Cities in this remote, arid land are being transformed into post-modern oases, while a growing number of visitors are exploring its mountains, desert, and canyons

Vitals

Best Time to Go: July through September for nature trips; December through March for skiing.
Air Service from the U.S.: KLM, British Airways, and Lufthansa.
Capital: Astana.
Tour Cost: MIR Travel can cus-tomize trip itineraries starting at $300 for two per day for adventure excursions.
Hassle Factor: Medium. Crime against foreigners is rare. Tourist facilities are at times almost primeval, and Western-style service is still a long way off. Use a good tour guide, and bring a healthy dose of patience to minimize annoyances.
Special Safety Concern: None.

For those looking for something well off the beaten path, this ex-Soviet Central Asian state of 17 million—five times the size of France and covered mostly by arid steppe and desert—is a destination that seems geographically and culturally on the edge of the world. Most Westerners know of it through English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's mockumentary Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazahkstan. But while the movie raised the country's profile, it did nothing for its reputation. The Kazakhstan portrayed in the film bears very little resemblance to the reality. (The Kazakh portion of the movie was actually shot in Romania.)

THE BIG PICTURE

An emerging petro-power with an ethnically mixed population (mostly Kazakh but with a significant Russian-speaking contingent), the country is projected to be the world's ninth-largest producer of oil and gas in ten years. Astana, the capital, and Almaty, the regional business center, bristle with hipper-than-tomorrow cafés, lounge bars, restaurants, and nightclubs, where super-chic patrons ostentatiously, and sometimes obnoxiously, parade their newly acquired wealth. But outside these ultramodern urban landscapes, many people still live in yurts and the country has some truly awe-inspiring natural vistas, elevating it above the category of novelty trip or business destination.

THE DRAW

Kazakhstan has been transformed in the last few years by its new oil riches, so much of the lure of traveling there is to see a country undergoing a rapid and dramatic metamorphosis. Almaty and Astana—post-Soviet cities with soul-crushing cinder block architecture—are reinventing themselves as Central Asian facsimiles of Manhattan and Washington, D.C. Astana was a small, comatose city on the northern steppe (which is geographically part of Siberia) until President Nursultan Nazarbayev decided ten years ago to move the capital there from Almaty, sparking a construction boom. Now, the modern jostles for space with the gaudy. Westerners usually describe this Central Asian Brasília as "otherworldly" and "bizarre," and recommend visiting for a day or two to see one of the world's newest metropolises come into being before your eyes.