Tips and recommendations on a trip to Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is the most expensive from Central Asian countries. Such cities like Alma-Ata and Astana are close at the cost of living to large our megalopolisms. For a tourist, this means significant costs for hotels, services and transport.

Tips

In high-class hotels and restaurants, payment for services (from 5% to 15%) is usually included in the account. There is also a set amount for service in taxi and railway transport. In other places, tips are not accepted, but if the service liked, you can leave. In the markets it is accepted to bargain.

registration

Since June 2012, citizens of Russia can be in Kazakhstan without registering up to 30 days.

Foreign citizens entering Kazakhstan are obliged within 5 days from the date of entry to the country to register at the place of stay. During registration, the corresponding stamp in the immigration card of the tourist issued at the entrance to the country. It should be emphasized that in Kazakhstan, the procedure for registering foreigners is even more bureaucratic than in other republics of Central Asia. Simply put, a tourist arriving in Kazakhstan and does not live in a hotel, in fact will not be able to comply with the law and register without the help of Kazakhstani friends who have their living space and ready to go to the local passport office, or a tourist mediator company.

But even if the tourist lives in a hotel, it does not mean automatic registration at the place of stay, since the law does not commit the hotel to register tourists. On the contrary, the obligation to register is entrusted to the tourist himself, whose duties include getting from a special registration form with the seal, then with this form to go to the migration department and pass documents for registration. The problem is aggravated by all the hotels have an idea that specifically the form should make a tourist for a hike in the migration service. Other hotels on the contrary prefer to earn a registration procedure, refusing a tourist in assistance (issuing the right document) and offering for a certain amount ($ 30-50) to register him through an intermediary.

Kazakhstani militia and border authorities are usually extremely attentive to issues of registration of foreigners. There are often cases of checking documents at train stations, airports and just on the streets of Kazakhstan cities. When departing from the country, registration is usually checked. In the case of its absence, a foreign citizen impose a fine to pay independently through the bank. There is a practice of extortion money from foreigners on the road from Kazakhstan under the pretext of the lack of registration. In land border points "Taxa" can be from $ 20 to $ 50. At airports, extortion cases are rare.

Visit to national parks and reserves

Visit the majority of reserves paid, ranges from 200 to 500 shadow per person. Unfortunately, there is a very often attempt to deceive tourists: people who are not authorized to do this may be made to make money, may be called high sums, not given the receipt for the amount paid. For example, only 30 kilometers from Alma-Ata, in Ile-Alatai Park, after payment of the environmental collection at the entrance to the park, there were incomprehensible subjects that claimed that they were "border guards" and demanding up to 3,000 shadows, arguing that the border zone is here and you need to pay.