Expert opinion
Pluses
- New Year in Samarkand: On 31 December, day 5, a festive dinner with music and national cuisine in Samarkand is in the price.
- Four cities in eight days: Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent over 8 days and 7 nights, with entrance tickets and local guides on excursion days included.
- Trains between cities: Bukhara to Samarkand and Samarkand to Tashkent are on the high-speed train, and the Khiva–Bukhara road leg across the The Kyzylkum, or Red Sands: the desert between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers that the road and the railway cross on the way to Khiva. is included.
Minuses
- Winter cold: In December and January it is about 3–9 °C by day across the four cities and down to −6 °C at night in Khiva, while sights are visited outdoors.
- Four hotels: Khiva → Bukhara → Samarkand → Tashkent (three hotel changes); day 3 is a drive across the Kyzylkum from Khiva to Bukhara.
- Meals and flights extra: Meals other than the New Year's dinner are not included, and neither are the flights to Urgench and from Tashkent.
AroundCA numbers
How we counted
By the AroundCA programme: we count only what is written in the day-by-day programme of this tour. If the programme gives no figure, we show nothing.
- Hotel changes
- 3
- Walking
- Medium
Walking: Medium: four to six sights a day on foot with a guide, for example on day 2 Kunya-Ark, Tash-Hauli, the Juma Mosque and the Islam Khoja minaret, on day 4 the Ark, Kalyan, Magoki-Attori, the Samanid Mausoleum and Sitorai Mohi-Hosa, and on day 6 four sights in Samarkand. There are no climbs or treks in the programme.
A typical day
Day 2, Khiva: Kunya-Ark, the Tash-Hauli Palace, the Juma Mosque with its wooden columns and the Islam Khoja minaret. After the tour there is time for a teahouse, craft shops and an unplanned walk, and sunset can be met from the fortress wall or the roof of an old madrasah.
What the price includes
What is included
- Accommodation per the programme in Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent
- All transfers and road legs, including Khiva–Bukhara across the Kyzylkum
- Train tickets Bukhara–Samarkand and Samarkand–Tashkent
- Entrance tickets per the programme
- Local guides on excursion days
- Drinking water
- New Year's dinner on 31 December
- Accommodation per the programme: Zarafshan (Khiva), Makon (Bukhara), Grand Samarkand (Samarkand), Inspira-S (Tashkent)
Not included
- Flights to Urgench and from Tashkent
- Meals, except the New Year's dinner
- Tour leader, on request
- Personal expenses, tips, insurance
Good for
- Travellers who want to spend the whole holiday week travelling
- First-timers who want Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent in one go
- Couples and friends who want a festive dinner in Samarkand
Maybe not for you if
- Those with only a few days off — see the 4-day New Year in Bukhara tour
- Travellers who dislike long drives — Khiva to Bukhara is a day across the Kyzylkum
Questions about this tour
What is included?
Everything that is and isn’t included, and what you pay on site, is in one list: What the price includes
Are meals included?
Only the New Year's dinner; other meals are paid separately.
Where is New Year's Eve celebrated?
In Samarkand, at a festive dinner with music and national cuisine.
How do I get there and back?
The tour starts at Urgench airport and ends at Tashkent airport; these flights are not included.
Can I have a room to myself?
Yes, a single room is available with a supplement.
What is Arda Khiva, and can we spend an evening there?
Arda Khiva is a new tourist complex on the shore of Lake Govuk, a short drive from Ichan-Kala, opened in May 2025: 17 hotels and guest houses, a 3,000-seat amphitheatre, restaurants, a bazaar and a canal with gondolas. We can add an evening or a stay there on request.
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Arrival, departure, transfers
Programme and details
Day-by-day route, prices and terms
New Year Journey · fixed-date tour
New Year — in Samarkand
A route for those who want to see in the New Year not in a supermarket queue, but among turquoise domes, the smell of the tandoor and streets with a thousand years of memory.
Khiva · Bukhara · Samarkand · Tashkent
Arrival 27 December
Departure 3 January
Route
From Khiva to Tashkent
The journey begins in Urgench and leads straight to Khiva — a city inside its fortress walls. Then the road crosses the desert to Bukhara, and the high-speed train brings you to Samarkand, where the festive night takes place. The route ends in Tashkent.
| Days | City | What’s inside |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Khiva | The Did you know? People still live inside Khiva's museum city Itchan Kala packs more than 50 historic monuments and about 250 old houses inside clay walls 8–10 m high and 5–6 m thick, and families still live and work in its lanes. Read more → walls, palaces, minarets and sunset over the old town |
| 3–4 | Bukhara | The Kyzylkum Desert, Did you know? Bukhara's ponds were once its water supply Pools like Lyabi-Hauz, dug around 1620 and 46 × 36 m, were the city's main source of water. Most were filled in during the 1920s–30s because they spread disease; Lyabi-Hauz survived. Read more →, The fortress-residence of the rulers of Bukhara on a high artificial hill: the oldest structure in the city. Read more →, Kalyan and trading domes |
| 5–6 | Samarkand | New Year’s night, Did you know? The Registan's sun-carrying lion went on a banknote The Sher-Dor Madrasah (1619–1636) is named for the big cats with the sun on their backs on its portal. The image appeared on the reverse of Uzbekistan's 200-som note of 1997. Read more →, Did you know? Timur's tombstone went to Persia and came back The dark-green jade slab on Timur's grave in Gur-e-Amir was carried off by Nader Shah in 1740. It broke, and on his advisers' urging he sent it back to Samarkand. Read more → and Did you know? Why Shah-i-Zinda means 'the Living King' The necropolis grew around the shrine of Qutham ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. Legend says he did not die in battle but went down a deep well to a garden of paradise, where he lives on. Read more → |
| 7–8 | Tashkent | High-speed train, a final evening and departure |
Programme
Day by day
Click a day to expand the description.
Day 1 · Urgench — Khiva
Meeting at Urgench airport and transfer to Khiva. Check-in at a hotel inside or next to the Ichan Kala.
Evening: a first walk through the old town — clay walls, minarets, carved doors and the soft light in which Khiva looks its best.
Day 2 · Khiva
The old fortress-residence of the khans of Khiva, inside the walls of Itchan Kala., the Tash-Hauli Palace, the Khiva's Friday mosque: a single hall without a dome, held up by more than two hundred carved wooden columns of different ages. with its wooden columns and the Did you know? Khiva's tallest minaret is barely a century old The Islam Khoja Minaret was begun in 1908, near the very end of the khans' era. At 56.6 m it is one of the tallest in Central Asia; a spiral stair of 175 steps leads up to its windowed top. Read more →. After the tour — time for a A teahouse: green tea, plov and conversation on wide wooden beds called topchan., craft shops and an unplanned walk.
Sunset can be met from the fortress wall or the roof of an old An Islamic college: student cells and classrooms around a courtyard behind a grand portal. In the old towns many now house museums and craft workshops..
Day 3 · Khiva — Bukhara
Drive across the Kyzylkum: sand, saxaul and an endless horizon outside the window. Arrival in Bukhara by evening and check-in.
Evening: a walk around Lyabi-Hauz, where old mulberry trees and teahouses gather the whole evening city around them.
Day 4 · Bukhara
The Ark fortress, the Did you know? Diggers went 13 m down and never found its base The Kalyan Minaret of 1127 rises about 46 m, and an excavation reached 13 m without finding the bottom of its foundations. Genghis Khan reportedly ordered it spared. Read more →, the One of the oldest mosques in Central Asia, in the centre of Bukhara. It stands below today's street level: the city has grown up around it. Mosque, the A 9th–10th-century family tomb of the Samanid dynasty, one of the oldest surviving monuments of Islamic architecture in Central Asia, built entirely of patterned brick. Read more → and the trading domes. After lunch — the The summer palace of the last emirs of Bukhara, built in the late 19th and early 20th century in a mix of European and Central Asian styles. summer residence of the Bukhara emirs.
Evening: dinner with Bukhara Rice cooked in a kazan with carrots, onions and meat: the dish of every Uzbek celebration. Each region cooks it its own way., khanum and hot tandoor flatbread.
Day 5 · Bukhara — Samarkand. New Year’s night
Transfer to Samarkand on the high-speed train, check-in and rest.
Evening: a festive dinner with music, national cuisine and the New Year celebration in the city of Amir Timur (Tamerlane, 1336–1405), founder of the Timurid empire, which had its capital in Samarkand. Born near Shahrisabz.. No familiar scripts: Samarkand outside the window, a new story ahead.
Day 6 · Samarkand
The Registan, the Gur-Emir Mausoleum, the The great mosque Amir Timur ordered after his Indian campaign of 1398–1399, one of the largest of its time. Read more → Mosque and Shah-i-Zinda — the avenue of mausoleums laid with mosaics in dozens of shades of blue.
The evening is free: return to the Registan, stop at a café or choose sweets and ceramics as gifts.
Day 7 · Samarkand — Tashkent
In the morning — the Samarkand's main bazaar, right next to Bibi-Khanym: Samarkand bread, dried fruit, nuts and halva. Read more →: Samarkand flatbread, halva, dried fruit and spices. Then the high-speed train to Tashkent.
Hotel check-in, a farewell dinner and a free evening in the capital.
Day 8 · Tashkent
Breakfast, transfer to the airport and departure. You’ll take home not only photos of the Registan, but the memory of a celebration that began behind the walls of Khiva and ended in big, lively Tashkent.
Price
Price per person for the whole tour
| Occupancy | Price per person |
|---|---|
| Double / Twin room | $1100 |
| Single room | $1348 |
Single supplement — +$248. Fixed departure dates: 27 December – 3 January.
Where others see one option — we see ten. AroundCA — MICE & Travel
