Cornelius Amann
October 06, 2026
5/5
Uzbekistan: the Silk Road, Karakalpakstan and the Aral Sea
12 days from Tashkent: Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, then the desert fortresses, the Savitsky Museum in Nukus, the ship graveyard at Moynaq and a night on the Aral Sea shore.
12 days · Round trip from Tashkent · up to 12 guests
Shelducks over the ramparts of Ayaz Qala, Karakalpakstan Photo: travelmag.com, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_pair_of_ruddy_shelducks_do_a_Ayaz_Qala_flyby,_with_two_more_perched_atop_the_ramparts.jpg)
The facts
At a glance
- Length
- 12 days, 11 nights
- Start and end
- Round trip from Tashkent
- Group size
- 7 to 12 guests
- Activity level
Moderate
City days of 5 to 8 km on foot on paving and uneven old-town lanes, a 15 to 20 minute climb up a sandy path to Ayaz Qala, and two long 4x4 days of about seven hours each on unpaved desert tracks to and from the Aral Sea shore. Two nights are in yurt camps with shared washrooms. You can sit out the fortress climbs and any free afternoon at the hotel.
- Meals included
- 11 breakfasts, 10 lunches, 4 dinners
- Room of your own
- + CAD 815 (estimated price)
- Season
- April to June and September to October
Highlights
Why this trip
- Shah-i-Zinda and the Registan courtyards at opening, before the tour groups
- The Po-i-Kalyan in Bukhara at golden hour, and a gold-embroidery workshop in the trading domes
- Two nights in Khiva, with a full day inside the walls of Itchan Kala
- Sunset on the mud-brick walls of Ayaz Qala and a night in the yurt camp below
- The Savitsky Museum in Nukus, Soviet avant-garde art kept far from Moscow
- Rusting fishing boats on the dry seabed at Moynaq, more than 100 km from today's shore
- Sunset and sunrise on the Aral Sea itself, reached by 4x4 across the Ustyurt Plateau
What makes this trip different
Free time is part of the plan
Free time and choices are marked on the days they fall.
Solo without the penalty
A room of your own is + CAD 815 (estimated price).
Day by day
Itinerary
Tap any stop on the map to open that dayClick any stop on the map to open that day
Arrive in Tashkent
Tashkent International Airport to your hotel in Tashkent
- Dinner
- Stay in Tashkent
- Drive about 15 min
Fly into Tashkent International Airport (TAS), a short drive from the centre, and a driver meets you in the arrivals hall.
Evening
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.
Included
- Pick-up at Tashkent International Airport (TAS)
- Welcome briefing with your guide
- Welcome dinner
Free time: Free until the evening briefing
Old Tashkent, then the fast train to Samarkand
Tashkent old city and Chorsu Bazaar, then Afrosiyob train to Samarkand
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Samarkand
- Drive about 30 min
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.
Morning
A few minutes away, Chorsu Bazaar fills its great tiled dome with bread, dried apricots, spices and pickles, busiest in the morning.
Afternoon
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.
Evening
At sunset we reach the Registan, three tiled madrasas around one square, and stay as the lights come on.
Included
- 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
Free time: Evening free after the Registan
Activity: 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.
Shah-i-Zinda and the Registan at opening
Samarkand: Shah-i-Zinda, the Registan madrasas, Bibi-Khanym Mosque and Siyob Bazaar
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Samarkand
- Drive about 15 min
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.
Evening
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.
Included
- 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
Optional experiences
- The Tomb of Daniyar by the Siab river, with a guide in the free afternoon, priced when you book
Easier option: Take the Shah-i-Zinda stairway at your own pace and ride in our vehicle between the sights.
More active option: In the free afternoon, walk up Afrosiab hill, where Samarkand stood until 1220, and visit its museum.
Free time: Afternoon and evening free
Activity: 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.
Ulugbek's stars, Konigil paper and the train to Bukhara
Samarkand to Ulugbek's Observatory and Konigil, then Afrosiyob train to Bukhara
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Bukhara
- Drive about 1 h
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.
Afternoon
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.
Evening
The evening is free: Lyabi-Hauz is where Bukhara comes out to eat.
Included
- 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
Optional experiences
- A traditional hammam in the old town in the evening, priced when you book
Free time: Evening free
Activity: About 2 hours on foot across the day on flat ground.
Bukhara from the Samanids to the emirs
Bukhara: Ismail Samani, the Ark, the trading domes and the Po-i-Kalyan
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Bukhara
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.
Afternoon
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.
Included
- 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
Optional experiences
- Sitorai Mohi Hosa, the last emir's summer palace about 5 km north, with your guide in the free afternoon, priced when you book
Easier option: 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.
More active option: 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.
Free time: Afternoon free
Activity: About 6 km on foot across the day, on paving and the Ark's steep brick ramp.
Across the Kyzylkum to Khiva
Bukhara to Khiva across the Kyzylkum Desert, by road or train
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Khiva
- Drive about 6.5 h
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.
Afternoon
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.
Evening
We reach Khiva in the late afternoon, see its clay walls turn gold at sunset, and sit down to dinner together.
Included
- 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
Activity: 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.
A full day inside Itchan Kala
Khiva: Itchan Kala on foot
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Khiva
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.
Afternoon
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.
Included
- 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
Easier option: Skip the bastion stairs and rest at the hotel after lunch; Itchan Kala is flat and every sight is a few minutes' walk apart.
More active option: Climb the narrow, steep stairway of the Islam Khoja minaret, the tallest in Khiva, for the view across the old town to the desert.
Free time: Afternoon free
Activity: About 4 to 5 km on foot on flat lanes, with stairs at the Kuhna Ark bastion and an optional minaret climb.
The desert fortresses of ancient Khorezm
Khiva across the Amu Darya to Toprak Qala, then Ayaz Qala
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Ayaz Qala
- Drive about 2 h
Morning
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.
Afternoon
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.
Evening
Dinner is at the camp, and the sky is dark enough for stars.
Included
- 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
Optional experiences
- A short camel ride at the camp, priced when you book
Easier option: Watch the sunset from the foot of the hill and the lower fort, which needs no climb.
More active option: Walk the full circuit of the upper fortress walls and down to the lower forts before dinner.
Free time: Late morning free in Khiva before we leave
Activity: The path up Ayaz Qala is steep and sandy, 15 to 20 minutes each way. The yurt camp has beds and shared washrooms.
Chilpik, the Savitsky Museum and Mizdakhkan
Ayaz Qala to Chilpik and Nukus, then Mizdakhkan
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Nukus
- Drive about 3 h
Morning
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.
Afternoon
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.
Evening
The evening is free in Nukus.
Included
- Chilpik dakhma with your guide
- Lunch in Nukus
- The Savitsky Museum with a museum guide
- Mizdakhkan necropolis and Gyaur Qala in late light
Easier option: View Chilpik from the foot of the hill, and rest at the hotel instead of going out to Mizdakhkan.
More active option: Climb to the top of Chilpik and walk the whole ridge at Mizdakhkan up to the walls of Gyaur Qala.
Free time: Evening free in Nukus
Activity: Short steep climbs at Chilpik and Mizdakhkan; the museum is about three hours on your feet, with benches.
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
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Stay in Aral Sea shore
- Drive about 7 h
Evening
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.
Included
- 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
Easier option: 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.
More active option: Walk along the shore and up the edge of the escarpment above the camp before dinner.
Activity: 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.
Sunrise on the Aral and the flight to Tashkent
Aral Sea shore by 4x4 to Moynaq and Nukus, then flight to Tashkent
- Breakfast and lunch
- Stay in Tashkent
- Drive about 7 h
Morning
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.
Afternoon
Lunch is on the way, in Moynaq or at a roadside tea house.
Evening
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.
Included
- 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
More active option: Swim or float in the Aral Sea at sunrise if the weather allows.
Activity: 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.
Depart from Tashkent
Your hotel to Tashkent International Airport
- Breakfast
- Drive about 15 min
Morning
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.
Evening
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.
Included
- Drop-off at Tashkent International Airport (TAS)
Free time: Free until your airport transfer
Activity: 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.
- Tashkent1 night
- Samarkand2 nights
- Bukhara2 nights
- Khiva2 nights
- Ayaz Qala1 night
- Nukus1 night
- Aral Sea shore1 night
- Tashkent1 night
- Overnight stop
- Day trip
- By boat or train
Wildlife and weather: 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.
Want this plan in your inbox?
Get the day-by-day itinerary by email, or ask us anything about this trip. A trip planner replies the same or next business day.
Before you book
Right for you?
Good for you if you want
- Travellers who want the Silk Road cities and the far west of Uzbekistan in one trip
- Anyone drawn to the Aral Sea story, Soviet avant-garde art and ancient desert ruins
- Those happy to swap two hotel nights for yurt camps in remote places
- Solo travellers who want a small group and fair single pricing
Not for you if you want
- Travellers who want hotels with private bathrooms every night
- Anyone who finds seven hours on rough desert tracks hard on the back
- Step-free access: old-town lanes are uneven and the fortresses involve sandy climbs
- First-timers who only want Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva: our 10-day Silk Road trip gives them more time
Book flights after we confirm your seat.
11 nights
Where you'll stay
Your hotels are named in your trip confirmation.
- Tashkent1 night
- Samarkand2 nights
- Bukhara2 nights
- Khiva2 nights
- Ayaz Qala1 night
- Nukus1 night
- Aral Sea shore1 night
- Tashkent1 night
One price
What's in the price
Included
Accommodation
- 9 nights in central hotels of a 3-star-plus standard: 1 in Tashkent, 2 in Samarkand near the Registan, 2 in Bukhara near Lyabi-Hauz, 2 in Khiva inside or at the gates of Itchan Kala, 1 in Nukus and 1 more in Tashkent
- 2 nights in yurt camps with beds and shared washrooms: 1 below Ayaz Qala and 1 on the Aral Sea shore
- Rooms shared, or your own for a supplement
- Hotels and camps named when we confirm your dates
Transport
- Pick-up and drop-off at Tashkent International Airport (TAS)
- Our own vehicle and driver for the group, including station and airport transfers
- Reserved seats on the Afrosiyob high-speed train from Tashkent to Samarkand and from Samarkand to Bukhara
- Bukhara to Khiva across the Kyzylkum in our own vehicle, or by daytime train on dates it runs (confirmed for your date)
- 4x4 vehicles with local drivers from Moynaq to the Aral Sea shore and back, about four guests in each
- Flight from Nukus (NCU) to Tashkent
Your guide
- A See Sight Tours guide with the group from day 1 to day 12, including on the trains, the 4x4s and the flight
- Licensed local guides in Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, and a museum guide at the Savitsky Museum
Activities
- Tashkent: the Khast Imam complex and the Uthman Quran, Chorsu Bazaar
- Samarkand: St Alexis Cathedral, Gur-e-Amir, the Registan at sunset and its three madrasas, Shah-i-Zinda at opening, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, Siyob Bazaar, Ulugbek's Observatory
- Konigil: a paper-making workshop
- Bukhara: Lyabi-Hauz and Nadir Divan-Begi, the Ismail Samani Mausoleum, Bolo-Hauz, the Ark, the trading domes, a zardozi gold-embroidery workshop, Magoki-Attari and the Po-i-Kalyan
- Khiva: the Itchan Kala walls at sunset, the Kalta Minor, the Kuhna Ark, the Juma Mosque, the Tosh-Hovli palace, the Pahlavon Mahmud mausoleum and the Islam Khoja minaret
- Karakalpakstan: Toprak Qala, Ayaz Qala at sunset, the Chilpik dakhma, the Savitsky Museum in Nukus, Mizdakhkan and Gyaur Qala, the Moynaq ship graveyard and Aral Sea museum, and the Aral Sea shore at sunset and sunrise
- All entrance fees for included sights
Meals
- 11 breakfasts
- 10 lunches: plov in Tashkent, Samarkand, Konigil village, Bukhara, on the way to Khiva, Khiva, on the way to Ayaz Qala, Nukus, Moynaq and on the way back from the Aral
- 4 dinners: a welcome dinner in Tashkent, dinner on arrival in Khiva, and dinner at both yurt camps
Not included
- International flights to and from Tashkent
- Visa fees, if your passport needs a visa
- Travel insurance
- Meals not listed above
- Drinks
- Tips for your guide, local guides and drivers
- Optional activities: the Tomb of Daniyar visit, a hammam, the Sitorai Mohi Hosa palace and a camel ride at Ayaz Qala
- Photo fees where a site or museum charges them
- Personal expenses
Extras
- Room of your own
- CAD 815 (estimated price)
When you can go
Dates and prices
Pick your start date when you request to book. We check that date and confirm it in your quote.
Prefer to travel without a group or guide? Ask us about arranging hotels, transport and city tours for you to travel independently.
Before you book
Booking terms
Nothing is charged now. Full terms and the cancellation schedule come with your quote, before you accept.
Business addresses
See Sight Tours Trips (USA): 3172 N Rainbow Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89108, United StatesSee Sight Tours Trips (Canada): 5305 50 Avenue, #1091, Red Deer, AB T4N 4B6, Canada+1-888-961-6584Guest reviews
What guests say
Reviews from guests on our day tours.
Jane
October 06, 2026
5/5
Susan
October 06, 2026
5/5
Tom L
October 05, 2026
5/5
MandL83
October 05, 2026
5/5
Darren O
October 05, 2026
5/5
Good to know
Questions
What does the Uzbekistan and Aral Sea trip price include?
Nine hotel nights and two yurt camp nights, 11 breakfasts, 10 lunches and 4 dinners, airport transfers, our own vehicle and driver, the high-speed trains, the crossing to Khiva, 4x4s to the Aral Sea shore, the flight from Nukus to Tashkent, your See Sight Tours guide throughout, local guides, and every entrance fee on the day plan.
How big is the group?
The small-group trip runs with 7 to 12 guests, fewer than the 16 most Uzbekistan group tours take. That size fits three 4x4s for the Aral Sea days, one table at the yurt camps and everyone within earshot of the guide in a madrasa.
Who leads the trip?
A See Sight Tours guide travels with the group from arrival to departure, on the trains, in the 4x4s and on the flight. Licensed local guides join in Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, and a museum guide at the Savitsky Museum. We name your guide when we confirm your dates.
How fit do I need to be?
Moderately. City days involve 5 to 8 km on foot on uneven lanes, the fortress paths are short but steep and sandy, and two days are about seven hours in a 4x4 on rough tracks. Every climb can be skipped, and the free afternoons are there to rest.
I am travelling solo. What does a single room cost?
A room of your own costs CAD 815 more on the small-group trip, shown up front before you book. It covers a single hotel room each city night and, where the camp has one free, a yurt of your own; you join every meal and activity as everyone else does.
What are the yurt camps like?
Simple and warm. You sleep in felt yurts with beds and bedding, usually two or three to a yurt, with shared washroom blocks and limited electricity. Dinner and breakfast are cooked at the camp. Desert nights are cold in spring and autumn, so bring a warm layer and a head torch.
Can you still see the Aral Sea?
Yes, but not from Moynaq. The southern sea has shrunk so far that the shore is now more than 100 km beyond the old port, across the dried seabed and the Ustyurt Plateau. We go there by 4x4 and sleep on the shore, which is why days 10 and 11 are long.
Why are some days longer than four hours of driving?
Three days break our 4-hour cap because there is no shorter way: Bukhara to Khiva crosses 450 km of desert, and the Aral shore is about 400 km from Nukus by road and 4x4 track. Each has regular stops and a sit-down lunch, and we fly back from Nukus instead of driving.
When is the best time to visit Karakalpakstan and the Aral Sea?
April to June and September to October. Days are warm and dry and the desert nights cool. July and August pass 40 C in Khiva and Karakalpakstan, which makes the 4x4 days punishing, and the camps close in winter, so we do not run departures then.
Do I need a visa for Uzbekistan?
Canadian citizens can currently visit Uzbekistan without a visa for up to 30 days. Rules differ by passport and change from time to time, so we check yours when you book. Karakalpakstan is part of Uzbekistan and needs no separate permit for the places on this trip.
How does booking work?
Choose a start date and request to book. We check availability and provide the final quote, itinerary and booking terms before you accept. No payment is taken when you send the request. Prices are per person sharing a room, taxes included: from CAD 5,095 on the small-group trip.
Can we travel privately or on our own dates?
Yes. The trip also runs privately for your party only, on a date you choose, from CAD 9,170 per person. If you would rather travel independently on your own dates, ask us from the dates section and we will quote the same hotels, camps, 4x4s and local guides.
See Sight Tours has been providing travel services across North America since 2006. Operating in 20 cities across Canada and the USA, the company specializes in small group tours that offer personalized, high-quality experiences for travelers.
Book your Tour
Get in Touch
- Toll Free1-888-961-6584
- Local1-289-271-9767
© 2026 See Sight Tours. All rights reserved.