Uzbekistan: the Silk Road, Karakalpakstan and the Aral Sea

Arrive in Tashkent

Tashkent International Airport to your hotel in Tashkent

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Tashkent
• Environ 15 min de route

Soir

Plan to land by about 4 pm to reach the evening briefing; the latest arrival time is confirmed with your final itinerary. Tashkent was largely rebuilt after the 1966 earthquake, so the centre is broad Soviet boulevards, fountains and parks, and it makes a quiet first evening. If you arrive early, walk to Amir Timur Square or along the pedestrian street locals call Broadway. In the early evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the trip ahead: how the trains and the 4x4 days work, what the two yurt camps are like, what to wear at mosques and shrines, and how each day is paced. Then we sit down together to a welcome dinner of salads, bread from the tandoor and grilled shashlik at a local restaurant.

Compris

• Pick-up at Tashkent International Airport (TAS)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Old Tashkent, then the fast train to Samarkand

Tashkent old city and Chorsu Bazaar, then Afrosiyob train to Samarkand

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Samarkand
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

A few minutes away, Chorsu Bazaar fills its great tiled dome with bread, dried apricots, spices and pickles, busiest in the morning.

Après-midi

Lunch is plov, the rice, carrot and lamb dish Tashkent cooks in huge cauldrons at midday. Then we board the Afrosiyob high-speed train for Samarkand, 344 km away, about two to two and a half hours in reserved seats, while our vehicle handles the bags. Near Samarkand station we step into St Alexis Cathedral, built for the Russian railway community in the early 1900s, its iconostasis a surprise in a city of madrasas. We check in near the Registan and walk to Gur-e-Amir, the tomb of Timur, while the late sun warms its ribbed turquoise dome.

Soir

At sunset we reach the Registan, three tiled madrasas around one square, and stay as the lights come on.

Compris

• Khast Imam complex and the Uthman Quran with your guide
• Chorsu Bazaar
• Plov lunch in Tashkent
• Afrosiyob high-speed train from Tashkent to Samarkand, reserved seats
• St Alexis Cathedral
• Gur-e-Amir, the tomb of Timur, in late light
• The Registan at sunset and after dark

Shah-i-Zinda and the Registan at opening

Samarkand: Shah-i-Zinda, the Registan madrasas, Bibi-Khanym Mosque and Siyob Bazaar

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Samarkand
• Environ 15 min de route

Soir

Then back to the Registan, which you saw lit last night, to walk into its three madrasas while the courtyards are calm: Ulugbek's from the 1420s, then Sher-Dor with its tiger-and-sun portal and Tilya-Kori with its gilded mosque, both from the 17th century. A pedestrian street leads to Bibi-Khanym, the vast Friday mosque Timur raised after his Indian campaign, partly rebuilt since an earthquake. Next door, Siyob Bazaar sells round Samarkand bread, nuts and halva, and lunch is close by. The afternoon is free to rest through the heat or browse the craft shops.

Compris

• Shah-i-Zinda at opening with your guide
• The Registan madrasas: Ulugbek, Sher-Dor and Tilya-Kori
• Bibi-Khanym Mosque
• Siyob Bazaar
• Lunch in Samarkand

Activités en option

• The Tomb of Daniyar by the Siab river, with a guide in the free afternoon, priced when you book

Ulugbek's stars, Konigil paper and the train to Bukhara

Samarkand to Ulugbek's Observatory and Konigil, then Afrosiyob train to Bukhara

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Bukhara
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

From there it is about twenty minutes to Konigil, a village on the river where craftspeople make Samarkand paper from mulberry bark by hand; you try a sheet yourself, then sit down to lunch in the village. In the early afternoon our vehicle takes us to the station for the Afrosiyob train west to Bukhara, about one and a half to two hours across cotton fields and the edge of the desert. Bukhara's station is in Kagan, about 15 km out. We check in near Lyabi-Hauz, the 17th-century pool under old mulberry trees, and your guide walks you round it and the Nadir Divan-Begi madrasa with its tiled birds as the light fades.

Soir

The evening is free: Lyabi-Hauz is where Bukhara comes out to eat.

Compris

• Ulugbek's Observatory with your guide
• Paper-making workshop in Konigil village
• Lunch in Konigil
• Afrosiyob high-speed train from Samarkand to Bukhara, reserved seats
• Evening walk round Lyabi-Hauz and the Nadir Divan-Begi madrasa

Activités en option

• A traditional hammam in the old town in the evening, priced when you book

Bukhara from the Samanids to the emirs

Bukhara: Ismail Samani, the Ark, the trading domes and the Po-i-Kalyan

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Bukhara

Après-midi

After a sit-down lunch the afternoon is free. When the light turns gold we meet at the Po-i-Kalyan: the Kalyan Minaret, built in 1127 and about 46 metres tall, the arcaded Kalyan Mosque and the blue domes of the Mir-i-Arab madrasa.

Compris

• Ismail Samani Mausoleum with your guide
• Bolo-Hauz mosque and the Ark fortress
• The trading domes and a zardozi gold-embroidery workshop
• Magoki-Attari mosque
• Sit-down lunch in the old town
• The Po-i-Kalyan at golden hour: the Kalyan Minaret, the Kalyan Mosque and the Mir-i-Arab madrasa

Activités en option

• Sitorai Mohi Hosa, the last emir's summer palace about 5 km north, with your guide in the free afternoon, priced when you book

Across the Kyzylkum to Khiva

Bukhara to Khiva across the Kyzylkum Desert, by road or train

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Khiva
• Environ 6.5 h de route

Après-midi

By road we drive the desert highway in our own vehicle, six to seven hours of driving broken by stops every hour or two, a view over the Amu Darya where the road meets the river, and a sit-down lunch at a roadside tea house. When the train runs on our date, it takes about six to seven hours in reserved seats, and lunch is bread, samsa, cheese and fruit bought fresh in Bukhara. Out of the window the desert is low scrub, saxaul and red sand, then the irrigated fields of Khorezm.

Soir

We reach Khiva in the late afternoon, see its clay walls turn gold at sunset, and sit down to dinner together.

Compris

• Bukhara to Khiva across the Kyzylkum in our own vehicle with a sit-down lunch, or by daytime train in reserved seats on dates it runs
• Lunch on the way
• The Itchan Kala walls at sunset with your guide
• Dinner in Khiva

A full day inside Itchan Kala

Khiva: Itchan Kala on foot

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Khiva

Après-midi

After the blue-tiled harem courtyards of the Tosh-Hovli palace and the green dome of the Pahlavon Mahmud mausoleum, we sit down to lunch, perhaps green dill noodles, a Khorezm dish. The afternoon is free to wander the lanes, watch carpet weavers and woodcarvers at work, or rest before the walls turn gold again.

Compris

• Itchan Kala with your guide: the West Gate, the Kalta Minor, the Mohammed Amin Khan madrasa, the Kuhna Ark and the Ak-Sheikh Bobo bastion
• The Juma Mosque
• The Tosh-Hovli palace
• The Pahlavon Mahmud mausoleum
• The Islam Khoja minaret and madrasa
• Sit-down lunch inside the old town

The desert fortresses of ancient Khorezm

Khiva across the Amu Darya to Toprak Qala, then Ayaz Qala

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Ayaz Qala
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

A slow morning in Khiva, then we cross the Amu Darya into Karakalpakstan, where the farmland of Khorezm gives way to desert dotted with the ruins of mud-brick forts and palaces, some more than two thousand years old. About two hours from Khiva, Toprak Qala was a palace city of the Khorezm kings in the first centuries AD, and its walls and the mound of the palace still rise over a grid of streets you can trace on foot.

Après-midi

We have lunch on the way, then reach Ayaz Qala in the afternoon: a fortress on a hilltop above two lower forts, its eroded ramparts the colour of the sand. We settle into the yurt camp below the hill, and in the late afternoon climb the sandy path to the top to watch the sun go down over the Kyzylkum, with shelducks often flying past the walls.

Soir

Dinner is at the camp, and the sky is dark enough for stars.

Compris

• Toprak Qala with your guide
• Lunch on the way
• Ayaz Qala at sunset
• Night in a yurt camp below Ayaz Qala
• Dinner at the camp

Activités en option

• A short camel ride at the camp, priced when you book

Chilpik, the Savitsky Museum and Mizdakhkan

Ayaz Qala to Chilpik and Nukus, then Mizdakhkan

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Nukus
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

Sunrise over the fortress, breakfast at camp, then we drive north-west along the Amu Darya. Chilpik stands on a lone hill above the river: a ring-shaped Zoroastrian dakhma, or tower of silence, where the dead were once laid out for the birds. The walk up is short and steep, and the view runs over the river and the desert.

Après-midi

We reach Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan, for lunch, then give the afternoon to the Savitsky Museum. Igor Savitsky gathered tens of thousands of works here from the 1950s to the 1980s, among them Soviet avant-garde paintings banned in Moscow, alongside Karakalpak jewellery, felt and costume. With a museum guide we take about three hours, which is what it needs. In the late light we drive twenty minutes out of town to Mizdakhkan, a hill of mausoleums and old graves where people still come to pray, beside the ruined fortress of Gyaur Qala.

Soir

The evening is free in Nukus.

Compris

• Chilpik dakhma with your guide
• Lunch in Nukus
• The Savitsky Museum with a museum guide
• Mizdakhkan necropolis and Gyaur Qala in late light

Moynaq and the road to the Aral Sea

Nukus to Moynaq, then 4x4 across the dry seabed and the Ustyurt Plateau to the Aral Sea shore

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Aral Sea shore
• Environ 7 h de route

Soir

This is the trip's earliest start, at 7:30, and one of its two longest days, because the shore of the Aral Sea now lies far beyond any road and sunset there is the reason to come. About three hours north on tarmac, through cotton fields and dry reed beds, Moynaq was a fishing port until the sea retreated after the 1960s, when Soviet irrigation took the water of the Amu Darya for cotton. Its rusting trawlers now lie on sand below the old cliff, and the museum shows photographs of the harbour full of boats. After lunch in Moynaq we change to 4x4s with local drivers, about four guests in each, and head out across the dried seabed and up onto the Ustyurt Plateau, about four hours of unpaved track broken by stops at the escarpment and the empty seabed. We reach the yurt camp above the shore in time to walk down to the water at sunset. Dinner is at the camp.

Compris

• The ship graveyard at Moynaq with your guide
• The Aral Sea museum in Moynaq
• Lunch in Moynaq
• 4x4 with local drivers across the dried seabed and the Ustyurt Plateau
• Sunset on the Aral Sea shore
• Night in a yurt camp on the shore
• Dinner at the camp

Sunrise on the Aral and the flight to Tashkent

Aral Sea shore by 4x4 to Moynaq and Nukus, then flight to Tashkent

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Tashkent
• Environ 7 h de route

Matin

Get up for sunrise over the water, the reason the camp sits where it does, and walk down to the shore. The sea here is far saltier than it was, and if the morning is warm you can float in it. After breakfast the 4x4s take us back across the Ustyurt and the old seabed to Moynaq, about four hours with stops, and from there it is three hours on tarmac to Nukus, so this is the second long day, and it is long because there is no shorter way back from the shore.

Après-midi

Lunch is on the way, in Moynaq or at a roadside tea house.

Soir

We reach Nukus in time to freshen up before the evening flight to Tashkent, about an hour and three quarters, so the long drive is not followed by another overnight journey. In Tashkent our vehicle takes us to the hotel for a last night.

Compris

• Sunrise on the Aral Sea shore
• 4x4 with local drivers back to Moynaq
• Lunch on the way
• Flight from Nukus (NCU) to Tashkent (TAS)
• Transfer to your hotel in Tashkent

Depart from Tashkent

Your hotel to Tashkent International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 15 min de route

Matin

Breakfast is the last meal of the trip, and there is nothing planned after it, so the morning is yours after the long days in the west.

Soir

If your flight leaves in the afternoon or evening, there is time to ride the Tashkent metro, opened in 1977, where each station is decorated differently, from the cosmonauts at Kosmonavtlar to the chandeliers of Alisher Navoi, or to see the Museum of Applied Arts in its carved and painted house from the early 1900s. Chorsu Bazaar is good for dried fruit, nuts and spices to take home. Our vehicle takes you from the hotel to Tashkent International Airport, a short drive from the centre, at a time set by your flight. Allow about three hours at the airport before an international departure. If you would like to stay longer, or add the Fergana Valley or the mountains east of the capital, ask us when you book and we will quote the extra nights.

Compris

• Drop-off at Tashkent International Airport (TAS)