Nurdan Tour

Our guide, Judar, was excellent! He stayed with us from start to finish and provided such dedicated, attentive guidance. He was kind, diligent, and always had a pleasant, smiling demeanor—it was a joy to be around him. Our driver was also very kind.

The border crossing (and waiting on the other side 45 minutes for the bus driver) is a bit chaotic if you dont speak Russian and understand the plan explained before offloading at the border. The bus drops about a 50 minute drive north of Bishkek at (whats labeled as) the New Bishkek bus terminal. Beware that whatever carryon you bring will go under your legs as there is no room up top. The bus driver did stop for breaks and did the best he could, but the logistics of this adventure made it a little spicy, so check reddit for details and be ready. Bus arrived 3 hours later than listed on the ticket because the times dont include the border wait. Sending a message to the help phone number on the ticket got no response on whatsapp

The driver didn't tell us where to meet him on the other side

Bit of apprehension and uncertainty among fellow travellers due to uncertainty, but system seemed to work well. Tickets have allocated seat number, coach departs from stand 2 I think, marked Bishkek in Cyrillic, just over 3 hours to the Korday border crossing with Kyrgyzstan with one brief stop on the way. Border procedures straightforward. Option to get local bus or Yandex another side also

Confusing to find the bus once across the border, bus wasn’t too hot in September with the roof windows cracked

Transportation past the border was canceled without a prior warning and compensation.

Seats were comfortable and reclining. However, bus arrived 3h late at 2:30am

You told me that the ride is approximately 3 and a half hours, at the end it was 6(!) hours and had to call my hostel at the middle of the night and wake her up, you almost made me sleep in the street.

Aircon doesn’t work and it gets very hot. No one was sitting in the allocated seats and everyone had to move and change. Not much communication around the border crossing.

Thanks to the driver who waited for us. We were 3 minutes late due to busy traffic in Almaty.

Everything worked out perfectly

Left 20 minutes late. No bathrooms at Almaty bus station and super grumpy staff. Bus was comfortable but slow and stopped for 20 minute toilet break halfway. Confusing border crossing (grab a Yandex once you clear customs rather than wait for the bus)

Did what it says on the box, got from point A to point B. close to unbearably hot hence the rating. bring a fkn lot of water. you’ll be sweating through whatever clothes you decide to wear. Side note; no way to contact them afterwards so make sure you don’t leave anything on board. left my glasses and i’ll never see them again.

I wouldn’t recommend going when it’s very hot outside. The bus had some kind of aircon but it helped very little. It was one sweaty trip. We left from Almaty 20 minutes behind schedule. Some guy had taken our seats but the driver told him to move 👍 We stopped by a shop halfway for a toilet break and snacks. The bus seemed to have some issues after the break, it kept shaking and the driver had to slow down and go really slow when it went uphill. Maybe it was overheated, after all it was almost 40 C outside. Thankfully, the bus didn’t break down. We arrived at the border after five hours. This was on a Thursday at 5pm and the crossing went smooth, there was no line and the border buildings had pleasant aircon. We took a Yandex taxi from the border to our hotel. There are people selling SIM cards on the Kirgiz side if you need. We had prepared eSIMs.

Booked two tickets for bus 701 Almaty to Bishkek via 12GO and it worked! The bust attendant checked our PSF tickets and everything went smoothly. I advise booking in advance despite reviews indicating reviewer rocked up to bus station morning of and bought tickets. We were on an 8am bus in a Saturday in July and the bus was fully booked. This specific bus had aircon, which was helpful. The bust attendant stopped halfway for a toilet and snack break. Prepare 100 Tenge coins before you depart Almaty or yikes! At the border the bus drops off all passengers and we collected all of our luggage and had to walk through immigration. We never saw the bus again, nor did we wait for it. We booked a ride from the border to Bishkek via Yandex Go and it cost ~ US$7.

Go straight to platform 2 with your pdf ticket. No need to check in. You cross the border by foot, the bus takes quite a while to cross but you can catch a Yandex or a different bus into town, it's only another 30 minutes away.

Full bus very hot with limited airflow. Slow through both border points

Just did in a early review 🤔

The bus only brought us to the border instead of all the way to Bishkek.,

The bus did not drop off at the western bus station instead it went to a apparently new bus station. This was very annoying as we had booked a hotel next to the western bus station so had to pay $12 to get a taxi to our hotel. We were greeted with taxi Touts who over charged for their services. Also there was no instructions for the boarder crossing and 4 people were left behind as no clear place to meet bus on other side.

My ticket said I should have been dropped off in the middle of the city. But I got dropped of way outside the city, which know had told. That means I should travel with a second bus and a taxi to get where the real final destination was set.