Uzbekistan
8-day tour in the heart of the Silk Road
April 2026
Why this tour?
This tour is perfect for you if you like to go deeper into the culture and the traditions of a place. With a relatively slow pace, we will stay long enough in every location in order to understand, live, and appreciate every single stop. We will interact with the people, spend long enough eating, sipping chai in the squares observing the life going by. We will get to know the arts as well as the history and modern life. We will travel by local train as much as possible and have enough free time on our own.
25 April- 2 May 2026
groups of 8 people (+ Alice)
8 days
Inclusions: all accommodations, breakfasts, ground transportation, sightseeing, entrance to sites, local guides, tour leader
Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara
€ 1280
per person (in a double occupancy room)
single supplement: €
TERMS & CONDITIONS:
Bookings open until January 30th, 2026. A prepayment of € 370 is needed to secure your spot; the rest of the tour cost will be paid within 30 days of departure.
Uzbekistan is in the heart of the Silk Road, halfway from the Far East and Europe, the land of ancient kingdoms, empires, khanates, brutal invasions, and the homeland of poets, artists, and kings. A melting pot of people, religions, ethnic groups flavors, art, and knowledge which is so clearly and proudly carried in everyday life.
The contrast, the harmony, the new and the old, the present and the past, the push towards modernity, and the strong traditions blend in a harmonious, unique, and fascinating.
Uzbekistan has it all: nature, history, architecture, arts, food, thousands of years old traditions, and that unique attitude toward guests that will make you fall in love with its people.
Uzbekistan is simply the perfect introduction to the ancient Silk Road trade routes area.
How we will travel
This trip has the perfect combination of free- time and guided experiences through the main sightseeing. We will explore the ‘must-see’ areas but also the less known, rural part of the country. It is a great introduction to Central Asia and its culture. The group is small and it will allow us to move and travel in a sustainable and flexible way.
We will travel slowly by trains and local transport, we will be visiting the old cities and diving into the extremely rich, diverse, mind-blowing history of the heart of the Silk Road. We will start and finish the trip in the capital of the country, a cosmopolitan buzzing city that combines its past, culture, and traditions with modern Soviet elements and a contemporary push towards one of today's biggest centers of Central Asia.
We will explore and spend days in rural areas and villages, trekking through valleys and hills, and getting to know the traditions and cultures kept intact by modernity. We will meet, interact, and learn with and from local families and communities. We will sleep in their houses. We will get closer and meet masters of arts almost forgotten in the rest of the world, we will cross deserts and sleep next to 2000-year-old fortresses.
We will travel and explore in an ethical, responsible way, having as little impact as we can on the environment and local communities. We will grab opportunities when they come, change plans when needed, and immerse ourselves as much as we can in one of the most fascinating, intriguing, happy, colorful, diverse, and deeply cultural areas of the world.
Some of the included highlights:
Visit the biggest bazaar in Central Asia
Get amazed by the stunning view of Registan Square in Samarkand
Visit artisans and masters of unique arts such as miniature, pottery, embroidery, paper making, etc
Use local trains
Learn how to make some of the local dishes
What’s included
The Tour cost includes:
all breakfasts (when not on a train), 2 lunches, and 1 dinner
trains and local transport
private transfers
Local guides
Entrances to monuments/ museums/ activities, when included, and local workshops
all nights in hotels and guesthouses
Tour leader 24/24 with the group
The following aren’t included:
Flight tickets
Personal (required) travel insurance
Not-included meals
Entrances and activities not mentioned in the itinerary
Souvenirs
Tipping kitty to collect at the start of the trip
Day by day Itinerary
(B= breakfast, L= lunch, D= dinner, LG= local guide)
Day 1 Arrival in Tashkent
Arrival at the hotel and meeting with Ali and the rest of the group before going to try some Uzbek cuisine
Day 2 Tashkent
First full day in Tashkent. We will walk through the city center and the biggest bazaar of Central Asia: Chorsu Bazaar. We will try the national dish at the Plov Center, visit the house/ studio of a master ceramist if we have time, and walk through the monuments and eclectic and brutalist buildings of the Soviet time.
Inclusions: B, L, LG all day, Entrance to Applied Art Museum, transport if needed and Metro
Day 3 Tashkent - Samarkand
We catch an early train to Samarkand and arrive at around 10.30 am. Transfer to the hotel, and after dropping bags at the guesthouse, we will start visiting the capital of the Timur empire and its breathtaking mosques and Madrasas. Dinner will be included at a local house.
Inclusions: B, D, LG half-day, Entrances to Registan Square, Bibi Khanum mosque, Shah-I-Zinda complex, Gur Emir, Train, and Public transportation
Day 4 Samarkand
In the first half of the day, we will follow the history of the Silk Road through blue domes, dusty alleys, and Soviet, breezy boulevards. The rest of the day will be on our own with the opportunity to visit some more places, attend wine testing, or wander around the Old City.
Inclusions: B, LG half day
Day 5 Samarkand- Bukhara
We jump on another train, and this time we head to Bukhara! We will arrive at around 15.30. Bukhara is all to be explored on foot, getting lost through its alleys and spending time in its ancient bazaar and mosques. Dinner will be at a local house
Inclusions: B, D, Train
Day 6 Bukhara
Full day in Bukhara, we will keep exploring the city with our local guide, and we will have lunch at the house of Davlat Toshev, one of the best representatives in the world of the art of miniature.
Inclusions: B, L, Entrances to Samanid Mausoleum, Ark Citadel, Bolohvuz mosque, Kalyan Mosque, LG Full-day
Day 7 Bukhara- Tashkent
A whole free day to spend in Bukhara and/or its surroundings… exploring its dusty, quiet alleys, driving to the Summer Palace of the Last Emir, taking a relaxing traditional Hammam, or visiting some local workshops and learning more about the folk arts and crafts of the region. In the afternoon, we catch a train back to Tashkent, where we are going to spend the last evening of the tour.
Inclusions: B, transfer and train tickets
Day 8 departure from Tashkent
Time to say goodbye to beautiful Uzbekistan.
Our private transfer will take us to the international airport. (check. out from the hotel by 12)
Inclusions: B
Why this tour?
Uzbekistan witnessed a rush in tourism popularity in the past few years. This is why you should visit before more people will discover its uniqueness and beauty. There is still so much to discover and explore behind the main popular sightseeing places.
After years of working and traveling in the area, I collected all my favorite places in this tour combining the main sightseeing and the less known and ‘behind the doors’ Uzbekistan is much more than blue domes and ancient trade centers.
The real heart of its people and culture is behind the muddy walls, in the courtyard of family houses, through the desert, and through the stories of its people. This is what we will try to discover on this trip. Get a deeper connection with places, people, traditions, and cultural aspects. We will spend time in cities and in rural areas, we will have dinners in local traditional restaurants and picnic while trekking through the rural Nurata valleys. We will immerse visit museums and fortresses in the desert.
A small group will allow us to do this and much more in an easy and low-impact way for local people and the environment.
We will not try to squeeze in as much as we can but we will allow time to slow down, immerse ourselves as much as we can in the place and its past and present, we will take opportunities when they come, and change plans when it is needed.
We will go with the flow but without skipping the main sightseeing places.
I designed this tour with responsible tourism in mind. This is why we will…
Stay in family-run hotels and guesthouses
eat at family houses and traditional, local cafes
Buy local products and artifacts from local masters after meeting them
Use local transport and trains to reduce our emissions
Spend time with different local guides
Use filtering or reusable bottles wherever possible