How to spend 2 days in Bishkek
- Jordan Sinclair
- Apr 23
- 6 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Bishkek is a seriously underrated city - incredibly clean, relatively walkable (depending on where you stay) and friendly. It also has a huge coffee scene and a lot of great restaurants. Keep reading for the top things to do in Bishkek, accommodation and food recommendations.
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Where to stay?
Mid-range
We stayed at Bugu Hotel
£92 - en suite double room including breakfast which had a modern
20 minute walk from central area and Ala-Too square
Very clean, stylish hotel. Scandinavian vibe (not exactly traditional Kyrgyz but we were going to get lots more authentic Kyrgyz stays later in the trip).
Probably more than we would have spent normally but this was our honeymoon, and still extremely good value.
Book here via booking.com
Budget
The best rated hostel in Bishkek on Tripadvisor.
At the time of writing, private twin rooms are around £24 per night.
Although we didn’t stay here, we organised some of our trips through them and found the owners extremely helpful.
We did visit the hostel to pay a deposit for a trip and it had a great backpacker vibe, and we would have stayed here ourselves.
The only con is that it’s a bit further from the centre but still easy to reach by Yandex for £2-£3 for a journey across the city.
Book here via Hostelworld or Booking.com
Arrival from Bishkek Airport
Options:
Pre-booked private transfer (we did this through our hotel for £14) - 45 mins
Yandex (the ride hailing app of this region), taxis (beware of scams)
Marshutkra (mini-bus) number 380 which takes around 1 hour to arrive in the city centre. You will likely need a Yandex to take you from there to your hotel.
Bus (number 153) takes 1-1.5 hours to reach the city centre. These are less frequent than the marshutkras.
Our flight arrived very early in the morning, so we arrived jet-lagged and were grateful we had organised an airport transfer through our hotel. Normally I’m a big fan of using public transport where possible, but I found conflicting information online and was unsure whether the public transport options would be operating at that time. For the difference of £8, it just wasn’t worth the hassle - pick your battles!
Getting Around
We either walked or used Yandex, the ride hailing app, which we found to be reliable, safe and reasonably priced. There are public buses, but we didn't need them for any of the areas we visited.
Things To Do
Walking Tour
At the time, we couldn’t find any “free’ walking tours, but it does seem like some have now started operating in Bishkek, so one of these could be a good alternative. We often book/join these through Guruwalks.
Street Murals Tour
Instead, we did a “Street Murals” tour (this started at 5pm) - which was a good introduction to the city, covering Ala-Too square and the surrounding parks, which are home to numerous statues and historical monuments. Although this was ideal for something to do with our evening, it did overlap a little with some of things we saw on the food tour we took on day 2 (if we had to pick one - it would definitely have been the food tour). Click here to book - cost £29 pp
Food Tour
We don’t normally go for private tours, but we were struggling to find many city tour options at the time - more walking tours have now popped up which will come at a lower cost, but honestly, this was such a great tour and we felt it was well worth the money.
This tour includes private transport for the day, traditional snacks and tea in a yurt, a guided walking tour of the main sites around Ala Too square and lunch at a traditional restaurant which is popular with locals (the guide advised us on traditional dishes to order). You will then visit Osh Bazaar and finish at another lovely restaurant for a traditional Kyrgyz dessert. This tour can be booked here. Cost: £50 pp.
Central Mosque
We took a Yandex to the Central Mosque - note that if you want to go inside, women must cover their head with a head scarf and have covered shoulders and knees. Men must also have knees covered (long trousers).
Main Sites
If you haven't already visited these on a tour, you should see:
Ala Too Square
The parks near Ala Too Square - there are an abundance of monuments and statues to marvel at (if you take a tour, you'll get a bit more insight into what they represent).
Osh Bazaar - famous sprawling market. Make sure you try the macadamia nuts - I'm not even joking - they are sensational! They're so good, some friends even brought nearly a backpack-full home.
There are a number of museums in Bishkek, such as the the National History Museum of the Kyrgyz Republic, and the Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Arts.
Food Recommendations
Navat - central Asian cuisine - we did actually dine here for dessert as part of the food tour, but also ate dinner here one night - highly recommend. There are a number of branches across the city, and in Almaty, Kazakhstan too.
Cyclone - Italian - this cute little restaurant has a nice al fresco area, and the food was unbelievable - it’s the best pizza and pasta we’ve had outside of Italy!
There’s a big coffee scene in the city, with lots of good coffee shops eg. Capito and Bublik (many branches throughout the city).
Around Bishkek
Burana Tower
This 11th century Silk Road minaret and the adjacent Balbal burial statues (they look like quirky gravestones) may be worth the detour en route to Issyk Lake from Bishkek. A visit here is often included in day tours to nearby Konorchek or Kok-Moinok Canyons , but probably isn't worth the hassle of a day trip purely just to see the tower.
We visited Burana Tower en-route to Kyzart, a small village where we started our 3-day horseriding trek to Song Kul. To do the detour to Burana via public transport would have been a lot of messing about with mulitple marshutkras, taxis and buses, so we opted for a private driver for the drive to Kyzart, including a stop at Burana tower. We contacted a few different people to get prices, but there were all very similar, so we arranged the driver through Kyrgyz Wow Travel (we had organised the Song Kul horse riding trip through them).
Ala Archa National Park
We didn’t have time to visit and felt that we would see a lot of nature elsewhere on the trip, but the information is based on talking to other travellers who did visit during the time we were in Kyrgyzstan.
This is a popular spot for day hikes or horse-riding. Previously, it was quite difficult to get to without an organised tour or your own transport. However, as of 2025, there is a public bus (number 1), that goes directly to the park entrance. From there, you can use the free shuttle buses to get to the popular trails. There is also a cable car that has partially opened (February 2026) but work is ongoing to extend the distance covered, offering a new perspective of the national park.
There are a number of different hiking trails and horseriding can either be organised in advance via a tour that will include your transport, or through an operator who will meet you at the park entrance. Hiking and horseriding tours in Ala Archa can be found here.
For a full 2-3 week itinerary for Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan with flexible options, travel tips and full details on how we booked our horseriding trips, tap below.
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