2.72/5
180 reviews
Photo by Alexander Serzhantov via Unsplash

Almaty

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speak

hipster

car

nice

english

center

men

service

hand

small

scene

good

stuff

friendly

wtf

walk

mountain

safe

girls

Almaty offers a relaxed pace of life, especially compared to more hectic capitals. The city is surrounded by beautiful nature and mountains that are easy to reach, making quick weekend trips or even day escapes common. The younger population, especially those who speak English, are welcoming and curious about foreign visitors. Service in restaurants and cafes is generally excellent—well above typical European standards—with staff going out of their way to accommodate guests.

However, the city has several downsides that make everyday life and exploration more challenging for outsiders. English is rarely spoken, especially among older residents, which makes communication difficult in many situations. While the city feels safe to some, locals often warn that safety may not be as reliable as it seems. Urban planning is heavily designed around cars, with wide roads cutting through the city center, making it unpleasant for walking. Pollution and persistent fog are also frequent complaints.

Cultural attitudes can feel outdated—such as aggressive male behavior and obvious displays of status—but this varies by individual. Authorities like the police are viewed with skepticism, with a reputation for corruption, though actual negative experiences seem inconsistent. Overall, Almaty has charm and hospitality, but also plenty of practical hurdles for visitors and potential residents.

AI-generated summary of reviews

The people are open, warm and enthusiastic with travelers. Service is brilliant (generally) - much better then Europe. WIFI is poor, drivers have one hand holding their mobile and the other on the horn. Really nice "pace" and the diverse ethnicity get along beautifully. This is NOT BORAT land - Almaty is 2.7 million people.

5 years ago

+ Very small hipster scene but nice... techno place, hipster cocktail, hipster café, tattoo scene... its not that indie though, like organised hipster. still too small, you always go to same places
+ Really good service, fast, they come and pour you water while drinking cokctail and stuff, cray
+ Young people who can speak english are friendly, come speak to you easily and are all like "wtf are u doing here"
+ Not a busy city, you feel you can take your time here, go to ice rink, walk in park
+ Nature and mountain not too far, its common to take car 30 min to go iceskating in mountain
+/- Everyone with a car is a taxi driver, so u rarely use Uber/YandexTaxi, just go on the road, show your hand and people stop, you tell destination and it costs 1$. Problem you need to speak russian, im not good enough yet
+/- People are mixed friendly. They are very nice and give you stuff and all when you are introduced, but people who dont speak english and dont know you, they are not helpful and a bit rude
+/- city safety idk, I feel safe but every local tells me it's not a safe city
- No one speak english ffs
- city is bullshit communist wide street for car, shitty to walk, everything is far, cars everywhere, city center is not a city center, 4-lane in city center wtf fix this
- Police is corrupt and not your friend. My only encounter with them was ok tho
- People behavior is oldschool, men harrassing girls, men buying big car or iphone has status symbol, men trying to fight, girls expecting guys to be alpha male
- Always fog in city and pollution

6 years ago

✅ Very good service

✅ Friendly young people

✅ Relaxed pace of life

✅ Mountain and nature access nearby

✅ Affordable to live

✅ Pretty safe

✅ Fast internet

✅ Warm now

✅ Perfect humidity now

✅ Good air quality on average

✅ Nomads.com members liked going here

✅ Many Nomads.com members have been

✅ Spacious and not crowded

✅ Easy to make friends

✅ Very easy to do business

✅ High quality of education

✅ Safe for women

❌ Very few English speakers

❌ Harsh urban design and car dominance

❌ Corrupt or unhelpful authorities

❌ Outdated social norms

❌ Frequent fog and pollution

❌ Freedom of speech is weak

❌ No democracy

❌ Not much to do

❌ Gets very cold in the winter

❌ Not many Nomads.com members right now

❌ Roads can be dangerous

❌ People don't speak English well

❌ Not family friendly

❌ Hostile towards LGBTQ+

❌ People smoking tobacco a lot

❌ High alcohol consumption

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

-3°C / 27°F freezing

4°C / 39°F cold

14°C / 57°F cool

17°C / 63°F cool

22°C / 72°F mild

19°C / 66°F mild

23°C / 73°F mild

19°C / 66°F mild

7°C / 45°F cold

1°C / 34°F cold

-7°C / 19°F freezing

Real (median)

-3°C / 27°F
freezing

4°C / 39°F
very cold

14°C / 57°F
cool

17°C / 63°F
cool

22°C / 72°F
mild

19°C / 66°F
mild

23°C / 73°F
mild

19°C / 66°F
mild

7°C / 44°F
cold

1°C / 34°F
very cold

-7°C / 19°F
freezing

Humidity

nice
53%

nice
59%

nice
60%

nice
48%

nice
50%

nice
41%

nice
36%

nice
33%

too dry
28%

nice
49%

nice
50%

nice
52%

Most common

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

☀️ Clear

Rain

dry
28mm

dry
37mm

rainy
68mm

rainy
76mm

rainy
121mm

rainy
78mm

rainy
61mm

rainy
55mm

dry
20mm

rainy
62mm

dry
43mm

dry
29mm

Cloud

pockets
39%

pockets
46%

cloudy
50%

pockets
39%

pockets
47%

pockets
39%

pockets
38%

pockets
34%

pockets
20%

pockets
42%

pockets
25%

pockets
39%

Sun

safe
1 UVI

safe
2 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

seek shade
5 UVI

avoid sun
6 UVI

avoid sun
8 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
6 UVI

seek shade
3 UVI

safe
2 UVI

safe
1 UVI

Remote workers

486 people

525 people

440 people

622 people

667 people

725 people

500 people

822 people

671 people

582 people

511 people

600 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

Based on Almaty's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:

	Manager Engineering II Data Pipelin... @ Ironclad
	Marketing Design Intern 2025 Summer... @ Symmetry Systems
	Member of Product Trading @ Anchorage Digital
	Staff Frontend Engineer @ Notabene
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	Head of Growth @ AVA Foundation
	Salesforce Lead @ Bounteous
	Senior Data Analytics Engineer @ Fullscript
	Content Writer @ Blink UX
	Smart Contract Engineer @ Risk Labs

Help pick the best photos for Almaty and improve this page's look by tappingclicking on them and the site saves your feedback Vote photos

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$6,095 / mo

🌇 Also went here62 people

Singapore

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 🧐 Very expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety great

Tap to open

🌦 Feels 33° 91° 29° 84°

✈️7h

$4,075 / mo

🌇 Also went here63 people

Paris

France

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😳 Extremely expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🏎 Fast

👍 Liked good

👮 Safety mediocre

Tap to open

🌥 Feels 21° 70° 20° 67° AQI 57 😷

✈️7h

$5,860 / mo

🌇 Also went here64 people

600 remote workers in Almaty now, of which 3+ members checked in (some members are set to private)

Members who will be here soon

Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

⭐️ Total score	2.72/5 (Rank #221) 180 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍4 liked it 👎1 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Okay
👶 Family score	Okay
🎒 Community score	Okay
💵 Cost	😙 Affordable: $1,640 / mo
📡 Internet	😡 Slow: 13Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Okay
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🌞 Nice: 19°C65°F (feels 20°C68°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	😊 Comfy: 57%
💨 Air quality (now)	🌱 Great: 2 US AQI
👌 Safety	Good
🤮 Food safety*	Great
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Good
🎓 Education level*	High
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change	Great
💰 Income level*	Very low: $642 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Bad
🚶 Walkability	Bad
🚦 Traffic safety*	Bad
✈️ Airline scores*	Good
🧳 Lost luggage*	Great
🏥 Hospitals	Bad
😄 Happiness*	Bad
🍸 Nightlife	Bad
📶 Free WiFi in city	Okay
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Okay
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Okay
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Okay
👩 Female friendly	Okay
🌈 LGBTQ+ friendly	Bad
🎅 Startup Score	Bad

🌍 Continent	Asia
🚩 Country	Kazakhstan
🗓️ Average trip length	15 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	13 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	🌦 19°C 65°F + 😊 Comfy (57%) = feels 20°C 68°F
💨 Air quality (now)	👍 2 US AQI 🍃 OK
🔌 Power	230V 50Hz
🚕 Best taxi app*	Yandex Taxi
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 1,000 KZT in USD	USD 1.95
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	KZT 100,000 = USD 195
☕️ Best coffee place	Veloyedov
☕️ Best alt. coffee place	Nedelka
🚰 Tap water	🚫 No, not drinkable
♻️ Return rate	👍12% of visitors return
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	1,500,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$7,705 / year
👫 Gender ratio (population)	👨 41% 👱‍♀️ 59%
👫 Gender ratio (young adults)	👨 52% 👱‍♀️ 48%
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 92% 👱‍♀️ 8%
🏞 Foreign land ownership allowed	Yes
⛪️ Religious government	Non-religious
🏠 Apartment listings	Krisha
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	Air Astana
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	Air Astana
🏥 Best hospital	IMC

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$1,640 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$1,145 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$2,571 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$735 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$894 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$1,363 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$592 / month
🏠 Median home price	$117,463
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$42 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$45 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$110 / month
🍛 Dinner	$6
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$2
☕️ Coffee in cafe	$2
👩‍🏫 International school	$5,894 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	$4 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	$2 / trip