THE WAY OF THE NOMAD: IMMERSION IN THE CULTURE OF KYRGYZSTAN

✈️ Arrival at Manas International Airport. You’ll be greeted by our company representative, holding a sign with your name, helping with your luggage, and guiding you to your transfer. Your first words in Kyrgyz: “Kosh kelingizder!” — welcome.

Transfer to your hotel in Bishkek. Check-in and free time to relax after the flight. You can take a walk around the city and feel its rhythm — wide avenues, Soviet-era architecture, green parks, and snowy peaks on the horizon.

🌙 In the evening — a welcome dinner in traditional style: steaming plov, meat delicacies, and national drinks. Meet your guide, get to know the tour group, and enjoy a presentation of the program.

Return to the hotel. Rest and prepare for an eventful day ahead.

🍽 Meals: dinner with a folklore show

🏨 Accommodation:

• Hotel option 1: ART Hotel (or similar)

• Hotel option 2: Rich (or similar)
  (depending on the selected category)

🍳 Breakfast at the hotel. Departure to Ala-Archa National Park — a mountain gorge located 40 km from the capital. The road climbs higher, the asphalt turns into winding switchbacks, the temperature drops pleasantly, and the air becomes thin and unbelievably fresh.

🏞️ The park welcomes you with majestic peaks crowned with eternal snow and glaciers. The gorge is deep, with a powerful mountain river rushing along its bottom. All around are coniferous forests — spruce and juniper trees, which gave the park its name. The air smells of pine needles and alpine herbs. A leisurely walk through the scenic area with stops at viewpoints where the mountains unfold in all their beauty. It is quiet here — only the sound of the river and the wind in the treetops.

🏙️ Return to Bishkek by lunchtime. A short city tour of the capital: Ala-Too Square with the Manas monument, Oak Park, Chui Avenue. Lunch at a local café — time to try Kyrgyz cuisine: lagman, shorpo, manty.

Free time at the hotel to rest before the evening program.

🔥 In the evening — departure to the grand Opening Ceremony of the World Nomad Games. The stadium is packed, the atmosphere festive and exhilarating. A vibrant show with traditional costumes, horseback performances, music, and dancing. Flags of participating countries, a parade of athletes, and the lighting of the Games’ flame under the applause of thousands. A spectacular and unforgettable event — large-scale, colorful, and infused with the spirit of nomadic traditions.

Late return to the hotel, full of impressions.

🍽 Meals: breakfast

🏨 Accommodation:

• Hotel 1: ART Hotel (or similar)

• Hotel 2: Rich (or similar) (depending on the selected category)

🛣️ Breakfast and departure toward the famous Lake Issyk-Kul. The road leads through steppes and foothills, and the landscapes outside the window keep changing — from green valleys to red sandstone cliffs.

✨ Stop at the Burana Tower — an 11th-century minaret that once belonged to the ancient city of Balasagun on the Great Silk Road. The 25-meter brick tower stands alone in the steppe, surrounded by an open-air museum with stone balbals. You can climb the narrow spiral staircase inside — from the top, you get sweeping views of the surroundings and the distant mountains. The wind whistles between the ancient bricks, and you feel a connection to history more than a thousand years old.

🌅 Continue the journey. And finally — Issyk-Kul, the lake that never freezes, even in the harshest winters. Its turquoise water stretches to the horizon, surrounded on all sides by snowy mountain ranges. The sun reflects on the surface, creating shimmering patterns of light.

🏨 Arrival at the northern shore. Check-in at the hotel or guesthouse depending on the selected category. Free time to relax — take a walk along the shore, go for a swim (the water is still warm in late August), or simply sit on the beach listening to the gentle waves.

🌙 Dinner at the hotel. The evening is free — some stroll along the lake, others rest after the road.

🍽 Meals: breakfast, dinner

🏨 Accommodation:

Raduga WEST hotel or Weekend guesthouse (or similar options depending on the category)

🏞️ Breakfast and departure to the Kyrchyn Gorge — the main venue of the World Nomad Games. The road winds between hills, flocks of sheep graze along the way, and here and there you can spot shepherds’ yurts.

🏞️ On this day, Kyrchyn Gorge turns into a massive open-air arena. The stands are full of spectators, and on the fields the ancient games of the nomads come to life:

🐎 Long-distance horse marathon — riders race along mountain trails on hardy steppe horses. Speed, mastery, and knowledge of the terrain decide the outcome.

🦅 Burkut Saluu — eagle hunting. Majestic golden eagles with wingspans up to 2.5 meters soar into the sky at the hunter’s command, circle above the valley, then dive sharply toward their target. An ancient tradition of Kyrgyz and Kazakh hunters, passed down for generations.

🤼‍♂️ Dalba — traditional belt wrestling. Wrestlers meet inside a ring, grip each other's belts, and try to throw the opponent to the ground. Strength, technique, endurance.

🏹 Archery — participants shoot at targets using traditional bows. Focus, precision, calm breathing.

💪 Tayak Tartysh (mas-wrestling) — a strength contest where two athletes sit facing each other and pull a stick. The strongest wins.

💪 Strongman show — impressive performances by power athletes: lifting heavy weights, pulling trucks, flipping giant tires.

🍛 Between competitions — demonstration games, musical performances, and the chance to try national dishes in yurt cafés: beshbarmak, kuurdak, kumys (fermented mare’s milk — the traditional drink of nomads).

🏞️ Return to the Issyk-Kul lakeshore in the evening. Dinner at the hotel, free time, rest.

🍽 Meals: breakfast, dinner

🏨 Accommodation:

Raduga WEST hotel or Weekend guesthouse (or similar options depending on the category)

🏇 Breakfast and departure to the hippodrome in Cholpon-Ata. Today, the most spectacular equestrian competitions take place here:

🏇 Kök Börü (Kyrgyz version) and Kokpar (Kazakh version) — a fierce, fast-paced team horse game where riders battle for a goat carcass and try to score by throwing it into the opponent’s goal. The game is tough, dynamic, and requires incredible horsemanship. Horses thunder across the field, kicking up clouds of dust, riders pull the carcass from each other’s hands, fighting for every meter. It’s an electrifying spectacle — you feel the spirit of ancient nomads for whom the horse was everything.

🤼‍♂️ Sambo — a martial art performed in a jacket and shorts, popular across the post-Soviet region. Throws, holds, and joint locks.

🤼‍♂️ Khapshagai — a traditional Yakut wrestling style. Wrestlers, wearing special attire, face each other on the grass.

🧠 After lunch, transfer to one of the ethnocomplexes, where the nomads’ intellectual games are held:

💫 Toguz Korgool — an ancient strategic board game once played by nomads to train logic and strategic thinking. A board with pits, small stones — and endless combinations.

💫 Mangala and Oware — similar strategic games from other cultures, based on planning and calculating moves.

The atmosphere is calm and contemplative — a contrast to the morning’s equestrian battles. Masters and experts demonstrate the games, explain the rules, and you can try playing yourself.

🏞️ Return to the hotel. Free time to relax or walk along the lakeshore. Dinner.

🍽 Meals: breakfast, dinner

🏨 Accommodation:

Raduga WEST hotel or Weekend guesthouse (or similar options depending on the category)

🏞️ Breakfast and departure to Karakol — a town on the eastern shore of Issyk-Kul, where cultures and religions intertwine.

🕌 The Dungan Mosque — a wooden building in Chinese architectural style, with bright paintings and curved roofs. Built in 1910 without a single nail — only wooden joints. Just a few streets away stands the Holy Trinity Cathedral, a 19th-century wooden Orthodox church with simple architecture and a peaceful, quiet atmosphere.

🏛 “Old Mill” Museum — an ethnographic museum located in a wooden mill from the early 20th century. The exhibition tells the story of local life, culture, and traditional crafts.

🥢 After the tour — lunch with a Dungan family. It’s not just a meal, but an immersion into the culture of a warm and hospitable people. The hosts welcome you with smiles and serve traditional dishes prepared from family recipes: ashlan-fu (a cold dish with starch jelly), homemade lagman with thick noodles, manty, salads with aromatic spices. The atmosphere is cozy, homelike.

🛶 After lunch — kayaking on Issyk-Kul. You put on a life jacket, take your seat in the kayak, and you’re out on the water. Paddling along the shore, you see the lake’s crystal clarity — the bottom is visible several meters deep. All around is silence, broken only by the splash of paddles and the calls of seagulls. From the water, everything looks different — the snowy mountain ranges seem even more majestic, the shoreline endless.

🌙 Return to the hotel by evening. Free time, dinner, rest.

🍽 Meals: breakfast, lunch with a Dungan family, dinner

🏨 Accommodation:

Raduga WEST hotel or Weekend guesthouse (or similar options depending on the category)

🌅 Breakfast and departure to the Ruh Ordo Cultural Center on the shore of Issyk-Kul. This open-air museum complex is dedicated to culture and the arts. Five chapels of different faiths symbolize religious tolerance; sculptures and installations are scattered throughout the park, while galleries preserve paintings and artifacts. The cultural program at Ruh Ordo includes demonstrations of traditional crafts and stories about Kyrgyz culture.

🏇 Afterward, transfer to the hippodrome for horse races — one of the nomads’ favorite entertainments. Horses sprint down a straight course, riders leaning close to their mounts’ necks, the crowd shouting and urging on their favorites. Speed, excitement, the beauty of the racing horses.

🌙 Return to the hotel in the evening. Dinner and free time to relax.

🍽 Meals: breakfast, dinner

🏨 Accommodation:

Raduga WEST hotel or Weekend guesthouse (or similar options depending on the category)

🌅 Breakfast at the hotel. Today is a day for rest and recovery. The week has been full — competitions, transfers, excursions. Time to slow down the pace.

🌴 Free time on the shore of Issyk-Kul. You can swim, sunbathe on the beach, try stand-up paddleboarding, walk along the lakeshore, or sit in a café with a view of the water. Some rent bicycles and ride along the promenade, others relax in their rooms, read a book, or sort through photos on their phone.

🎆 In the evening — departure for the grand Closing Ceremony of the World Nomad Games. The stadium is alive again with festive energy, but with a hint of sadness — the Games are coming to an end. Award ceremonies for the winners, farewell performances, the extinguishing of the Games’ flame. Fireworks light up the sky over the lake.

🌙 Return to the hotel. Dinner and rest.

🍽 Meals: breakfast, dinner

🏨 Accommodation:

Raduga WEST hotel or Weekend guesthouse (or similar options depending on the category)

🍳 Breakfast at the hotel. Packing up your belongings, organizing souvenirs — kurt, honey, felt products purchased at the markets. One last glance at Issyk-Kul — the turquoise lake that will stay in your memory for a long time.

🛣 Departure to Bishkek. The drive takes about 4 hours. Along the way, you can stop at a roadside café and enjoy your favorite dishes one more time.

🛫 Arrival in Bishkek. Check-in at the hotel (if your flight is late in the evening or the next day) or direct transfer to the airport. Farewell hugs, exchanging contacts with the group, promises to meet again.

🍽 Meals: breakfast