Ashgabat Cultural, religious and historic sites Trips

Excellent holiday, fascinating destinations. Group was very friendly and we laughed a lot. I would have liked an extra day in Tashkent not necessarily part of the tour as both countries felt very safe but maybe as a suggestion at the time of booking.

Overall, this was an excellent trip and one of the best I have done with Explore over very many years. It was certainly helped by having a good, small group and two superb leaders (one in each country), who were extremely knowledgeable and very personable. The local guides were also outstanding. The sights were extraordinary (the Islamic architecture is simply breath-taking), the people were lovely and I did not mind the long drives (on spacious air conditioned coaches) or the 9.5 hour train journey. to Samarkand As expected, the trip’s pace was full-on. As a group we took advantage of the optional extras offered and I would recommend that others seriously consider those too, especially the spectacular Uzbek music and dance show at the Grand Hall in Samarkand. Hotel accommodation was better than I had expected and generally pretty good. If I have a criticism it is that the trip should perhaps be a day longer. It would have been nice to have spent more time in Khiva and the last day in Tashkent was too long, tiring and rushed. Thankfully, I had booked an extra day in the city, although others had early morning flights. While Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are very different, I much preferred the time we spent in the latter.

This was a trip of a lifetime and the itinerary and guides were exceptional. My only criticism would be to make the booking of the tour easier. Living on the west coast of Canada I had a very difficult time reaching G agents. The chat bot was not live and after waiting in a queue of 8, I was disconnected. It would be good to say how long the expected phone wait is and to know the approximate time of the call back. It was often an almost all day effort to get a question answered. Roxanne is amazing but with a 9 hour time change it was often difficult to reach her even by email. The only glitch was the day room we though we had booked for arrival in Biskek - a place for 3 of us to rest and freshen up after our overnight flight. Instead two rooms were booked and ready and I had to wait several hours to sort out the reservation confusion. The transfer for 3 was great though.

This was a wonderful tour in an amazing part of the world, with stunning varied scenery, friendly people, and beautiful ancient buildings. Our G Adventures tour was excellent, and this company will be the first I consider for future travels.

The tour was fantastic, the sites were amazing, the CEOs were exceptional and the pace was very good. All the group participants were very friendly and the camaraderie was probably the best ever experienced in all 10 of my "G" trips. Sadly, I made a mental error which led to the theft of my funds. I accept blame for that mistake, but do not accept the unethical behavior of the hotel staff. This will leave a sour memory of what otherwise was a truly wonderful tour.

My first organised trip and I enjoyed it more than I expected to! This was mostly due to the guides and fellow members of the group being such nice people!