Silk Road Adventure

Day 1 Arrival in Almaty (Kazakhstan)

Depending on your flight connection, arrival in Almaty during the day and transfer to your centrally located hotel. Your room is ready for check-in around 3pm.

Day 2 Almaty - Father of the Apple (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!
After a short break, you enjoy a sightseeing tour which includes the Zenkov Cathedral—a wooden Russian Orthodox cathedral—the Wedding Palace, the Kazakh State Circus, and the Central Mosque. Lunch is served in a typical yurt restaurant. In the afternoon, your private train journey begins. On board, a welcome drink and short introduction await.

Day 3 Lake Issyk-Kul (Kyrgyzstan)

This morning you will reach the breathtaking Issyk Kul Lake. A visit to the Center of Nomadic Culture will bring you closer before you have time for a walk, or perhaps a small swim in the Issyk Kul. After a boat trip on the Issyk Kul, your train makes its way to Bishkek.

Day 4 Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan)

After breakfast on board you arrive in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. During a city tour, you discover numerous points of interest. With approximately 100 square meters of green spaces per capita, Bishkek is one of the world’s greenest cities! In the afternoon, an excursion takes you to the Ala Archa National Park. In the evening, your private train departs for Uzbekistan.

Day 5 Tashkent (Uzbekistan)

In the morning, your private train arrives in Tashkent. A sightseeing tour takes you to the Kukeldash Madrasa, the Kavoj and Amir Timur monuments, and typical Uzbek mud-brick houses.

Day 6 Kokand (Uzbekistan)

After breakfast your private train crosses the Kamchik Pass at about 2,300 meters above sea level. In the afternoon, you reach the city of Kokand. Here you visit the Palace of Khudayar Khan, before heading back to the train.

Day 7 Journey Through Time (Uzbekistan)

Today you experience a traditional folklore performance of this region that seems to exist outside of time. Afterward you visit Shahrisabz. In the evening, your train heads for Samarkand.

Day 8 Samarkand (Uzbekistan)

Today you discover the necropolis of Shah-i-Zinda, the Afrasiyab excavation site (with a museum tour), and Registan Square are certainly among the most notable architectural ensembles in Central Asia. It is also historically important, as the site where many Uzbek women burned their veils (paranjas) in 1917, to signal their arrival in a new era.

Day 9 Samarkand (Uzbekistan)

Your day in this fascinating city includes a tour of a silk carpet manufactory, a visit to an Uzbek craftsman’s family to see paper being made from mulberry bark, stops at the Ulug Beg Observatory and the ruins of the Bibi Khanum Mosque, and viewing the interior of the palace-like Gur Emir Mausoleum.

Alternatively to Samarkand program, we offer a special excursion to Panjakent in Tajikistan. In Panjakent, a flourishing town of the Sogdians in pre-islamic Central Asia, you will visit the historic Rudaki museum, the Alim Dodcho mosque and the old ruins of the old town at the banks of the river Zeravchan.
Supplement: 90 € net/ 110 USD net p. p.
Please note: Depending on nationality, visa for Tajikistan may be obligatory. Please check entry and exit to Tajikistan with your local embassy.

Day 10 Samarkand (Uzbekistan)

The morning is yours to explore Samarkand or spend as you please. Your train departs for Khiva. You spend the night on board.

Day 11 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 12 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 13 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.

Day 14 Tashkent (Uzbekistan)

In the morning you can enjoy leisure time in Bukhara, until your Private Train departs for Tashkent around noon. In the afternoon you will arrive in Tashkent.

Day 15 Return Home

After breakfast, you transfer to the airport. (B)

(B) = Breakfast, (L) = Lunch, (D) = Dinner

For those in search of a journey of immense proportions on the legendary Silk Road, the Great Silk Road Adventure is the perfect choice. This unforgettable journey whisks guests away to three Central Asian countries on the comfortable Orient Silk Road Express private train. Visit Kazakhstan’s lush metropolis Almaty at the foot of the Alatau mountains. Marvel at the beauty of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan beckons with blue domes and fairy-tale scenery straight out from the Arabian Nights.

Rates Include

• 7 overnights on the private train according to the booked category
• 7 overnights in hotels
• All meals according to program (B = breakfast, L = lunch, D = dinner)
• Sightseeing program including all entrance fees according to program
• Transfers to and from all airports and train stations according to program
• Multi-lingual Lernidee Tour Director
• Experienced local guides for a maximum of 26 guests per group
• Doctor on board
• Traditional welcome in the train stations of Bukhara and Samarqand
• Wine and Vodka tasting

Not Included

• Visa fees (Please allow a processing time of min. 13 weeks!).
• Invitation letter for Kazakhstan (if necessary)
• Gratuities
• International flights
• Personal expenses

Entry Requirements

• Passport and visas required
• Health, entry & vaccination regulations as prescribed by the visited countries. Please check with your local embassies and national guidelines for travel