Kyrgyzstan in April: where to go

April restarts Kyrgyzstan from the bottom up: orchards bloom around Bishkek and in the south, foothills flip from brown to green within a fortnight, and the red-rock canyons and low trails hit their brief ideal window — dry underfoot, cool enough to walk all day. Late in the month the wild Greigii tulip, a Red-listed endemic, flowers in the foothills for barely two weeks. Do not expect the alpine country yet: passes are snowed shut, yurt camps are still packed away, and Issyk-Kul is for looking at, not swimming. Rain showers are part of the April deal. In exchange you get empty roads, low-season prices and the mountains in their two-tone phase: green below, white above.