Expert opinion
Pluses
- Hands-on workshops: masterclasses with hereditary artisans in batik, blacksmithing, miniature painting and wood-carving are included.
- A day in the mountains: day 8 at Mountains of the Western Tian Shan about 80 km from Tashkent: hiking in summer, skiing in winter, the Charvak reservoir nearby. Read more → has Gulkam Canyon trekking, a river swim (in summer only) and a picnic.
- Meals with locals: dinners in family homes with Rice cooked in a kazan with carrots, onions and meat: the dish of every Uzbek celebration. Each region cooks it its own way. and Khorezm cuisine, and a folklore dinner at the Meros silk-paper mill on day 1.
Minuses
- Three hotel changes: you move on days 3, 5 and 7, by train to Bukhara, by road to Khiva and by air to Tashkent.
- Early desert drive: day 5 starts with an early drive across the desert to Khiva; the programme gives no time or hours.
- Tickets and extras on top: air and train tickets, meals not listed, the optional sunset hour in Khiva, photo and video fees and tips are not included.
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: day 6 is a full day in Ichan-Kala with six named sights, day 8 is Gulkam Canyon trekking and day 9 is a city tour of six places. The programme gives no distances or hours.
Best time
Mar–Jun, Sep–Nov
March and November are the start and end of the season: 11–17 °C by day, few crowds and lovely weather. Winters are getting milder, too: very few people, sunny days and pleasant prices.
Cool, fewer people: Jan–Feb, Dec
Better to avoid
Jul–Aug
July–August is outside the season and hot: 33–37 °C by day in all four cities.
A typical day
Day 6 in Khiva is a full day in Ichan-Kala: the Kalta-Minor minaret, the Muhammad Amin-khan Madrasah, the Kunya-Ark citadel, the Juma Mosque, the Pahlavan Mahmud Mausoleum and the Tash-Hauli palace, with a Shivit Oshi lunch. An optional sunset hour is available and is not included in the price.
What the price includes
What is included
- Accommodation in twin/double rooms with breakfast
- All transfers by Mercedes Sprinter
- The lunches, picnic and dinners listed in the programme
- A tea break in Bukhara
- Sightseeing programme with a guide in your language
- Entrance tickets to the monuments in the itinerary
- All masterclasses in the programme
- Mineral water throughout the tour
Not included
- Air and train tickets (supplements in the price table)
- Meals not listed in the programme
- The optional sunset hour in Khiva
- Photo and video fees at the monuments
- Personal expenses and tips
Extra cost on site
- The optional sunset hour in Khiva
- Photo and video fees at the monuments
- Personal expenses and tips
- Meals not listed in the programme
Good for
- Second-time visitors
- Travellers who want local life, not just monuments
Maybe not for you if
- Those who just want the main sights quickly
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
What is not included?
Air and train tickets (Urgench–Tashkent flight +$110, Samarkand–Bukhara train +$25), meals not listed in the programme, the optional sunset hour in Khiva, photo fees at monuments and tips. What the price includes
Which hotels are used?
Tourist category: Dilshoda B&B in Samarkand, Makon or Porso B&B in Bukhara, a guest house in Khiva and Baden-Baden 3★ in Tashkent, or similar.
In what language is the guide?
The guide speaks your language.
Can I travel alone?
The price is per person for two travellers sharing a room; a single room is +$245.
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.
Didn’t find your answer? Ask about this tour →
Make it your trip
Tick what you’d like to add — it goes into your request, and the manager confirms the final price.
Add a few days
Arrival, departure, transfers
Programme and details
Day-by-day route, prices and terms
Private · 10 days
Uzbekistan Off-the-Beaten-Path — 10 Days
The classic four cities plus the Chimgan mountains, told through hands-on workshops, family dinners and a slower pace.
from $1,499 per person
Private tour
Samarkand · Bukhara · Khiva · Tashkent
Highlights
What’s inside
- Hands-on workshops with hereditary artisans — batik, blacksmithing, miniature painting, wood-carving
- A folklore dinner at the Meros silk-paper mill
- A mountain day at Chimgan — Gulkam Canyon trekking, a river swim (in summer only) and a picnic
- Authentic dinners in family homes — real plov and Khorezm cuisine
- Chorchinar Park and the «chilakhona» inside a hollow tree
Programme
Day by day
Day 1 · Arrival in Samarkand
Meeting and transfer. The 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 → with its three madrasahs, the The great mosque Amir Timur ordered after his Indian campaign of 1398–1399, one of the largest of its time. Read more → Mosque, the Samarkand's main bazaar, right next to Bibi-Khanym: Samarkand bread, dried fruit, nuts and halva. Read more → and the Meros silk-paper mill. Dinner with a folklore show at Meros.
Day 2 · Samarkand
A morning drive to Chorchinar Park and its «chilakhona» hollow tree, then the 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 → Mausoleum, the 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 → complex and a batik workshop in an artisan studio.
Day 3 · Samarkand → Bukhara
Train to Bukhara. On arrival: 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 →, Kalon Square with a blacksmith workshop (a fourth-generation master), The fortress-residence of the rulers of Bukhara on a high artificial hill: the oldest structure in the city. Read more → citadel and 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 →.
Day 4 · Bukhara
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 palace, A small gatehouse of 1807 in Bukhara with four towers topped by turquoise domes. and the three trading domes, then a Bukhara miniature-painting masterclass.
Day 5 · Bukhara → Khiva
Early drive across the desert to Khiva and a first walk in 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 →.
Day 6 · Khiva
A full day in Ichan-Kala: the Did you know? A 14-metre-wide base for a tower that stopped at 29 m Kalta Minor was begun in 1852 and meant to reach 70–80 m, but work halted in 1855 at about 29 m when its khan died. It is said to be the only minaret covered entirely in glazed tiles. Read more → minaret, the Muhammad Amin-khan Madrasah, the The old fortress-residence of the khans of Khiva, inside the walls of Itchan Kala. citadel, the Khiva's Friday mosque: a single hall without a dome, held up by more than two hundred carved wooden columns of different ages., the The mausoleum of Pahlavan Mahmud, a poet and wrestler revered as the patron saint of Khiva. Mausoleum and the Tash-Hauli palace, with a Shivit Oshi lunch. Optional sunset hour.
Day 7 · Khiva → Tashkent
A wood-carving workshop 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 → minaret, then the flight to Tashkent.
Day 8 · Tashkent — Chimgan
A day in the mountains: Gulkam Canyon trekking, a river swim (in summer only) and a picnic.
Day 9 · Tashkent
A city tour: the The religious heart of old Tashkent: madrasahs, a Friday mosque and mausoleums. Right next to it stands the new Center of Islamic Civilization, opened in 2026. Read more → complex, Independence Square, Amir Temur Square, the Did you know? A metro station where Ulugh Beg meets Gagarin Kosmonavtlar station, opened in 1984, has ceramic medallions of Ulugh Beg, Galileo, Icarus, Gagarin and Tereshkova, and glass stars in the ceiling that hint at the Milky Way. Read more → Did you know? A metro designed to ride out a magnitude-9 earthquake The three original lines of the Tashkent Metro were built to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 9.0, and the tunnels lie unusually shallow, only 8–25 m below the street. Read more → station, the Did you know? A diplomat's house that became a museum of crafts In 1896 diplomat Alexander Polovtsev bought a merchant's house and had it rebuilt in the Central Asian style. Today it is the Museum of Applied Arts, with over 7,000 pieces of folk craft. Read more → and Tashkent's old bazaar under a big blue-green dome, not far from Hazrati Imam. Bring cash in so'm. Read more →.
Day 10 · Departure
Transfer to Tashkent airport.
Price
Price per person
| 2 travellers, twin/double room | $1,499 |
| Single supplement | +$245 |
| Urgench — Tashkent flight | +$110 |
| Samarkand — Bukhara train | +$25 |
Hotels (tourist category): Dilshoda B&B (Samarkand), Makon / Porso B&B (Bukhara), a guest house (Khiva), Baden-Baden 3★ (Tashkent), or similar. Airline: Uzbekistan Airways. Air and train ticket prices may vary.
Booking
How to book
- Send a request via the form on this page, by email hello@aroundca.com or on WhatsApp. Reply within 24 hours.
- Fixed weekly departures — send your dates and group size and we confirm availability.
Four A network of caravan routes between China and the Mediterranean. Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva grew rich as stops along it. cities and a mountain day — slower, hands-on and lived rather than looked at.
