Uzbekistan Tours for Experienced Travelers

A really enjoyable and interesting trip with a lovely group and very helpful leader, as well as local guides in each city. We learned a lot about the history and culture and travelled on all sorts of different modes of transport. Most of the hotels were excellent, but the one in Samarkand had been changed and didn't match up to the "upgraded" category on either facilities or location. I had a very small room without bedside light and very little storage space. Having said that, the other hotels were lovely! The meals included on the trip were excellent and there were helpful recommendations for the other nights, although most of us had guidebooks too. Worth doing some reading up about the Silk Road beforehand.

The trip was very well run with the tours and transport always smooth and on time. The guides were well informed and there were plenty of breaks and the tours weren't exhausting. The hotels were pleasant especially in Khiva and Tashkent. Our tour leader Fariddun was extremely helpful, well-organised and coped with all sorts of small and larger problems with ease and grace. He never seemed stressed or out of his depth.

Excellent holiday, fascinating destinations. Group was very friendly and we laughed a lot. I would have liked an extra day in Tashkent not necessarily part of the tour as both countries felt very safe but maybe as a suggestion at the time of booking.

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.

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.