Bishkek Soviet Heritage City Tour - Day Trip

Your guide collects you from your hotel and the day opens at Osh Bazaar. Stalls of spices, dried fruit, fresh produce and handicrafts fill the lanes. Your guide helps you find local products and explains the habits behind them. Note that the bazaar is closed on Mondays.

Next is the Philharmonic Hall, built of white marble and lit by stained glass. We pass the Mayor's Office, then drive by the White House, the seat of government. Here you hear about the revolutions of 2005, 2010 and 2020 and how the country is run today.

On Ala-Too Square you stand below the 33-metre Manas Monument and the 100-metre flagpole. We try to time the stop for the changing of the Guard of Honor. Nearby, the National History Museum follows the region from the Stone Age and Iron Age to Kyrgyz culture and identity. The museum also closes on Mondays.

The Opera and Ballet Theatre, Victory Square with its Eternal Flame and the Ottoman-style Central Mosque round off the route. At Victory Square your guide explains what the Second World War meant for families here. Before the drop-off we can stop at Navat, Faiza or Mubarak for a meal you pay for yourself.