The Five Stans of The Silk Road

This was a great trip. It was very full on but we packed so much in. The scenery was beautiful, the cities fascinating and the historical sites were incredible

Very interesting trip. The guides helped make this an enjoyable trip.

It was a totally fabulous trip that worked like a dream. Interesting, informative, we saw and experienced a huge amount.

An excellent trip, full on and varied. Each country has its own unique features; ancient architecture, futuristic buildings, wild mountainous scenery. Rifa, our guide was great, knowledgeable and helpful and did all he could to accommodate everyone in the group. Visiting 5 countries in 3 weeks makes for a busy schedule but experiencing the contrast between them is so worthwhile.

Excellent tour with plenty of variety - fascinating cities, wild mountains, and intriguing culture and history. Rifa, our guide, was efficient and knowledgeable, taking care that everyone got the best experience. Transport arrangement throughout were first rate: clean and with generous seating which provided window seats for all. The inclusion of Turkmenistan in this tour is questionable: Costly entry requirements, yet we were unable to see much beyond the superficial show of Ashgabat.

This trip was really good. We travelled through five ‘Stans’ i.e. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan and experienced a wide variety of cultures, geography and food. With a vegetarian diet we knew we had difficulties from the start. But the tour leaders really made great efforts to accommodate us. I must congratulate Explore on the coordination of pick ups by coach and other vehicles - excellent timing. Some roads were very rough, others as in Ashgabat were seamless. There were several long journeys. The hotels were fine. The nights in a yurt and under canvas were basic. But our reason for going was not the accommodation or the food, we went to a part of the world we had not seen before. The tour leaders really knew their subject and were clearly enthusiastic to tell us about their countries.

We waited a long time for this trip to reappear and it didn't disappoint. It packs a lot into the three weeks and covers a lot of ground by bus, train and an internal flight. Not for the faint-hearted, sometimes challenging, but very rewarding to visit these emerging countries. Altogether we had 4 tour leaders/guides who worked hard to make this trip go smoothly for everyone.