Rafting travel

Rafting tours

If you a big fan of rafting Kyrgyzstan is just the most suitable place for doing that! We have many mountainous rivers that are renowned among rafters. You will spend a wonderful time being there and you will get a lot of new impressions. Rafting in Kyrgyzstan is one of the most popular extreme activities not only for tourists but also fro locals as well. Do not miss your opportunity and come to enjoy rafting to Kyrgyzstan!

A big amount of rivers and wonderfully warm days always attract fans of white water to Kyrgyzstan since the second half of the last century. Thanks to the unique natural environment of the republic, there is a big abundance of  rivers to provide routes of all different categories of obstacles suitable for both experienced sportsmen and beginners.

You can think of nothing more exciting than a rafting tour along mountainous rivers. In Kyrgyzstan, the best rivers for this kind of travel are the Chu, Chon-Kemin, Kekemeren, Chatkal, and Naryn. Everything that is required to make your holiday memorable can be found here...rivers quietly flowing through the gorgeous landscape, and rapids that will take your breath away and excite even the most expert extreme sports fans. The rafting season on these rivers varies from April to October. The level of complication on the six-point scale depends on the season, since the melting of glaciers provides a high level of water in the rivers; and in hot summer months the waterline can vary from day to day. As follows, for some rivers, the most promising time for water tours is the end of August and beginning of September.

The river Chu is the most appropriate for commercial rafting. Parts of it flow at over 1,500m above sea level. The climate and temperature of the water can reach 15°-18°C from June till mid-September. It means that rafting can be done even without diving suits, and the complexity of obstacles cannot exceed five points. The segment of the river that passes through the Bohom gorge is the national 'white water arena and an exclusive training site for the whole Central Asian region. Here in earliest times there lay one of the northern routes of the Great Silk Road. Due to its location near the capital of the country and structure development over the years, the popularity of rafting in the Bohom gorge is blindingly growing both among the people of the country and foreign guests.

Rafting in the republic arose not long time ago. Its future fate rested upon the enthusiasm of some junior rowing league coaches. It was only in 1992 when rafting first accepted a commercial direction having received the status of cautious objective for the development of tourism in our country.

During the times of Soviet Union the most widespread were many-day tours on the Chatkal, Kekemeren, Naryn rivers. The Chatkal river was among the five most predominant rivers in the USSR. Usually, during August and September there could be 60 or 70 tourist groups here. For the last several years, one-or two-day tours on the rivers Chu and Chon-Kemin have gained the same popularity.

In spite of the half-century history of  exploring the Kyrgyz rivers by rafting fans, lots of rivers still remain unaware of rafts and kayaks. There are lots of dangers for pioneers to travel down the rivers, starting from their source. The most astounding is the rafting tour from Inylchek, the second biggest glacier in the world (59km), through the almost impenetrable Sarydzhaz canyon, 30km long. Or from the source of the Naryn which is the advanced course of the second longest river in Central Asia the Syr-Darya.