Aqtau, or Aktau, was founded in 1963 as a uranium-mining town, but nowadays most revenues come from oil drilling. It sits on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea and the surrounding area consists of desert.

All of the town's water is derived from desalination plants and tastes quite awful. Aqtau was planned by Soviet architects and is laid out in a straightforward grid of wide streets, lined with universal apartment blocks to house the workers of the nearby uranium mines.

Fortunately the lake shore had perfect sandy beaches and Aqtau developed into a holiday resort for the Soviet elite. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, demands for uranium declined and so did the number of tourists.

Accommodation is widely available in Aqtau, but there are no decent roads into town and it is in the middle of nowhere. Supplies are usually flown in. Aqtau is 1,740 km southwest from Astana.