Astana: 9 Things Worth Doing (and 3 to Skip)

August 1, 2026

Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan, and it is not called Nur-Sultan anymore; that was a temporary name between 2019 and 2022, and it is worth clearing up before anything else. What you get on the ground is a purpose-built showcase city on the northern steppe, full of Norman Foster-designed set pieces, running on the tenge, not rubles or dollars. The light rail that was “coming soon” for years actually opened in May 2026, winters are brutally cold enough to reorganize an entire trip around, and summer is the only season most first-timers should book. Nine things below earn a spot on a short Astana trip. Three don’t, despite what the glossier guides say.

For the version you can act on before you open a booking app:

Essentials	Details
Days needed	2-3 for the Astana core; 4-5 with a Burabay or ALZHIR day trip added
Best months	June-August, the only reliably comfortable window; shoulder months are short and unpredictable
Daily budget	Roughly 15,000-25,000 KZT (about USD 30-50) budget; 35,000+ KZT (about USD 70+) comfortable, check the day’s rate
Before you book	Confirm your passport’s current visa-free terms, not just a hotel room

If you’re weighing more than a few days, the 2-day , 3-day , 4-day , 5-day , 6-day and 7-day Astana itineraries lay out exactly where the extra days go, because past day three you’re mostly adding day trips into the steppe, not more city.

Things to do in Astana that are actually worth it

These nine hold up because they show you something real about a city that was built almost from nothing since the late 1990s, not because a hotel front desk hands out the same laminated list to everyone.

Bayterek Tower. The city’s actual icon: a roughly 97m white lattice tower topped with a gold-tinted glass sphere, built to symbolize a mythical tree with a golden egg from Kazakh legend, marking Astana’s 1997 designation as capital. The observation deck gives a full 360-degree view over the left-bank skyline and the flat steppe beyond. Admission is commonly cited around 2,000 KZT, roughly 10am to 9 or 10pm; confirm the current price and hours before you go, since both move around a bit.
Khan Shatyr. Foster’s giant transparent tent, reportedly the world’s largest, roughly 150m tall and open since 2010. Go for the structure itself and the indoor Sky Beach water park under the tent, genuinely useful when it’s minus 25 outside, open roughly 10am to 10pm.
Hazret Sultan Mosque. One of the largest mosques in Central Asia, opened 2012, with room for up to around 10,000 worshippers. Visitors are welcome outside prayer times; modest dress is expected and a headscarf is provided for women at the door.
Nur Alem, the former EXPO sphere. The giant spherical building that anchored EXPO 2017’s “Future Energy” theme now runs as the Museum of Future Energy, with floors of exhibits on renewable and future energy sources. It’s confirmed still operating, though some visitors report inconsistent interior access since the expo closed, so check current hours directly before you build a tight schedule around it. The National Museum of Kazakhstan sits nearby and covers Kazakh history and a genuine gold-artifact collection worth the detour.
The Palace of Peace and Reconciliation. Foster’s 62m pyramid, completed 2006, built to host the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions every three years. Inside is an opera house and interfaith exhibits under a stained-glass dove at the apex. It photographs like nothing else on the boulevard and takes maybe an hour.
The Nurzhol Boulevard walk, Ak Orda to the Ishim embankment. The left-bank government axis runs from the Ak Orda Presidential Palace, a striking gold-domed building you view and photograph from outside (it’s a working head-of-state residence, not open for tours), through Bayterek toward Khan Shatyr, then down to the Ishim River embankment for a genuinely pleasant riverside walk in warm months, with boat rides running in summer. Do this one on foot only in summer; in winter, taxi or LRT between the ends.
A Burabay (Borovoe) day trip. Pine forests, lakes and dramatic granite rock formations about 260km north, nicknamed the pearl of Kazakhstan. A new electric train cuts the trip to roughly 2.5 hours each way; older, slower rail options run closer to 3.5 hours. It works as a long day trip, but an overnight gets you a much fuller version of it.
The ALZHIR memorial. About 40km from the city near Akmol village, this is the former Akmola Camp for Wives of Traitors to the Motherland, the Soviet Union’s largest women’s Gulag camp, operating 1938-1953, through which an estimated 18,000-plus women passed. The museum and memorial complex, open since 2007, includes a preserved deportation railcar and memorial sculptures. It’s a sober, genuinely important historical site, reachable by taxi or tour, and deserves the same respectful half day you’d give any serious memorial elsewhere in the former USSR.
Beshbarmak, and a proper banya night. Beshbarmak, boiled meat over wide hand-cut noodles eaten partly by hand, is the dish to order at a Kazakh restaurant at least once; kazy horse sausage and baursak fried dough round out the table. Pair it, ideally on a different night, with a Russian/Central Asian-style banya, a steam bathhouse with birch-branch venik treatments and a cold plunge, which is both a genuine local pastime and a smart way to spend a winter evening indoors.

Things to skip in Astana

Any padded EXPO “combo” tour. Some tours bundle Nur Alem with a string of minor leftover EXPO pavilions for a higher combined price, on the assumption the whole former expo campus is still a working theme park. It mostly isn’t. Pay for direct entry to Nur Alem itself and skip the bundle.
A full day on the right bank. The older, pre-2000s part of the city makes a fine hour-or-two contrast to the left bank’s futurist architecture, with its own parks and bazaar streets, but it is not a full day’s sightseeing, whatever a rushed itinerary might imply.
Khan Shatyr for the shopping. The tent and the indoor beach are worth the trip; the retail inside is the same international chains you’d find in any regional mall. Skip the shopping loop and spend that time on the beach club or just looking up at the structure.

Is it Astana or Nur-Sultan?

It’s Astana. The city carried that name from 1998, was renamed Nur-Sultan in March 2019 to honor outgoing president Nursultan Nazarbayev, then reverted to Astana when a presidential decree took effect on 19 September 2022. Any map, guidebook or booking listing still defaulting to Nur-Sultan as the current name is describing a name retired years ago.

One genuinely confusing wrinkle: the airport is still commonly listed as Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport in aviation references even though the city itself reverted. Using the NQZ code sidesteps the confusion. And Astana is not Almaty; Almaty is a separate, larger, older city about 950km south, the former capital until 1997/98, with a completely different mountain-backed character. Don’t plan one trip assuming it covers both.

Getting around Astana now that the LRT is running

Astana’s light rail, delayed for years, actually opened in May 2026: a driverless, automated 22.4km line with 18 stations linking the airport to key districts, fare around 200 KZT, running roughly 6am to 11pm. It’s a real, current option now, though it’s brand new enough that a quick check of the live schedule before you plan a tight station-to-sight connection is worth it.

Outside the LRT, Yandex Go is the default ride-hailing app for taxis and consistently easier than street hailing. Buses exist and are cheap but run mostly on Kazakh and Russian route information. The Nurzhol Boulevard core is walkable in good weather; for roughly half the year, plan on taxis or the LRT between sights instead of long outdoor walks, and dress for real cold if you’re visiting outside summer.

What Astana costs, in tenge, not rubles

The currency is the Kazakhstani tenge (KZT), a floating currency with no fixed peg to the dollar; this is not a country where you can assume ruble usage or dollar-at-par pricing. Cards are widely accepted at hotels, restaurants and malls in the capital specifically, but carry cash for taxis, bazaars and day trips to Burabay, ALZHIR or Korgalzhyn, where card machines are less reliable. ATMs are common in the center. Tipping around 10% at restaurants is a reasonable, welcomed norm; check the bill first in case a service charge is already added.

Entry rules, safety and what else to know

Most Western passports, including US, UK, Canadian, Australian and EU/EEA nationals, get 30 days visa-free per visit, capped at 90 days within any rolling 180-day period. Registration used to mean a manual five-day filing; as of 2026 it’s largely automatic at entry, with hotels handling the separate host-notification duty behind the scenes, so it’s normally invisible to a traveler staying in a registered hotel. A newer QazETA electronic travel authorization pilot exists for visa-free visitors, but its mandatory-versus-optional status was still unsettled at the time of writing, so check the current rules at egov.kz or the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs before you book flights, rather than assuming last year’s rule still holds.

Safety-wise, the US State Department currently rates Kazakhstan Level 1, “Exercise Normal Precautions,” the lowest tier on that scale; re-check travel.state.gov before you travel, since ratings move. The January 2022 unrest that some older sources reference was countrywide but concentrated in Almaty and western Kazakhstan, not Astana, and it’s now a historical event with no ongoing security relevance to a 2026 Astana visit. Ordinary pickpocket-level precautions are all that apply day to day.

One more thing to know plainly: same-sex activity has been legal in Kazakhstan since 1998, but same-sex unions aren’t recognized, there are no anti-discrimination protections, and a law restricting public “promotion” of non-traditional relationships took effect around January 2026. This is discretion-required territory rather than an active LGBTQ+ scene, and it’s worth knowing before you go rather than being surprised by it on the ground.

Where to stay in Astana

The left-bank government quarter, within walking distance of Bayterek and Khan Shatyr, is the practical base for a first visit; it puts most of the nine things above within a short taxi ride or less. Cards work at hotels here, but keep some tenge on hand regardless. Check current rates and availability on Booking.com before you commit to a neighborhood, since Astana’s hotel scene shifts with the amount of new construction going up around it.

When is the best time to visit Astana?

Summer, specifically June through August, is when Astana genuinely works as a walking city: highs typically run 25-30C, and the Nurzhol Boulevard walk and Ishim embankment stroll are actually pleasant rather than an ordeal. Winter, December through February, is a different trip entirely, with routine cold snaps to -30C or colder and sharp wind off the open steppe, one of the harshest capital-city climates anywhere; it’s a legitimate, if specialized, trip for anyone who specifically wants the extreme cold and the city’s ice and indoor winter culture, but it changes every plan you make.

For a Burabay day trip or a spring/autumn visit to Korgalzhyn’s flamingo colonies, April-May and August-September are the windows that actually deliver; deep winter rules both out. Check GetYourGuide’s Astana listings or a Burabay day tour for current departure dates before you build a day-trip day around one.

Is Astana worth visiting?

Yes, for a specific kind of traveler. If futurist architecture built from nothing since the late 1990s, steppe landscapes, and a sober dose of Soviet-era history interest you, Astana delivers a genuinely focused city in 2-3 days plus real day trips beyond it. It is not a beach, nightlife or budget-backpacker destination, and it rewards travelers who come for what it actually is rather than what a stale search result still calls it.

Book the visa check and the flight before the hotel; everything else on this list can wait until you land. For deeper city-and-day-trip coverage of routes into the steppe, official tourism listings via Kazakhstan.travel and visitastana.kz stay current on hours and admission in a way a single blog post can’t.