A Weekend in Astana, Off the Beaten Path
Two days in Astana is enough to see why this city gets built up as a curiosity and still walk away with more than a photo of a tower. This route hits the same left-bank landmarks every visitor sees, but slots in the Green Bazaar and a proper beshbarmak lunch on day one, then swaps the standard museum crawl for an old-town contrast and an evening banya on day two. Astana is the current name (it was briefly Nur-Sultan from 2019 to 2022, renamed back that September) and it’s the capital of Kazakhstan, not to be confused with Almaty, the older, larger city further south. The currency is the tenge (KZT), not rubles or dollars, and the new driverless LRT that opened in May 2026 makes hopping between the two days below genuinely easy.
This stays inside Astana itself; the city’s sights fit comfortably into a focused weekend and don’t need padding. Coming back for more, or adding a steppe day trip, the 3-day , 4-day , 5-day , 6-day , and 7-day versions of this itinerary build on the same two days and add Burabay’s lakes, the ALZHIR memorial, and the Korgalzhyn flamingos. For the full rundown of the city’s unusual side, see the Astana guide .
Book these before you go:
- An Astana city tour on GetYourGuide : OTA coverage of Astana is thin compared to bigger capitals, but a guided walk or river cruise is worth locking in since the city’s showcase sights are spread far enough apart that a good local guide saves real time
- Astana tours on Viator : a second place to check for the same city tours and day trips before you land
- A left-bank hotel on Booking.com : staying near Nurzhol Boulevard or an LRT station keeps both days below a short ride apart
| Day | Focus | Rough daily spend (KZT) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayterek Tower, Khan Shatyr, a beshbarmak and plov lunch, the Green Bazaar | 6,000-12,000 |
| 2 | Right-bank old town, Hazret Sultan Mosque, Nur Alem and the EXPO grounds, Ishim embankment, an evening banya | 8,000-15,000 |
Day 1: The famous towers, then the market everyone skips
Start early at Bayterek Tower, the white lattice column with the gold-tinted sphere on top that shows up on every Astana postcard, admission runs around 2,000 KZT and the observation deck gets busy by mid-morning with tour groups working through a fixed list. Walk the Nurzhol Boulevard axis from there toward Khan Shatyr, Norman Foster’s giant transparent tent, and duck inside for the air conditioning as much as the shops; the indoor beach club under the tent is a genuinely strange thing to encounter in a city this cold most of the year.
Skip the food court inside Khan Shatyr and head instead toward a no-frills beshbarmak and plov canteen, the kind of place where boiled meat over hand-cut noodles and a rice pilaf with carrots and onion cost a fraction of anything inside the mall, and where kazy, the local horse-meat sausage, is a normal menu item rather than a novelty. Round out the afternoon at the Green Bazaar, a working covered market rather than a tourist stop dressed up as one: dried fruit, baursak fried dough, shubat and kumis (fermented camel and mare’s milk, worth trying once even if it’s an acquired taste) sit alongside everyday grocery stalls. Bring cash; card readers are less reliable here than at the mall next door.
Day 2: The old town, the mosque, and a bathhouse to end it
Cross to the right bank in the morning, the pre-2000s part of the city, lower-rise and visibly Soviet in its blocky apartment buildings, a useful contrast to the left bank’s showcase architecture and worth an hour or two rather than a full day. Ride the new LRT back across for Hazret Sultan Mosque, one of the largest mosques in Central Asia, free to enter outside prayer times with modest dress required (a headscarf is provided for women at the door).
From the mosque, walk the former EXPO 2017 grounds to Nur Alem, the giant glass sphere that now runs as the Museum of Future Energy; some visitors report inconsistent access to parts of the interior since the expo closed, so check current hours before you go rather than assuming full access. Spend the late afternoon on the Ishim River embankment, a proper walking and cycling path that splits the futuristic left bank from the older right bank, then finish the day at a banya. A Russian-style steam bathhouse with a cold plunge and, if you’re brave, a birch-branch venik treatment is a genuinely local way to end a trip here, not a tourist add-on, and it’s an especially good idea if you’re visiting outside the short summer window.
Is it Astana or Nur-Sultan?
Astana, as of today. The city was Astana from 1998, renamed Nur-Sultan in March 2019 to honor former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, then renamed back to Astana when the change took effect in September 2022. Older maps, some old blog posts, and even the airport’s formal name still lag behind, but Astana is correct and current. It’s also not Almaty, Kazakhstan’s older and larger city in the south, a separate trip entirely.
When’s the best time to visit Astana?
Summer, from June to August, when highs reach a genuinely pleasant 25 to 30C. Astana ranks among the coldest capital cities on earth, with winter lows routinely hitting minus 20 to minus 35C and a wind that makes it feel worse, so a summer visit and a January one are close to two different trips. Spring and autumn are short transition windows rather than reliable seasons of their own.
Is 2 days enough for Astana?
Yes, for the city core. Astana’s sights concentrate along one boulevard and a short LRT ride across the river, and the itinerary above covers the honest highlights without padding. It’s the day trips, Burabay’s lakes, the ALZHIR memorial, Korgalzhyn’s flamingos, that need extra days, not the city itself; see the longer itineraries linked above once this weekend runs out.
One practical note before you land: entry is visa-free for up to 30 days for US, UK, EU, Canadian, and Australian passport holders, and a new QazETA e-travel authorization pilot is rolling out alongside a hotel-handled registration process, so confirm the current rules at egov.kz or kazakhstan.travel before you fly, since those details move faster than a repo can keep up with. Kazakhstan sits at the US State Department’s safest Level 1 rating, and normal city precautions, not special ones, are all this trip actually needs. Check visitastana.kz for current hours on Nur Alem and the mosque before you build a tight schedule around either.