Kettik — Local services in Bishkek City

Accompndation 6 / 10 Transportation 5/10 Driver 10/10 Guide 6/10 Food 8/10 Horse ridding 10/10 Entertainment 2/10 Managers who is cheating 5/10

I would like to start by saying that this is my third trip with Kettik, which was amazing in 2019 and 2020, so I decided to choose this company again and have recommended it to all my friends. We chose the trip to Son Kol to celebrate day before my birthday, but it turned out to be a big mistake! We booked a two-day trip and were extremely disappointed. Everything started off amazing we had a very professional driver who politely helped us retrieve an item I had forgotten, which I really appreciate. However, the worst part was that there was no AC in the car. I literally sweated from 6:30 am until 12:30 pm. While the weather in the mountains was nice, the situation in the car was uncomfortable. One of our mistakes might have been sitting in the front of the car, where we couldn’t hear any words from the guide. Later, we wore our AirPods and tried to enjoy the beautiful scenery. On our last trip, we also sat in the front, but it was a completely different experience. In the first trip, the guide introduced themselves and asked who was on the bus, but this time I didn’t even know the names of the people who were with us. There were queues everywhere the bus stopped I know it’s not the company’s fault, but I wanted to mention it for your information. We stayed in a yurt meant for six people, but we specifically requested a yurt for two. Later, when we arrived at camp, we had a chance to share our feedback with our guide. We informed her about the AC issues, explained that we didn’t hear any information, and expressed our dissatisfaction with stopping in such a crowded place. We shared all the moments where we had to share with six more people, and she addressed the issue right away. We received a yurt for two people, and it was confirmed that this was done. I also informed the manager. However, the next morning, the manager told us that we needed to pay extra for the night we stayed in the separate yurt because of what she had mentioned earlier. The managers replied to her later at 4 PM, and she never checked her phone, which ruined my second day. After an hour, she came back and informed us that they care about customer opinion and said our stay would be complimentary. It was only 3000 som, which is the price of a lunch, but these types of things should be communicated in advance. For your information, none of the managers tried to reach us directly because the guide said one thing and then another. Additionally, they had a staff party although they were supposed to have fun, one guide just left while two others tried to stay with us as long as possible. The late-night “party” was the worst I have ever experienced most people just left. One more thing regarding the managers who changed shifts they never read our conversations. Once, they tried to charge extra for a border pass, even when I sent my KG passport, but they later changed the amount of money. Still, this person didn’t pay attention to our chat. On the second day, after our complaint, they turned on the AC, which was not working properly, and we stopped in a place that was not crowded, such as the Food Zone. I booked a trip to Kel Suu a few days later, which I am planning to cancel because with this kind of service we received, I would rather pay extra at a more reputable tour company. I checked with other tourists, and most of them were not happy with the organization, though the views were the best. Kettik is focused on quantity, not quality! A lot of changes and quality of service is really low not like before! It was a waste of energy and time! Please don’t make the same mistake I did by choosing this company if you don’t want to ruin your days.i came back from...

I will start with the most important thing. Kyrgyzstan is a beautiful country with amazing people, that I would recommend to everyone to visit. This I can’t say about Kettik. We had two tours with them. First a typical one day tour, that was good. Maybe too much time to spend on that one place, but that is subjective opinion. For these short tours I think they are very good for that price.

Then we had the grand tour for seven days. Problems started from beginning. First according to them, seven day tour should take six days. That could and did confuse some people. Who for example book plane tickets according to the wrong date. A found out about this few days before! Second problem was that even we paid for the tour long before. They forget about us. When we arrived nobody knew about us. We were lucky that there was enough space on the bus.

These things made us concerning about the trip. But when we heard from the guide “welcome to Kyrgyzstan” that this things happen, we let it go.

The whole organisation was pretty brutal. I didn’t expect any luxury, but basic human needs ( heat, water to drink, or food) that was promised would be nice to have without asking about it repeatedly. Food - even though that it was stated that we will have 3 meals a day, that only meant that we get them when will be in the yourts. That info wasn’t clearly provided before, or during trip to us. That wouldn’t be such a problem, if we didn’t have to ask repeatedly to stop during the trips in the markets to buy food and water . Water - even tho we were promised drinkable water during our stays in the yourts, that wasn’t always the true. I even ask to other tourist that went on tours with Kettik, and they told us that they have the same problem. Heat - when we were in yourt kamp near kel suu, it was pretty cold in the night. So all the yourts were heated up. Our wasn’t. I addressed my concerns to the guide numerous times. He didn’t do anything about it. So I had to take action to myself.

Maybe these problems could have been avoided, if there was a different tour guide, who had some experience in these long tours. Our guide wasn’t that person. Last negative thing I wanted to mention is that last day, we had to go to ala kol lake. But the rain stopped us. Even though I know that wether could be unpredictable, you have to have plan b in that case and not have 15 people stranded for a day in middle of nowhere. They promised to return money for this part of the tour. But I don’t believe that will happen.

For a good side. They will take you to lot of places, that are hard to get. The driver was fantastic. I have huge respect to him. You will lear lot about Kyrgyz culture and people. If you get lucky as me, you will meet great people around the world that will travel with you for a week. They are cheap. But you see the shortcomings everywhere. In my opinion they should have a “expensive “ version ( better yourts / guest houses, 3 meals per day as was promised, etc)

Lot of issues could be prevented or communicated better. Is this company worth it? For the day tours absolutely. For the longer one? That’s on you. I provided you my experience. For me, and lot of other people form our tour the answer is not.

I wouldn’t be so harsh on them, but for a company that does tours for ten years, there are lot of things that should...

I had the best 2 day 1 night trip to Son-Kul Lake yesterday with Kettik tours! Our guide Aynisa was absolutely wonderful. She spoke great English, had loads of energy, was very kind and also full of great facts and cultural information. The tour was so well-organised and on time. We left Bishkek station carpark promptly at 6:30am in a comfortable Mercedes Sprinter van and stopped at the supermarket to get drinking water (not provided on the mountain) and then many places along the way to Son-Kul for views and food and toilet. We stayed at Ulush yurt camp on the south side of the lake which was luxurious (flush toilets, electricity) although apparently this is not usually the case - the early snow meant we stayed here instead of the north side (so, we got lucky)! It was a really good value tour, 6500 for the whole thing. Bonus: includes pick up and transport from town (Bishkek train station car park) whereas most other tours expect you to get the Marshrutka to Kyzart on your own and charge twice the price. Admittedly, no horse riding on this tour, but with the cold weather it was magical to be there looking at the...