DAY 4 • RUNAWAY TRAIn
Morning departure for a 23-hour-long train journey from Aktau to Aralsk: travelling across Kazakhstan in a Soviet-era train in Central Asia is an adventure of its own and a not-to-be-missed experience you’ll share with local merchants, commuters, farmers and holiday-goers alike.
Each carriage is like a big family moving on rusty tracks: we'll share food, stories, vodka and laughs, while the barren landscapes of Western and Central Kazakhstan will pass by on the other side of the window.
Overnight on the train.
DAY 5 • DEAD WATERS
The sad case of the Aral Sea is well-known even outside the borders of the former Soviet Union, but few are aware that there has been a little success story in this massive ecological catastrophe: the port city of Aralsk.
Separated from the retreating waters of the Aral Sea since the early 1980s, Aralsk lies now once again near the sea shores and fish has returned in the market stalls of the town.
Full-day Aralsk sightseeing: colourful food markets, moving fishing hamlets, nostalgic USSR-era relics and rusty ship hulls.
Overnight in Aralsk.
DAY 6 • SPACE ODDITIES
Morning transfer to the world-famous Russian-controlled city of Baikonur, home to the namesake Soviet-built cosmodrome.
Half-day Baikonur Soviet Tour: Cosmodrome History Museum, Memorial to Rocketeers, Yuri Gagarin Monument, Soyuz Rocket Model, Gagarin’s and Korolev’s cottages, and a vast panoply of Soviet-era monuments, mosaics and architectures.
Please note: this tour is not meant to coincide with any specific launch date; in case you wish to assist to the actual launch of a manned space rocket, then you ought to reserve your slot at our dedicated Baikonur Space Tour.
Overnight in Baikonur.
DAY 7 • STEPPE BY STEPPE
Early morning Soviet-themed tour of the rather anonymous city of Kyzylorda and long-haul drive to Zhezqazghan, an impossible-to-pronounce urban reality built in the very heart of the Kazakh upland along the shores of the Kengirskoe Water Reserve.
The endless road to Zhezqazghan runs along the western edges of the much-dreaded Betpak-Dala, also known as the Hungry Steppe, a 75,000 square-kilometre untamed land of desolate badlands, rocky deserts and windswept sand dunes.
Despite its utmost harshness and apparent lifelessness, this land of extremes is home to one of the rarest creatures of our planet: the odd-looking saiga, a rather bizarre species of elusive antelope characterised by a ridiculously prominent nose similar to the short proboscis of the South American tapir.
Overnight in Zhezqazghan.
DAY 8 • TERRA INCOGNITA
Morning visit to the gloomy remains of the vast Kengir Gulag – the very site of a daring and shortly successful uprising back in 1954 – and transfer to the end-of-the-world desert hamlet of Zhambyl.
No western traveller has ever set foot on the dusty streets of Zhambyl and you’ll soon understand why: this former mining townlet is literally the end of the road, the remotest inhabited settlement in the entire county.
Accompanied by a local guide, we’ll embark on a socio-economic tour around Zhambyl and try to better understand why the Soviets built such remote urban realities, how they used to function and what happened here after the tragically sudden dissolution of the USSR.
Overnight in Zhambyl.
DAY 9 • CLOSED CITIES
Early morning start for a once-in-a-life time off-road adventure: travelling across the otherworldly wastelands of the Shet District, we’ll fight our way towards the Soviet military town of Priozersk, a true Valhalla for Cold-War geeks and architectural buffs alike.
This groundbreaking expedition will take anywhere between ten and fourteen hours, including photo and picnic stops along the way; by dusk we will then gloriously enter the city limits of Priozersk and head for the best restaurant in town for a well-deserved lavish dinner washed down with generous pints of local beer.
Overnight in Priozersk.
DAY 10 • LAKESIDE NOSTALGIA
Full day devoted to the melancholic shores of Lake Balkhash: lonely hamlets, Soviet ruins, pristine beaches, and secluded coves.
Afternoon arrival in the tranquil lakeside town of Balkhash, founded by the Soviets in 1937 as an industrial city centred on the mining and smelting of copper.
Overnight in Balkhash.
DAY 11 TO DAY 12 • ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE USSR
Transfer to Karaganda, a quintessentially Soviet city famous for its curious German heritage: in the 1940s up to 70% of the city's inhabitants were, indeed, ethnic Germans, most of whom were Soviet Volga Germans collectively deported to Kazakhstan after Hitler’s foolish attack against the Soviet Union.
Full-day Soviet-legacy tour around and about Karaganda’s wonders: architecture, mosaics, monuments, memorials, and memories.
Overnight in Karaganda.
DAY 13 TO DAY 14 • VIRGIN POMP
Road trip from Karaganda to the industrial satellite town of Temirtau and then further north towards Astana, the incongruously futuristic and slightly soulless capital of the country,
Following day entirely devoted to Astana, formerly known as Tselinograd – “City of the Virgin Lands” – after Khrushchev's Virgin Lands Campaign, a plan to dramatically boost the Soviet Union's agricultural production in order to alleviate the food shortages plaguing the Soviet populace.
Overnights in Astana.
DAY 15 • ISLAM PUNK
Transfer to Pavlodar with lunch break in Ekibastuz, a coal mining town that used to harbour a major labor camp of the Gulag system.
Once in Pavlodar, we’ll visit the local bazaar, the Great Patriotic War Memorial, and the city’s mosque, whose rather punk shape resembles some sort of mutated Doctor Who’s dalek.
Overnight in Pavlodar.
DAY 16 • HOW I LEARNED TO HATE THE BOMB
Morning transfer from Pavlodar to the Semipalatinsk Test Site, code-named Semipalatinsk-21 or more prosaically the Polygon.
From 1949 until 1989 the Soviets conducted 456 nuclear tests here, thus presenting this area with the dubious honour of having received by far the highest number of atomic explosions than any other place on Earth.
In 1989 Semipalatinsk saw the birth of the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement, the first major anti-nuclear movement in the former Soviet Union; it was led by author Olzhas Suleimenov and attracted thousands of people to its protests and campaigns, which eventually led to the closure of the nuclear test site in 1991.
Visit to the nearby towns of Kurchatov and Chagan, a former dormitory district for the personnel of the Polygon.
In the late afternoon we'll eventually arrive in Semey, a former Russian military fort with the usual fair share of Soviet- and Tsarist-era buildings.
Overnight in Semey.
DAY 17 • SOVIET PEAKS
Morning transfer to Ridder, formerly known as Leninogorsk, a leafy little city in the south-western Altai Mountains.
Soviet-themed city walk in Ridder and short excursion across the idyllic green pastures and small mountain hamlets of the surrounding highlands.
Overnight in Ridder.
DAY 18 • TSARIST OUTPOSTS
Lazy morning in Ridder and short ride south towards Oskemen, an overwhelmingly Russian city built in 1720 at the confluence of the Irtysh and Ulba rivers as a fort and trading post.
Historical sightseeing in Oskemen (previously known as Ust-Kamenogorsk), visit to the local food market, and conclusive lavish dinner at the best restaurant in town.
Overnight in Oskemen.
DAY 19 • FAREWELL TO KAZAKHSTAN
After sharing a last Kazakh meal together, we'll take care of your transfer to Oskemen Regional Airport for your return flight via Almaty or Astana.
End of the tour.
5990 €
INCLUSIONS
Double/twin room accommodation (breakfast included), private transport in Kazakhstan (car/minivan), first-class train tickets, all entrance fees, English-speaking guiding service, 24/7 on-site and remote assistance.
EXCLUSIONS
Single supplement, international flights, main meals (lunches and dinners), extra drinks, visa fees (if required), tips, travel insurance.
