Samarkand Cultural, religious and historic sites Trips

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 had a fantastic time! The tour was very well organised with an excellent guide. There was plenty of variety and a good pace. We also had excellent service from the team in the UK. Thank you!

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!

Overall another great trip with Explore with lovely well travelled fellow travellers. Uzbekistan was another interesting destination….stunning buildings against blue skies, lovely people, very safe and clean and no hassle. Our guide ( and all local guides) were undoubtedly very knowledgeable on historical facts. However, we are not giving 5 stars due to our preference on how much historical info we like/can take in. For us less would have been more. This factual overload took time meaning lots of standing around listening ( finding a wall to sit on if lucky) often with no coffee breaks. This had knock on effect of reduced time to wander independently - or energy / enthusiasm to do so when offered. At the art gallery at Nukus we had a guide who spoke continuously for 1.5 hours ( the whole time allocated), stopping at every picture. Have to admire her knowledge but for most of the group this is not how to enjoy an art gallery. We extended our Uzbekistan tour 2 days at beginning and 3 days at the end and thoroughly enjoyed this time. We had a guidebook but there is adequate info in English available at all places we visited independently. Taxis (Yandex app worth having) are incredibly cheap. Our Explore guide told us on day 1 that his itinerary did not necessarily match the one given by Explore and this was indeed true. Nearly everything was covered but often in a different order. There were some annoying changes like what was covered on the Tashkent tour as it meant we had doubled up on some in our independent time pre tour at the detriment of missing other options. It was a shame that in Samarkand the rest of the group missed the light show on Registan square. The change of hotel in Samarkand needs to be looked at for an upgraded tour, although our twin room itself was in fact very nice. A note on shopping for souvenirs…if you want a painting, buy in Bhukara for best choice.. Like most places if you see something you love then buy it - there was no guarantee you could buy everything, everywhere or have opportunity to do so. Exchange rate for cash was good at airport and atms available in cities. Credit cards quite widely accepted.

Fascinating tour covering Tashkent, Nukus (for the Savitisky museum), Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand. A feast for the eyes! Our tour guide and local guides provided very detailed information. Hotels were rather corporate in style but comfortable with good facilities.