Zhabagly is the gateway settlement — a quiet farming village of low whitewashed houses, fruit orchards, and family homestays. The village runs a community-based ecotourism cooperative, founded with Dutch development support in the 1990s, which channels visitor income directly into local households.
Most evenings include a traditional meal of beshbarmak (boiled mutton with noodles), kumiss (fermented mare's milk), and dombra music in the home of the host family. There is a small visitor centre with displays on the reserve's flora and fauna, including a photo gallery of snow leopards captured by camera traps.