The Gur-e-Amir mausoleum in Samarkand at night, its ribbed turquoise dome above the lit portal.Arina Pan · CC BY-SA 4.0
Private travel across Uzbekistan

The Silk Road, planned by people who live on it.

Journeys through Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, designed around your dates and the way you like to travel.

EnquireView journeys
Our approach

Not tours. Journeys arranged the way you would arrange them yourself, if you had twenty years here.

How we work
Journeys

Routes to begin with

Each itinerary is a starting point. Add a day, change a city, upgrade the hotel.

All journeys
  1. The three madrasas of the Registan in Samarkand, floodlit gold under a deep blue sky.

    Kraftabbas · CC BY-SA 4.0

    8 days · Price on request

    Silk Road Classic

    The four great cities in one week: Tashkent, Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand, with a day across the desert and high-speed trains between them.

     Tashkent Khiva Bukhara Samarkand

  2. The mud-brick walls of Itchan Kala in Khiva under a clear sky

    Adam Harangozó · CC BY-SA 4.0

    11 days · Price on request

    The Grand Journey across Uzbekistan

    All four Silk Road cities in eleven days, with a night in a yurt beside Lake Aydarkul and a day in Shakhrisabz, the town where Timur was born.

     Tashkent Khiva Bukhara Nurata and Aydarkul Samarkand Shakhrisabz

  3. The rooftops of Itchan Kala in Khiva, minarets and domes above them

    Fulvio Spada from Torino, Italy · CC BY-SA 2.0

    15 days · Price on request

    Uzbekistan in Depth

    Fifteen days for the whole country: the four Silk Road cities with the desert between them, a day in Shakhrisabz, and the potters and silk weavers of the Fergana Valley at the end.

     Tashkent Khiva Bukhara Nurata and Aydarkul Samarkand Shakhrisabz Fergana Valley

  4. The Kalyan minaret in Bukhara rising above the Po-i-Kalyan square in afternoon light

    Maksimsokolov · CC BY-SA 4.0

    4 days · Price on request

    Samarkand and Bukhara Express

    Four days for the two most celebrated cities of the Silk Road, Samarkand and Bukhara, with the high-speed train between them and time to look rather than hurry.

     Tashkent Samarkand Bukhara

  5. Rishtan bowls, vases and plates painted in blue and turquoise, set out on the shelves of a potter's workshop.

    Enric · CC BY-SA 4.0

    3 days · Price on request

    Fergana Valley Crafts

    Three days with the makers of the Fergana Valley: the potters of Rishtan, the silk weavers of Margilan and the palace of Khudayar Khan in Kokand.

     Tashkent Fergana Valley

  6. Yurts at Yurt Camp Aidar, near Lake Aydarkul in the Kyzylkum.

    Benjamin Goetzinger · CC BY-SA 4.0

    2 days · Price on request

    Nurata Yurt Escape

    A two-day desert interlude between Samarkand and Bukhara: the sacred spring at Nurata, a camel ride and a night under the stars in a yurt camp by Lake Aydarkul.

     Samarkand Nurata and Aydarkul Bukhara

  7. The mud-brick walls of the Ayaz-Kala fortress on a ridge above the Kyzylkum desert

    Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France · CC BY 2.0

    7 days · Price on request

    Khorezm and the Aral Sea

    The far west of the country as a journey in its own right: the Savitsky collection in Nukus, the boats on the dry seabed at Muynak, the fortresses of ancient Khorezm and two nights inside the walls of Khiva.

     Tashkent Karakalpakstan and the Aral Sea Khiva

  8. Green slopes below the snow-streaked peaks of Chimgan in the western Tian Shan, north-east of Tashkent.

    LBM1948 · CC BY-SA 4.0

    4 days · Price on request

    Tashkent and the Mountains

    Two days in Tashkent and a night in the mountains above the Charvak reservoir, an hour and a half from the airport: a long weekend on its own, or the natural start or end of a longer journey.

     Tashkent Chimgan and Charvak

Sketch your own route

Destinations

From the capital to the Aral Sea

Regions with their own light, food and pace, joined by fast trains, short flights and the open road.

All destinations
The ribbed turquoise dome of the Centre of Islamic Civilization in Tashkent, tiled and lined with gold, above its carved stone façades.
Plane trees and an ancient Qur’an

Tashkent

The Tilla-Kori madrasa on the Registan in Samarkand at blue hour, its portal and arcades lit gold under a deep blue sky.
Blue domes over Timur’s capital

Samarkand

The Kalyan minaret in Bukhara seen from the square below, its brick bands lit by afternoon sun.Maksimsokolov · CC BY-SA 4.0
Two thousand years, on foot

Bukhara

The mud-brick walls of Itchan Kala in Khiva under a clear sky.Adam Harangozó · CC BY-SA 4.0
A whole town inside its walls

Khiva

The two surviving pylons of the Ak-Saray palace portal in Shakhrisabz, their tilework lit by the afternoon sunHassan Gangu · CC0
Timur’s birthplace, beyond the pass

Shakhrisabz

Yurts at Yurt Camp Aidar, near Lake Aydarkul in the KyzylkumBenjamin Goetzinger · CC BY-SA 4.0
A spring, a desert, a lake

Nurata and Aydarkul

A weaver at a hand loom in Margilan, bright ikat silk stretched across the framePeretz Partensky · CC BY 2.0
Silk and clay beyond the mountains

Fergana Valley

A rusting fishing boat lying on dry sand at Muynak, where the Aral Sea used to reachMarjonaKhidirova · CC BY-SA 4.0
Avant-garde art and a vanished sea

Karakalpakstan and the Aral Sea

Green slopes below the snow-streaked peaks of Chimgan in the western Tian Shan, north-east of TashkentLBM1948 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Snow, a lake, the capital’s mountains

Chimgan and Charvak

A tiled octagonal mausoleum in the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis in Samarkand.Bgag · CC0
Why travel with us

Uzbekistan rewards those who slow down.

Four UNESCO old towns lie within a few hours of each other, yet the country is best taken slowly: a dawn at the Registan before the day begins, an afternoon in a potter’s courtyard in Rishtan, a night under the desert stars near Aydarkul.

We arrange the hotels, trains, guides and drivers so that the days feel unarranged. What you notice is the silence inside a madrasa, the taste of apricots in June, the welcome in a Bukharan courtyard.

Our story
Your designer

One person, from first message to departure

Your itinerary is written by one travel designer based in Tashkent, who knows the hotels, the trains and the people, and who stays reachable throughout your journey.

Speak to a designerWhatsAppTelegram
Office

4G Ziyolilar street, 100170 Tashkent, Uzbekistan

+998 71 269-01-95

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How it works

Four steps, one conversation

  1. 01

    Tell us your dates and interests

    A message is enough. Rough dates, who is travelling, what you would like to see.

  2. 02

    Receive a day-by-day proposal

    Within one working day: a route with hotels and prices, adjusted until it fits.

  3. 03

    Confirm with a deposit

    We book the hotels, trains, flights and guides, and send you everything in one document.

  4. 04

    Travel with a private guide

    Your designer stays on call throughout, and adjusts the plan the same day if the weather or your mood changes.

Journal

Notes from Uzbekistan

Read the journal
Plov being served from a large kazan at a wedding, the guests holding out their bowls.Sinchalak Musulmon · CC BY-SA 4.0

· 5 min read

Plov: how it is cooked, and where to eat it

Plov is the national dish, cooked in a kazan in the morning and eaten by noon. How it is made, how Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and the Fergana Valley differ, and where and when to eat it.

A tiled octagonal mausoleum in the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis in Samarkand.Bgag · CC0

· 6 min read

Reading the tiles: a short guide to Timurid architecture

A few words and a few habits of looking that turn a wall of blue into something you can read: the parts of a building, how the colour went on, what the scripts say, and which tiles are old.

The mud-brick walls of the Ayaz-Kala fortress on a ridge above the Kyzylkum desert.Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France · CC BY 2.0

· 5 min read

The desert fortresses of ancient Khorezm

Between Khiva and Nukus the sand is scattered with walls two thousand years old. What they were, which ones to see, and how a day among them is arranged.

Begin

Begin your journey

Tell us when you would like to travel and what you would like to see. One designer will reply within one working day.

Enquire
WhatsAppTelegram+998 71 269-01-95