Photos: Wooden columns of the Juma Mosque, Khiva — Dan Lundberg / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Expert opinion
Pluses
- Three UNESCO sites: 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 → (1990), the Historic Centre of Bukhara (1993) and Samarkand – Crossroad of Cultures (2001) in 12 days.
- Paced for photography: Two days to acclimatise, free afternoons, a free morning in Khiva and a photo moment pointed out in every city.
- Transport is in the price: Trains between all four cities, the Urgench – Tashkent flight, 7 lunches and entrance fees are included.
Minuses
- Dinners not included: the price covers daily breakfasts and 7 lunches; dinners are paid separately.
- Photo fees extra: photo and video fees at monuments are not in the price.
- Flight time not fixed: the Urgench – Tashkent flight on day 11 is “to be confirmed”, and a train can be replaced by a regular train or a road transfer.
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
- 4
- Walking
- Medium
Walking: Medium: full sightseeing days on foot (Tashkent on day 3, about eight sights in Khiva on day 10), balanced by free days and afternoons, with no trekking.
Best time
Mar–May, Sep–Nov
Spring and autumn: in April, daytime temperatures are 21–24 °C in all four cities.
Cool, fewer people: Jan–Feb, Dec
Better to avoid
Jun–Aug
June–August: daytime 33–37 °C.
A typical day
On day 10 in Khiva the morning goes to Itchan Kala: the Kalta Minor minaret, the Kunya Ark citadel and the Mohammed Rahim Khan and Islam Khodja ensembles. After lunch you see Tash Hovli Palace, the Pahlavan Mahmud Mausoleum and the Juma Mosque, with free time in the workshops of the old town.
What the price includes
What is included
- Accommodation in double/twin rooms, including the extra night for early arrival
- Hotel tourist taxes
- Daily breakfasts and 7 lunches at local restaurants
- All transfers and air-conditioned transport
- Entrance fees to the monuments in the program
- Local guide during excursions
- Train tickets Tashkent – Samarkand – Bukhara – Khiva
- Domestic flight Urgench – Tashkent
- Mineral water throughout the tour
- Local guide during excursions, speaking your language
Not included
- International flights
- Visa and processing fees (if applicable)
- Dinners
- Alcoholic and soft drinks during meals
- Photo and video fees at monuments
- Early check-in and late check-out not listed in the program
- Tips for guides, drivers and porters
- Personal expenses and any service not mentioned in the program
Extra cost on site
- Photo and video fees at monuments
- Dinners
- Drinks during meals
- Tips for guides, drivers and porters
Good for
- Photographers who want time and good light, not a rush between sights
- Architecture lovers: tilework, brick vaults and wooden columns
- First-time visitors to Central Asia who prefer trains and hotels arranged for them
Maybe not for you if
- Anyone who wants dinners included — only breakfasts and 7 lunches are in the price
- Travellers who plan to shoot at the monuments without extra cost — photo and video fees at sites are not included
Questions about this tour
How much does the tour cost?
The price is given on request: it depends on the dates and the size of the group. The single supplement is also on request.
What is included in the price?
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?
Everything that is and isn’t included, and what you pay on site, is in one list: What the price includes
Which hotels are used?
Hyatt Regency in Tashkent (4 nights plus an extra night for early arrival), Hilton in Samarkand (2 nights), Wyndham in Bukhara (3 nights) and Farovon in Khiva (2 nights), or similar.
How do we travel between the cities?
By high-speed train from Tashkent to Samarkand and on to Bukhara, by train from Bukhara to Khiva, and by flight from Urgench to Tashkent; the flight schedule is to be confirmed. If there are no seats on the Afrosiyob high-speed train, it is replaced by a regular train or a road transfer.
Is there time for photography on my own?
Yes. There are two days to acclimatise at the start, free afternoons in Samarkand and Bukhara, and a free morning in Khiva on day 11 to go out at first light.
What is the cancellation policy?
A 20% penalty if you cancel 21 days before the service, 50% for 20–7 days, and 100% for 6–0 days.
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.
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Arrival, departure, transfers
Programme and details
Day-by-day route, prices and terms
Uzbekistan · 12 Days / 11 Nights · Group Photo Tour
Uzbekistan Photo Tour
Tashkent – Samarkand – Bukhara – Khiva – Tashkent
Some places photograph themselves. Others ask for time, light and someone who knows where to look. Uzbekistan is one of the latter. In twelve days you will travel through the four cities that shaped the A network of caravan routes between China and the Mediterranean. Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva grew rich as stops along it.: turquoise domes, tiled madrasahs, bazaars beneath brick vaults and an entire city inside its walls. We take care of trains, flights, hotels and timing. You take care of the camera.
| Duration | 12 days / 11 nights |
| Price | on request |
| Cities | Tashkent – Samarkand (UNESCO) – Bukhara (UNESCO) – Khiva (UNESCO) – Tashkent |
| Getting around | High-speed train Tashkent – Samarkand – Bukhara, train Bukhara – Khiva, flight Urgench – Tashkent |
Ideal for photographers, architecture lovers and first-time travellers to Central Asia.
Samarkand — 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 →, 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 and The great mosque Amir Timur ordered after his Indian campaign of 1398–1399, one of the largest of its time. Read more → Mosque.
Bukhara — 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 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 →, The fortress-residence of the rulers of Bukhara on a high artificial hill: the oldest structure in the city. Read more → Fortress and the trading domes.
Khiva — Itchan Kala, an entire city inside its walls, with a free morning to shoot at first light.
Itinerary
Day by Day
Day 1 · Tashkent — Arriving without a rush
Our team meets you at the airport. Transfer to the hotel, breakfast and a room ready from the very first moment: we book the night before so you don’t have to wait for check-in.
The rest of the day is yours. After a transcontinental flight, the best plan is to rest.
Overnight in Tashkent · Meals: breakfast
Day 2 · Tashkent — A day to reset the clock and the gear
Free day. We leave it this way on purpose: your body adjusts to the time zone, batteries get charged, and tomorrow you start with fresh eyes.
Overnight in Tashkent · Meals: breakfast
Day 3 · Tashkent — Two cities in one
Morning in the Old City. The Hazrati Imam (Khast Imam) complex is the religious heart of Tashkent: Barak Khan Madrasah, Tilla Sheikh Mosque, the Mausoleum of Kaffal Shashi and the Muyi Mubarak library, home to the Uthman Quran, a 7th-century manuscript. We finish the morning at Kukeldash Madrasah.
Lunch at a local restaurant.
Afternoon in the modern city. Independence Square, Amir Timur (Tamerlane, 1336–1405), founder of the Timurid empire, which had its capital in Samarkand. Born near Shahrisabz. Square and the Romanov Palace (exterior, 19th century). We end underground, in the Tashkent Metro: marble, mosaics and monumental chandeliers in every station.
Photo moment: Photography in the metro has been allowed since 2018. Stations such as 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 → or Alisher Navoi are worth several shots.
Overnight in Tashkent · Meals: breakfast, lunch
Day 4 · Tashkent – Samarkand — Heading to Maracanda
High-speed train to Samarkand, the city Alexander the Great knew as Maracanda. Lunch at a local restaurant, check-in and a free afternoon for a first walk on your own.
Photo moment: At night the Registan is illuminated: a great first encounter with the square before the guided visit.
Overnight in Samarkand · Meals: breakfast, lunch
Day 5 · Samarkand — The scale of an empire
Registan Square — three madrasahs facing each other, Did you know? Ulugh Beg measured the year to within 25 seconds Working at his Samarkand observatory, Ulugh Beg put the tropical year at 365 days 5 h 49 min 15 s, about 25 seconds too long, closer than Copernicus a century later. Read more →, Sher-Dor and Tilla-Kori, covered in tilework and blue domes. Gur-e-Amir Mausoleum (“Tomb of the King”), where Amir Timur (Tamerlane) and his descendants rest.
Lunch at a local restaurant.
Bibi-Khanym Mosque — the great mosque Tamerlane ordered after his campaign in India, named after his favourite wife.
Photo moment: Inside Gur-e-Amir, the gilded interior calls for a wide-angle lens and patience with the light.
Overnight in Samarkand · Meals: breakfast, lunch
Day 6 · Samarkand – Bukhara — Towards the holy city
High-speed train to Bukhara, for centuries one of the great centres of faith, trade and learning on the Silk Road. Lunch at a local restaurant, check-in and free time.
Overnight in Bukhara · Meals: breakfast, lunch
Day 7 · Bukhara — Life around the water
Lyabi-Hauz Ensemble (16th–17th centuries): the pond that under the khanate served as the city’s square, market and meeting place. Kukeldash Madrasah, one of the largest in Central Asia, and Nadir Divan-Begi Madrasah (1622), with its portal of mythical birds and a sun with a human face.
Lunch at a local restaurant. Free afternoon.
Photo moment: At sunset Lyabi-Hauz fills with local life: a good moment for portraits and street scenes.
Overnight in Bukhara · Meals: breakfast, lunch
Day 8 · Bukhara — Emirs, brick and bazaars
Samanid Mausoleum (9th–10th centuries), a masterpiece of brickwork. A mosque of 1712 opposite the Ark in Bukhara. Its twenty carved wooden columns reflect in the pond in front. Mosque (1712): its twenty wooden columns reflect in the pond and become forty. Ark Fortress, the oldest structure in the city and residence of the Emirs of Bukhara.
Lunch at a local restaurant.
Trading domes (16th century): fur hats, embroidery, handmade carpets and ceramics.
Photo moment: At the Samanid Mausoleum the texture of the brick changes with every hour of the day.
Overnight in Bukhara · Meals: breakfast, lunch
Day 9 · Bukhara – Khiva — Along the edge of the Kyzylkum
Train to Khiva through the desert landscape of 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.. Arrival in the afternoon or evening and check-in.
Overnight in Khiva · Meals: breakfast
Day 10 · Khiva — A whole city within its walls
Itchan Kala, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990: 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 with its turquoise tiles, the The old fortress-residence of the khans of Khiva, inside the walls of Itchan Kala. citadel, the Mohammed Rahim Khan Madrasah 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 → ensemble, with the tallest minaret in Khiva.
Lunch at a local restaurant.
Afternoon: Tash Hovli Palace and its harem (19th century), the The mausoleum of Pahlavan Mahmud, a poet and wrestler revered as the patron saint of Khiva. Mausoleum, 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 more than two hundred carved wooden columns, and the Mausoleum of Said Allauddin. Free time in the workshops and stalls of the old town.
Photo moment: Inside the Juma Mosque the light falls from above: the forest of columns reads best without flash.
Overnight in Khiva · Meals: breakfast, lunch
Day 11 · Khiva – Tashkent — The last light of the desert
Free morning in Khiva. Transfer to Urgench airport and flight to Tashkent (schedule to be confirmed). Arrival and transfer to the hotel.
Photo moment: Early in the morning, before the stalls open, Itchan Kala is almost empty.
Overnight in Tashkent · Meals: breakfast
Day 12 · Tashkent — See you soon, Uzbekistan
Transfer to the airport for your flight home. You leave with thousands of images — and, we hope, the wish to come back. End of services.
Meals: breakfast
Accommodation
Hotels
| City | Hotel (or similar) | Nights |
|---|---|---|
| Tashkent | Hyatt Regency | 4 nights + extra night for early arrival |
| Samarkand | Hilton | 2 nights |
| Bukhara | Wyndham | 3 nights |
| Khiva | Farovon | 2 nights |
Hotel check-in is at 14:00, check-out at 11:00.
Price
Price
The price is given on request: it depends on the dates and the size of the group.
Good to know
Conditions
- The tour operator reserves the right to change the itinerary and/or replace hotels with others of similar category if circumstances beyond our control make it necessary.
- Hotel check-in is at 14:00, check-out at 11:00. Early arrival and late departure not listed are not included.
- If a site is closed, it will be replaced with an equivalent alternative.
- Domestic flight schedules may change. If no seats are available on the Uzbekistan's high-speed train: Tashkent to Samarkand in 2 hours 30 minutes, Tashkent to Bukhara in about 4 hours. Tickets are tied to your passport. Read more → high-speed train, it will be replaced by a regular train or a road transfer.
- Reservations are confirmed with passport copies only.
Cancellation policy
| Cancellation timing | Penalty |
|---|---|
| 21 days before the service | 20% |
| 20–7 days | 50% |
| 6–0 days | 100% |
Transportation
| Vehicle | Group size |
|---|---|
| Chevrolet Cobalt | 2 pax |
| Hyundai Starex | 3–4 pax |
| Toyota Hiace / King Long | 5–8 pax |
| Mercedes Sprinter | 9–14 pax |
| Bus | more than 14 pax |
Vehicles may differ in make and colour.
🌿 Responsible tourism: we allocate part of our profits to good causes and are preparing for GSTC certification.
