Our own photo, taken on this route
Staying in the valley
Half a dozen guesthouses and a few yurt camps, no reception desks and no internet. Here is how it actually works.
Book a seat · from $45What things cost
| Option | Price per person | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Bed in a guesthouse dorm | 1 500–2 000 som | Usually breakfast. Stove heating, shared everything. |
| Private room in a guesthouse | 2 500–3 500 som | Breakfast and often dinner. Book ahead in August. |
| Yurt | 3 500–4 500 som | Dinner and breakfast, felt walls, a stove that someone else feeds at 05:00. |
| Booked through us with transfer | $45 | Bed, dinner, breakfast, and we confirm it before you leave Karakol. |
The booking problem
There is no reliable phone signal in the valley and none of these places are on Booking.com in any meaningful sense. In July and August that means people arrive at 18:00 having walked five hours and find every bed taken. The way around it is to have someone in Karakol confirm a bed by radio or by a driver going up that morning — which is what we do when you add a night to a transfer. It is not a service we invented to sell you something; it is how everyone in Karakol has always done it.
What is open in winter
Two or three guesthouses stay open all year, heated properly. The yurt camps come down in October and go back up in June. Which specific places are running in January changes from year to year, so ask rather than trusting a blog post from 2019.
What the valley does not have
A shop. A card machine. Hot water outside the springs. A pharmacy. Reliable signal on any network. Bring what you need for the night, in cash, and tell someone your plan before you leave Karakol.