Travel Tips

The best time to visit Kyrgyzstan is mid-June to mid-September. Every month graded for trekking, yurt stays, skiing and festivals.

The best winter evening in Bishkek costs a few hundred som. How a banya actually works, what a venik is for, and…

A Bishkek square metre costs 114,700 som, but the number that decides who owns property is the mortgage rate: 4 per cent…

In May 1993 Kyrgyzstan became the first ex-Soviet state after Russia to issue its own money. The gamble it took, and who…

Kyrgyz is the state language, Russian is official, and the 2023 law is shifting the balance. Which one to use, where, and…

Kyrgyzstan fell from 82nd to 146th on press freedom in six years. Which sites are blocked, whether you need a VPN, and…

A guesthouse owner's daughter in a mountain village will often switch into English. Where that came from, and why good English here…

PM2.5 at 4.2 times the WHO guideline, a top-five world ranking in January 2026, and an official network that does not measure…

Crypto is not a means of payment by statute, the digital som is not legal tender until 2027, and two mining farms…

Where the toilet is, how you wash, what time you are woken and what happens if you do not eat the fat.…

Three presidents removed by protest, a decade as Central Asia's only parliamentary republic, then a vote to reverse it. How Kyrgyzstan is…

Half of Kyrgyzstan is under twenty-six. That single fact explains the migration, the crowded schools, the constant weddings and how the country…