Lonely Planet Kazakhstan

This leafy city with a backdrop of the snowcapped Zailiysky Alatau has always been among the more appealing Russian creations in Central Asia. Today Almaty’s new rich have expensive suburban apartments, large SUVs, glitzy shopping malls, Western-style coffee lounges, expensive restaurants, dance-till-dawn nightclubs and new ski resorts to help them enjoy life to the full. Meanwhile the less lucky from the city's outer districts and the countryside squeeze into packed buses and rickety marshrutkas around the Green Market (Zelyony Bazar) or Sayakhat bus station.

This is Kazakhstan’s main transport hub and a place many travellers pass through. Stay a few days and you’ll find that Almaty is quite a sophisticated place – one for enjoying green parks and excellent museums, shops and markets, and for eating, drinking and partying in Central Asia’s best selection of restaurants, cafes, bars and clubs. And great mountain hiking and skiing are right on the doorstep.

The downtown area stretches roughly from the Green Market in the north to Respublika alany in the south. South of here is the new business district along streets like Al-Farabi. Some people find a lack of distinctive landmarks on Almaty’s long, straight streets confusing. Keep in mind that the mountains are to the south, and that the city slopes upward towards them.