Resorts & AdventuresResorts & AdventuresPhoto: Alfira Khissamutdin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
The resort is located in the Ile-Alatau National Park, 7 kilometers from the settlement of Beskainar — about 35 minutes by car from Almaty. It operates year-round with a cable car, tree houses, horseback riding, and a rope park. There are several accommodation options including a hotel, cottages, wooden tree houses in three categories, and an ethnic guesthouse in yurts with heated floors and private bathrooms. This makes Oi-Qaragai suitable for both day trips and longer stays.
The resort was built on the grounds of an old Soviet pioneer camp called "Skazka." In the 2000s, Kazakh businessman Yerlik Balfanbayev, founder of the Alina Group holding company, began transforming the abandoned site into a mountain resort. The project remained unprofitable for many years. Mountains and tourism proved more challenging than the construction business where Balfanbayev made his initial capital. Until 2019, the site was known as "Forest Fairy Tale," when it was renamed to Oi-Qaragai. In late 2023, it was decided to invest over 58 billion tenge in its development, with phased implementation through 2028.
The resort's main attraction is the "Spirit of Tian-Shan" zipline park: one of Asia's largest zipline systems and the third largest in the world. Seven routes spanning approximately 3 kilometers pass over a gorge at heights of up to 126 meters. Flight speeds reach up to 100 km/h — an experience far from a leisurely family walk. It rarely leaves even those afraid of heights unmoved.
Beyond the zipline, the resort offers rock climbing on natural rock faces, horseback riding, and the "Umai" ethno-spa in traditional yurts. A large yurt on the resort grounds serves as a restaurant — a rare format for these areas. The tree houses are built according to ecological principles and stand directly among pine trees: creating that very "tree house" from childhood, but with all modern amenities. In winter, visitors come for snowy slopes; in summer, for the zipline, horseback trails, and the cool pine forest air, which noticeably differs from the city heat.