It may not be the most immediately obvious travel destination planted on your radar, but with direct four-hour flights from Dubai, Kazakhstan’s first city is worth a gander.

THURSDAY

Upon arrival at Astana International Airport make sure all your papers are in order, because getting a visa on arrival can be a pain and is barred for some nationalities. Best sort it out in the Emirates before you fly.

Journey out into what will be the extremely cold weather at the moment and have a somewhat surprising/ slightly patronising revelation that this is a thoroughly modern nation complete with many heated luxury western cars to take you into town. In short, Borat lied.

Check into your hotel and, if you’re not staying there, head to the Rixos President Astana in the administrative district. Boasting many restaurants serving international cuisine and even an Irish pub that for some reason does a fine line in shisha, it is an opulent environment to get you settled in.

You could even finish off the night with a massage at the Royal spa if the flight left you with a few aches and pains.

FRIDAY

Having been named the capital city and subsequently experiencing a resulting construction boom in 1997, Astana is an ultra-contemporary town with sweeping boulevards and architecture to match. Imagine Dubai if it were a bit colder with less sand and you’ll get the picture. However, as with most new cities, public transport is the last thing to be put in place, so taxis are the popular mode of transport for tourists. Take a taxi down to First Street’s Palace of Peace and Reconciliation. A pyramid with stain-glassed doves on the window, the building often plays host to multi-faith conferences and is the home of Astana’s philharmonic orchestra who perform in the theatre on the ground floor. The conference room on the top floor offers some of the best views of the city.

Just over the road is Astana’s foremost museum housed in the President’s Culture Centre. Containing exhibitions about Kazakhstan from the 14^th century onwards, an art gallery and a cracking gift shop, it’s one for the culture vultures and those dragged along with them alike.

Lunchtime and there’s nowhere better to go than Astana’s newest attraction, the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Centre. An all-encompassing mall set in a 150-metre high tent, the centre offers all types of cuisines, from Italian to Asian to American, for even the pickiest eater.

Continue around the Khan Shatyr Centre. This awe-inspiring complex is the brainchild of renowned British architect Sir Norman Foster. In keeping with Astana’s futuristic aesthetic, technically being classed as a tent, the structure also harks back to the country’s nomad traditions. However, that is where any allusions to the past begin and end, for inside is a consumer’s paradise and theme park rolled into one. Take a trip on the indoor railway, play state-of-the art video games or (and we know travellers from the Emirates will especially love this one) browse the hundreds of high-end stores you’d find along any major shopping street in the world.

Once you’ve bought more than you can carry it’s time to head to the top floor of the Khan Shatyr to take advantage of the indoor beach. While the temperatures dip below freezing outside, enjoy the sand between your toes, the warm water lapping by your side and a smooth drink from a coconut, and try to get your head round the fact that you managed to stumble across a tropical paradise only a few hundred miles from the central Russian border.

Time to eat again and if you’ve managed to drag yourself away from the Entertainment Centre’s vast array of restaurants then make your way to the Beijing Palace’s (formerly and more commonly known as the Peking Palace) revolving restaurant. Offering 360-degree views of the city, it is one of the best places to try the local meat of choice, horse.

If you’ve got any energy left, or you just like to let your hair down and dance the night away, there is only one destination you need to know about. Chocolate nightclub in the Radisson Hotel is as hip and trendy as they come. Make sure to spruce yourself up and dress to impress because the bouncers do run an unofficial ‘models only’ admittance policy.

SATURDAY

This is your chance to “go native.” While the winter months offer very little in the way of outdoor entertainment (meaning the central park, Akvapark, and its daily festivities and market will not be running) there is plenty to do indoors. A trip to the Fine Art Museum on the Respublika has a small permanent collection, but many extensive temporary exhibits.

No trip to Astana would be complete without a quick squint at the Baiterek Monument. Even if you have to drive by if it is too cold, the Baiterek is a symbol of Kazakh philosophy. It embodies the legend of the mythical Samruk bird that once laid a golden egg containing the secrets of human desire and happiness in a tall tree out of reach.

Try out one of the local restaurants near to the Baiterek. English is generally understood, but failing that, resort to pointing and ludicrous hand gestures. Do not, however, use the phrases, “jagshemash, great success,” or, “is nice.” Whatever your views on comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s fictional Kazakhstani reporter, the residents have heard about it and do not find it funny.