Why I think you should visit Ak Bulak Ski Resort (2025 update)

Almaty has so many great options for skiers, so I had to go check out Ak Bulak!

Situated just over an hour outside Almaty, I finally took my family to check out Ak Bulak Ski Resort, and I’m glad I did! It’s a different style of ski resort to Almaty’s other resort offerings, Oi Qaragai and Shymbulak, with its wide slopes, smaller crowds, and less ritzy facilities. After an unsuccessful attempt last season to book a night at the resort, I followed up with yet another unsuccessful attempt last month. Luckily we have friends who are native russian speakers and they managed to communicate with the hotel and book us a stay. We just returned from our night there (which I will write about in a future post!).

In this review I will be focussing on the ski resort part of Ak Bulak as a day visitor.

Renting equipment at Ak Bulak 

There is a ski rental shop just up the hill from the car park of Ak Bulak. While fairly unassuming, there is a sign out front so you should be ok to find it. Inside are large ski lockers, and a room with those blow up tube/doughnut things (and some more lockers) to the left. Straight ahead is the rental desk and cashier. You need ID with you to rent the equipment. Please note they hold onto your ID for the time you have the equipment (unlike at the other resorts where they simply scan the ID). While I had the foresight to bring my ski equipment this time, last season I paid 16,000KZT for boots, skis, poles, helmet and goggles for 4 hours on a weekday. This is more than the cost at Oi Qaragai (I recently spent 10,000KZT for a similar amount of equipment at OQ).

Once you’ve sorted out your rentals, walk around the building to the other side to buy your ski pass for the day. There is a magic carpet that conveniently starts outside the rental entrance and ends level with the ski pass cashier. If you choose the magic carpet, please watch your step! It can be a little icy on the steps up to the lift, however, I noted they were in better shape than last season, so thank you to the Maintenance Team at Ak Bulak!

How long is the season at Ak Bulak?

The season at Ak Bulak is similar to that at Oi Qaragai, starting in early December and ending around March. While Ak Bulak has a top altitude of 2,600m, putting it higher than OQ, most of the slopes are closer to the base which is around 1,600.

Ak Bulak uses their own ski cards, so you cannot use your plastic pass from Shymbulak or Oi Qaragai. The ski card costs 1,500KZT. The prices for ski passes can be found here. You may need to use the browser translation tool as the website translation option wasn’t working when I visited it. The cost for 4 hours on a weekday has gone up this year, just like at the other Almaty resorts. Last year it was about 5,500KZT and now it’s 10,500KZT. They also do not have an app yet.

The Lifts

Once we had our passes, we walked up (quite a few!) stairs to get to one of the two main chair lifts from the base, an open double chair lift set up. This gave me my first really good view of the resort: the slopes are wide, and undulating, and some of them require a bit of speed to get over the small hills. There were several charming little wooded runs. One such slope seemed to end within the woods and I could see a T Bar lift catering to anyone doing that run.  

Parallel to the first open chairlift was the cabin lift, taking people further up the mountain. After trialling the lower bit of the slope, we hopped on the cabin lift and then crossed to a third chair lift (another open one) going to the top. From the top its a black slope back down! My husband did snowboard down from the top and he was very happy with the slope. The runs at the very top looked rather ungroomed, which might be exactly what makes a good black run!? A black run, and definitely an ungroomed black run, is a challenge for future me to meet, not current me. Anyway, what you can do if you want to visit the top, is to take off your skis and take the final lift as pedestrians. Which is what I did. And it was a splendid view.

Is Ak Bulak good for kids?

While Ak Bulak is good for families, I confirmed with one of the instructors that there is no longer a kids club. They replaced it with a cafe a few seasons ago, which is a choice I don’t understand. There is a decent ski school though with plenty of instructors so lessons aren’t hard to organise. I contacted the ski school directly via WhatsApp and found them to be very responsive. I used Google Translate to translate my messages into russian as the person on the other end didn’t speak English. Pleasantly, some of the instructors do speak pretty good English. The lessons are a bit pricier than those at Shymbulak and Oi Qaragai. A 2 hour lesson for a seven year old is 28,000KZT, compared to 20,000KZT at Shymbulak. 

On this most recent visit we put both our kids with an instructor. After the 4 year old finished his lesson we skied with him for an hour while we waited for his sister to finish her lesson. The lower slopes at Ak Bulak are quite easy to ski on with children. However, I probably wouldn’t choose to take my kids too regularly to Ak Bulak while they are this young. There is nowhere to safely leave your small children if you just want to ski. Maybe in a few years when my kids are competent skiers we could really enjoy a day at Ak Bulak.

The hotel has a lovely swimming pool which you formerly could use as a day visitor. Unfortunately it is now only available to hotel guests.

How are the facilities at Ak Bulak?

The resort isn’t as developed as Oi Qaragai or Shymbulak, but it does have important things like chairlifts and restaurants, as well as toilets. Please see below for more details – yes toilets get their own section! The main restaurant is in the same building as the ski rental and the ski pass cashier. Feedback from my friends who ate meals there was that the food came in decent sized portions and wasn’t bad. We visited there only to drink hot chocolate (the children’s preferred treat after a lesson). Note than hot chocolate is not found at all the cafes and restaurants.

There are also a few small kiosks dotted around the slope, with some picnic tables out the front. However, not all of them were open.

The Bathroom Situation 

Ak Bulak is more of an adventure than some of the other resorts when it comes to bathrooms. There are two in the building containing the rental shop and the ski pass desk. The first is to the left as you face the rental shop entrance, and these are “squat” toilets. To the right as you face the ski pass desk you will find Western “sit down” toilets. Both are maintained and both require a small payment (about 150KZT, which is about 0.35USD). There are no toilets in the restaurants or cafes.

If you don’t want to pay, then you are very welcome to try one of the wooden “long drop” toilets sprinkled around the slope. The best of these is at the very top of the mountain. It does take a short while to get up there so be sure to give yourself time. Note that the slopes at the top are black runs. If you’re not an expert skier, consider leaving your skis at the base of the lift and go up as a pedestrian. Up there, you’ll find two long drop toilets side by side at the top, overlooking an exquisite mountain scene. If you’re not easily embarrassed, you could leave the door open so as to not miss the view. But maybe get a friend to stand guard.

Getting to Ak Bulak

Ak Bulak is just over an hour’s drive east of Almaty, depending on traffic. Given its distance, you’ll probably want to drive or take a taxi, rather than take the bus. The bus would take you more than 2 hours. If that doesn’t bother you, you can take bus 224 from Silk Way City on Tole Bi St.

I’d also be thinking hard about taking a taxi, as I don’t know how often regular taxis will be heading out that way. You don’t want to get stuck hoping for a taxi willing to come back out to pick you up. So my recommendation would be to either hire a driver to get you there and back, or drive yourself. I did check Yandex taxi (they have an app for both IOS and Google) and, on midday Sunday, a taxi will set you back around 6,500KZT (13USD) one way. 

Parking was 1,000KZT for the day back in 2024. I didn’t find out the 2025 price because we stayed at the hotel and so used their complimentary parking. A man will collect your fee on the way in, and I didn’t see any machines. So make sure you bring cash. If you park a little further away, before you reach the man, parking is free.

Can you stay the night at Ak Bulak?

Yes, you can. There is the very lovely looking Ak Bulak Hotel and a more budget friendly, and slightly less pretty accommodation, Economy Class Hotel, on the resort. The resort accommodations are all at the entrance of the resort, so rather than turning right into the ski parking lot, you would go straight when you enter the roundabout (or rather, take the second exit!).

The hotel itself is pretty cool looking, in a unique take on a traditional alpine lodge. And the pool is very nice! The budget accommodation is nearby. I stayed in February 2025 at the hotel and it was pretty great to stay on the resort. Despite this I am quickly learning that you should never book your children into a 9.00 ski lesson if you’re staying on the mountain. Hotels here never seem to start their breakfast early enough for you to feed them, equip them and move them to the ski school!

What do I know about Ak Bulak?

I’ve been living here and visiting Almaty ski resorts since mid 2021 with my family, though as of February 2025 I’ve only visited Ak Bulak twice! Visit my About Me page to understand more about my perspective. And check out my Kazakhstan page to find out more about why I think why you should travel to Kazakhstan!

Also take a look at my other posts on skiing in Kazakhstan!

• The Best View In Shymbulak: Le Mont Hotel Review
• Kazakhstan should make your list for great ski destinations
• An 80s Era Room & Excellent Lamb Cutlets: A Review Of Ak Bulak Hotel
• The Best View In Shymbulak: Le Mont Hotel Review
• Why Shymbulak is a great choice for a ski holiday
• Oi Qaragai Resort is an excellent option for your next ski holiday
• The best place to stay in Shymbulak Mountain Resort
• The best place to stay at Oi Qaragai Resort