Cycling around Almaty

[bensie]

In July we're travelling to Kazakhstan and would like spend some time cycling around Almaty - found a really nice route in Shymbulak (distance - 9km, ascent - 1,116 m, descent - 450 m)/ We are flying with Lufthansa to Astana and with Fly Arystan to Almaty but at their websites (https://flyarystan.com/en and https://www.lufthansa.com/us/en) haven't found any info on how to transport a bicycle or is it better to rent one there?

[Paul Chris]

But whos bensie????

[mfarnham]

I flew a Lufthansa code share with Air Canada to Vienna a couple summers ago and the bike fee was very reasonable (between $50 and $100 each way). I think it counted as my checked bag, but there was an oversize charge for it, or something like that. As opposed to "additional baggage that is a bike."

Check with both airlines. Weigh everything carefully before showing up to the airport. And make sure you've checked that the seatpost hasn't fused to the seat tube well before the day you fly (erm...happened to a friend of mine once). And show up to the airport with enough time to have security make you totally unpack the bike boxes and then repack them. One crazy thing that happened on that trip is that my return flight was through Heathrow, and the airline suddenly announced that Heathrow was temporarily not handling bike boxes due to some renovations. But they grandfathered me since I was mid-trip, so it worked out OK.

Of course, all this might have just convinced you to rent!

Martin