Uzbekistan Tours and 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.

This is a trip of two contrasting halves, Kyrgyzstan for scenery, Uzbekistan for buildings. Difficult to assign stars when one half was a lesser experience for me. Kyrgyzstan was wonderful, stunning scenery, picnic spots, destinations. I highly recommend. The felt carpet making was very interesting. I recommend asking to see the golden eagle demonstration (an extra). Food was very good with plenty of vegetables. The walk to walnut forest is steep for the first and last 45mins. The track is high, exposed and gravelly. This was noted 7 years ago by a reviewer but the notes still not updated. You don’t need a sleeping bag or liner for the yurt camp, the bedding provided is fine. Accommodation good. Long drives but amazing scenery everywhere. We had an excellent guide who was friendly, knowledgeable and professional, thank you Aysulu. Uzbekistan - wonderful buildings, old cities and interesting history (but all has been extensively rebuilt). A completely different feel to Kyrgyzstan. The itinerary was as described however no excursions or information was given on the development of silk, wool or cotton along the silk road. This seemed a missed opportunity to me given the rich history and importance of textiles to this region. Would also bring variety to the roll call of mosques, mausoleums and madrasas. The yurt camp in Uzbekistan was mediocre and the long drive there and back not so interesting. Our guide was informed and friendly but there was some confusion at times within the group as to what was happening and when. She helped us enormously when we were sick, for which we were particularly grateful, thank you Maftuna. Yes I'm glad I did the trip to Uzbekistan but feel we could have organized it ourselves, (and searched out more textile history). Kyrgyzstan was perfect for a group tour and would be very hard to see by yourself.

An epic adventure full of jaw dropping moments & experiences: Desert to ancient cities, mountains, museums & a whole lot more. The scale, size & beauty of the architectural monuments alone is spectacular. An unforgettable(but tiring) trip..the people are very friendly, the food is plentiful & cheap compared to the UK & the artisanal crafts just exquisite. Be prepared for a tiring first 2 days especially, as jet lag will ‘get’ you & overall I think the trip should be re-classified as Moderate as their isn’t much down time at all & the middle 3 days (Home stay, overnight train, Yurt camp ) with a long minibus drive on extremely bumpy track is quite exhausting. Pack as light as you can (make space for taking some of the amazing textiles home)& comfortable travelling clothes. Take dollars & change them when you get there (not everywhere takes cards or dollars-Uzbek Som preferred). I do think that Exodus should review the itinerary if possible as the long road trip on very bumpy track was tough & we had a full size coach into the Homestay when 2 Mini buses would have been better as the coach really struggled to get through the narrow roads. Does the final section from Bukhara to Tashkent have to be by train??Travellers be prepared for long presentations by the Tour Leader when you arrive at a site (to be honest, these should be shortened as its very hard to take lots of info in when you’re recovering from jet leg). Hotels overall very good . An experience (or hundred) for a lifetime!!

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.

Very impressed and exceeded our expectations. Great group of like minded people that were on our tour and we all got on so well. With ages spanning over 30 years that’s a pretty pleasing result!!

What a lovely trip from start to finish, two very contrasting countries, Kyrgyzstan's scenery was amazing and the architecture in Uzbekistan was stunning. Special mention to Aysu Luu and Andre, our leader and driver in Kyrgyzstan, they couldn't do enough for us.