Our driver meets you at Tashkent airport and takes you to your hotel. Flights from Kuala Lumpur land at different hours, so we plan the first day around yours.

In the afternoon your guide takes you to Hazrati Imam, the square named after Abu Bakr Kaffal Shashi, a scholar of Tashkent who died in 976. His mausoleum was built in 1541–42, and around it stand the Barak Khan and Muyi Muborak madrasahs of the 16th century and the Friday mosque of Hazrati Imam.

Across the square is the Center of Islamic Civilization, which opened in March 2026. In its Hall of Honor, touch panels bring up more than a hundred scholars and thinkers of the region; the halls that follow lead from Sogdiana to the Timurids, and under the 65-metre dome lies the Mushaf of Uthman, a Qur’an of the 8th or 9th century. Allow two to three hours. The centre is open until 22:00, so on a late arrival we come in the evening and see the façade lit up.

Good to know: Tickets are sold for time slots, and we book yours in advance. The Mushaf itself may not be photographed. Cover shoulders and knees; women bring a scarf. More in our article on the Center of Islamic Civilization.

Overnight in Tashkent

In the morning the Afrosiyob high-speed train takes you to Samarkand in about 2 h 10 min. The station is more than 6 km from the centre, and your car is waiting.

In the afternoon, the Registan. Its oldest building is the madrasah of Ulugh Beg, built in 1417–1420, where astronomy was the most important subject, taught alongside mathematics, geometry and theology. The ruler chose the teachers himself, the mathematician Jamshid al-Kashi and the astronomer Qadi Zada al-Rumi among them, and lectured in person.

At the end of the day, Gur-e-Amir, the mausoleum completed in 1404, where Ulugh Beg lies a few steps from his grandfather Timur.

Good to know: Afrosiyob seats sell out, so we book the tickets as soon as your dates are fixed; we need the passport details of every traveller. After dark, if you wish, we take you to see the Registan lit up.

Overnight in Samarkand

Early in the morning, before the tour groups, Shah-i-Zinda. By tradition it holds the grave of Qusam ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad, who came to Samarkand in the 7th century. Around his tomb grew a street of mausoleums, most of them of the 14th and 15th centuries, and Ulugh Beg added the entrance gateway in 1434–35.

Then the observatory on the Kuhak hill. Walk down a few steps into a trench cut into the rock, and you are standing on the marble arc of the great sextant, with a radius of about 40 metres: one degree took up some 70 centimetres. Here Ulugh Beg’s astronomers measured the positions of the stars for the Zij-i Sultani, a book of astronomical tables finished in 1437, with a catalogue of 1,018 stars. Six centuries earlier, in Baghdad, al-Khwarizmi compiled his own zij, and his book al-Jabr gave algebra its name; your guide tells how this line of science runs from him to Samarkand.

Good to know: Shah-i-Zinda is a revered shrine: cover shoulders and knees, women bring a scarf, and speak quietly. Before you go, read our guides to Shah-i-Zinda and Ulugh Beg’s observatory.

Overnight in Samarkand

In the morning, the Afrosiyob to Bukhara, under 2 hours. Bukhara’s station is in Kagan, about 12 km from the old town; your driver meets you there.

In the late afternoon, the Samanid Mausoleum. The Samanids ruled from Bukhara in the 9th and 10th centuries, and their tomb dates from the time of Ismail Samani, who began his reign in 892, the year at-Tirmidhi died. It is a cube of baked brick about ten metres a side, whose patterns shift as the sun moves.

At sunset, Poi Kalyan: the Kalyan minaret of 1127 between the Kalyan mosque and the Mir-i-Arab madrasah. When al-Bukhari left his home town in the 9th century, none of it stood yet; the minaret is the landmark of the Bukhara that grew in the centuries after him.

Good to know: More in our articles on the Samanid Mausoleum and Poi Kalyan.

Overnight in Bukhara

In the morning, the complex of Bahauddin Naqshband in Qasri Orifon, about 12 km from the city. Bahauddin Naqshband (1318–1389) was born near Bukhara and gave his name to the Naqshbandi Sufi order. In 1544 Abdulaziz Khan built a tomb over his grave, and the complex kept growing for almost four centuries: a khanqah for Sufi gatherings, mosques, a minaret, a small madrasah and a museum about his life. Since 2023 it has been part of the UNESCO Silk Roads: Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor.

In the afternoon, the old town: the Ark, the fortress of the rulers of Bukhara, and the square of Lyabi-Hauz around its pond.

Good to know: On Friday the midday prayer fills the courtyard of the complex, and we plan the day around it. In the evening we can arrange dinner as guests of a local family (on request); tell us about your food requirements. The seven Sufi masters buried around Bukhara are on our two-day Seven Saints of Bukhara tour.

Overnight in Bukhara

A free morning in the old town, then the Afrosiyob back to Tashkent, a little over 4 hours, and the transfer to the airport. Flights to Kuala Lumpur leave late in the evening on several days of the week, so the day fits your flight home.

Before the trip, read our article on Uzbekistan tours from Malaysia and Indonesia: flights, visa-free entry, the 2027 holidays and halal food.