These little-known wonders in Central Asia are well worth marvelling at.
Central Asia has something for every traveller, from the rolling hills of steppe-country Kazakhstan to marvelling at Uzbekistan’s old Islamic architecture and the impressive high-altitude lakes in the Kyrgyz Republic.
We share our favourite destinations in the region of land-locked countries to inspire your next holiday abroad.
1. Southern Shore, Issyk Kul, Kyrgyz Republic
Not only is this enormous alpine lake hard to miss on a map, but it’s also elevated 1,600 metres above sea level, where travellers can swim and, at the same time, enjoy the views of snow-capped mountain peaks.
As a rule of thumb, travellers seeking a more vibrant atmosphere should venture to Issyk Kul’s northern shores (typically populated by Bishkek locals escaping on weekends). However, in our experience, the tranquillity of Issyk Kul is best discovered on the southern side of the lake.
If you happen to be visiting in July, don’t miss out on the magic of Kölfest, a music and arts festival celebrating Central Asian culture and local artists from one of the most unique places in the world.
Issyk Kul’s northern shores have a vibrant atmosphere, and tranquillity is best discovered on the southern side. (Image: Matt Cheok)
2. Skazka Canyon, Kyrgyz Republic
Only a stone’s throw away from the southern shores of Issyk Kul lies Skazka’s impressive rock formations. The canyon’s jagged rocks and short hiking routes present some remarkable vantage points of red earth and carvings for minimal physical effort.
Travellers usually pit-stop here for half a day en route to Karakol’s hiking region, with regular marshrutkas (local shuttle buses) connecting the area and the option of hitchhiking between destinations.
Skazka Canyon is only a stone’s throw away from Issyk Kul. (Image: Matt Cheok)
3. Registan Square, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Wandering through Samarkand is like stepping back in time and following the footsteps of caravaners and traders along the ancient Silk Road.
Registan Square (formerly Samarkand’s commercial centre) is the most impressive site in town, and the craftsmanship in the minarets, madrasahs, domes, and facades is detailed and intricate. We recommend visiting both during the day and evening, so you can see the site illuminated and watch the light show.
Registan Square is the most impressive site in town. (Image: Matt Cheok)
4. Sibinksie Lakes, Kazakhstan
The northeast of Kazakhstan is one of the least travelled regions of Central Asia, and that’s precisely why it’s worth visiting.
There are improved train services and a range of ride-sharing apps like Yandex and inDrive, to help you make your way around.
You’ll encounter Sibinskie Lakes in this region – a group of five lakes, each reachable on foot. The stunning rocky granite surroundings provide a jaw-dropping backdrop alongside its calm waters for the brave souls wanting to swim and cool off along the trail.
Over summer, local families picnic on the shoreline, and shashlik (skewered meat) aromas blow in the wind. The Kazakh hospitality is warm and friendly, and being invited for kumis (horse milk), chai, and vodka is common – as I quickly discovered four times throughout my adventures.
For those with flexible schedules, we highly recommend spending time in Semey and Ust’-Kamenogorsk.
The stunning rocky granite surroundings of Sibinskie Lakes provide a jaw-dropping backdrop. (Image: Matt Cheok)
5. Kyzart, Kyrgyz Republic
The dramatic scenery on the drive from the capital, Bishkek (the typical entry and exit point in the Kyrgyz Republic) to Kyzart is a sight for sore eyes and worth the commute alone.
The hiking passage from Kyzart to Song Kul presents an alternative – and very scenic – journey to the enormous alpine lake some 3,000 metres above sea level with access to the summer yurt camps. Visitors can enjoy a homestay in town and then navigate the journey to the lake on foot or horseback.
Kyzart is a sight for sore eyes and worth the commute alone. (Image: Matt Cheok)
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6. Mountains surrounding Almaty, Kazakhstan
Almaty is a fantastic cultural and social hub in Central Asia, so you’d be forgiven for wanting to spend your entire holiday roaming between its beautiful restaurants, cafes and museums. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. No matter how much you enjoy the city vibe, you should still balance your time in the nearby mountains.
With the city’s robust public transport and ride-sharing options, it’s easy to access the neighbouring trails, particularly the ones leading to Old Japanese Road, Furmanov and Shymbulak Peak.
To experience the quintessential Central Asian postcard picture, head to the sprawling hills of the Ushkonyr Plateau for views of blooming flowers, roaming horses and snow-capped mountains.
From Almaty, you can arrange any hiking or camping equipment needs and trips or tours outside the city.
It’s easy to access the neighbouring trails like Furmanov Peak. (Image: Matt Cheok)
7. Ancient Relics around Termez, Uzbekistan
Termez is situated in the far south of Uzbekistan, bordering Afghanistan.
Although it doesn’t have the same glamorous polish as its major city counterparts, it is home to the magnificent archaeological ruins of the ancient city, Aleksandriya na Okse and Fayoz-Tepe, a well-preserved third-century monastery complex and evidence of the country’s Buddhist past.
Whereas most visitors reach Termez by train in its comfortable sleeper berths, if you can’t secure a ticket (they sell out quickly), consider taking a shared taxi from Samarkand for a very scenic journey down south.
Fayoz-Tepe is the magnificent archaeological ruins of the ancient city. (Image: Matt Cheok)
If you’re seeking a destination less travelled, look no further than Central Asia this summer. The region will astound you with its untouched landscapes and hearty hospitality and keep you returning back for more.
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After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?
In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.
Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)
Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?
Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?
How tourism is changing in Nepal
Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.
Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.
“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.
Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”
Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”
CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.
A new generation demanding more
Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”
We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”
Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)
In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…
Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.
Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.
A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.
Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.
Life unfiltered in the Terai region
Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.
Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.
Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.
Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.
On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.
A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.
The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.
In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.
Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.
The power of community homestays
Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.
“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”
The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.
An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)
Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.
Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.
CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.
“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.
Elephant watch. (Credit: Simon Urwin)
In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.
Gathering greens. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)
“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”
Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”
Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.
7 Must-See Wonders In Central Asia - International Traveller
