Upgraded - Treasures of Uzbekistan

Great tour, good hotels although 2 were out of town and involved taxi rides or the metro, 15 min away to get to the centre

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.

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.