Things to Do in Medeu Ice Skating Rink

Skate on the world's highest Olympic-sized rink

The ice feels different up here - denser, faster - and the first lap leaves most visitors gulping the thin air. Between laps you'll hear Kazakh pop echoing from Soviet-era speakers while the smell of hot horse-meat pies drifts from the kiosk. Night sessions are floodlit, turning every spray of ice crystals into glitter.

Ride the gondola to Shymbulak Ski Resort

From Medeu's back gate, the cable car swings above the puckered limestone riverbed of the Mynzhylki valley. In fifteen minutes you climb another 600 m. The temperature drops and the spruce forest smells like crushed pine needles. Even non-skiers come for the pancake-thin air and the view of the rink far below, a blue-white comma scratched into the dark trees.

Hike the Butakovka Gorge trail

A 30-minute walk above the rink car park brings you to a frozen waterfall dangling like grey glass. The path is packed powder. Your boots crunch through the sugar-crust while ravens wheel overhead. Halfway up you'll smell woodsmoke from a herder's winter cabin and hear the distant thwack of ice-hockey pucks from the rink carried on the wind.

Watch an ice-hockey practice session

National-team drills happen most Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7 a.m.; the stands stay open and you can sip milky coffee while pros carve perfect crescents. The slap of sticks and the ammonia tang of the Zamboni machine take you straight back to 1980s Soviet sports schools.

Picnic on the south berm at sunset

The concrete terrace above lane four catches the last amber light over the ridge. Locals bring baursak (puffy fried bread) and shorpa broth. The steam fogs their glasses while the ice below glows rose-gold. You'll hear distant Kazakh rap from someone's phone and the soft scrape of the resurfacer making its final pass.

Dostyk Avenue micro-district - Soviet-era apartments turned Airbnb, 20 min down the hill

Shymbulak's timber lodge - ski-in rooms at altitude, quieter once day-trippers leave

Gornaya Street guesthouses - family homes with breakfast and skate-drying racks

Al-Farabi district high-rises - city view, frequent buses to the gorge

Kok-Tobe base cottages - forest setting, cable car link but longer commute

Central Almaly district hostels - budget dorms, easy taxi pooling