Samarkand Tours and Trips

A well thought out trip with a great guide who is passionate about his country’s history. The only slight negatives would be the pre paid meals which were rather bland and repetitive ( I think we all would have preferred to chose and pay for our own), and the pretty dire food at the truck stop between Nukus and Khiva. Otherwise it was a truly fabulous and memorable experience with a lovely group and a perfect itinerary. Uzbekistan is a jewel., and we are now keen to visit the other stans! For Explore: more upgraded tours to more locations please! A better phone service (answering time far too long!), with a dedicated pre trip (with 24 hours of departure) line for information which had not been sent. Please advise about tip money paid to drivers etc. prior to the trip - none of us had the right amount of cash ready ( we were all prepared to tip the tour guide, but we were asked to provide cash for the others on the first day) .

This was an amazing experience. Umid was an excellent guide and very knowledgeable about his country’s history and culture. He went out of his way to ensure we got the best from the trip, he sensibly changed things round according to the weather. The hotels were great, some much more luxurious than we would normally stay in but we enjoyed them very much. The sights got more incredible as the journey went on, a photographers dream! Amazing architecture. We were with a great group of fellow travellers too who really helped make it a special holiday. Thank you Explore!

A really enjoyable and interesting trip with a lovely group and very helpful leader, as well as local guides in each city. We learned a lot about the history and culture and travelled on all sorts of different modes of transport. Most of the hotels were excellent, but the one in Samarkand had been changed and didn't match up to the "upgraded" category on either facilities or location. I had a very small room without bedside light and very little storage space. Having said that, the other hotels were lovely! The meals included on the trip were excellent and there were helpful recommendations for the other nights, although most of us had guidebooks too. Worth doing some reading up about the Silk Road beforehand.

I thought this was a great trip. The pace was quite fast but we had some free time as well. The Moslem architecture of the mosques and madrasas is stunning and I also greatly enjoyed the Savitsky art gallery and museum in Nukus, where we had an extremely well-informed guide. Uzbekistan is a very clean and safe country for tourists. As a female travelling alone, I had no concerns about exploring the cities on my own when we had free time. Our guide was very knowledgeable, efficient and pleasant, and everything ran like clockwork. We all particularly enjoyed Bukhara, where the hotel was conveniently located in the heart of the old town; it had a variety of interesting sights and a vibrant atmosphere, without being overwhelmed by tourists in the way that Khiva and the key attractions of Samarkand were. We were also lucky to be there at the time of the first Bukhara Biennial, which was an added bonus. The hotels at Tashkent and Samarkand, though very good, were located some way outside the city centres; at Tashkent this necessitated negotiating the underground and walking quite a distance to the nearest station when we had free time, while in Samarkand it was not an issue as we had no time to explore directly from the hotel. If you want to do souvenir shopping, I would advise doing it in Khiva and Bukhara as the options and time for this are limited in Samarkand. Bottled water is freely available in all the hotels and on the coaches. For anyone who enjoys almost guaranteed sunshine and warm weather (in September at least), comfortable travel in spacious coaches, beautiful architecture, and learning about the culture and history of this fascinating region, I would thoroughly recommend this trip.

Hotel selection would appear to be driven more by being coach-friendly than location. Difficult to self-tourist on foot. But all of the hotels were very comfortable, Tendency to overshoot the my-brain-is-full sweet spot by about an hour. Shorter guided and more free time would have been good (but the latter assumes a good hotel location). Before we started I thought the day in Nukus was filler. Post-tour I still have that opinion.. But a happy bunny. Glad I went. The local guides were all good and your overall guide, Djasur, was excellent - unfailingly helpful, informative, courteous, and patient. He was probably the major reason the tour was so enjoyable.

We Just got back yesterday from our Uzbekistan Tour. Our tour was Excellent! Uzbekistan is a wonderful destination. Extremely safe, warm people - big departure from it's soviet republic past. Excellent sightseeing, well organized. Restored monuments help you visualize the glory of cities like this as they stood in the 14th-17th century.Tashkent feels very modern city, Bukhara feels traditional and Samarkand seems to fit in-between. Tashkent is a nice city with it's own bit of history. We did Beldersay and surrounding areas from Tashkent, the cable car ride was awesomeWe rode the train to Samarkand. Gave us a chance to see the beautiful, rustic countryside at leisureThe monuments in both Samarkand and Bukhara are excellent. The restoration work shows them in all glory. Well done.The light show in Samarkand - Registon is spectacular. It's pricey, but looks like it goes on every now and then and bystanders watch for free. For a group, it is quite affordable ($150).The trip involves a bit of walking, all monuments are grand and need you to be on foot to truly enjoy them. You can do it at a leisurely pace.Overall, excellent program!