Where to shoot a car commercial in the mountains: roads and passes of Kyrgyzstan

For a hero drive with big scenery close to the capital: the Too-Ashuu pass and the Suusamyr valley, 2-3 hours from Bishkek. For tight hairpins and an SUV climbing a wall: the passes to Son-Kul. For a modern road by water: the rebuilt south shore of Issyk-Kul. For the most epic frame in the country: the Taldyk serpentine and the Alay Valley under Lenin Peak, reached from Osh.

1. Too-Ashuu pass and the Kolbaev tunnel (Bishkek-Osh highway), 122 km, about 2 hours. The highway crosses the Kyrgyz Range at about 3,200 m through a 2.5 km Soviet tunnel built in 1962; the old pass road tops out at 3,586 m. Snowfields stay on the slopes well into summer. It is the main road to the south, with up to about 6,000 vehicles a day in summer, so expect trucks and plan the timing.
2. The Suusamyr valley, 163 km, under 3 hours. Beyond the tunnel the road drops into a valley about 150 km long at 2,100-3,000 m: open grassland, herds and yurts in summer, a white plain in winter when temperatures fall to -40 °C. The place for wide aerials of a car alone in a huge landscape.
3. Ala-Bel pass and the Chychkan gorge, 252 km, about 4 hours. From a bare pass at about 3,180 m the road descends into a narrow gorge with spruce and a mountain river: two looks, from high desert to forest, in one drive.
4. The Toktogul reservoir, 349 km, about 5.5 hours. 284 km² of turquoise water among bare yellow-brown mountains, with a long curving road above the shore.
5. Boom Gorge, 146 km, about 2 hours. The road, the railway and the Chuy river squeeze through one narrow canyon of red-brown rock. The red canyons of Konorchek and Kok-Moynok are nearby. It is the only road from Bishkek to Issyk-Kul, so traffic is heavy in summer.
6. The south shore of Issyk-Kul, about 300 km, around 5 hours. The road from Balykchy to Barskoon is being rebuilt as a four-lane highway with a median barrier, most of it finished in 2026: fresh asphalt, the lake on one side, the red Skazka canyon and the Terskey range on the other.
7. The passes to Son-Kul, about 300 km, about 5 hours. Three gravel passes lead up to the plateau lake at about 3,000 m. Kalmak-Ashuu (3,446 m) is the gentlest. The 33 Parrots road over the Teskey-Torpok pass (about 3,130 m) has 33 bends and climbs 550 m in 5 km. On Moldo-Ashuu the road drops about 800 m in 11 km in a tight stack of hairpins, best seen from a drone. Traffic is herders and tour 4x4s. The passes open around the end of May or June and close with the first snow, usually in late October.
8. Taldyk pass and the Alay Valley, from Osh. On the Osh-Sary-Tash road the Taldyk pass (3,615 m) is famous for its steep serpentine; beyond it the Alay Valley runs about 174 km at around 3,000 m, with Lenin Peak (7,134 m) on its south side. Heavy freight to China uses the road. A tunnel under the pass is due to start construction in 2027, so the serpentine as it looks today may change.

The new Alternative North-South road runs 433 km from Balykchy to Jalal-Abad through empty high country, with the 3.89 km Kok-Art tunnel, the longest in Kyrgyzstan. In 2026 it was open from 1 June to November, daytime only (06:00-20:00), with a toll. The Naryn-Torugart road crosses the Ak-Beyit pass (3,286 m) towards Tash-Rabat and the bare plateau of Chatyr-Kul.

Car advertising has rarely come here: in 2016 a Moscow production company told Screen Global Production that Kyrgyzstan was used mostly by film and TV, not commercials. Off-road travel has: Netflix's Off Road (2025) followed a 4x4 journey across Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and a Land Rover Discovery media expedition in 2018 drove from Issyk-Kul over the Tosor pass to Kel-Suu and Son-Kul.

• Traffic. The trunk roads (Bishkek-Osh, Boom Gorge, Naryn-Torugart) carry trucks all day; the passes to Son-Kul, the Alay side roads and the new North-South road are far quieter. We plan driving shots around the traffic and include the arrangements for filming on the road in the production plan.
• Season. The high passes are a June to October location. Too-Ashuu is open all year, but snow, avalanches and restrictions on heavy vehicles are common in winter, which is also when the road looks most dramatic.
• The car. Traffic drives on the right and left-hand-drive cars are the norm; importing and registering right-hand-drive cars has been banned since 2015, so a UK- or Japan-market hero car needs a separate temporary import plan, which we work out with you early.
• Fuel. Stations are far apart on mountain roads, and in summer 2026 AI-95 was short at some of them, so fuel for the hero car and the tracking vehicle is planned in advance.
• Drones. Every camera drone is registered with the civil aviation agency, which takes up to 10 working days, so we start before you arrive.