One moment
Deserts
Skazka Canyon
A wild place at the end of the road · Tosor, Kyrgyzstan
Photo: Ninara · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
4.8★Rating
1,585Reviews
$Price level
May–Jun & Sep–OctBest time
The experience
The 'Fairy Tale' canyon — wind-eroded red sandstone badlands near Lake Issyk-Kul whose formations shift from red to orange to brown with the light. Ridge paths take about 90 minutes to walk.
The south shore of Issyk-Kul has almost no resort infrastructure — travelers find it through backpacker blogs, not tours.
martiansculptedwindsweptochre
It's only worth the detour May–Jun & Sep–Oct. Turn up outside that window and you're looking at a different place; we'd rather say so than sell you the photo.
Where it is
Tosor, Kyrgyzstan · Issyk-Kul south shore. Coordinates from the listing we sourced it from.
DirectionsWhat a membership adds.
Everything above is free: the name, the photo, the rating, the exact spot. What members get is the part you can't Google: the sourced insider tip for this place (what to order, when to go, what to skip), every day of your trips unlocked in full with the insider tip on every researched stop, and the concierge at full strength, answering with your own insider tips, no daily meter.
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