Burabay

Burabay State National Natural Park — Akmola Region. Established in 2000.

Key figures

Entrance tariff

0.3 MCI (1,297.5 ₸) per car; on weekends and public holidays from 1 May to 30 September, 0.4 MCI (1,730 ₸). Set by Order No. 04/276 of the Presidential Property Management Department of 14.11.2024.

The tariff is set in MCI units rather than tenge, so the amount changes with each January budget.

What to see

• Okzhetpes rock
• Zhumbaktas
• Borovoye Lake

Burabay in one minute

Burabay is a pocket of granite hills, pine forest and lakes in Akmola Region, about 257 km north of Astana. The draw is Lake Borovoe with the Zhumbaktas rock rising out of it, the Okzhetpes rock on the shore, and Mount Kokshe at 947 m. It is the capital’s weekend escape: around three hours by car, or a little less on a fast train to Shchuchinsk. The park’s own fee act treats 1 May to 30 September as peak season, with higher weekend charges.

What to see: Okzhetpes, Zhumbaktas and Lake Borovoe

Lake Borovoe (Burabay) is the centrepiece. According to Wikipedia it covers about 11 km², measures 4.5 × 3.9 km and is surprisingly shallow: 7 m at most, 3.4 m on average. It is a freshwater lake (0.1–0.15 ‰ mineralisation) at 320.6 m above sea level.

Zhumbaktas, nicknamed the Sphinx, is a rock island standing about 20 m above the water. It is the picture everyone takes home.

Okzhetpes (“the arrow won’t reach”, also “the Little Elephant”) is a hill of about 300 m on the north-western bay, facing Zhumbaktas across the water.

Mount Kokshetau (Kokshe, Sinyukha) reaches 947 m. Zakon.kz describes it as the second-highest summit in northern Kazakhstan after Akbet in Bayanaul.

Kenesary Cave sits on the south shore of Lake Auliekol, 6 km from the Okzhetpes sanatorium; the guided walk there takes about two hours.

Lake Bolshoe Chebachye lies next to Borovoe, and a route runs along it to the Khan’s Pass.

Hiking: Bolektau and Kokshe

In 2023 the park promoted five routes. Two are the most useful if you are travelling on your own:

• “Visiting Nature”, an 8 km walk from Blue Bay up Bolektau, with views over Lake Burabay and Bolshoe Chebachye; Zhumbaktas and Okzhetpes are visible on the way.
• “Pearl of the Blue Mountains — Kokshetau”, from Abylai Khan’s glade across the saddle between the summit and the Elder Sister rock to the top.

A combined route, “Burabay — Pearl of Kazakhstan”, links the village, the Dancing Birches, Bolshoe Chebachye, Abylai Khan’s glade and the Khan’s Pass. The source gives no length for it.

Getting there from Astana

By car. The A1 toll highway takes about two and a half hours to the Shchuchinsk junction, then about 20 km to Burabay village. Allow three hours, and an extra hour or more on holiday weekends.

By train. Trains leave Astana-1 or Nurly Zhol for Kurort-Borovoe station in Shchuchinsk. Fast trains take 2 h 28 min to 2 h 45 min, ordinary ones 3–4 hours. The station is about 22 km from Burabay village; taxis and minibuses cover the gap.

By bus. From Saparzhai bus station in Astana there are direct buses to Burabay and services via Shchuchinsk, 3–4 hours.

In late 2025 the authorities discussed a small airfield for direct flights from Astana as part of a development plan to 2029. No date has been set, so don’t plan around it.

A separate fee act, and what else it says

Burabay is run by the Presidential Property Management Department rather than the Ministry of Ecology, so its fees sit in their own order (No. 04/276 of 14 November 2024), not in the general order No. 232. Our page on who runs Kazakhstan’s parks explains why that matters.

Points worth knowing from the act:

• Entry is charged per day of stay. A passenger car pays 0.3 MCI, or 0.4 MCI on weekends and holidays from 1 May to 30 September. If you keep a car inside overnight, expect to be charged for more than one day; ask at the checkpoint how days are counted.
• There is no pedestrian line. The entry fee applies to vehicles only.
• Organised excursions on tourist trails cost 0.26 MCI per person.
• A tent pitch in a park-managed camp is 0.4 MCI per person per day; recreational fishing is 0.16 MCI per day (up to 5 kg).
• Cars of park residents, pensioners, people with disabilities and veterans are exempt from the entry fee. Fishing and tent pitches carry a 50% discount for listed groups, including under-18s.

Use the park fee calculator for today’s tenge amount. Burabay is left out of the general tariff table precisely because of its separate act.

When to go and practical notes

The climate is continental: moderately cold winters, warm summers, about 400 mm of precipitation a year. Summer and early autumn weekends are busiest, which is also when the higher fee applies; weekdays and shoulder months are calmer.

Worth keeping in mind:

• Shchuchinsk and Burabay village are different places. The railway station is in Shchuchinsk, more than 20 km from the lake.
• There is a separate Kokshetau National Park nearby, often confused with Burabay because of the shared mountain name.
• Run through our checklist before visiting a national park.

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