Where to stay in Kyrgyzstan

The three kinds

• Guesthouses are the backbone - family-run, in Bishkek, Karakol, Osh and every trekking village. Cheap, warm and the best source of local information you will find.
• Homestays in the villages, arranged through CBT, put you in a family's house with dinner included.
• Yurts on the summer pastures - Song-Kul, the jailoos above Kochkor, the Ala-Kul approach. These are working herders' yurts in most cases, not a tourist recreation, and they are the reason a lot of people come.

Where to base

• Bishkek - Soviet grid, tree-lined, cheap and functional. A day or two either end.
• Karakol - the trekking capital at the east end of Issyk-Kul, with the wooden mosque and the Sunday animal market.
• Osh - the southern city, older than Bishkek by two millennia, with the sacred mountain in the middle of it.
• Kochkor and Naryn - the jumping-off points for Song-Kul and the high pastures.

Season

• The yurts are up roughly June to September. Outside that the pastures are empty and the passes are closed.
• Winter is for skiing at Karakol, and much of the country is inaccessible.

Practical

• Book nothing far ahead outside Bishkek. The system is guesthouses and CBT offices, and it works on arrival.
• Yurts have no electricity, no plumbing and a dung stove. That is the point; bring a power bank and a head torch.
• If you may stay over 30 days, register in the first five.