Let me get right to the point. Orbita does not have to rely on its location. It is about a 30-40 minute walk to the center of Shymkent. Fortunately, Orbita Hotel has lots of pluses that more than make up for the walk to downtown.
Building & wifi
Orbita is not in a typical Soviet building. It is more reminiscent of an Austrian house. With many trees surrounding the building and a mini-garden, this is a nice place to unwind after a long day hopping around town.
When you don’t plan anything in advance, wifi is still very nice. Especially when it works without hiccups. Orbita Hotel has good working wifi. Fine!
Staff Orbita Hotel
The staff speaks English. That’s a serious plus in Kazakhstan. Not many people speak in English in Kazakhstan. Well few small words, but even young people we meet sometimes do not speak a word of English. So we were able to book a tour to Turkistan and explain what we would like to do.
Breakfast & dinner
Orbita Hotel serves a full breakfast. After eating this breakfast, you will get through the first few hours of the day just fine. We ended up staying at Orbita for 3 nights. As a service, they were eager to show that they could also cook vegetarian food. That’s why they offered dinner for free and for nothing. We were totally surprised. The food was really good. They even made vegetarian sushi for us. It was definitely at the moment the best vegetarian food we had eaten.
Rooms
The room we slept in was clean, fresh and large. Only the bathroom was comparatively very small. You could make coffee and tea and the minibar was well stocked.
Price
The price of the hotel was above our budget: 23,000 (about 60 euros) tenge per room. If you do not do this every night, then it is quite doable.
