Asia
Get a Personal Pick →Kyrgyzstan
31 destinations
Mountain Ala-Archa
"A juniper gorge an hour from the capital, climbing 3,300 vertical metres to glacier peaks."
Mountain Ala-Kul
"Turquoise water at 3,500 metres, earned on foot through a pass that steals your breath."
Mountain Altyn-Arashan
"Sulphurous hot pools steaming between spruce trees at 2,400 metres, snow leopard territory above."
Wilderness Arabel Plateau
"Treeless tundra at 3,800 metres, dotted with fifty glacial lakes and retreating ice."
Mountain Barskoon Valley
"Waterfalls named Tears of the Snow Leopard, in a gorge that keeps two monuments to Gagarin."
City Burana Tower
"An 11th-century minaret halved by earthquakes, all that remains of a capital swallowed by steppe."
Water Chatyr-Köl
"The 'Celestial Lake': faintly salt water at 3,530 metres, permit-guarded, ringed by bar-headed geese."
Water Issyk-Kul (North Shore)
"A beach holiday at 1,600 metres: Soviet sanatoriums, fairground rides, warm water, snow on the skyline."
Water Issyk-Kul (South Shore)
"A salt lake at 1,600 metres that almost never freezes, snow peaks dissolving into haze."
Mountain Jeti-Ögüz
"Seven rust-red sandstone bulls rearing from the valley floor, a broken heart cleaved beside them."
Mountain Jyrgalan
"A Soviet coal village reborn as a freeride frontier, deep powder above, guesthouse woodsmoke below."
City Kara-Suu
"The Fergana Valley's largest market sprawling to the Uzbek border, languages shifting with every stall."
City Karakol
"A dragon-carved mosque built without a single nail, an Orthodox cathedral raised in wood."
Wilderness Karkyra Valley
"A border jailoo of grazing horse herds where helicopters lift off for 7,000-metre peaks."
Mountain Köl-Tör
"An emerald lake with no visible outlet: its river escapes through the moraine and surfaces below."
Wilderness Konorchek Canyon
"Two-million-year-old sandstone castles hiding a dead volcano between Bishkek and the lake."
Mountain Kyzyl-Oi
"A village of red clay houses inside a red-rock gorge, settled before the Soviets rearranged Kyrgyzstan."
City Osh
"A five-peaked sacred mountain, worshipped for millennia, rising straight out of a Silk Road bazaar city."
Wilderness Padysha-Ata
"A snow-leopard juniper reserve wrapped around a mausoleum that still draws pilgrims."
Water Sary-Chelek
"A biosphere lake 234 metres deep in walnut forests where snow leopards still roam."
Wilderness Sary-Jaz Valley
"Abandoned Soviet mines guard a valley of steppe and glacier rivers at the Chinese border."
Mountain Sary-Mogol
"Guesthouse windows frame a 7,134-metre wall of ice; the village itself sits at 3,000 metres."
Wilderness Skazka Canyon
"Wind-carved sandstone castles in rust and amber rising from desert that ends at a mountain lake."
Water Song-Köl
"Nomad yurts circling a lake at 3,000 metres where the only sound is wind through grass."
Water Tulpar-Köl
"Alpine pools at 3,500 metres that mirror a 7,000-metre peak at dawn like shattered glass."
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Legendary Destinations
Little-known places, unlike anywhere else, that leave you awestruck and full of stories.
6 destinations
Legendary Destination
September arrives, and whole villages turn towards the walnut trees.
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Legendary Destination
A river of ice ends beneath a summit that reddens at sunset.
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Legendary Destination
Granite walls rise so far that looking up becomes the journey.
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Legendary Destination
Some days the lake is missing. The escape route runs beneath it.
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Legendary Destination
For most of the year, snow covers a mountainside of ancient drawings.
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Legendary Destination
An ancient trading road left a house with thirty-one vaulted rooms.
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