This is mostly focused on Nur-Sultan and Almaty. I was only in Shymkent long enough to leave Shymkent and have a few initial impressions.
Now that I have visited both, I declare myself qualified to pass judgement. Almaty. Hands Down. Now for the whys:
Neither city is particularly old. Almaty likely had a settlement during the Silk Road times, but really wasn’t a city until the late 1800s. The Kazakhs were historically nomadic and really didn’t have a need for cities. However, apples are indigenous to this region and apples had made it to the middle east prior to Baby Jesus, so it seems likely that the region was not completely unknown. Also, there are some petroglyphs nearby, so something more is probably known. This also reminds that that I forgot to go back the history museum.
Nur-Sultan is the third name for this city over its history. It started as some sort of nondescript Soviet city, it became Astana (Kazakh for capital) in 1997, and became Nur-Sultan in 2019 when the longtime leader stepped down and the new guy named it after him. We are so lucky in the US that we don’t have a leader who likes name things after himself. The older city had a population of 275,000 prior to becoming capital and some of that architecture remains. However, since becoming capital, construction has been booming. The national mall features a shopping center in the world’s largest tent (more interesting that it sounds) at one end and the Presidential Palace at the other. It also has some other modern buildings to look at — mostly office, hotels, and government buildings.
In Nur-Sultan, there are construction cranes everywhere. Driving to the airport, we passed towers and corporate campuses and more going up. There were cars on the street, but few people walking around for the scale of the city. The city just didn’t seem full except at the giant tent shopping mall.
Almaty, on the other hand had more beautiful green space than anywhere that I have been. And it was green space that people used — park benches were full, children were playing, dogs were walking…. Almaty was vibrant and alive while Nur-Sultan had more of a zombie feel. I can’t think of a city that I have been in that seemed to have a higher quality of life than Almaty (setting aside things like healthcare, languages, etc.) I would add about both places that language is not a huge problem. Kazakh is the most spoken, followed by Russian, followed by English. Particularly in Almaty, you will see signage in all three, though rarely a menu in English.
Nur-Sultan reminded me of nowhere I have ever been. Almaty reminded my a bit of Denver (mainly for its setting on a fairly flat spot at the base of the mountains.) Almaty definitely had a more American feel that European or Asia. Public Display of Affection were common. There seemed to be a disproportionate number of pregnant women. There were several universities. Culturally, it seemed egalitarian.
I think both cities are worth a visit if you are in central Asia, though it is hard to justify a special trip. Almaty is a city that I could see living in. If you’re into hiking and skiing, Almaty does have that going for it too.
Now for Shymkent. The hostel was beautiful, the people were incredibly friendly; I was stopped several times to be welcomed by people who probably only knew a few words of English. It is also noticeably dirtier and more chaotic. There are multiple bus routes and public transit seemed good, but no two buses matched. This might be an interesting place to explore someday, but not today.