Getting around Kyrgyzstan: transport and apps

Between towns

• Marshrutkas - shared minibuses - run everywhere from the Bishkek terminals. Cheap, cramped, and departing when full.
• Shared taxis cover the same routes faster for a little more, and are the standard way to reach Karakol or Osh.
• Hiring a driver with a car for several days is affordable and is how most visitors reach Song-Kul, the jailoos and the remote valleys. Arrange through a guesthouse or a CBT (Community Based Tourism) office.
• Domestic flights connect Bishkek and Osh in 45 minutes against 12 hours of road.

The roads

• Poorly maintained and inadequately lit. Mountain passes are unsurfaced in places and close with snow from roughly October to May.
• Do not drive at night.
• Four-wheel drive is genuinely required for Song-Kul, the jailoo tracks and most of what makes the country worth visiting.
• Drink-driving carries fines and licence revocation, and there is no reason to test it.

Trekking

• Use a reputable agency, take insurance, and do not trek alone. All three are the FCDO's explicit advice, and the third is the one people ignore.
• CBT and Destination Karakol are the established community networks for guides, horses and yurt stays.
• Horse trekking is the local mode of travel rather than a novelty, and a horse gets you places a vehicle does not.

Borders

• Only officially recognised crossings, and expect them to close at short notice.
• Batken region borders may have unexploded ordnance and mines. Do not wander off a road there.

Worth having

• Yandex Go - the ride-hailing app, working in Bishkek and Osh and extremely cheap. No Uber or Bolt here.
• Offline maps - the single most important app in Kyrgyzstan, because the mountains have no signal and the tracks are not on the standard base map. Maps.me and organic-maps both have good Kyrgyz trail data.
• The State Registration Service site for the online registration, if you are staying beyond 30 days - remember the 5-day deadline.
• for a visa if you need one.

What an app cannot do

• CBT Kyrgyzstan and the Destination Karakol network are how you find a guide, a horse, a driver or a yurt. They are offices and phone numbers rather than platforms, and they are better than anything online.
• Guesthouses arrange everything and are the real booking system outside Bishkek.

Written on paper

• Mountain rescue: +996 312 651 404.
• Your route and expected return time, left with your guesthouse. Rescue here has limited equipment and no way to find you if nobody knows where you went.