Aktau

See

There is a Soviet-era plane on a pedestal just down the hill from the Asian-themed World War II memorial. At this memorial, an eternal flame (Russian: Вечный Огонь) burns under a circle of partial-white arches, which are reminiscent of a yurt. Across from the memorial, there is a drama theater with regular productions in Russian.

Just south of these structures, on Aktau's middle north-south thoroughfare, you will find a collection of restaurants, night clubs and shopping centers. A well-appointed grocery store (Ramstor), movie theater and night club are in the Ardager shopping complex (district 9). Beyond that, in the furthest shopping center to the south is "Shoom" (ШУМ) (district 4), which has a large variety of low-quality stores.

To the north, in district 16, you can find Aktau's new mall. The mall includes a very small ice-skating rink, movie theater and a number of low and high quality shops (low quality children's clothes on the top floor, Hugo Boss on the main floor). The mall includes arguably the best deal in town for food at Asorti on its top floor.

District 10 has little of note, but it serves as a great viewing point of the huge frescoes, which cover one side of decrepit Soviet apartment buildings across the main street in district 9. The frescoes depict various "national fathers" of Kazakhstan, and rumor has it that current president Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev is keen to have his picture painted in a similar fashion. For now, there is an enormous banner dr…

Do

The beaches of Aktau have nice water, and you are allowed to swim anywhere. However, the amount of glass on the beaches can make your beach experience dicey in many locations. Watch out for water snakes in the more rocky parts. Usually, the locals stick to the beaches below the Renaissance. Behind the beach-side grills and clubs there, the beaches are fairly clean and sandy.

Unfortunately you cannot kick back just anywhere on the edge of the Caspian, or around the town for that matter, and down a sunset drink. You are not allowed to drink alcohol outside of these beach-side bar and grills, although there are absolutely no signs to warn you otherwise. The local police take advantage of this situation and the general fear that many tourists have are the corrupt policemen. If you are caught drinking, they only want 1000 tenge as a bribe, even if you don't speak Russian or Kazakh. Most of the locals drinking on the street are ignored by police or pay the small bribe.

Football: FC Caspiy were promoted in 2025 and now play soccer in Kazakh Premier League, the top tier. Their Zhas Kanat Stadium (capacity 5000) is north side of town. The playing season is March-Oct.

Bowling and pool are very popular in the city. There are at least 2 bowling alleys of good quality: just down the steps from the Soviet plane is Alia Bowling Hall (in between districts 7 and 9) and in Aktau Mall (district 16). Pool is available at those places and in Elite Alliance (building 38 in district 8) in two p…

Buy

The prices in Aktau are high even by Western European standards. Quality electronics, clothes, western-style foods, hotels, entertainment and gyms are readily available. However, all of these are marked up anywhere from 100 to 300% above American or German prices. It is best to go local in Aktau and/or buy anything of any consequence before you come.

There are a few bazaars in Aktau. All of them have bad reputations for fleecing foreigners: Yellow Bazaar (Жёлтый Рынок) in district 31, Wave Bazaar (рынок Волна) in district 5, Old Bazaar (Старый Базар) in district 22, and White Bazaar in district 8 (Ак Базар).

Eat

Shwarma places behind Ardager (Ардагәр) Mall, near the eternal flame memorial. Ask for a 350 tenge shwarma without sauce ("bez sousa" or "bez mayonez") if you don't want it swimming in mayonnaise. Japanese CIS style is available at Le Sushi Aktau at Astana Mall, the Jazz Club in district 5 or Restobar TOFU Aktau in district 7a. You should expect to pay at least US$10 to have a couple of small roleLls at any of those places. Chinese is available at Steak House Napoli Chinatown (Napoli Rest) Restaurant at the Astana Mall for around 1500 tenge per person. Korean is also available at Restobar TOFU Aktau in district 7a. Italian also available at Napoli Rest, along with hookah (Russian: кальян) available. Caucasian grilled meat (shashlik) is available at the beach-side grills below the Renaissance hotel. These are usually 800-1500 tenge per person.

Drink

The English Pub at the 5 Star Hotel "Grand Victory" in district 13 has a laid-back atmosphere and comfortable seats, but charges US$5-8 per pint. The beach-side bars near Renaissance offer nightlife similar to that at Fuenta, but they mostly shut during the winter. Restaurant Pinta has occasional ballroom dancing parties on Sunday evenings.

Connect

As of September 2024, Aktau has 4G from all Kazakh carriers. The signal is patchy on the approach highways.

Go next

Other than buses to even more remote outposts in the desert, Aktau is an extremely out-of-the-way place, so getting out of town usually means backtracking in the direction you have just come. Also, the situation with Turkmeni visas has not been investigated well or at all by any of the travel agencies in Aktau. Therefore, you should not plan to come here first before getting a visa to continue to Turkmenistan. If you do have a Turkmeni visa that authorizes a crossing from Mangystau to Turkmenbashi, then you can make your way easily to the border. There are frequent morning buses to Zhanaozen (about 140 km east of Aktau) and then at least one daily bus from there to Turkmenbashi (about 300 km south).

Tourist agencies in town can make arrangements for visits to Suni shrines and very distant caravansarais.

One of the easier to visit attractions is Koshkar Ata necropolis, just outside the village of Akshukur (20 klm north of Aktau). It is a skyline of miniature domes and towers that resembles some fairy-tale city. You can reach this place by public bus from Остановка 1 Microrayon 28 (direction to the village Sain Shapagatov Автобус Актау-Сайын Шапагатов-Актау).

The most famous of these shrines is Beket Ata - which is not very old - but already has many superstitions about magical properties of the site. Built into a cave, this shrine to an 18th-century Kazakh wise man is usually visited in groups. First, you will drive 3–5 hours from Aktau on poorly paved or unp…