Almaty, Kazakhstan : Where we stayed : The Ritz Carlton Almaty

When we decided that we were going to spend a few days in Almaty, I was worried that it would be too much like going to another city. Then I saw some of the photos of The Ritz Carlton with the snow-capped mountains in the backdrop and the green parks in front of it – and I thought – yep, we’re staying here. Glad it didn’t disappoint 🙂

Here’s a brief photo-blog of The Ritz Carlton Almaty, supposedly one of the best hotels in Kazakhstan, and Central Asia itself 😉

The view

With views of the Alatau mountains, and the city, it’s quite a sight from the Ritz Carlton. We had a Deluxe Room at the corner which gave us views of it all – and I don’t think even turned on the TV whilst we were in the room. It’s was beautiful just to look out.

And that, is apparently a slope for skiiers!

Rooms and Amenities

Heated marble floors in the bathroom. That, I remember. You don’t get that in Dubai. You’ll probably get in trouble for having heated marble floors here 🙂 I can imagine how cold it would get in winter (-40 degree celcius apparently?) and how nice it would be to step into heated marble flooring when you wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Asprey toiletries, tick. And for the first time ever – I would like to comment on the toilet paper they offer in the Ritz Carlton Almaty (Note : It was so good, we took one home, ha ha ha ha). How many plys can a toilet paper have? I don’t know – but if other hotels in Dubai want to step up on luxury, please get in touch with Ritz Carlton and ask them where they get their toilet paper.

And on the general sense – absolutely no complaints with the overall room layout, the bed, the pillows, the quietness of the room.

And for the little ones?

They provided a cot with bedding for our little girl, as well as baby plates and cutlery (we accidentally took home the spoon by the way – sorry! 🙂 ) We were given a pack in the evening with toiletries and a kid-size Ritz Carlton slippers to take home, for the little girl. And on the day that we checked out, the housekeeping team popped in with helium filled balloons which was such a nice surprise! It would have been nice to bring it back to Dubai with us 🙂

For toddlers (above 3, I think – do double check) – they have a Kids Club with activities to keep them busy like cooking classes. I’ll have to wait a bit longer before we can send our girl to those!

More cookies to fatten up mum and dad, thank you very much

The Ritz Carlton Almaty went the extra mile with the balloons. All hotels, please take note 🙂

Club Lounge

Here was my first introduction to a wine dispenser 🙂 Note : Address Boulevard in Downtown Dubai has one as well 😉 We asked if we could try local wine and they were very nice to bring out some Kazakhstan Riesling, with cheese and crackers whilst we watched the double rainbow amidst the blue skies. Perfect 😉 They do serve a lot of hot food as well in the evening, and we had more than enough for ourselves.

The park

There is a park in front of the Ritz Carlton which is open to the public. Large playground with slides, rock-climbling and swings. There were a lot of kids and parents when we were there (photo below taken when everyone else had left so I don’t get in trouble for taking photos of other kids!) – it was really nice just to chill and play.

Yes we did throw away the Actimel afterwards 🙂

Would love to have more parks like this in Dubai

Pool and Gym

Indoor, which made sense considering how cold it’ll get in Winter. Completely empty when we went there in the morning for a dip which was nice. G used the gym. Nothing spectacular to add to both.

Excursions

We booked through the Ritz for our day trip to the Big Almaty Lake. Whilst they were very helpful to find a tour operator (thanks) – I did realise after we came back and spent more time doing research that the pricing was on the high side. To be honest – not surprising. I would strongly suggest that you spend more time and do more research before you go to Almaty and book all your tours. We found it so difficult to find anything, even when we were there – so we had no choice as we ran out of time but to book through the hotels. Click here for my lil blurp on this excursion and others.

Pricing

Picking a Friday in August, a Deluxe room with Mountain and city view would be around 1300 AED including breakfast. To compare to a hotel in the city in Dubai – yes, Ritz Carlton would be cheaper, but c’mon – you get different things – the view and greenery for one is something money can’t buy here in Downtown Dubai. It is a lot more expensive than the Rixos Almaty – so if you dont’ want to splurge as much – choose the latter. The Ritz Carlton will definitely not disappoint – if you’re used to (have been spoilt with) the hotel standards that you get here in the gulf region 😉 Do let me know what you think of the Ritz Carlton should you end up in Almaty!