Day 1 Arrival in Aktau (Kazahkstan)
Depending on your flight connection, arrival in Aktau during the day and transfer to your hotel. Your room is ready for check-in around 3pm.
Day 2 Arrival in Aktau by the Caspian Sea (Kazakhstan)
Should your flight arrive early in the morning, you will be taken to your comfort hotel, where your room is already ready for check-in. Enjoy your delicious breakfast!
In the morning you drive to a necropolis that is little known in the Western world, located in desert-like surroundings, and hardly ever visited by foreigners! The outing continues with a tour of the somewhat bizarre city – despite having two hundred thousand inhabitants, there are no street names! A stroll through the city ends at one of the small sandy beaches with a stop in a typical pub.
Day 3 At the Caspian Sea
Nature excursion (Valley of Balls, legendary Sherkala Mountain, Jurassic tones of Kokkala). This afternoon you go aboard: a Kazakh tea is served with traditional nomadic snacks and you overnight on board the train, continuing across the border to Uzbekistan.
Day 4 For thousands of years the Aral Sea – today, a sea of sand
In the morning, take a bus excursion from Kungrad for about 90 km to the formerly most famous fishing port of the USSR, Moynaq. From the panoramic hill, we overlook dry sandy areas and the famous ship graveyard that extends to the horizon. One of the worst cases of ecological damage in history. Your guide will explain the previous condition of the site with background information.
Day 5 Khiva (Uzbekistan)
Today you will visit the oasis of Khiva, a fairy tale from 1001 Nights – in stone. Standing at the mighty town wall with its gates and bastions of mud brick you feel transported into another world. On your sightseeing tour of the oasis you have a chance to take in its exotic atmosphere. Its palaces, mosques, minarets, mausoleums, and madrassas (Muslim religious schools) represent one of the best preserved ensembles of medieval oriental urban architecture in the world.
Day 6 Bukhara, the Noble One (Uzbekistan)
Located in the middle of the Kyzylkum Desert, Bukhara has some one thousand architectural monuments recalling the golden age of the Great Silk Route. Exotic spices, furs, and especially silk were stored and traded then in the city’s caravanserais. In Bukhara’s Old Town (UNESCO World Heritage), you see the almost fifty-metre tall Kalyan Minaret and the Lyab-I Hauz Ensemble by the pond. In a madrassa courtyard you watch a performance of local dances, and a presentation of colourful national costumes with musical accompaniment.
Day 7 The Samanid Mausoleum (Uzbekistan)
Bukhara, which also bears the by-name Sherif (the noble one), has preserved its ancient oriental countenance in its extensive, unparalleled collection of authentic architecture. In the morning, we drive you to the splendid Mir-e-Arab Madrassa and the Samanid Mausoleum, one of Central Asia’s most beautiful architectural treasures. Afterwards you tour the massive Ark Citadel, a city within a city that was once the seat of government of Bukhara’s former rulers.
