Originally Posted by 13901

Georgia and Armenia have quite a lot in common, whereas Kazakhstan is totally different. Not just in terms of location and geography: language, history, ethnicity, even the alphabet is different.

Besides, it also depends on what is it you want to do, when you want to go and for how long. If it's the outdoors you're interested in, I'd say Georgia > Kazakhstan > Armenia. If you want to eat well, again I'd go Georgia > Kazakhstan > Armenia (putting Armenia last here because I had some epic food poisoning in Yerevan, and also because Almaty has Daredjani, a great Georgian restaurant). If it's cities you're after, again I'd say Georgia first. History, then it's Armenia then Georgia.

Kazakhstan wins for its sheer variety, in my opinion. People say it's just steppe, but that'd be doing the country an injustice. There are mountain ranges reaching 4,000 metres (and Khan Tengri is also in Kazakhstan, height 7,000 and change), forests on the border with Russia and Mongolia, there's the incredible geography of Charyn Canyon and the Ustyurt plateau and there's an enormous amount of 'weird stuff'. The Semipalatinsk test site, the Beket-ata underground mosque, Aralsk, the very odd city of Priozersk with its old missile bases... the list goes on. I know of people who have walked into the steppe and camped outside Baikonur to watch a Soyuz depart, and I've read of others who actually trekked into the launch base, though I wouldn't recommend doing it, especially these days. Then there's Almaty, my favourite 'large' modern city in Central Asia, and there's also some history - though not at the level of Samarkand or especially Bukhara - in Turkistan.

I don't know if it shows, but I have a particular bias towards Kazakhstan. I've been there 5 or 6 times, and I like the country deeply. But I won't lie: it can be hot, it can be frightfully cold, you might find yourself in places where you are well and truly alone and most of its cities/towns/villages can be described as charmless. So, it really depends on what you want to do, when you want to go, and for how long.