We have just returned from our tip to Kazakhstan and from the 8 day tour with SUV Tours Almaty. We were so looking forward to this trip but unfortunately this has been the most disappointing and upsetting trips I've experienced and I am writing this review so that others can determine if this is the right trip for them.
Before I begin, just a little background about me is necessary since some people have the tendency to fall into a narrow minded belief that if I live in America, then I must have only been to Cancun and I expect resort type accommodation.
Yes I do live in the USA but I was born and raised in a developing country on a different continent, I've lived in the UK for 5 years, traveled South America extensively and before getting to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, I'd visited 30 countries.
We went on the Two Nomads Tours, 8 days, which covers Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and cost about USD 2400.
Here are 8 facts about the trip that you need to know.
1. The rooms are basic. Some beds are fine. Some mattresses have not been changed in years and you can feel the springs in your back. Some have stains on the blanket. The kind of stains left by men. Yes. Some have heat, some have no heat. Some just have a small heated floor panel in front of the bathroom that they try to pass off as heating.
2. Showers are basic. Some have nice hot showers, but MOST have showers that turn cold mid shower. Some have places you can put your shower toiletries while others have not even a attachment to hang the shower handle.
3. Food varies. One Guest House fed us 5 small dumplings for dinner and we went to bed hungry. No grocery store in the area and our guide left for the day to party at his friends place until 3AM (He told us so). One Guest House fed us decent food and the other gave my boyfriend diarrhea. I only avoided such a fate because I fed my dinner to the cats. It looked liked cat food anyway.
4. You spend most of your time in the car on this trips. Most cars have dark-out windows in the back that you can barely see out of. The roads are bad and bumpy and with the lack of visibility, it makes for a very long and uncomfortable ride. When I brought this up with the organizer Kirill, he said that this is normal in Kazakhstan. To have darken back windows. Keep that in mind.
5. Two of the 8 days on this tour is spent crossing over into Kyrgyzstan from Kazakhstan and back. The trip back from Bishkek into Kazakhstan takes two hours. The guide takes the car through separately and that portion takes 2 hrs. You have to take all of your belongings and walk through on your own. This process takes 1 hr. You stand outside the gates for an hour on your own with your luggage while you wait for your guide to rejoin you. Keep that in mind.
6. Toilets outside of the guesthouses we stayed at are Asian style squatting toilets that are in the ground. Keep that in mind.
7. They eat horse meat here. I managed to eat around it so you can survive if it bothers you.
8. At the Guesthouses no coffee is provided. If you are a coffee drinker like we are, bring your own instant coffee.
Why did my trip suck?
1. After 18 hrs of traveling, not including transit time, we arrived at 5:30AM at Almaty airport. After sending my flight information to Kirill and confirming that someone will be there to pick us up with SIM cards and after he can confirmed it with me..... NOBODY was there to pick us up. We were approached by a scammer pushing us to take his taxi. We kept telling him we had a guide that was supposed to be picking us up. Without a local SIM I was not able to contact Kirill. The scammer let me connect to his wifi and so I called Kirill. By now it was about 6:30 AM. Phone rang out with no reply. I sent several text. No reply. This is how it began for us. I WAS PISSED OFF. We were so tired from lack of sleep and by that time, all other options were no longer available we were forced to take the scammer taxi. The taxi should have cost about USD20 but instead cost us USD 70. When we got to our hotel, I asked that they try to contact Kirill again. Once again no reply. We were left wondering what we would do next.
Around 8:30AM when Kirill finally woke up, he contacted me and apologized but come on friends. Would this do it for you? He sent us our guides WhatsApp contact details and told us he would pick us up the next morning but offered no explanation on why we didn't get picked up, including why he did not answer my calls. Kirill did however promise to reimburse us for the USD 70 and dropped of two SIM cards for us later.
Next day our guide Chingiz (you will hear plenty more about our dear guide soon) asked us what happened with the pickup and we told him. Chingiz said that it was not the first time Kirill had gotten the dates mixed up. One time Chingiz went to pick up clients from the airport only to find out that they were arriving the next day so it's pretty obvious that Kirill assumed we were due the next day since our tour started the next day.
Kirill's explanation later: Transport driver got into a serious incident (his words). I told Kirill that I was angry that we felt like we were not important and that he should have been in touch with the transport driver to be sure we had gotten to the hotel safely and Kirill said he was not available because he had some sick guest that he had to take to the hospital. I think it's obvious he was not going to admit that it was because he messed up and that he was sleeping. My response was if he was not able to get to a phone for whatever reason then he should pass off that responsibility to another teammate. Response from Kirill: Silence.
2. We felt unsupported.
At Kaji-Say or as I like to call it, Chernobyl by the lake, our guesthouse was a poor excuse for one. The room was tiny, the view overlooked some construction. The mattress was less a mattress and more a pile of springs held together in fabric that has no rigid form. My boyfriend's was slanted and next to a drafty window. They told us that there was heating in the room but it really was just one floor panel in front of the bathroom that didn't warm up the room. They provided hand towels in place of bath towels.
This was the guesthouse that fed us food that gave my boyfriend diarrhea.
I told Chingiz our guide that I wasn't going to stay there at around 6PM on day one and nothing was done about it. He told me that it was the best guesthouse in the area and that it was off season and a lot of the guest houses are closed. Being forced to stay here, I spent my entire evening looking for places to stay. Yes a lot of places were closed for the season but this was certainly not the best.
After a restless night having springs poke you in your back and being cold, I skipped breakfast and started to pack. Only then did Chingiz take me seriously. The previous night he would not even listen to my concerns and was rude enough to turn his entire body away from me when I was speaking to him, towards my boy friend, and explained to my boy friend how this was the best option in the area.
Due to their negligence in providing decent accommodation, time had to be taken away from our tours looking for another place to stay. We ended up at a lovely place where we had a huge balcony overlooking a courtyard with a pear tree. It had a separate living area, and a washing machine for us to do our laundry.
Kirill told Chingiz that I had to pay for my own room because the other place would not let us cancel and unfortunately they had to pay in full. I told him that I had told them since 6PM the previous night that I wanted out and they only canceled the morning after and that it was not my problem. Kirill asked me to pick the new place and that Chingiz would pay for it. Except.... the budget was a miserable 2500 KRS. That's about 30USD. Yes folks. Don't think that because you are spending about $300 a day on this tour that they are going to budget any more for your comfort. After all, you're the paying guest. What were you expecting?? I had to pay the difference of about 2000 KRS to get that room that was livable. See there wasn't any more of that $300/day that they wanted to spend on my comfort.
Post Tour once I'd returned to the US. Kirill had a heated discussion about this with me. I was angry that so little was spent on accommodation and he lashed out at me accusing me of expecting 4* and 5* accommodation. That's right Kirill. I'm from America so I must only expect that because I know nothing about developing countries, except he doesn't even know that I grew up in one. He even went so far as to bring up the war in the Ukraine as an excuse of why the price is as high as it is and so little is given in return. A new low. BTW folks. Gas and food is super cheap around these parts.
Speaking about low, here are several truth alternatives given to me, ....
Lie 1. It is the best guesthouse in the area
Truth: There are several nicer places. One which was the Yurt resort which I was more than happy to pay for myself. It was available on Booking but Chingiz insisted it was closed for the season. I knew that was a lie. Why would he not let me stay there? I later wrote to the hotel using my translate app and found out that they are open all year round.
Response from Kirill when I brought this to his attention: Silence.
Lie 2. The crappy cat food guesthouse would not let us cancel because they had to hire a 2nd cook (just for us two) you know because to prepare cat food you need a special cook.
Truth: another SUV Tour group stayed at this guesthouse after we left so they hired another cook for everyone. Not just us. Chingiz let this cat out of the bag later when I asked him if they ever run into other SUV Tour group while on a trip.
Response from Kirill when I told him this: Silence
Lie 3. They don't usually cancel accommodation bookings.
Truth. yes they do. Chingiz had wanted to cancel this particular crappy guesthouse himself due to time and stay the night in Karakol. So it must obviously be possible. I think it is more likely that they just don't want guest asking for more than they are willing to give.
Conclusion. These are people who lack integrity and will say whatever it takes to get you to give in and accept your crappy situation.
3. Our guide Chingiz is an alcoholic.
Yes you heard me right. We found this out on night 4. I had no idea that their company had a strict no alcohol policy for the guides. Chingiz had two beers with his meal on night 2. I thought nothing of it. One day 4, we were at the grocery store and my boyfriend was sat in the car waiting. I asked Chingiz which beer I should get my boyfriend who really is not much of a drinker. Chingiz picked out a few then directed me to the liquor section and suggested I get him a bottle of Vodka. Once again, I thought nothing of it so I purchased it. When I told my boyfriend what I purchased he said he was not interested in drinking and that he really didn't want it.
At dinner that night, Chingiz's enthusiasm peaked. He grabbed 3 shot glasses in the kitchen and took possession of the vodka bottle which I'd purchased. He poured out the vodka and encouraged us all to take shots with him. I don't drink so I didn't touch it. My boyfriend drank just to be polite but Chingiz kept pouring and pushing him to take shot after shot. I am talking one shot per minute. After shot 3 my boyfriend said he was done. Chingiz kept insisting but so did my boyfriend. So now Chingiz' attention moves to my full shot glass. He reaches for it in such excitement that he spills it. Thank goodness I thought. He then said lets save the rest of the bottle for tomorrow.
Next morning ... day after the shots, we sat in the kitchen drinking our coffee while listening to Chingiz throw up in his hallway bathroom. This is the guy who was about to drive us around on tour. Nice one!
Later after much waiting on Chingiz at the car to leave on our tour, he finally joined us and the first thing he said while we were on route, was "Did you remember to bring the vodka?"
Lets not forget, Chingiz spent night 1 and 2 at a different guesthouse where he is friends with the owners. He told us he was up until 3am watching movies. I bet they were up watching movies, and drinking milk and eating cookies.
Night 5, I threw out the rest of the Vodka
Night 7 at Bishkek, we stayed at separate accommodations again. Chingiz announced that he was sick of traditional food and wanted to eat Chinese food. I could not believe what I was hearing. Who's tour is this? Who is paying for this? I did not want Chinese food. We have Chinese food here in the US. He told me that we don't have authentic Chinese food here in the US. How would he know that? Why am I even arguing about this? Who said he had any say in the matter? To get out of it, we looked for another restaurant in the area and found a Russian restaurant close to the hotel. We had no idea that Kirill picks these restaurants and the one on the agenda was a place we wished we had visited. It serves traditional food and the food looked delicious. But because of Chingiz, we missed out on it and will never have the chance again.
At the Russian restaurant, the now annoyed Chingiz who didn't get his Chinese food ordered beer for himself and asked my boyfriend if he wanted vodka and beer. Silly bf said "a little". Here we go again. Chingiz ordered enough to fill 8 shot glasses. Then he kept pushing my bf to drink more and more but by the 2nd shot my bf was done. Chingiz went out for a cigarettes' and my bf tossed out the vodka.
Post Tour
A couple of days after the tour ended, Kirill contacted me and asked me how the tour went and how the guide was. I waited until we were at Almaty airport the next day before I replied to Kirill for fear of retaliation from Chingiz. I told Kirill about Chingiz's drinking and how Chingiz told us that his wife doesn't allow him to drink so he does it when he is away. I told Kirill about the vodka shots and how we was throwing up the next day. Kirill told me that they have a no alcohol policy and so they were no longer going to use him for tour. Lets hope that's true.
Kirill asked me why I didn't let him know about this situation sooner and that he would have changed the driver. My response was
1. Why didn't Kirill reach out to us and ask us how everything was going? We didn't even know we had that option to switch guides.
2. He hasn't been very reliable with responding when I do reach out
3. Has he forgotten about how he didn't support my needs when I had wanted to change guesthouses? Am I suppose to believe they would be supportive in replacing guides mid tour?
4. We were afraid Chingiz would ditch us in the middle of no where. What choice did we have? Suffer in silence for $2400 is what we did. What a great vacation.
Even after returning to the US, this nightmare wasn't over. Kirill offered 10% refund on the tour and we felt it wasn't enough to buy our silence. He felt that since he apologized that I should not be leaving a review. But who would help others make the correct decision? It's because reviews like mine are not given that people don't have what they need when deciding what's right for them.
We had spent $3300 for flights from the US, 18hrs on a plane to get there, two weeks off work with no pay, Pet sitting cost about $1000, all for an horrible time in Kazakhstan thanks to SUV Tours, staying a very basic accommodation with stained quilts bad food, no heat and no support, an alcoholic driver, bad roads, no visibility out the window, only a few hrs visit in some locations.
Friends take my advice, don't go. I cannot recommend this company unfortunately.
SUV tours will respond to my review with the inevitable: everybody else loves out tour, look at all our great reviews, you are the problem .... to which I have to say is.... not everybody hates eating cat food and getting a stomach ache, some people can sleep on anything, some people just don't like to stir the pot... and I'm not everybody.
Über SUV-Touren kann ich nur Positives berichten. Kirill war sehr schnell in seinen Antworten und unseren Fragen, während wir diese Reise planten. 2 von uns haben die 7 - 8-tägige Best of Kirgisistan- und Kasachstan-Tour gemacht und wir hätten nicht glücklicher sein können. Wir begannen unsere Reise in Bischkek und endeten in Almaty. Unser Fahrer und Führer war Max und er war einfach unglaublich. Er war immer pünktlich und 100 % genau pünktlich. Er war flexibel und würde sich sehr wohl fühlen, wenn es darum ging, unsere Reiseroute entsprechend zu ändern, je nachdem, was wir genossen und was nicht. Sein Englisch war tadellos und er hat eindeutig eine Leidenschaft für diesen Job und ist stolz auf sein Land. Wir waren so froh, dass wir Max als unseren Führer bekommen haben. Er hat sein Bestes getan, um unsere Reise sehr angenehm zu gestalten. Auch wenn unser Auto an einer Stelle kaputt ging, war seine Priorität immer zuerst unsere Sicherheit und unser Komfort und wir schätzen und respektieren dies sehr. Die wenigen Gastfamilien, in denen wir wohnten, waren wunderschön und hatten eine gute Gastfreundschaft. Ich würde dieses Unternehmen auf jeden Fall für Ihre zukünftigen Reisepläne empfehlen.
Was für eine erstaunliche Erfahrung mit SUV-Touren während unserer letzten Reise nach Kasachstan und Kirgisistan. Alles war sehr gut organisiert und unser Reiseleiter Michael war der absolut Beste! Er brachte uns nicht nur sicher und pünktlich zu allen Orten, sondern kümmerte sich auch um unsere Essensvorlieben, Unterkunftsbedürfnisse und Sehenswürdigkeiten. Michael stammt ursprünglich aus Kasachstan, daher kannte er die besten Routen und Orte und dank ihm haben wir während der gesamten Reise spektakuläre, atemberaubende Ausblicke gesehen. Wir haben während der Reise viel über die Einheimischen, ihren Lebensstil und ihre Kultur gelernt und es war eine lebenslange Erfahrung.
SUV-Touren sind eine fantastische Wahl, wenn Sie einen Besuch in dieser Region planen.