Things to Do in Almaty, Kazakhstan: Walking Guide

Almaty is Kazakhstan’s largest city and a cultural centre shaped by museums, theatres, historic buildings and literary heritage. For travellers wondering what to see in Almaty, the city offers a rich selection of places connected with Kazakhstan’s history, art, music, sport and public life. Neywo has a free audio guide for Almaty with 76 narrated places.

What to See in Almaty

Abay Opera House

The Abay Opera House is the country’s first professional musical theatre. It began in 1933 as a music studio and became a full theatre the following year. In December 2020, it was elevated to national status as the Abay Kazakh National Opera and Ballet Theatre.

The building stands in central Almaty and remains an important landmark of Kazakhstan’s performing arts. Even without attending a performance, its façade offers a glimpse into the cultural history that has shaped the city since the 1930s.

Central State Museum of Kazakhstan

The Central State Museum of Kazakhstan is the largest museum in Almaty and one of the biggest in Central Asia. It opened in 1931 inside the Almaty Cathedral before moving to its current building in 1985.

Its collection contains around 300,000 items covering Kazakh history, archaeology, and modern cultural and political life. The building itself is a state-listed historical and cultural monument of republican importance, making it a significant stop for anyone interested in Kazakhstan.

A. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts

The A. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts holds the most comprehensive art collection in Kazakhstan. It opened in 1976 after the merger of the Shevchenko Kazakh State Gallery and the Republic Museum of Decorative and Applied Art.

More than 23,000 works span historic and contemporary Kazakh art, Soviet-era pieces, Russian art, Western European art, and art from East Asia, including China, India, Japan and Korea. The museum building is also protected as a state historical and cultural monument of republican significance.

Kunaev Home Museum

The Kunaev Home Museum preserves the apartment and house where Dinmukhamed Kunaev lived from the mid-1950s through the 1960s. Kunaev was the long-serving First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, and this was his actual home during the period when he rose to national leadership.

The study has been recreated with the help of his colleagues and friends. Furniture, writing materials, ashtrays, pipes and walking sticks remain arranged as they were during his lifetime. The museum officially opened in 2001 and offers an intimate perspective on a major figure in Kazakhstan’s Soviet-era history.

Republican State Academic Uyghur Musical Comedy Theater

The Republican State Academic Uyghur Musical Comedy Theater named after Kuddus Kuzhamyarov is a unique cultural institution in Almaty. It is described as the first and only professional Uyghur theatre in the world, giving the city an important stage for Uyghur theatrical tradition.

Alatau Traditional Art Theater

The Alatau Traditional Art Theater opened in 2016 in Almaty’s Alatau district. Known locally as Alatau Dasturli Öner Teatry, it is a cinema and concert complex and the first major cultural venue built in that district. Its programme combines film screenings and live performances.

Almaty Central Stadium

Almaty Central Stadium is Kazakhstan’s largest sports complex and the home ground of FC Kairat Almaty. The Kazakhstan national team also plays its home matches there.

The stadium is officially listed as a historical and cultural monument of local significance. Although football is its main use today, it was designed as a multi-purpose venue and has served athletes and spectators since the Soviet era.

Kazakhstan National Museum of Instruments

Inside Panfilov Park, the Kazakhstan National Museum of Instruments occupies a wooden building dating from 1908. It was designed by Andrei Zenkov, who also designed the Ascension Cathedral nearby, and is one of the few surviving wooden structures from that period in Almaty.

The museum opened in 1981 and was named after Ykhlas Dukenuly in 1990. Its nine exhibition halls contain more than 300 instruments from across the Turkic world and beyond. The collection includes ancient objects such as the Baksy Tas stone sculpture, the dunggirek rattle, a saz syrnay flute and a stone whistle found near Aktobe, as well as different forms of the dombra.

Auezov Home Museum

The Auezov Home Museum preserves the house where writer Mukhtar Auezov lived from 1951 until his death in 1961. The museum was established in 1963, two years after his death, and keeps the rooms where he worked and lived.

The study is particularly important: it preserves the setting in which Auezov wrote during the final decade of his life. The house is recognised as a historical and cultural monument of republican significance.

Republican Book Museum

The Republican Book Museum explores the history of publishing and printing in Kazakhstan. It opened in 1978 in a building that had previously housed the Ministry of Bread Products and Compound Feed Industry.

Six halls trace the development of books in Kazakhstan, from early primers to works by modern scholars and writers. The collection includes copies of rare manuscripts associated with Al-Farabi, Balasaguni, Dulati, Jalayiri and Kashgari, as well as books from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries and posthumous editions of works by Shokan Valikhanov and Abai.

The museum safeguards about 35,000 items, including 5,000 considered rare. Two halls focus on the technical history of printing and book production, while coloured-light displays project maps, diagrams, panoramas and schemes across the exhibitions.

Republican Museum of Sports and Olympic Glory

The Republican Museum of Sports and Olympic Glory tells the story of Kazakhstan’s sporting achievements, athletes and Olympic medals. It is located in the Almaly district in a building that was once the private house of a gardener named Tatarinov.

That contrast gives the museum a distinctive atmosphere: a modest former home now preserves the national history of Kazakhstani sport.

Kyzyl-Tan

Kyzyl-Tan, the former Verny Trading House, is a historic commercial building on Jibek Joly Street. It is an architectural monument from the turn of the twentieth century and has been protected as a site of national cultural importance since 1982.

The building is also known by the nickname “Ice Cream Museum”. Its exact origins are disputed: one account dates it to 1912 and attributes it to Andrey Zenkov, while another places its construction in 1896 and credits architect Paul Gourdet, working for merchant Iskhak Gabdulvaliev. Either way, Kyzyl-Tan is a surviving reminder of Verny’s former merchant quarter.

National Library of Kazakhstan

The National Library of Kazakhstan is the country’s foremost book depository and its largest library collection. Located on Abai Avenue, it is also protected as a historical and cultural monument of republican significance.

The building represents the importance of written heritage in Kazakhstan and forms part of Almaty’s concentration of cultural institutions.

Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

The Archive of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan preserves documents connected with the country’s highest office. It was established by decree on January 14, 1994, on the foundation of the Central State Archive of Modern History.

Its records cover Kazakhstan’s modern history from 1918 through the Soviet period, independence and the present day. The archive includes documents from the Presidential Administration, state bodies created by the president and related institutions.

Kazpotrebsoyuz Building

The former Kazpotrebsoyuz headquarters stands on Töle Bi Street in the Almaly district. Once the central office of Kazakhstan’s consumer union, it is now an administrative building with offices on the ground floor.

It offers a quieter historical detail: a surviving reminder of the Soviet-era cooperatives that influenced everyday life across the republic.

Explore Almaty with a Self-Guided Audio Tour

Neywo lets you turn your visit into an Almaty self-guided walking tour, with stories that play as you reach each place. The app works at your own pace, with no group and no schedule.

Almaty has three walking tours, one bus route and one bike route:

• “Almaty’s Writers, Painters and Art Nouveau Streets” covers 2.08 km in 74 minutes and includes 7 narrated stops.
• “Verny: The Fortress Town Behind Almaty” covers 4.01 km in 93 minutes and includes 6 stops.
• “Republic Square and the Great Museums” covers 2.34 km in 59 minutes and includes 4 stops.
• “Bus 86: Along the Museum Avenue” covers 2.5 km in 11 minutes and includes 4 stops.
• “Abay Avenue by Bike” covers 3 km in 15 minutes and includes 4 stops.

The free Almaty audio guide has 76 narrated places, with narration available in 11 languages. Download Neywo and explore Almaty’s museums, theatres, historic buildings and streets while the app tells the story of each place as you arrive.