Tashkent and the Mountains

Tashkent is where the flights land, and most routes give it a night and leave the next morning. This journey gives it two days. The first is the old city on foot, from the quiet square at Hazrati Imam to the domed hall of Chorsu, with the metro for the way back. The second morning is for the Museum of Applied Arts, the crafts of the regions under one roof. Plov follows at midday, when the city eats it, then the avenues of the new city, and an evening at the Navoi Theatre when the programme is worth it.

On the third morning the car leaves the city and climbs. Beyond the dam the Charvak reservoir opens out below the road, and Chimgan is at the top of it, 85 kilometres from the city and some seven degrees cooler. At Beldersay a chairlift does the first part of the climb, and the ridge above it looks down on the water and across to peaks that keep their snow for much of the year. For a quieter day, there is a walk by the shore. The night is spent up here. The fourth day begins with a walk before breakfast on the slopes above the hotel. The car stops on the shore of the reservoir on the way down if the season allows, and the day ends in Tashkent, in time for a flight or the start of a longer journey.

In season the resort fills with Tashkent on Saturdays and Sundays, and the road and the lift are busy; we put the mountain night on a weekday when your dates allow. Rooms in the mountains are in plain hotels and chalets, not in the courtyard houses of the old towns. From December to March the same road leads to the ski runs, which your travel designer can arrange instead of the walk. Taken alone, the four days make a long weekend. Set before or after the Silk Road cities, they are the natural beginning or end of a longer route: the quiet after a week of cities, an hour and a half from the airport.