Adventure
Kyrgyzstan: Horse Trekking to Song-Kul Lake
Three days on horseback to a 3,000-metre alpine lake, sleeping in yurts with shepherd families. The ultimate Central Asia adventure.
By Camille Laurent · 30 June 2026 · 8 min read
Kyrgyzstan is 94% mountains, and the Kyrgyz have been crossing them on horseback for three thousand years. The trek to Song-Kul — a vast alpine lake at 3,016 metres where shepherds summer their flocks — is the ride the country is built on.
The classic route runs three days from Kyzart village over the 3,400-metre Kalmak-Ashuu pass to the lake, sleeping each night in yurts with shepherd families. Community-Based Tourism (CBT) offices in Kochkor and Bishkek arrange the whole thing — horse, guide, yurts, meals — for around 60 to 80 euros a day all-in.
You do not need to be a rider, but honesty helps: tell the CBT office your real level and they will match the horse and pace. Days are five to seven hours in the saddle across jailoo summer pastures, with marmots whistling from the rocks and eagles overhead. Nights are bread, tea, mutton, and a sky with no light for a hundred kilometres.
The season is short — mid-June to early September — and the altitude is real: spend two nights in Kochkor first, drink more water than feels reasonable, and pack for four seasons in a day. Then ride. This is what travel felt like before the roads came.
