Uzbekistan: the Silk Road, Karakalpakstan and the Aral Sea

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Tashkent

   Tashkent International Airport to your hotel in Tashkent

   • Environ 15 min de route
   • Repas du soir
   • Nuit : Tashkent
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Tashkent International Airport (TAS), a short drive from the centre, and a driver meets you in the arrivals hall. 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

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

2. Jour 2 : Old Tashkent, then the fast train to Samarkand

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

   • Environ 30 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Samarkand
   Détail du jour 2

   We start in the old city at the Khast Imam complex, where the library keeps the Uthman Quran, a manuscript traditionally dated to the 7th century. A few minutes away, Chorsu Bazaar fills its great tiled dome with bread, dried apricots, spices and pickles, busiest in the morning. 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. 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

   Temps libre : Evening free after the Registan

   Activité : The train time is set by the timetable and confirmed with your final itinerary. If it leaves early, we shorten the time at Chorsu Bazaar.

   

3. Jour 3 : Shah-i-Zinda and the Registan at opening

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

   • Environ 15 min de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Samarkand
   Détail du jour 3

   We are at Shah-i-Zinda when it opens, before the coach groups, and climb the short stairway into an avenue of mausoleums, most from the 14th and 15th centuries, faced in turquoise, cobalt and carved glazed tile. It grew around the shrine believed to hold Qusam ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet, and pilgrims still come, so we walk it quietly. 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

   Option plus facile : Take the Shah-i-Zinda stairway at your own pace and ride in our vehicle between the sights.

   Option plus active : In the free afternoon, walk up Afrosiab hill, where Samarkand stood until 1220, and visit its museum.

   Temps libre : Afternoon and evening free

   Activité : About 3 to 4 hours on foot in the morning, with short flights of steps at Shah-i-Zinda. Covered shoulders and knees, and a scarf for women, at the shrine.

4. Jour 4 : Ulugbek's stars, Konigil paper and the train to Bukhara

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

   • Environ 1 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Bukhara
   Détail du jour 4

   A short drive takes us to Ulugbek's Observatory, where the curved trench of a giant sextant survives from the 1420s, when the ruler and astronomer Ulugbek charted more than a thousand stars from this hill. 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. 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

   Temps libre : Evening free

   Activité : About 2 hours on foot across the day on flat ground.

5. Jour 5 : 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
   Détail du jour 5

   We go out early to the park west of the old town while it is cool. The Ismail Samani Mausoleum, from the 10th century, is one of the oldest buildings in Central Asia, a cube of brick laid in patterns so fine the walls look woven. About a kilometre east, the Bolo-Hauz mosque faces the Ark, its porch on slender wooden columns reflected in a pool, and then we climb the ramp into the Ark, the fortress where Bukhara's emirs ruled until 1920. Through the domed trading halls, where jewellers and cap-makers once worked, we stop at a zardozi workshop, where craftspeople stitch gold thread onto velvet in the Bukhara way, and at the sunken Magoki-Attari mosque. 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

   Option plus facile : Our vehicle takes you from Ismail Samani to the foot of the Ark, and you can watch the Po-i-Kalyan from a terrace cafe.

   Option plus active : In the free afternoon, walk the lanes of the old Jewish quarter and its synagogue with your guide's map, and on to Chor Minor.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free

   Activité : About 6 km on foot across the day, on paving and the Ark's steep brick ramp.

   

6. Jour 6 : Across the Kyzylkum to Khiva

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

   • Environ 6.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Khiva
   Détail du jour 6

   This is a long travel day, because Bukhara and Khiva are about 450 km apart across the Kyzylkum, the Red Sands desert, with no practical flight between them. The daytime train runs on some days of the week only, so we confirm road or train for your date with your final itinerary. 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. 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

   Activité : By road the drive is about 450 km and six to seven hours, over our 4-hour daily cap, with stops and lunch built in. The daytime train runs only on some days, so we confirm road or train for your date.

7. Jour 7 : A full day inside Itchan Kala

   Khiva: Itchan Kala on foot

   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Khiva
   Détail du jour 7

   Itchan Kala, the walled inner town of Khiva, was Uzbekistan's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, in 1990, and it is small enough to know by the end of the day. We start early, before the day visitors drive in from Urgench. Through the west gate stands the Kalta Minor, a fat turquoise minaret left unfinished in the 1850s. Inside the Kuhna Ark, the khans' fortress, we climb the Ak-Sheikh Bobo bastion for the view over domes and flat roofs. The Juma Mosque is one hall held up by about two hundred carved wooden columns, a few of them centuries older than the building. 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

   Option plus facile : Skip the bastion stairs and rest at the hotel after lunch; Itchan Kala is flat and every sight is a few minutes' walk apart.

   Option plus active : Climb the narrow, steep stairway of the Islam Khoja minaret, the tallest in Khiva, for the view across the old town to the desert.

   Temps libre : Afternoon free

   Activité : About 4 to 5 km on foot on flat lanes, with stairs at the Kuhna Ark bastion and an optional minaret climb.

   

8. Jour 8 : The desert fortresses of ancient Khorezm

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

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Ayaz Qala
   Détail du jour 8

   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. 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. 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

   Option plus facile : Watch the sunset from the foot of the hill and the lower fort, which needs no climb.

   Option plus active : Walk the full circuit of the upper fortress walls and down to the lower forts before dinner.

   Temps libre : Late morning free in Khiva before we leave

   Activité : The path up Ayaz Qala is steep and sandy, 15 to 20 minutes each way. The yurt camp has beds and shared washrooms.

   

9. Jour 9 : Chilpik, the Savitsky Museum and Mizdakhkan

   Ayaz Qala to Chilpik and Nukus, then Mizdakhkan

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Nukus
   Détail du jour 9

   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. 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. 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

   Option plus facile : View Chilpik from the foot of the hill, and rest at the hotel instead of going out to Mizdakhkan.

   Option plus active : Climb to the top of Chilpik and walk the whole ridge at Mizdakhkan up to the walls of Gyaur Qala.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Nukus

   Activité : Short steep climbs at Chilpik and Mizdakhkan; the museum is about three hours on your feet, with benches.

10. Jour 10 : 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

    • Environ 7 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
    • Nuit : Aral Sea shore
    Détail du jour 10

    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

    Option plus facile : If two long 4x4 days are too much, ask when you book: a second night in Nukus and a car day trip to Moynaq can replace the shore, and you rejoin the group for the flight on day 11.

    Option plus active : Walk along the shore and up the edge of the escarpment above the camp before dinner.

    Activité : About 400 km and seven hours of driving, over our 4-hour cap: 3 hours on tarmac to Moynaq, then about 4 hours by 4x4 on rough unpaved tracks with regular stops. The camp has beds, shared washrooms and limited electricity.

11. Jour 11 : Sunrise on the Aral and the flight to Tashkent

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

    • Environ 7 h de route
    • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
    • Nuit : Tashkent
    Détail du jour 11

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

    Option plus active : Swim or float in the Aral Sea at sunrise if the weather allows.

    Activité : About 400 km and seven hours of driving, over our 4-hour cap, with stops and lunch built in. Flight times change by season; if there is no evening flight on your date, we stay in Nukus and fly to Tashkent on the morning of day 12, so book an international departure after about 4 pm.

12. Jour 12 : Depart from Tashkent

    Your hotel to Tashkent International Airport

    • Environ 15 min de route
    • Petit-déjeuner
    Détail du jour 12

    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. 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)

    Temps libre : Free until your airport transfer

    Activité : Any flight time works if the day 11 flight runs in the evening; plan to be at the airport about three hours before an international departure.

Faune et météo : April to June and September to October bring warm, dry days and cool nights; on the Ustyurt and the Aral shore nights can drop near freezing in April and October. July and August pass 40 C in Khiva and Karakalpakstan, and winter closes the camps, so we do not run the trip then. Spring brings shelducks and other water birds to the lakes and old riverbeds.

• Tashkent1 nuit
• Samarkand2 nuits
• Bukhara2 nuits
• Khiva2 nuits
• Ayaz Qala1 nuit
• Nukus1 nuit
• Aral Sea shore1 nuit
• Tashkent1 nuit