Classical Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan

Our Tashkent driver will pick you up at your hotel lobby and escort you to the airport for an early 1.5-hour flight to Khiva. Upon arrival, a local driver will meet you at the train station and escort you to the hotel. Nicknamed the City of One Thousand and One Nights, Khiva will captivate you with weathered clay houses and madrasahs dating back to the 5th century BC. 

After checking in, the guide will accompany you to explore Ichan Kala, Khiva’s inner city encased by towering walls that once protected khans, clergy, high officials, and wealthy merchants; common people lived in Dishan Kala, an outer fortress guarding against Turkmen tribes. Ichan Kala was deemed a museum city, the first UNESCO-listed site in Central Asia, featuring over 50 mosques, madrasahs, and mausoleums densely packed into a small area. Go past the grand Muhammad Aminkhan Madrasah and Muhammad Rahim Khan Madrasah, and you’ll then come across the Kalta Minor Minaret, whose unfinished look is accented by blue glazed tiles, overshadowing other ruins in Khiva.

Then, head east to Juma Mosque, a bungalow-style structure supported by 212 carved wooden columns with vine motifs. Our next stop is the Tosh-Hovli Palace, the lavish former residence of khans and their concubines, adorned with majolica panels, marble carvings, and colorful murals. After visiting the Pakhlavan Makhmud Mausoleum, we’ll conclude today’s sightseeing with Khiva’s panoramic views from the tops of Islam Khodja Minaret and Kunya-Ark. Finally, your guide and the driver will escort you back to the hotel.

► Activity Suggestion (at your own expense): 
How about finishing your day in Khiva with a magical sunset? You can climb the city walls at the northern gate of Ichan Kala for the best views or indulge in the cozy ambiance at a rooftop restaurant. Bathed in warm hues, treat yourself to local delicacies such as Shivit Oshi (noodles made with dill juice) and Lagman (noodles topped with lamb and fresh veggies). Khiva Moon and Terrassa Café & Restaurant are popular tourist spots, but remember to book in advance! 

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Hotel Asia Khiva (3 stars) or similar

Today, leaving civilization behind, you’ll enjoy a 7-8 hour private car transfer to Bukhara across the Kyzylkum Desert. Along the way, gaze at the vast crimson dunes and occasionally spot playful gazelles and ground squirrels. It will also be unforgettable to witness the Amu Darya River, a natural border between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, flowing along the edge of this world’s 11th-largest desert! Rugged desert roads may cause motion sickness, so you can take pills before departure and pack a neck pillow.

Upon arrival in Bukhara, you’ll be escorted to the hotel for rest. Stretching back 2,500 years, Bukhara was successively shaped by the splendid 9th-century cultural center of the Islamic world, the 13th-century Mongol invasion, and the 14th-century Timurid revival. Like Khiva, Bukhara does not rely on vibrant colors; peeling paint and cracked walls on ancient monuments add to its authenticity. Tomorrow, you’ll explore its most important landmarks with your guide. 

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Volida Hotel Bukhara (3 stars) or similar

After meeting your guide at the hotel lobby, start our Bukhara walking tour from the Lyabi Hauz Ensemble, which was an artificial reservoir but is now a local social hub, where ancient mosques and Sufi shrines interlace with modern restaurants, all shaded by lush mulberry trees. Passing by Bukhara’s oldest mosque, the Magoki-Attori Mosque, we’ll visit the Chor-Minor Madrasah hidden in the labyrinthine alleys, standing out with its four photogenic turquoise-domed minarets. Looking closely, you may notice a bird’s nest sculpture on one of them, a tribute to the storks that once inhabited the city, absent since the 1970s when the Soviets filled in most ponds like Lyabi-Hauz.

Bukhara will then reveal its Silk Road past with four Trade Dome Markets, vibrant with vendors selling souvenirs like carpets and jewelry. Out of the market, we’ll head to Ulugh Beg Madrassah and Abdulaziz Khan Madrassah, whose intricate portals have inspired many local carpet designs, followed by the Kalyan Minaret soaring over 45.5 meters (149 feet). Besides serving as a call to prayer, it is also a site for executions, nicknamed ‘the Tower of Death.’ 

Next, your guide will accompany you to Ark Fortress, Bukhara’s oldest structure, built in the 1st century BC. From its top, you can see the stunning contrast between the historic old city and the lively new city. Then, wander to the opposite Bolo Hauz Mosque to admire delicate wooden ceilings and meticulously carved pillars. After visiting the Samanid Mausoleum, a brickwork masterpiece built with 20 different arrangement patterns, and the Chashma Ayub Mausoleum, your guide will escort you back to the hotel.

► Free Time Suggestion (at your own expense):
Bukhara is also known for over 100 types of craftsmanship passed down through generations, including suzani embroidery, miniature paintings, and carpets. You can stick around to watch skilled craftsmen wield brushes on parchment with portraits, vines, and folklore. If you wish to bring home a miniature painting, don’t forget to bargain and examine the brushwork for depth and light reflection effects to identify hand-painted and printed pieces.
 
Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Volida Hotel Bukhara (3 stars) or similar

After breakfast, your guide and the driver will pick you up at your hotel lobby and head to the suburb of Bukhara. Today’s sightseeing will begin at the Summer Palace (Sitorai Mohi Hosa), the former residence of Bukhara’s governors. We’ll focus on its new palace, which features luxurious crystal chandeliers, oil paintings, mirrors, and colorful metals, reflecting its owner’s educational experience in Russia. Our next stop is the Chor-Bakr Necropolis, dedicated to the Prophet Muhammad’s three descendants. Then, we’ll pay tribute to the patron saint of Bukhara at the Memorial Complex of Bahouddin Naqshband. It is said that walking counterclockwise three times under the mulberry tree next to his mausoleum will grant your wish. Just try it!

Afterwards, the guide and the driver will escort you to the railway station for a 2-hour high-speed train to Samarkand, where your local driver will accompany you to a well-selected hotel upon arrival.

► Recommended Restaurant (at your own expense):
Once you’re settled, consider grabbing a bite at Restaurant Karimbek, open until 23:00. Although Plov (fried rice with lamb and veggies), Lagman (handmade noodles), and Samsa (crunchy pastries) are all enticing, save room for Shashlik, considered one of Samarkand’s best grilled meats. Don’t forget to make a reservation beforehand and download Google Translate to order.
Average Cost per Person: UZS 50,000-100,000 (USD 4-8)
Address: Gargarina St. 194 (at Amir Temur St), Samarkand, Uzbekistan, 140164

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Grand Samarkand Superior (4 stars) or similar

Samarkand surpasses Khiva and Bukhara magnificently, boasting mosques and madrasahs in over 50 shades of blue. This is contributed to Timur, who rebuilt the city from the ashes after the 13th-century Mongol invasion. After breakfast, your guide will meet you at the hotel lobby and accompany you to Registan Square, the center of local life. The three surrounding madrasahs showcase some of the finest tilework in Islamic architecture, with their surfaces covered in majolica and mosaics in sky and turquoise hues, a symbol of peace and cosmic harmony in Islam. 
 Tips: Every night at 21:00, a light show here brings Samarkand’s over 2,000-year history to life, accompanied by fascinating narration and traditional music. If you’re interested, arrive early by yourself to snag a free spot along the western fence for the best views!

Strolling north, we’ll reach Siyob Bazaar, Samarkand’s largest bazaar, where vendors call out for their fresh produce, homemade breads, and fabrics. Opposite it stands the Bibi Khanym Mosque, whose 40-meter (131-foot) high arch was decorated by alternating geometric patterns and Arabic calligraphy, revealing Timur’s ambition to consolidate Samarkand as a world-class cultural and religious center. The Ulugbek Observatory is also included in our visit.

From there, your guide will accompany you to Shah-i-Zinda Necropolis, drawing countless pilgrims as it is said to be the burial place of Qutham ibn Abbas, the cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. Heading east to Gur-Emir Mausoleum, Timur’s resting place, whose spherical dome has later influenced much Persian and Mughal architecture, including India’s iconic Taj Mahal. After that, your guide and the driver will escort you to the train station for a 2.5-hour train to Tashkent. Upon arrival, your Tashkent driver will pick you up and escort you to the hotel. 

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Wyndham Tashkent (4 stars) or similar

In the morning, your guide and the driver will meet you at the hotel lobby and explore Tashkent’s Islamic ruins and Soviet-style architecture with you. The first stop is Tashkent’s spiritual center, the Khast-Imam Complex, including the Barakh-khan Madrasah, Tilla Sheikh Mosque, and Mausoleum of Saint Abu Bakr Kaffal Shashi. It is highlighted by the Tilla Sheikh Mosque, the main site for Friday prayers, where the prayer hall and entrance are separated by special partitions for worship in winter and summer, decorated with intricately carved pillars and ornate painted ceilings. Then, we’ll step into Chorsu Bazaar and scour stalls selling exotic dried fruits, tangy pickles, and meats stacked high under its UFO-like blue dome. Take some time to observe local fashion: men often wear Taqiyah, a short and rounded skullcap, while women wear headscarves and bright ethnic dresses. Then we’ll visit the State Museum of Applied Art to appreciate traditional folk artwork from all corners of Uzbekistan, like Bukhara’s suzani embroidery and Khiva’s wooden carvings.

Next, follow your guide to hop on the metro built in 1977 at the nearby station and experience Soviet influence when passing by the Kosmonavtlar Station, a tribute to their space achievements with gradient blue walls and ethereal glass ceilings like the Milky Way. After getting off at Independence Square, we’ll hang around Amir Timur Square and visit the Earthquake Memorial Sculpture. Today’s exploration ends here, and your guide and the driver will escort you back to your hotel.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Wyndham Tashkent (4 stars) or similar

After breakfast, your Tashkent driver will escort you to the train station for a 4-hour train to Kokand. Upon arrival, a local driver will pick you up, and your guide will accompany you to the Khudoyar-Khan Palace, home to the last ruler of the Khanate of Kokand (1709-1876). Inside, only 10 of the original 120 rooms remain after the Russians took over the region, and some of them have been turned into museums, displaying lavish court life with exhibited jewelry and vases. Then, we’ll proceed to the spiritual and educational center of Kokand, Norbut-Biy Madrassah, and the Modari Khan Mausoleum, which differentiates itself from other Islamic architecture in mild hues with bolder yellow, red, and green tiles. 

After that, we’ll embark on a 1.5-hour drive to Rihston, which produces 90% of the country’s ceramics, and view a skilled artisan mold red clay on a potter’s wheel and create intricate patterns at a local workshop. Finally, the driver will escort you to the hotel in Fergana for check-in.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Hotel Asia, Fergana (4 stars) or similar

After meeting your guide and the driver at the hotel lobby, you’ll explore Fergana’s landmark, the Ahmad Al-Fargoni Monumental Complex, built to commemorate a revered astronomer who measured the Earth’s diameter with his colleagues as early as the 9th century.  

Next, travel north to Margilan, the origin of Uzbek traditional textile techniques, where some labor-intensive weaving is still performed by hand. When stepping into Said Ahmad-khoja Madrasah, you’ll marvel at its harmonious proportion and exquisite art of weaving, gold embroidery, and embossing showcased in past student dormitories. Then, you’ll be guided to Yodgorlik Silk Factory to delve into the whole process of silk production, including silkworm rearing, silk reeling, spinning, dyeing, and handloom weaving. 

Continue driving 1-2 hours to Andijan, the birthplace of Babur, who founded the India’s Mughal Empire (1526-1858). We’ll explore the Babur Memorial Park and Babur Literary Museum to learn about his lifetime and extraordinary literary talent. Before your guide escorts you to the local hotel, wrap up today at the Art and Literature Museum, where paintings and sculptures showcase modern Andijan artists’ creativity.   

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Toshkent Hotel, Andijan (3 stars) or similar

After breakfast, the driver will escort you to the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan border. While Turkic ancestors left grand mosques and mausoleums in Uzbekistan, they wrote Kyrgyzstan’s history among the Heavenly Mountains’ snow-capped peaks, vast grasslands, and alpine lakes. After passing through immigration, the Kyrgyz guide and the driver will pick you up and escort you to Osh, the country’s second-largest city.

Upon arrival, you’ll be guided to Museum Sulaiman-Too, which was carved out of the Sulaiman-Too Mountains to preserve over 100 petroglyphs found in caves, depicting sheep, celestial figures, and Zoroastrian relics like sacred fire altars and hunting tools. Down from the hill, let’s wander through the local bazaar, where Central Asian and Chinese vendors offer vegetables, dried foods, spices, seeds, and potted plants, a sensory feast with the sounds of bargaining and cart drivers! Then, you’ll be escorted to the airport for a 45-minute flight to Bishkek. Upon arrival, your local driver will escort you from the airport to the hotel for check-in.

► Recommended Activity (at your own expense):
Want a nightcap? You can hail a taxi on the Yandex Go app to Good Spirits Bar, open from 18:00 to 02:00. Choose from around 20 tempting cocktails, with watermelon and melon flavors leading the way, or the more refreshing draft beer, to pair with snacks like beef stroganoff and fried pork cutlets. 
Average Cost per Person: KGS 1,500-2,000 (USD 17-23)
Address: 136 Chui Avenue, Bishkek 720010, Kyrgyzstan

 How to Pay in Kyrgyzstan?
Major restaurants and hotels in Bishkek and Osh accept Visa and MasterCard, but cash is needed at small shops and bazaars, especially in remote areas. You can exchange your US dollars into Soms (USD 1 ≈ KGS 90) before leaving Bishkek, which may charge commissions.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Ramada by Wyndham Bishkek Centre Hotel (4 stars) or similar

After breakfast, your guide and the driver will pick you up at your hotel lobby and accompany you to Burana Tower, the last witness to ancient Balasagun, a Silk Road city active in the 9th-13th centuries. Although earthquakes reduced the tower to 25 meters (82 feet), the intricate brick decorations on its cylindrical body are still stunning. We’ll ascend to its top via the inner staircase to overlook the surrounding fields, the barren Balasagun ruins, and the Heavenly Mountains in the distance. If you feel it is too adventurous, visit the nearby small museum instead, which houses pottery, stone carvings, and ancient Chinese coins unearthed from the site.

Next, we’ll drive along the world’s second-largest alpine lake, Issyk-Kul Lake, to Cholpon Ata. Along the way, azure waters flowing under diamond-blanketed peaks and through white sandy beaches will unfurl before you. As the fields and villages along the shore give way to resorts and villas, we’ll reach Cholpon Ata and visit the open-air Museum of Petroglyphs, featuring over 1,000 stones formed by glacial movement and painted with wild goats, deer, cattle, and battle scenes.

Afterwards, your guide and the driver will escort you to the hotel in Karakol, a 3-hour drive away. Enjoy some free time to explore the city on your own after check-in. Don’t miss trying Ashlyan-Fu, a local specialty introduced by the Dungan people who fled wars from northwestern China in the late 19th century. It is characterized by handmade noodles served in cold soups and costs around 50 cents per serving.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Green Yard Hotel, Karakol (3 stars) or similar

In the morning, you’ll meet your guide and the driver at the hotel lobby and proceed to the Holy Trinity Cathedral, built to satisfy the spiritual needs of soldiers who came here during the 19th-century Tsarist Russia’s expansion into Central Asia. The original marble version collapsed in an earthquake, and a wooden one replaced it after 6 years, during which a yurt served Orthodox believers as a church. The Dungan Mosque awaits us ahead, whose upturned eaves and decorations of dragons, grapes, and pomegranates on beams and cornices show the Dungans’ Chinese origins.

 Tips: If it is Sunday, our first stop will be the Karakol Animal Market, where nomads from all over Kyrgyzstan flood in with their livestock in trucks, ready to trade. Please note that it can be messy and dusty, so you can ditch white shoes and wear a mask. 

Next, we’ll drive to Jeti-Oguz Canyon, famed for its red sandstone formations like Seven Bulls Rocks and Broken Heart Rock. Hike with your guide to the observation deck for panoramic views of seven undulating rocks that look like a herd of bulls huddling together. Then, let your imagination run wild at Skazka Canyon (Canyon Fairy Tale) after a 2-hour drive. The rock formations here present a more otherworldly beauty, with less vegetation and resembling everything from castles to wildlife. 

Following this, your guide and the driver will escort you to the yurt camp near Skazka Canyon. Tonight, fall asleep lulled by the unspoiled starry sky, with the gentle lapping of Issyk-Kul Lake.

Meals: Breakfast, Dinner
Accommodation: Royal Gate Yurt Hotel at Skazka Canyon or similar

★ Watch a Golden Eagle Hunting Show

Today, your guide and the driver will accompany you to unveil the country’s nomadic soul, starting from the golden eagle hunting in Bokonbayevo Village, which dates back to the 12th-14th centuries. These mighty predators will be hooded and then learn to echo only their owners’ commands, followed by lasting flying training. During our specially arranged golden eagle hunting show, you’ll watch in awe as a bird dives at an incredible speed of over 300 km/h, expertly targeting moving animal fur or a rabbit! As the whistle rings again, it will return and enjoy mutton as a reward. Moreover, under the hunter’s guidance, you’ll have the chance to wear the arm guard and feel its weight of about 6-7 kg!

Yurts are another essential element for Kyrgyz nomads. We’ll then journey to Kyzyl-Tuu Village to watch how local craftsmen build the yurt’s framework. They often use resilient birch or red willow to form a collapsible lattice wall and adjust density to complete a circular base around 5-6 meters (16-30 feet) in diameter, then link it to the roof by steam-bent rafters. Once the door frame is installed, the yurt will be covered with felt and canvas to protect it from the elements. Afterwards, your guide and the driver will escort you back to the hotel in Bishkek, taking about 4 hours.

Meals: Breakfast
Accommodation: Ramada by Wyndham Bishkek Centre Hotel (4 stars) or similar

Today is the last day of your Uzbekistan Kyrgyzstan tour. Your driver and the guide will escort you from the hotel to the airport and see you off. 

If you want to unveil Kazakhstan’s Charyn Canyon, Turkmenistan’s Door to Hell, or Tajikistan’s Pamir Highway, don’t hesitate to contact our travel consultants to tailor your itinerary!

Meals: Breakfast