Places to visit in Astana

Julie wrote:

Hi,

For the ones living in Astana, what would you suggest to discover the region?

When you have friends or family visiting you, where do you go with them? What are the must-see places in Astana, the tourist sites?

How to visit the region in an original way? Any unusual or unknown place to recommend?

What would you suggest for a couple of days of for a week of holidays in Astana?

Thank you in advance for participating

Julie

Definitely see the various left-bank architectural sites like Baiterek and Khan Shatyr (and while you're in Khan Shatyr, stop at Gloria Jean's for coffee). In fact, do the entire walk from the Presidential Palace to Khan Shatyr. Stop at an authentic Kazakh restaurant and try the horse. (Even Sadu, the restaurant on the first floor of Keuren, to the right of the main entrance, has good horse steaks - just make sure they know you want the horse steak and not the beef steak; you'll see the mall's sign spelled Kepyeh, but it's pronounced Keuren). Go to Astana Park and visit the park within it that has models of the various regions in Kazakhstan.

Take a walk along Respublika Avenue and see the various shops (prices in the malls, except for the food and coffee, is insanely expensive and they're even pretty expensive on Respublika; but go just to see the shops, not to actually buy anything). Take a trip over to Artiom, the indoor bazaar.

A walk along the river would be worth doing as well.

Pizza is really popular here, but it leaves a lot to be desired (I'm from Buffalo, NY, where we have pizza shops on nearly every corner; so, I'm judging by the standard of a far superior product).

DO NOT buy cigars in a hotel or restaurant; they're way over-priced!