The trip was wonderful overall where the history, architecture and sites were breathtaking in many of the places we visited.
However there are a many things that could have been done better to substantially improve the trip and overall experience. In particular the following areas:
1. The trip was advertised as "in the footsteps of alexander the great and the great silk road". the fact of the matter the trip hardly even addressed these 2 topics and was primarily an immersion in the ancient culture of Central Asia and too many visits to every Minaret and Mosque available. While that was very interesting in the beginning, it got old very quickly.
2. The cities of Bayson and Denau offered nothing at all and were a total waste of time. It would have been a lot more productive and valuable to exclude them and include the City of Termez instead. Whereas the cities of Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Shahrisabz (to some extent), Dushanbe, Khujand, and Lake Iskanderkul were
absolutely a pleasure to have had the opportunity to visit.
3. Hotels. The hotel choices by the local tour company in Uzbekistan were awful with the exception of those in Samarkand and Bukhara which were as advertised. The rest of the hotels in Uzbekistan including Tashkent were way below par in every category with very uncomfortable beds which consisted of nothing but box springs. On the other hand, the Hotels and Homestay in Tajikistan that were chosen by the local tour company there were absolutely amazing.
4. Food: The fact that the guides had to order for everyone without us even having a choice or looking at a menu was unacceptable, and frankly the food in Uzbekistan was below par in every restaurant we went to, while the restaurants and food in Tajikistan even with the food being preordered was generally good.
4. Program: The program including evening activities in Tajikistan was very well done, while the program in Uzbekistan was definitely way below expectations.
5. Border crossing: the border crossing between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and visa versa was grueling and very painful. as we were dropped off at each border and then we had to walk for a over a mile in insane heat and going from one painful checkpoint to another and stand in what can only be called a scrum at every checkpoint rather than a queue. The experience was awful. You should have figured out a way to have the tour guides move with us from one country to another with the same tour bus rather than switching guides, drivers and busses and having to deal with a border crossing that is essentially not suited for a vacation. I would never go on a tour that would require me to do that again.
