Crossing the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan Border at Garabogaz-Temir Baba

Crossing the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan Border at Garabogaz-Temir Baba was originally published in January 2025

After wrapping up leading another the Halloween 2024 Safar Expeditions Turkmenistan Adventure, I exited Turkmenistan into Kazakhstan using the Garabogaz-Temir Baba Border Crossing and I am here to say that yes, the border is open and it’s also a breeze to cross.

In the past, I’ve only dealt with Turkmenistan’s border formalities at the Nukus-Konye-Urgench Crossing in the north between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, which was a long drawn out pain, and at the Ashgabat Airport.

Needless to say, making arrangements for the Turkmen side of the border is simple, because you still need to be booked in on a guided tour of Turkmenistan which handles all of the logistics. That is unless they bring back the Turkmen transit visa, but we’re still all holding our breath on that one.

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Getting from Ashgabat to Turkmenbashi

You have three options to reach the coastal Caspian Seaside city of Turkmenbashi: by road, by plane, or by train.

I opted for the train this time (I’ve actually transited between Ashgabat and Turkmenbashi all three ways), which was pretty nice.

The Ashgabat-Turkmenbashi Train

The train departs the Ashgabat Vogzal at 17:40 and arrives at Turkmenbashi Vogzal at 08:08 the following morning.

As in most other nations of the former Soviet Union, you will find trains having both platzkart seating (open in the carriage, kind of like a hostel) and the slightly nicer 4 bed kupe.

Make sure all your electronics are charged before you get on the train, there wasn’t a socket in the kupe and the electricity on the train cut off and on anyway- a headlamp can be handy here. You will also find shops at the station if you’d like to grab any snacks for the train ride.

Morning Arrival to Turkmenbashi

As I mentioned before, you can’t travel independently in Turkmenistan at the moment, so a driver to take you to the border from Turkmenbashi will be waiting there at the Turkmenbashi Vogzal in the morning when you arrive.

This usually includes a stop for breakfast. Mine being at the bougie Carlak Hotel (charlak means ‘seagull’ in Turkmen.

We left the hotel and Turkmenbashi by 09:10.

The Drive from Turkmenbashi to the Garabogaz Border Post

In the end, we arrived at Garabogaz Border Post on the Turkmen side of the border at 12:15 and this included some stops along the way for photos, so setting aside approximately three hours for the journey is pretty accurate.

The drive is pretty smooth the majority of the way, the road doesn’t go to dirt and get bumpy until the last roughly 15 kilometers before the border post. There are a few police checkpoints you will pass through on the journey from Turkmenbashi to the Kazakh Border, the police will check your passport as well as the driver’s national passport (Turkmen citizens have two passports- one for moving around their country and another for international travel).

Getting Stuck in the Sand on a Caspian Sea Beach

Eventually, you reach a point where you’ll be crossing the water on a narrow strip of land separating the Caspian Sea from the shallow saline lagoon of Garabogazkul, at its narrowest it’s about one kilometer wide- this was about the point where the driver said “let’s go to the beach” while veering off the highway and straight into the sand, which we got stuck in almost immediately.

Luckily for him, he laughed and hopped out to begin digging us out. We were in a Toyota Hilux- you know, the vehicle choice for regime changes on a budget, and unlike in Taliban territory in Afghanistan or in the deserts of Yemen he was armed with sand plates and shovel instead of the ubiquitous roof-mounted machine gun.

I was sent to go wander the beach a few meters away until we were mobile once again.

The Pink Lake In the Town of Garabogaz

As you pass the small and industrial town of Garabogaz, on the right side you’ll see a lake which the water will start to look more rosy the closer to get to it. Naturally, this warranted a quick stop because how doesn’t love a pink lake?

Arriving at the Garabogaz Border Post, Turkmenistan

We rolled up to the gate leading into Garabogaz Post with two cars in front of us. The driver took my passport and his national passport to a small shack near the gate. One by one, each vehicle was allowed into the border crossing zone.

Once in, I entered the building and immediately had a few of the border guards over trying to help me exit the country. There is a mandatory declaration form (you’ll find a stack sitting on the counter next to the door) that must be filled out and in my case, one of the border guards asked me all the questions and filled it out for me, and finally had me sign it.

The guard then put my bags through the X-ray scanner and then sent me to the immigration counter where I was stamped out of Turkmenistan in a matter of seconds. All in all, I was completed with the Turkmen side by 12:45.

In the meantime, the driver to the border had found a car behind us that was headed to Aktau whose driver said they’d take me to Aktau for $50 USD. I had wrongly assumed he was waiting for his passengers to pass through the border, but I was wrong- he was traveling by himself.

Garabogaz-Temir Baba Border Hours

By the time the driver going to Aktau completed exit formalities from Turkmenistan, it was a minute till 13:00, meaning we were going to have to wait until the Kazakh Border Post re-opened after lunch.

Officially the Turkmen-Kazakh Border Hours are 09:00-18:00 and closed for lunch from 13:00-14:00.

Distance Between the Border Posts

Officially the Garabogaz and Temir Baba Border Offices are 2.8 kilometers apart.

Entering Kazakhstan

They let the cars across toward the Kazakh side one at time, starting at about 13:15 and there were a few others ahead of us, so we didn’t enter the Temir Baba Border Post on the Kazakh side until 14:45.

Entering Kazakhstan was a cinch, I just had to hand over my passport at the immigration window and I was in. We were completed at the Temir Baba Border Post by 15:00.

I did note that there did not appear to be any cars waiting for passengers going to Aktau or other parts of the Mangystau Region from the border, so don’t expect to find shared cars and be prepared to potentially be stuck for a long time waiting for another car to be going your direction over the border (I heard stories of people waiting for over 6 hours).

The Drive from Temir Baba at the Turkmen Border to Aktau

There is a dirt road to the border post, but don’t be fooled- you won’t be using it for the first while owing to the poor state of it.

For the first 30 kilometers cars will take a spiderwebbing network of jeep trails on the east side from the horrifically potholed road.

The marker letting drivers know to jump off the jeep trails and back onto the dirt road is an antenna about 30 kilometers beyond the border. Once past the antenna, drivers dive back onto the main road.

Once you’ve driven about 20 kilometers past the antenna the asphalted starts.

Drive Time from the Temir Baba Border Post to Aktau

I was told to expect the drive from the Turkmen Border to Aktau to take roughly four hours but we managed it in about three and a half. Even while my 70-something-year-old driver chain-smoked while trying to convince me why I should go to his apartment to have sex with him- the joys of solo female travel (and no, he wasn’t Kazakh, by the way).

Enough eye rolls later, he finally gave up. Then started telling stories about his sons- who are both older than me.

I really need to stop doubting myself in anything I want to do and learn to have the audacity of a man.

Eventually, audacious grandpa dropped me off at the Rokhat Hotel in Aktau at about 19:30 where I was met by Salamat from the tourism office in Aktau for the Mangystau Region.

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