Romantic Uzbekistan in 9 days: three bases and one night under canvas
Uzbekistan is not an obvious choice for a trip like this, and it should be. The old towns of Samarkand and Bukhara are walkable, safe at night and almost empty after nine in the evening, when the monuments are lit and everybody else has gone back to the hotel. The best rooms are in restored merchant
- Duration
- 9 days
- Pace
- Relaxed
- Hotel changes
- 3
- Best months
- Apr, May, Sep, Oct
- From
- $2,790 per person
Nine days, three moves, and days with one thing in them.
Who it suits: couples and honeymooners who want somewhere with substance rather than a beach, and who like an early morning and a long lunch.
Your specialist: a named Central Asia specialist here, with our Tashkent partner running the ground.
Day by day
Day 1: Arrive Tashkent, and straight on. Most international flights land early. We take you to a hotel for a few hours, then the Afrosiyob to Samarkand in the afternoon, which puts you in the right city on the first evening rather than the second. Dinner is booked.
Days 2 and 3: Samarkand. Three nights in total, in a small hotel in the old Jewish quarter within walking distance of the Registan.
Day two: Shah-i-Zinda at eight in the morning, which is a lane of tiled tombs on a hillside and is the most beautiful place in Uzbekistan when there are four people in it and ordinary when there are two hundred. Gur-e-Amir before lunch. The afternoon off. The Registan after dark, lit, from the outside, with the square largely empty.
Day three: deliberately light. The Konigil paper mill in the morning, where mulberry paper is made by hand beside a stream, or the Afrasiab museum. A long lunch. An afternoon in the courtyard.
Days 4 and 5: The Kyzylkum and Lake Aydarkul. Three hours north-west. One night at a yurt camp on the edge of the desert: a private yurt, a fire, dinner cooked outside, a dombra player, and a sky that has nothing under it for a hundred miles. In the morning, camels at a walk to the lake shore, and a swim between May and September.
Day five is the drive on to Bukhara, four hours, arriving for a late lunch.
Days 6 to 8: Bukhara. Three nights in a restored merchant house inside the old town, with a courtyard and a room with a painted ceiling.
Day six: nothing scheduled beyond a walk, because you have just spent a day in a car. The trading domes, the chaikhana at Lyabi-Hauz, a hammam in the afternoon, the old town at dusk.
Day seven: a private guided morning at Poi Kalyan, the minaret of 1127, the mosque, the Ark fortress, and the Samanid mausoleum, which is tenth-century unrestored brick and quietly the best building in the country. Afternoon free.
Day eight: a private dinner on a rooftop or in the courtyard of a madrasa, which we arrange, with the minaret lit above you. Before that, the Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa summer palace and a suzani workshop if you want to buy one properly rather than in a shop.
Day 9: Bukhara, and out. The morning flight from Bukhara to Tashkent, or a last walk and a later departure.
What is included
Eight nights of accommodation with breakfast in three properties we have inspected, including a private yurt with full board, all Afrosiyob train seats in business class, the Bukhara to Tashkent flight, private cars with drivers on every transfer, private licensed guides on three mornings, an early-access morning at Shah-i-Zinda arranged with the site, a private dinner in Bukhara, a hammam, the camel ride, all site entries, restaurant reservations throughout, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Tashkent partner team.
What we would change, and when
- Honeymoon? Tell us. We move the Bukhara nights to the best room in the house and put the private dinner on the night that matters.
- Want to add Khiva? It adds two days and a six-hour desert drive, and Ichan Kala at dusk is genuinely worth it. Nine becomes eleven.
- Prefer not to camp? The yurt night is the one people are unsure about beforehand and rate highest afterwards. If it is still not for you, we replace it with a village guesthouse in the Nuratau hills, which has walls and a bathroom.
- Travelling in July or August? We would try hard to move your dates. If they are fixed, the trip becomes early mornings, long afternoons indoors and evenings out, and the yurt night comes off.
Honest notes
The good hotels here are small and they fill. Uzbekistan has perhaps a dozen properties we would call genuinely lovely, mostly restored courtyard houses in Bukhara and Samarkand with eight to twenty rooms. In April, May, September and October they are booked months ahead. This route depends on them, so it depends on booking early.
Restored is the word for most of what you will see. The Registan facades were re-tiled under Soviet restoration and Bibi-Khanym was largely rebuilt from the 1970s. The Samanid mausoleum and the Kalyan minaret are close to original. We tell you which as you look at them, and it does not spoil anything.
Shah-i-Zinda at eight in the morning and at eleven are different places. So is the Registan square at nine at night. Half of what makes this route work is timing rather than access, and it costs nothing except getting up.
The yurt camp is comfortable and it is not luxurious. A private felt tent with proper beds, a shared washing block, an outdoor kitchen, and electricity for part of the evening. It is clean and well run. Anyone expecting a designed desert camp of the kind found elsewhere will be surprised, and we would rather surprise you now.
Heat. Late May onwards, Bukhara passes 100°F (38°C) and the courtyard becomes the plan rather than the bonus. April, early May, late September and October are the weeks we would book.
Built by your named Central Asia specialist, checked by our Tashkent partner team before it goes out.
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