In the central area of Almaty, close to the the Atakent-Expo Convention Centre and numerous hotels, there’s some decent running around the Botanical Garden and Mahatma Gandhi Park. We’ve mapped a 14 km route combining them, adding South Park, but they can also be run standalone.

Botanical Garden. Our route starts at the main entrance of the Botanical Garden. It’s mainly wooded, and a bit run down. A loop of the paths is ~2 km, including the main path and several side paths. There are main, south, and western entrances. There are map kiosks at the entrances.

  • Optional add-on: South Park. From the western entrance of the Botanical Garden, take a jaunt down to South Park (0.7 km), and then enjoy a ~1 km loop around its paths. Overall, a 3 km add-on.
Google Street View

Mahatma Gandhi Park. Run this standalone or combine with the Botanical Garden. From the Botanical Garden, it’s 2 km to Gandhi Park, headed west along Timiryazev St and north on Aimanov St. Ghandi Park is a narrow, tree-shaded oasis in the middle of a bustling area. There’s a nice passing through this strip of park. It’s 1.7 km north to Toli B St. So just doing this park is 3.4 km out and back. Note: there’s a running track just to the west of Ghandi Park at Abay Ave.