Kyrgyzstan
Ala-Kul
Turquoise water at 3,560 metres, reachable only on foot through a pass that steals your breath.
The pass crests at 3,860 metres and your lungs burn from the climb — then the lake appears below, turquoise so vivid it looks artificial, cupped in a bowl of grey moraine and glacier. The wind at Ala-Kul's rim is constant and cold. The water, fed by melt from the Terskey Alatoo glaciers, never warms above a few degrees.
Ala-Kul is a glacial lake at 3,560 metres in Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul province, reached by a two-to-three-day trek from Karakol via the Altyn-Arashan or Jeti-Ögüz valleys. The lake's intense colour comes from suspended glacial flour — rock ground to powder by the ice fields above. The standard circuit crosses the Ala-Kul pass at 3,860 metres, one of the highest non-technical trekking passes in the Tien Shan accessible without mountaineering equipment. No facilities exist at the lake; trekkers camp on the moraine shore. The trail is Kyrgyzstan's most popular multi-day route, yet daily numbers remain modest compared to equivalent treks in Nepal or Patagonia.
Solo
The three-day circuit is Kyrgyzstan's signature solo trek — technically straightforward but physically demanding, with the pass crossing as a genuine test of altitude fitness. Camping alone at the lakeshore is earned solitude.
Friends
A shared physical challenge with a dramatic payoff. The pass is hard enough to feel like an achievement, and the descent to the lake — turquoise water in a grey amphitheatre — delivers the collective 'we made it' moment.
- The standard route climbs 1,800 metres over 22km from Karakol — the final section crosses a steep scree field to the lake.
- The pass at 3,900 metres must be crossed in both directions — in early season a snow section requires an ice axe.
- The lake's colour shifts between emerald and deep turquoise depending on cloud cover and the sun's angle through the day.
- No facilities exist at the lake — everything is carried in, and the silence at 3,560 metres is undisturbed.
Trail meals of dried fruit, nuts, and the dense energy bread sold at Karakol's bazaar.
Celebratory beshbarmak feast back in Karakol after completing the three-day circuit.
Pedra de Lume
Cape Verde
Float in a salt lake inside an extinct volcano, crater walls rising on every side.
Vale do Paúl
Cape Verde
Sugarcane terraces spill down a volcanic crater into the greenest valley in the archipelago.
Monastery of St. Anthony
Egypt
Earth's oldest inhabited monastery, wedged into a Red Sea mountain canyon since the fourth century.
Hoang Su Phi
Vietnam
Rice terraces so vertiginous they look like topographical maps carved directly into the sky.
Tulpar-Köl
Kyrgyzstan
Alpine pools at 3,500 metres that mirror a 7,000-metre peak at dawn like shattered glass.
Issyk-Kul (North Shore)
Kyrgyzstan
Soviet-era beach resorts with crumbling Ferris wheels, Kyrgyz families picnicking where Cold War generals once swam.
Song-Köl
Kyrgyzstan
Nomad yurts circling a lake at 3,000 metres where the only sound is wind through grass.
Issyk-Kul (South Shore)
Kyrgyzstan
A salt lake that never freezes at 1,600 metres, snow peaks dissolving into haze.