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City in Mangystau Region, Kazakhstan
Photo: inbusiness.kz, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Aktau (Kazakh: Ақтау, Russian: Актау) is a city of approximately 200,000 citizens on the banks of the Caspian Sea (Kazakh: Каспий теңізі, Russian: Каспийское море) in Kazakhstan.
Coffee, tea, and Soviet-food along with entertainment.
It is swank, serves reasonably good food, and charges about 2000 tenge per person for a meal at any time of day.
Pub Grill Bukowski
Used to be Guns and Roses, but still has a live music scene.
Drinks and kebabs and a firepit.
A true budget hostel with simple but clean rooms. No English spoken by staff.
Some great views of the Caspian, including from the outdoor pool terrace. Also features an indoor pool if preferred, and gym. To take advantage of the superior location of the hotel, you should request a sea-view.
classy place with pool, gym and shopping center. Views can be as good as the Renaissance or could be of a Soviet building.
offers a wide selection of long-term suites with kitchens and short-term rooms. It is the only beach hotel in the city of Aktau.
This hotel has quite the indoor and outdoor pool and restaurant, even an event hall, but lacks the views that some of the others have.
Ақтау қонақ үйі
Has not really aged well. Often cold with little hot water and that dingy old look.
On the Caspian waterfront, woohoo, let those sea breezes commence. Tends to be an all-inclusive property with its exuberant restaurant/buffet, pool, waterpark, and other amenities.
Site of a few good restaurants.
By train
All trains arrive and depart from the Mangyshlak/Mangystau (Мангышлак) Station, about 20 km from central Aktau. There is a regular 24-hour train service to and from Atyrau.
By ferry
The 'Baku-Aktau' ferry in fact travels from Alat to Kuryk -- both ports a considerable distance outside their nominal city.
Aktau is the type of city U2 may have been talking about when they sang about a place where the streets have no names.
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Aktau · International · SCO
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Articles and travel topics about Aktau and Kazakhstan.
ItinerariesThe usual overland route from Europe into China is the Trans-Siberian Railway, crossing Russia to Lake Baikal then continuing either via Mongolia or Dongbei (the former Manchuria) to Beijing.
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Travel tipsThis page aims to provide an overview of all the ferry services in the Caspian Sea between Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran.
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Travel tipsFerries are ships of various size, which carry passengers, and in some cases vehicles, between ports on a schedule.
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Travel tipsThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (СССР)), or Soviet Union, emerged as the successor state to the Russian Empire in 1917, and was dissolved in 1991.
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