Travel and transport agencies Bichkek

With over 15 years of experience, KT designs exclusive and experiential trips. Having grown up in villages and rural communities, the team has an intimate knowledge of pastoral and nomadic culture. It is attached to the traditional Kyrgyz values that it wishes to transmit and bring to life to travellers. Cultural tours around the country's great lakes, outdoor activities for all levels, meeting and living with nomads in summer pastures, learning about their culture (history, singing) and their way of life (yurt building, eagle hunting).

This Kyrgyz-French agency has recently opened an agency in France (Nomadays) to make life easier for its clients. It offers a wide variety of itineraries, with the possibility of creating your own tailor-made trip but also small group packages. Culture and discovery of the country with your family, trekking on foot or on horseback, mountaineering, ski touring: you will find stays more or less sporty, but always rich in adventure. An excellent option to discover the Celestial Mountains and their warm people, while taking advantage of a real local expertise.

Set up in Bichkek since 2001, La Maison du Voyageur, managed by French and local guide impassioned with the country, offers about ten trekkings lasting from 10 to 20 days as well as a week horse riding. Well-trodden tours are the opportunity to meet the Kyrgyz nature, its people and its craftsmen. It's possible to reach Uzbekistan and China. But La Maison du Voyageur started with individual tourists and it is always possible to build your itinerary according to your desires or your physical capacities. The team is very friendly team and the guides are excellent. The equipment at the travellers' disposal is also up to that (Ferrino, Decathlon). La Maison du Voyageur ensures the respect of its values founders triangle: experience (that of the guides and tours' creator at the travellers' service), security (the agency is member of the alpinism club and K-2 climbing which implies continuing education and annual first aid course and first aid for its guides) and ecology (the agency is member of the combination of the guides and agencies KATO and is implied in many activities of safeguarding and training to the respect of the environment's good practices). The programming of the agency is updated and original, with themed courses (hawking and nomads in the celestial mounts of Tian Shan, woollen fabric making at the nomads' country) and festive (festival of transhumance on the shores of lake Its Koul at some 3,000 m high, festival of Norouz more than 3 times millenium with its many celebrations and traditional competitions) particularly well designed within a very qualitative approach of the Kyrgyz culture.

Since 2011, the agency also specialized in the creation of many hiking and tourist activity programmes dedicated to the family travelling with children, with in particular the implementation of multi-activity hiking adapted to the capacities, the rhythm and the taste of children. Also training modules on a daily or on a half-day basis meant for kids and adults: initiation to the traditional or contemporary archery (with Assel, the Kirghizie's champion!), initiation to horse riding (in the sumptuous setting of radiant meadows surrounded by mountains), initiation to trout fishing in river, course by bike, etc. The agency also offers constantly new services and stays. During the summer month in 2016, La Maison du Voyageur thus launched a novelty dedicated to family trips: a trekking on Tinai ground (true hiking of 2, 3 or 5 days adapted for families with child as from 6 years: duration, mileage, transport, activities, comfort, climate, etc.). And also bike rental and self-driving tour in complete freedom.

KirghizAsia has been creating tailor-made trips since 2007. Departure guaranteed for 2 people or more. You decide the departure date, content and duration of the trip. Founded by two Kirghiz experts in French language and culture. Kalyinur began working as a French-speaking tour guide in 2003, having completed a full course in tourism and hotel management at the ESTUA university in Angers. His brother Mounarbek runs an appaloosa horse farm. The agency has 2 guesthouses in Bishkek and Toktogul

Founded over 15 years ago, CBT now has around ten branches, providing almost complete territorial coverage of the country. CBT's major asset is its network of homestays, which is large enough to provide accommodation for its travellers almost everywhere in the country. CBT is currently the inbound organization that handles the majority of the country's tourists. Local coordinators organize your stays, excursions and treks in every region. It's almost impossible to think of a trip to Kyrgyzstan without going through them.

Former professor of French at the Kyrgyz National University of Bishkek and co-author of the first Franco-Kyrgyz dictionary, Nuraly was a guide and guide from 1994 and created EcoNomad in 2006. The agency offers responsible and tailor-made trips focused on ecotourism in Kyrgyzstan. It is committed to discovering the traditional way of life of nomads by offering overnight stays with locals, under yurt. EcoNomad also owns two guest houses in At Bashy and a yurt camp in the southeast of the At-Bashy Valley at the Kamandy summer pasture.

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.

NoviNomad is one of the leading tour operators in Kyrgyzstan. A Kyrgyz-Swiss joint venture created in 1999. Specializing in ecotourism, the agency organizes just about everything you can do in the country: rafting, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, yurt camping, French-speaking guides and more. Thanks to its network and experience, NoviNomad is able to offer high-quality tours and stays at extremely competitive rates. Extensions possible in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Count 32 soms to send a postcard in France, but without any guarantee that it will one day reach its addressee unfortunately... Letters (40 soms) arrive a little more surely at destination.

For more bulky packages (if you have bought shyrdaks for example!), you can turn to international operators such as DHL (107, Kievskaya, +996 312 611 111, www.dhl.com) or Fedex (38, Aitmatova, +996 312 210 741, www.fedex.com) who have their offices in the city. It's more expensive but safer.

Bishkek is a city in Kyrgyzstan. For those wishing to send parcels or documents, FedEx is an option to consider. FedEx is an international delivery company offering fast and reliable shipping services. Their site offers users the ability to track their shipments by entering a tracking number. FedEx also offers customs tools to facilitate international shipments. For companies looking to expand their business, FedEx offers e-commerce solutions tailored to the needs of speed and price. In addition, they offer resources and advice to support small businesses. For those wishing to open a FedEx account, a 40% discount is available. FedEx also offers logistics services and has a mobile app to facilitate shipments.

Count 70 som of the hour; for the telephone to France, 5 som per minute towards a fixed line and 20 som per minute towards a mobile line.

One of the leading local agencies, founded after independence by the charismatic Sergei Dudashvili. Originally from Georgia, this geologist by training and experienced mountaineer fell in love with Kyrgyzstan and its beauty decades ago, and has climbed many of its peaks, accumulating contacts and experience throughout the country. As well as designing tailor-made, à la carte tours, the agency has also created an exclusive catalog of short and long-distance tours, always with the same concern for quality, authenticity and safety.

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.

Pioneer agency of tourism in Kyrgyzstan operating since 1999, Horizon has been able to develop an expertise and a network of partners to be able to meet all the demands of travellers. Whether it be horse riding or mountain biking, white water sports or fishing, trekking or mountaineering, cultural tours to the sites of the Silk Road (including in combination with other Central Asian countries) or ornithology, the agency offers (and is able to design) trips for all lengths and all levels with specialized guides.

Tunduk's French-speaking team specializes in short stays and tailor-made excursions. The activities offered at a two-hour drive allow you to discover Kyrgyz culture and authentic experiences without the fatigue inherent in long trips. It thus proposes stays on the banks of mythical lakes, nights in camp with breakfast and lunch in the middle of nature, swimming in hot springs, etc. Tunduk is also an intimate hostel with a swimming pool and a large garden bathed in flowers. Our favorite.

Agency on a human scale, 100% Kyrgyz and 100% French-speaking! Founded in 2014 by Talant Kiresheev and his brother Chyngyz, led by his guides Rimma and Elvira, as friendly as competent, Monts Célestes is a specialist in travel in the heart of the Kyrgyz mountains, and particularly in the regions of the Tian-Shan Mountains and the Pamir. Walking, horseback riding, mountain biking, skiing and multi-activity trips for all levels are done in small groups in order to favour a qualitative, eco-responsible and respectful approach to nomadic communities.

This collective of experienced professional guides and creative tour managers relies on a solid network of partners, accommodation and nomadic communities to offer travellers an impressive range of travel options where the quality of service does not exclude competitive rates. From complete cultural tours from the first to the last day, thematic trips (trekking, butterfly watching, outdoor activities) or day trips, KGT takes an eco-responsible approach and supports local lifestyles.

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.