Travel and transport agencies Aktau

From Aktau, ferries run daily to Atyrau on the northern Caspian Sea, as well as Baku in Azerbaijan and Turkmenbashi in Turkmenistan. For these last two routes, you'll need to ask locally for departure dates, which are highly irregular and often depend on load factors. It takes around twenty hours to cross the Caspian to Baku, and the plane is clearly preferable in terms of price, comfort and speed.

The railway station is located 12 km east of the city center, in Mangyshlak. The best way to get there quickly is by cab from the city center. Aktau can be reached by train from Beyneu, a railway junction where the tracks divide towards Atyrau to the north or Nukus and Uzbekistan to the south. This station is often crowded, and you'll have to elbow your way to buy tickets if you haven't had the foresight to do so in advance. It takes almost two days to reach Almaty.

Aktau airport is modern and well connected to the rest of the country. Many flights are operated by Kazakh airlines such as Air Astana and Qazaq Air. Daily flights to Astana, Atyrau, Shymkent and Almaty. Several flights a week to Aralsk, Kyzyl-Orda, Turkestan and Uralsk.

International flights serve Moscow and Rostov in Russia, Baku on the other side of the Caspian (Azerbaijan), Tbilisi (Georgia) and Istanbul. Allow yourself plenty of time to pass through the various airport entry and boarding controls.

Unlike the well-regulated transport system in the rest of the country, the towns of Aktau and Atyrau are served in a slightly more anarchic way. Don't hesitate to arrive early to find seats on the buses, even if it means waiting for them to fill up. Even if the bus fleet has been renewed, the best solution is still to take a shared cab or minibus, which are faster, more comfortable and more frequent. Cabs to Fort Chevchenko also depart from the bus station.