From Tashkent to Khiva, through Samarkand and Bukhara — and a night in a yurt in the Kyzylkum desert. One guide, from the first day to the last.
You land in Tashkent and fly home from Urgench: seven stops, never the same road twice.
The tour in figuresPick a stop to see it on the map.
Pick a day: visits, road, meals and hotel.
Day 01. Overnight Turkish Airlines flight via Istanbul. Dinner and night on board.
Day 02. Independence Square, Amir Timur Square, the Alisher Navoi opera house, the museum of applied arts and the metro — every station has its own theme. In the evening: plov in a family home with live music, then the city lit up.
Fast Afrosiyob train in the morning. In the afternoon, the three madrasas of the Registan — Ulugh Beg, Sher-Dor, Tilla-Kari — the Ulugh Beg observatory, the Afrosiab site and the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis.
Bibi-Khanym and the main bazaar, Gur-e-Amir where Tamerlane lies, St Alexis church, the silk paper workshop. Dinner in a family home, then back to the Registan lit at night.
170 km south: Tamerlane’s birthplace. The Ak-Saray palace, the Kok-Gumbaz mosque, the Gumbazi-Sayidan mausoleum. Lunch in a family home. Back over the pass by car — the road is closed to coaches.
Alexander the Great’s fortress and the Hassan and Hussein mosque. In the afternoon, the Kyzylkum dunes on Bactrian camels. Dinner under the open sky with Akyn singing, night in a yurt.
The workshop of the ceramicist Alisher Nazrullaev, in his own home. The Rabat-i-Malik caravanserai, the Karmana cistern, then the Vobkent minaret — 39 metres, standing since the 12th century.
Day 08. Po-i-Kalyan and its minaret, the Chashma Ayub mausoleum, the trading domes of the jewellers and money changers, the Magoki-Attari mosque built over a Zoroastrian temple. Dinner on a terrace facing the old town, lit up.
Day 09. The Ark citadel, Bolo-Hauz, the great market, the Ismail Samani mausoleum, the Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa summer palace, the Bahouddin Naqshband complex. In the evening: music and a costume show at the Nodir Devonbegi madrasa.
Day 10. 460 km across the Kyzylkum along the Amu Darya, between sand and cotton plains. Arrival in the late afternoon.
The whole of Itchan Kala: Kunya-Ark, the Ak-Sheikh Bobo tower, the Muhammad Rahim Khan and Islam Khodja madrasas, the Kalta-Minor minaret, the Juma mosque and its carved wooden columns. Lunch inside an old madrasa, farewell dinner with a show.
Breakfast, transfer to the airport, flight home via Istanbul.
Everything that happens in Uzbekistan is included. The rest is written down in black and white.
3★ hotels chosen for their location, within walking distance of the old towns. Final hotel confirmed one month before departure.
Wyndham Garden 3★ · Krokus Plaza 3★
Ideal 3★ · Malika 3★ · Zilol Bakht 3★
Yourtes · 5–6 pers.
Iman 3★ · Mihrob 3★ · Komil 3★
Darvaza 3★ · Malika Kheivak 3★ · Anor Qala 3★
Guaranteed departures April to October, from €1,110 per person, everything included on the ground.
