With novelty skyscrapers and indoor beaches, Kazakhstan?s oil-built capital city is emerging as a world-class travel destination.
The location of back-to-back openings by two of the biggest names in luxury travel may surprise you. The Ritz-Carlton, Astana and St. Regis Astana?both of which are set to open this summer?are being touted as symbols of the Kazakhstan capital city?s entrée as Eastern Europe?s next major metropolis.
Just 20 years ago, Astana was an empty expanse of the Kazakh Steppe, home only to a former Gulag prison camp. In 1997, President Nursultan Nazabeyev declared the city?then named Akmola, or ?a white grave??Kazakhstan?s new capital. Snow blankets the area for six months per year and the annual temperature ranges from -31° to 95° Fahrenheit, but that did not deter Nazabeyev, who renamed the city Astana, or ?capital city.? Now, a downtown of dream-like skyscrapers is complete and, although the city is not likely one you have come across in glossy travel magazines, it will soon welcome an estimated 5 million visitors for this summer?s Expo 2017 world?s fair. Rendering of St. Regis Astana
But where will all of these visitors stay" That is the question that St. Regis and Ritz-Carlton are hoping to answer with the grand openings of their ultra-luxurious Astana hotels. No funds were spared in the development of the Ritz-Carlton, Astana, located just north of the fairgrounds. The contemporary, 157-room hotel is housed within downtown?s mixed-use Talan T...