Means of transport Kyrgyzstan

Unless you've rented a car with driver, you'll be travelling by minibus for most of the stages of your trip. Every town and village has its own bus station, the largest of course being in Osh and Bishkek. All you have to do is do your shopping, between minibuses and shared taxis (a little more expensive but faster), possibly negotiate the price and wait until the vehicle is full to ring the departure bell. The rule to know is that filling up is fast in the morning, and slows down more and more as the day gets longer.

It takes 30 minutes to reach it from downtown by cab or marchrutka, and twice as long by bus. Minibuses no. 153 (100 soms and 1h) leave from the intersection of Osh and Chuy Prospekt. Cabs cost between 1,000 and 1,500 som, but the local rate is more like 800 or 900 som. Bishkek has regular connections with Urumqi in China, Moscow, London and Istanbul (with Turkish Airlines or Pegasus, its low-cost subsidiary), Tashkent or Almaty.

Bokonbaevo is a city in Kyrgyzstan with easy access to public transport. To get around by bus or coach, visitors can visit the CBT Bokonbaevo.

Uzbekistan's national airline operates two to three weekly flights from Paris - Charles de Gaulle, depending on the tourist season. There is no direct connection with Bishkek, but you can get there with a stopover in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) or Almaty (Kazakhstan). These two capitals have daily connections with neighboring Kyrgyzstan, and the flight takes just over 1 hour. The Uzbek airline's flight schedules are the easiest to cope with, as they allow for the time difference between France and Central Asia.

Two flights per week, Monday and Thursday, between the Kyrgyz capital and the Uzbek capital. Count 1 hours a day.

Buses can't leave Osh, the roads are too bad and the passes too high for the engines. Shared taxis and minibuses meet at Alisher Navoi Street, at the old bus station, and serve Bishkek (around 800 soms in minibus and 1,600 soms in shared taxi, 10 to 12 hours drive depending on the vehicle and the season, fares are also higher in winter), Jalalabad, Uzgen and Sary Tach. To make the Osh-Naryn road via Kazarman, prefer a 4x4 vehicle, some portions of the road are still being developed.

There are daily connections to Bishkek once or twice a day. Given the low level of equipment at the airport and the complexity of flying over the mountains, take-offs are not necessarily assured in case of bad weather. The plane is the only way to avoid the 12-hour drive between Osh and Bishkek, and it is also one of the most beautiful flights in the world! Finally, you can find flights to Moscow and Urumqi. The latter is useful if you plan to go to China in winter, to avoid the high passes.

Kyrgyzstan, which is very mountainous, is rather poorly served by the railway network. A single inland line crosses the country from east to west through Bishkek: it stops in Balykchy on the shores of Lake Issyk Kul, and goes as far as Kazakhstan if you take it west. But the trains are slow, tend to make incursions into various countries to get from one point to another and are not known for their comfort. The main international destination is of course Moscow, connected to Bishkek three to four times a week.

Departures to Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Kyrgyzstan: Cholpon-Ata, Karakol, Naryn, Talas. Buses and minibuses follow one another inside the station, while shared taxis are confined to the back or the entrance. There are no buses to Osh, as the road is too dangerous. There are some shared taxis here, but they also meet near the Osh bazaar, closer to the city center. Negotiation is the order of the day with the taxis, which see the tourist arriving from afar.