12-Day Uzbekistan In-Depth: Silk Road Cities, Fergana Valley & Nuratau Mountains

Tour Overview

Data source: asiaodysseytravel.com — extended Uzbekistan with Fergana Valley + Nuratau Mountains

Day 1-2: Tashkent

Khast-Imam Complex (world’s oldest Quran), Chorsu Bazaar, Amir Timur Square, Tashkent Metro stations (Kosmonavtlar, Alisher Navoi), State Museum of History, Independence Square.

Day 3-4: Fergana Valley

• Kokand — Khudoyar Khan’s Palace (1871) with 114 rooms and its dazzling ceramic-tiled facade. Only 19 of the original rooms survive, but the scale of the harem chambers and throne room hints at the khanate’s wealth
• Rishtan — Uzbekistan’s ceramics capital for 1,000+ years. Visit a master ceramist’s workshop to see the entire process from local red clay to the signature cobalt-blue ishkor glaze (made from desert plant ash). The kiln firing takes 40 hours at 1,000°C
• Margilan — The silk capital of Central Asia. Visit the Yodgorlik Silk Factory to see the full silk-making process: mulberry-fed silkworms spinning cocoons, traditional hand-reeling (one cocoon yields 1km of silk thread!), and the hypnotic rhythm of ikat weavers at wooden looms creating the distinctive Margilan ikat patterns. The colors come from natural dyes: walnut bark (brown), pomegranate peel (yellow), madder root (red), indigo (blue)

Day 5: Flight to Khiva

Itchan-Kala UNESCO walled city: Kalta-Minor, Kuhna Ark, Juma Mosque (218 carved pillars), Islam Khoja Minaret, Tash-Khauli Palace harem courtyards.

Day 6-7: Bukhara

Lyabi-Khauz, Kalyan Complex, Ark Fortress, Trading Domes, Ismail Samani Mausoleum, Chor-Minor, Bolo-Khauz Mosque. Additional: Bukhara Hammam — experience a traditional 16th-century bathhouse. Steam room, vigorous scrubbing on the heated stone platform, and tea in the cooling room. Bukhara’s hammams have served Silk Road travelers for 500+ years

Day 8: Nuratau Mountains — Village Homestay

• Drive into the Nuratau Mountains (3 hours), a region barely touched by tourism
• Nurata — Visit the Chashma Spring, a sacred site for 2,500+ years (Zoroastrians, then Jews, then Muslims). Thousands of holy fish swim in the spring-fed pool — legend says touching them is forbidden
• Sentyab Village Homestay — Stay with an Uzbek-Tajik family in a mountain village. Help prepare dinner: non bread baked in a tandyr oven, fresh yogurt, home-grown vegetables. After dinner: local musicians play the dutar (two-stringed lute) and sing traditional songs. Sleep on a kurpacha (traditional floor mattress) in a village house

Day 9-10: Samarkand

Registan, Gur-e-Amir, Bibi-Khanum, Shah-i-Zinda, Ulugbek Observatory, Afrosiab Museum, Siyob Bazaar, Konigil paper workshop, Hazrat Khizr Mosque.

Day 11: Shakhrisabz — Timur’s Birthplace

• Day trip to Shakhrisabz (1.5 hours from Samarkand, over the 1,788m Takhtakaracha Pass). This is where Timur (Tamerlane) was born in 1336
• Ak-Saray Palace Ruins — Timur’s summer palace, once the grandest building in Central Asia. Only the 38m entrance pylons remain of a palace that took 25 years to build. The blue-and-gold tile work on the surviving fragments is breathtaking. The inscription above the entrance read: “If you doubt our might, look at our buildings”
• Dorut Tilovat & Dor-us Saodat Complexes — Timur’s family tombs. Timur’s father and spiritual teacher are buried here. The Kok Gumbaz Mosque has the largest dome in Shakhrisabz. Timur’s own crypt (empty — he’s buried in Samarkand) has a beautifully carved marble sarcophagus
• Return to Samarkand for farewell dinner

Day 12: Departure

High-speed Afrosiyob train to Tashkent. Transfer to Tashkent Airport (TAS) for departure.

What’s Included

• 11 nights (boutique heritage hotels + village homestay), 2 domestic flights, 2 high-speed trains, all transfers, expert guide, 11 breakfasts + 5 lunches + 2 dinners, cooking class, hammam, all entrance fees