The Silk Road

Guide

The group will generally be between 4 and 16 people. We use two leaders on this trip. One for the Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and another for the Uzbekistan section.

Meals

There are 11 breakfasts and three dinners included. The only breakfast not included is after the overnight train. Common dishes in the region include shish kebabs and plov, which you’ll probably see plenty of. The kebabs can be from different meats, including lamb and beef, while plov is a rice-based dish (variants elsewhere are known as pilaf or pilau rice). Another main food is bread, especially in Uzbekistan where it is baked and sold everywhere. There are normally a couple of opportunities to try home-cooked meals. Tea is also plentiful, both black and green, and drunk with most meals and throughout the day. Please note, vegetarian food choices may be rather limited. If you are strictly vegetarian or have any special dietary requirements, please notify us well in advance. In this region, the availability of certain specialised products for restricted diets, eg gluten-free or dairy-free, is minimal or non-existent and we strongly recommend you bring these specialised dietary items from home. Drinking water is included and will be provided in large containers – please bring a reusable bottle with you.

Others

Listed activities

Transport

In Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, we generally use minibuses, sometimes we may use more than one vehicle for the group. We travel from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan by sleeper train. In Uzbekistan, we have two high-speed train journeys, one from Tashkent to Samarkand and another from Samarkand to Bukhara.

Accommodation

This trip includes 10 nights in standard hotels, one night in a guesthouse, one night in a yurt and one night on a sleeper train. Throughout most of the trip, we stay in standard, two- to three-star hotels. On the train from Tashkent to Almaty, we use second-class carriages with four-berth cabins. The train was launched in 2017 and these cabins are comfortable, though not luxurious. Train travel has long been a popular way of travelling around the ex-Soviet Union and this is a great experience and insight into a different side of Kazakh life. We also spend one night in a traditional yurt camp in the Djety Oguz Gorge in Kyrgyzstan. Yurts are traditional housing for nomadic communities across Central Asia and are generally quite cosy. The camp has six sleeping yurts, each normally shared between four and five people and there are three toilets and one shower. Single supplements don’t apply to the night on the sleeper train or the night in the yurt camp.

Others

— Travel Insurance — Single accommodation (available on request) — Visas or vaccinations — Optional extension to Khiva

Flights

International flights are not included

Optional

Other activities and services are not included

Insurance

Travel insurance is not included