The Silk Road

This was a good introduction to Central Asia that packed a lot of experiences and information into 16 days including the natural wonders of the magnificent Tien Shan mountains, valleys and gorges between, lakes, forests , deserts and parks , ancient preserved and rebuilt ruins filled with history, and the bustling cities each demonstrating their uniqueness, history, influences and progression.

Varied and very interesting trip to three Stans of the Silk Road. Kygyzstan revealed beautiful scenery and traditional ways of life. Kazakhstan showed a mix of ancient history and modern city life. Uzbekistan was full of awe inspiring culture and buildings associated with the Silk Road.

As an Exodus staff member (Senior Consultant), I’ve been lucky enough to travel on quite a few trips but Central Asia has been on my list for years. This is an incredible trip visiting 3 Stans, and all very different from each other. The scenery and hiking in Kyrgyzstan was spectacular and the Golden Eagle experience was a real highlight. Uzbekistan was such a contrast to the first 2 countries and some of the sights were breathtakingly beautiful. All of the countries were fascinating in their own way and our guides Vitaliy and Dilshod were excellent! Both very knowledgeable and gave us great insights and the history of each place we visited.

I'm writing this two months after coming back. I've just finished my photobook of the trip and completing this made me realise how much fantastic stuff we saw. And how it's like two trips in one. Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan are based on mountains, open spaces and some walks. Uzbekistan is cultural, four interesting cities and fantastic Islamic architecture. It's great to have experienced both and enjoyed three new countries in one adventure.

A lot to see on this whirlwind tour,stunning scenery in Kyrgyzstan, busy Almaty in Kazakhstan and a lot of mosques,minarets and mausoleums. The included lunches and dinners were very good apart from the dinner and breakfast at the yurt which was very basic and tasteless,room for improvement. The eagle hunting demonstration is excellent something I won’t forget. The yurt stay was basic but acceptable,a bit chilly at night in June,the next morning there’s a 6km walk down to the red rocks,a very easy walk and very beautiful. The border crossing on foot into Kazakhstan was straightforward as it’s so quiet unlike the border crossing into Uzbekistan which was pretty chaotic. The Charyn Canyon was amazing,easy walk down to the picnic spot,you can either walk back or buy a ticket for a ride back up in a soviet truck. Both sleeper trains were 4 berth quite tight on space for luggage,first sleeper does have food and drink available. Uzbekistan was stunning but overwhelming with the amount of mosques,minarets and mausoleum’s visited in 4 regions,personally I wouldn’t have been bothered if Khiva had been missed off the itinerary a bit of a tourist trap.