Astana and Shymkent are at just about opposite ends of the country, and at roughly 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) apart. Well, that’s not entirely true. Astana is around 700 kilometers (434 miles) from the nearest border, which is with Russia. Still. It’s a long way. And it’s one of the longest train trips you can do. Your transport options really come down to speed against an overland experience. If you fly, you’ll be there in around 2 hours, plus airport transit time, of course. Take the overnight train, and you’ll spend up to 24 hours or more covering the same ground, sleeping, dozing, reading, or whatevering through most of it instead. We took the overnight train ourselves, in the poshest cabin we’d had yet in Kazakhstan, and it was one of the highlights of the whole trip. Here’s how to go from Astana to Shymkent.
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In this guide, I’ve covered the two transport options to go from Astana to Shymkent that make sense for this distance: flying and the overnight train. I’ll also explain why a direct bus doesn’t. I’ll cover which one to pick depending on your budget, how much time you’ve got, and whether you’d rather sleep through the steppe or skip it entirely.
Where is Shymkent?
Shymkent is about as different from Astana as Kazakhstan gets. Where Astana is the purpose-built northern capital, all glass towers and wide boulevards, Shymkent is the country’s oldest city, tucked into the south near the border with Uzbekistan. (We crossed the border from here, going from Shymkent to Tashkent). Shymkent is Kazakhstan’s third-largest city, and after a night watching Kazakhstan’s capital disappear into steppe, you wake up somewhere that feels centuries older, and a lot warmer, in every sense.
Why go to Shymkent?
Most people passing through here are either using Shymkent as a springboard to Turkestan, one of the most important religious sites in the Turkic world, or crossing the border into Uzbekistan. Both are good reasons, but Shymkent is worth a stop in its own right too, not just a stepping stone. See my full Shymkent Travel Guide for what to actually do once you’re here.
How to Go from Astana to Shymkent
You’ve really got two realistic ways to cover this route, and here’s how both of them work.
The Astana to Shymkent Train
This is where the overnight train is well worth it. Depending on which of the daily services you book, expect somewhere between 16 and 24 hours, with the newer Talgo trains at the faster end and the older Soviet-era trains at the slower end. See my full guide to overnight trains in Kazakhstan for how the two eras and their classes actually compare.
Fares range from around US$15 for platzkart on a Soviet-era train up to US$85 or more for a Talgo Grand cabin with its own ensuite shower, the class we took ourselves. Book via 12Go.asia or Tickets.kz, which both list Kazakhstan Railways services. You should read my full guide to trains in Kazakhstan for the fuller picture on how booking and classes work.
Like Almaty, Astana has two train stations, the original, Astana 1, and Nurly Zhol, so be sure to check which one your ticket departs from. We left from Nurly Zhol, the newer station connected to the city by the metro that opened in May 2026. Astana 1, the older central station, is the other option, so double-check before you book a taxi or Yandex.
It’s an enormous station, this new one, more like an airport. There are heaps of places to eat and drink here, lots of seating, and even a laundry!
Astana to Shymkent Flight
Three airlines fly direct routes between Astana and Shymkent: SCAT, Air Astana and FlyArystan, between Astana (NQZ) and Shymkent (CIT). SCAT alone runs 4 to 6 flights a day, and FlyArystan another 3 to 4, so across all three carriers there are around 10 flights most days, from the early morning through to late evening. You can check the schedule here.
The flight time is around 2 hours, covering a more direct 975 kilometers (605 miles) than the train’s longer overland route.
You should arrive at Astana International Airport at least 1.5 hours before your flight for check-in and security, and plan your time to get to the airport in the first place. With the new metro connecting the city center to the airport, that part’s easy if you’re starting from somewhere near a metro stop area.
On the Shymkent end, you’ll need another 20 to 30 minutes to get from the airport into the city. Yandex Go works here, and there are three different buses you can take into the center; the 12, 12a, and 12b buses are what you’re looking for.
My Astana Travel Guide and my Shymkent Travel Guide both cover getting around both ends of the journey.
Astana to Shymkent Bus
Nope. Not happening. This isn’t an option worth considering, and I’d rather tell you that upfront than list it as a normal choice. At around 1,500 kilometers, a direct bus would mean 23 hours or more on the road, and in practice, tickets for a genuine through-service are hard to find at all. If you want to cover this distance overland, take the train instead.
Our Journey from Astana to Shymkent
We’d planned our last day in Astana, a Monday, for museums day. BIG MISTAKE. Huge. Museums are closed on Mondays here. Big rookie mistake. And so, as we were catching a night train, we had the whole day to play with. And it turns out that we probably shouldn’t have spent the whole day hanging around Astana. We could have come straight to the train station instead. There’s everything here, including laundry facilities (!!!!).
This isn’t the station we arrived at. The new one, this one, is called Nurly Zhol, which means “Bright Clear Path,” and it opened in 2017. And it’s still pretty shiny and new. The trains arrive and depart right underneath the station itself, and the whole place feels more like an airport than anything else.
Anyway. We took the overnight train all the way from Astana down to Shymkent (cunningly spelled Chymkent on the timetables). We went first class plus on this one.
Again, it’s only a few dollars more than the other options. This time, we got a cabin with a lower and an upper berth, plus an ensuite toilet, sink and shower.
I kid you not. An ensuite shower. We even get a key card to get in and out of our room (!)
The buffet car has the same menu as always. But today, no draft beer, and no sulguni smoked cheese here, but you can get “garlic crumbs,” and that turned out to be a bad translation for garlic croutons, a Russian beer snack. They’re seriously garlicky. The dumplings aren’t bad. Nigel’s lagman never arrived, though we don’t get charged for it, so we chalk it up to a translation issue. The waitress looks seriously stressed, so we headed to bed instead.
We might have the shower and the toilet, but there’s not a lot of room to go with it. The stairs up to my top bunk can only be described as, well, stairs. They even have carpet on them (!), and there are instructions on how to use them too. Let’s hope Nigel doesn’t turn over in the night, or try to get out of bed without shimmying down properly, or he’ll end up skewered on them.
The tracks south are a bit rock and roll. But we still got a hot shower in the morning, with actual hot water, and we dry ourselves on a (provided) towel roughly the size of a napkin. Showers on trains? They’re the way to go.
Our beds fold back into the usual, not particularly comfortable, seats when we wake up. By the powers of AeroPress, my stash of Lavazza, and a kettle we bought in Sri Lanka for about a pound 11 years ago, we manage a decent cup of coffee while we watch the mostly boring steppe go by.
- AeroPress Go: buy it here.
- GSI Outdoors Infinity Backpacker Mug: buy it here. – these are the BEST travel mugs ever, light, easy to clean, and perfect for all sorts of things.
- THERMOS Stainless King (40oz): buy it here.
We use and love the AeroPress Go, small enough to pack easily and properly capable of a real cup rather than a compromise. Bring either the metal filter or a stash of paper ones, whichever you prefer, along with a couple of camping mugs and a proper thermos flask, so you’re not relying on whatever’s provided in the room.
We set off at 20:00 and arrived here in Shymkent at 15:00. Not a bad way to spend the night, and most of the next day too.
Tips for Traveling from Astana to Shymkent
Here’s the quick version if you just want the verdict for your own trip.
The Quickest Way to Get from Astana to Shymkent
The quickest way to get from Astana to Shymkent is flying, by a wide margin. At around 2 hours in the air, it beats even the fastest overnight train several times over. Check flight times and prices here.
The Easiest Way to Go to Shymkent from Astana
The easiest way to go to Shymkent from Astana is, in my opinion, the overnight train. It takes far longer than flying, but sleeping through most of a 1,500-kilometer journey beats sitting through it awake, and you skip the airport altogether. You can book the train here.
The Cheapest Way to Go from Astana to Shymkent
The cheapest way to get from Astana to Shymkent is the train, specifically a lower class like platzkart or kupe if you don’t mind sharing. It’s not glamorous, but on a route this long, it’s a fraction of the flight cost, and you get a night’s accommodation included.
The Best Way to Go from Astana to Shymkent
The best way to go from Astana to Shymkent, for us, is the overnight train, and specifically the Talgo Grand class if you can get it. An ensuite shower on a train down through the steppe is one of those experiences that’s worth every extra tenge.
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Final Words on How to Go from Astana to Shymkent
This is one of the longer haul train journeys in Kazakhstan, more than double the distance of Almaty to Shymkent, and it puts the overnight train’s real advantage on full display. If Astana is just one stop on a bigger loop and you’re short on time, fly. It’s the only sensible way to cover 1,500 kilometers in a single morning, and there are enough flights a day that you won’t be stuck waiting around. But if you’ve got the night to spare, book the overnight train, and spring for the best class you can afford. Watching the capital’s glass towers give way to steppe, then waking up in Kazakhstan’s oldest city the next afternoon, is worth every hour it costs you. Whichever way you choose, you’ll land in Shymkent ready to carry on to Turkestan, or cross the border into Uzbekistan if that’s next on your route.
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