There are many ways to get from Almaty to Bishkek and vice-versa, each with their own benefits and shortcomings:

• flights are quick, but expensive and require you to adhere to schedules and baggage regulations
• leaving Almaty by train is comfortable, but will require a tranfer to a marshrutka to get into Kyrgyzstan and another transfer for a bus to Bishkek
• dedicated buses can be inexpensive, but you will again have to adhere to their schedules and you may have to wait for them at the border

A slightly more complicated, but flexible and cheap solution is to split the journey overland at the border and take the most convenient method of transport for each leg. In this case this means taking a marshrutka (shared minibus) or a shared taxi from Almaty, crossing the border on foot and then taking another marshrutka/taxi to get to Bishkek proper. The cost for this whole journey, including luggage is no more than USD 10 and takes between three and four hours from city to city.

Getting to the bus station in Almaty

Buses and shared taxis to Bishkek and the Kyrgz border leave from the Sayran Bus Terminal. To get to the terminal, you can either take one of the buses passing by or to avoid traffic take the metro to the Moscow terminus and then take any bus from this bus stop for three stops.

As of the date of this article, a single metro ride costs 80 tenge and a single bus ride costs 150 tenge if paid directly in cash.

Leaving Almaty towards the Kyrgyz border

At the bus terminal you can head inside to see if there are any buses or marshrutkas leaving towards Bishkek or the border town of Korday. Most of them leave in the morning, so after lunchtime you will have to the square in front of the bus terminal to get a shared taxi. The taxis aren’t hard to find, just announce that you want to head to Bishkek and drivers will approach you. The key words for your destination are “Bishkek”, “Korday” and “таможня” (meaning “customs”), but not many explanations are needed as this route their most common one. Negotiate a price for you and your luggage, wait for the car to fill up and your journey towards Kyrgyzstan begins! A single seat to the border will cost you about KZT 5000, if you want to leave faster or want more comfort by not filling up the whole car you can negotiate that as well.

In most cases the driver will stop quickly at a petrol station in the area to fill up, this is also your time for a last toilet stop, as there aren’t any scheduled stop on the way.

Crossing the border

After 2.5 to 3 hours you will arrive in Korday, right next to the entrance to the border facilities. Pay your driver in case you have not done so yet, grab your luggage and follow the constant stream of pedestrians. In case you arrive with a cross-border bus you will still have to get off the bus to pass border and customs checks on your own, in that case make sure you remember some of your fellow passengers to get into the right vehicle again.

Get your Kazakh exit stamps, walk across the Chuy river, get your Kyrgyz entry stamps and you are in Kyrgyzstan now! The no-man’s land between the two border controls is also a perfect place to sort out the cash in your wallet and SIM cards, as there aren’t any touts around disturbing the peace.

Getting into Bishkek

After passing Kyrgyz customs, you can now continue on your way to Bishkek. In case you have booked a cross-border transport, look for your fellow passengers and follow them, otherwise you now have the choice between taxis and marshrutkas.

Getting a taxi will be easy, drivers will approach you and offer you to take you to the city. During the day, you should expect to pay around 500 Kyrgyz som, at night you might need to pay more. In case you do not feel like negotiating you can also try your luck with the Yandex Taxi app, the best way to do this in peace is right after the passport control.

During the day it will be unlikely for you to find somebody to share a taxi to the city with you, as there are two marshrutka lines operating between the border and the city. To get these marshrutkas, you will need to pass the taxi touts and head to the nearby bus stop, where the minibuses will be waiting. The ride to the city centre costs KGS 35, if you have a lot of luggage you might need to pay for an additional seat.

Money Matters

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan do not share the same currency, so you will need to change money at some point.

• The marshrutkas can only be paid in local currency, so at the Sayran Bus Terminal you will need to pay in Kazakh Tenge and on the Kyrgyz side you will need to pay in Kyrgyz som.
• The taxi drivers are more flexible, they will very likely accept both currencies or even other foreign currencies like USD or EUR, obviously they will ask you for a little more to make it worth their while.

Since changing money in Kazakhstan can be a bit cumbersome and Bishkek offers many ATMs and competitive money changers, you may want to wait with changing your money until you’re in the city proper. In that case you can just exchange 500 tenge at the border to give you enough som to get to the city centre, the marshrutka drivers will have the appropriate change.

Summing up

Using these options, you can travel between Almaty and Bishkek in less than four hours for less than 10 dollars at almost any time of the day. If you want to travel in the opposite direction you can just follow the steps in reverse or take a look at this description for detailed infos.