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 visited Ak Bulak Ski Resort a couple of weeks ago, and I’m glad I did! Its a different style of ski resort to Almaty’s other resort offerings, Oi Qaragai and Shymbulak, with its wide slopes, and less ritzy facilities. I did attempt, via WhatsApp, to get a night at the hotel but was frustratingly unsuccessful. I will try again next season, and I’ll cross my fingers for a slightly more helpful staff member. Therefore this review will have to be just on the ski part of Ak Bulak and not the accommodation!
Renting equipment at Ak Bulak
There is a ski rental shop just up the hill from the car park of Ak Bulak. Its fairly unassuming so you’ll need to look out for it, however, there is a sign out front so you should be ok. Once inside you’ll notice large ski lockers to your right, 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 to have an ID with you to rent the equipment. Please note that they will hold onto your ID for the time you have the equipment (unlike at the other resorts where they simply scan the ID). For 4 hours on a weekday, I paid 16,000KZT for boots, skis, poles, helmet and goggles. This is more than the cost at Oi Qaragai.
Once you’ve sorted out your rentals, you head outside and walk around the building to the other side to buy your ski pass for the day. You can also jump on the 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! The steps up to the start of the lift were icy for us! If you’re reading this, Facilities Manager at Ak Bulak, please de-ice the steps!
Ak Bulak uses their own ski passes, so you cannot use your plastic pass from Shymbulak or Oi Qaragai (those resorts share the use of the passes – a Shymbulak card can have an Oi Qaragai pass added to it and vice versa). The cost for 4 hours on a weekday was about 5,500KZT which is roughly the same as I pay at Oi Qaragai.
The Lifts
Once we had our passes, we walked up (quite a few!) stairs to get to the first chair lift, a double chair lift set up. This gave me my first really good view of the resort and its slopes. The slopes are wide, and undulating, and some of the runs have hills going the wrong way. What I mean is that you have to ski uphill – so its important to get up some speed! There were several places where the slope went into the woods to create a little forest run, something which I find very charming! One such slope seemed to end within the woods and I could see a T Bar lift catering to anyone doing that run. I generally avoid T Bars though (too many poor experiences with them when I was a newbie!), so that run is not for me!
Sitting parallel to the first open chairlift was the cabin lift, taking people further up the mountain. After trialling the first lower bit of the slope, we hopped on the cabin lift and heard from some locals that the view from the very top of the mountain was excellent. The only issue with going to the top is that to ski down from there requires skills possessed by neither me nor my friends! The runs at the very top were Black Runs, and seemingly ungroomed. A Black Run, and definitely an ungroomed Black Run, is a challenge for future me to meet, not current me. However, we took off our skis and jumped on the final lift as pedestrians to have a look. And it was splendid. What a beautiful view and what beautiful mountains!
Is Ak Bulak good for kids?
I think Ak Bulak is ok for families, and definitely some of our (Russian speaking) friends enjoy going out there for a ski day with their small children. There wasn’t an obvious creche facility, however, the website does suggest there is one so I need to do more investigation. There are plenty of instructors working there so lessons shouldn’t be hard to organise. Some of the instructors also speak English.
The hotel has a rather nice looking swimming pool which you can use as a day visitor. Our friends like to buy the pool pass for the family and spend the day between the warm pool and the slopes. There was also a little family slope closer to the hotel which you can use with your smaller kids.
I probably wouldn’t choose to take my kids there while they are this young, at least until I’ve confirmed there is a creche or nursery facility to safely leave your children while you ski. Maybe in a couple of years when both my kids have become competent skiers we could enjoy a day at Ak Bulak.
How are the facilities at Ak Bulak?
The resort isn’t as developed as Oi Qaragai or Shymbulak, but it does have proper chairlifts, and several magic carpet lifts, as well as toilets (see below for more details – yes it gets its own section!) and restaurants. The main restaurant is in the same building as the ski rental and the ski pass cashier. Feedback from my friends who ate there was that the food came in decent sized portions and wasn’t bad.
There is also a small kiosk halfway up the slope, with some picnic tables out the front, serving usual kiosk fare.
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 (in 2024 it was 150KZT, which is about 0.35USD) either in cash or via Kaspi.
If you feel like 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. The slopes from the top are black runs so you might want to leave your skis at the base of the lift and go up as a pedestrian if you’re not an expert skier. Once you’re 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, and 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 and, on a Sunday afternoon, a taxi will set you back around 9,000KZT (18USD) one way. I accidentally pressed ‘request’ in my Yandex taxi app and a driver pretty quickly accepted the job so it may be that my concern about taxis going to Ak Bulak is totally unfounded. Nevertheless, if you successfully book a taxi to come pick you up, you will need to wait for them to drive out to you, which could be a while.
Parking is 1,000KZT for the day. A man collected our 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.
The hotel itself is pretty cool looking, in a unique take on a traditional alpine lodge. And the pool looks very nice on the website! The budget accommodation is nearby. I can’t wait to try out the accommodation next season and let you know what I think (wish me luck!).
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 March 2024 I’ve only visited Ak Bulak once! 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!