Uzbekistan Heritage

Arrival at Tashkent International Airport, where your private driver meets you with a name board and takes you to your superior hotel in the centre of the capital. The rest of the day is free to rest after the flight. In the evening you might take a first walk to Amir Timur Square or try your first plov in one of Tashkent’s famous plov centres. Your guide will call to confirm the plan for the following days.

Khast Imam Square and the Museum of Islamic Civilisation, home of the 7th-century Othman Quran, and the Chorsu bazaar. In the afternoon the Earthquake Memorial, Independence Square, the Romanov Palace, the Navoi Opera House and Amir Timur Square. Optional ride on the decorated Tashkent metro.

Morning flight to Urgench and 40 minutes’ drive to Khiva. In the walled Ichan Kala (UNESCO): Kunya Ark, Kalta Minor, the Muhammad Amin Khan madrasah, the Juma Mosque and the Islam Khodja minaret. After a rest, Tash Khauli Palace, the Pahlavan Mahmud Mausoleum and the Alla Kuli Khan madrasah and caravanserai.

A road trip of about six hours along the historic caravan route through the Kyzylkum, the “Red Sands” desert, in the comfort of your private minivan. The landscape turns from the oasis of Khiva to endless dunes, saxaul bushes and the wide valley of the Amu Darya, where caravans once linked China with the Mediterranean. If the new high-speed train between Khiva and Bukhara runs on your date, we take it instead (07:20–10:40). Arrival in Bukhara and free time around Lyabi Hauz.

The Ismail Samani Mausoleum with its woven brickwork, Chashma Ayub, Bolo Hauz, the Ark and the Poi Kalon ensemble — the Kalon minaret that survived Genghis Khan, the Kalon Mosque, Miri Arab and the Ulugh Beg madrasah. In the afternoon the 15th–16th-century trading domes and an ikat workshop, then Magoki Attori, Lyabi Hauz and the old Jewish Quarter.

A second, slower day in Bukhara. We drive to the shrine of Bahauddin Naqshband, born here around 1318, whose Naqshbandi order shaped Sufism across the Islamic world — pilgrims still walk around the old mulberry tree in the courtyard. Then Sitorai Mokhi Khosa, the summer residence of the last emirs, where Eastern ornament meets the taste of the Russian court. Back in town, a short walk to the hidden Chor Minor, whose four turquoise-capped towers stand in a quiet residential lane.

A free morning for a last coffee by Lyabi Hauz, shopping in the trading domes or a visit to a hammam. Check-out around noon, and at 14:00 your driver takes you to the station for the Afrosiyob high-speed train in business class (15:15–17:30). In just over two hours you cross from Bukhara to Samarkand, where you are met at the station and taken to your hotel for the evening.

A full day in the city of Timur. The Registan — the madrasahs of Ulugh Beg, Sher-Dor with its lions and suns and the gilded Tilya-Kori — is one of the most magnificent squares in the world. We continue to the vast Bibi-Khanym Mosque and, after lunch, to Shah-i-Zinda, the “Living King”, an avenue of mausoleums in dazzling blue tilework and a place of pilgrimage. In the evening, the azure dome of Gur-e-Amir, the tomb of Timur and his descendants.

The 15th-century Observatory of Ulugh Beg with its gigantic meridian arc, the Mausoleum of St Daniel, revered by Muslims, Christians and Jews, and the village of Konigil, where paper is still made from mulberry bark as in the Middle Ages. At the Siab bazaar you can taste dried apricots, almonds and the famous Samarkand bread. In the afternoon the business-class train takes us back to Tashkent.

A drive of about two hours to the Western Tian Shan. The Amirsoy gondola rises to 2,290–2,494 m with 360° views of the peaks. We continue to the Chimgan valley, below Greater Chimgan (3,309 m), and down the serpentines to the turquoise Charvak reservoir. Return to Tashkent in the late afternoon and transfer to the airport for an evening flight.