The Golden Road to Samarkand
Tashkent → Khiva → Bukhara → Samarkand
Tashkent → Khiva → Bukhara → Samarkand
Duration
8 days
Route
4 stops
Group
Small group / private
From
€1,590 pp
The journey
“For lust of knowing what should not be known, we take the Golden Road to Samarkand.” The three great caravan cities remain the most concentrated dose of architecture on earth — and Uzbekistan’s Afrosiyob rail lets you take the eastern legs at a civilised pace, leaving the Kyzylkum crossing to be enjoyed for what it is.
Met and transferred; plov at a chaikhana and the metro's chandeliered stations.
⌂ Tashkent Meals: D
Into the walled Itchan Kala — a preserved oasis city best at dawn and dusk.
⌂ Boutique hotel, Khiva Meals: B
Minarets, madrasas and the Islam Khodja tower's view over mudbrick rooftops.
⌂ Boutique hotel, Khiva Meals: B, D
The desert road the caravans took, camel-thorn to the horizon.
⌂ Heritage house, Bukhara Meals: B
Trading domes, the Kalyan ensemble and tea by the Lyab-i Hauz pool.
⌂ Heritage house, Bukhara Meals: B, L
The Afrosiyob express, then Gur-e-Amir — Timur's tomb — by lamplight.
⌂ Samarkand Meals: B
The Registan in morning light, Shah-i-Zinda's blue avenue and Ulugbek's observatory.
⌂ Samarkand Meals: B, D
The Registan once more at dawn if you wish, then rail to Tashkent and home.
Meals: B
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