Bukhara Heritage Discovery

You are met at Tashkent International Airport and transferred to your hotel for check-in. In the afternoon your guide introduces the capital, beginning at the Courage Monument, which commemorates the earthquake of 1966, before continuing into the old city to the Mausoleum of Kaffal Shashi and the Khast-Imam Complex. You browse the produce stalls under the great dome of Chorsu Bazaar, then ride the tiled and chandeliered Tashkent Metro into the modern centre for Amir Timur Square. Overnight in Tashkent.

An early transfer takes you to Tashkent railway station for the high-speed Afrosiyob train to Bukhara, covering 605 km in a little under four hours. On arrival you drop your luggage at the hotel and begin a walking tour of Old Bukhara, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. You visit the Lyabi-Khauz Ensemble, the Magoki-Attori Mosque, the four-towered Chor-Minor Madrasah, the covered trading domes and the Ulugbek and Abdulazizkhan madrasahs, finishing at the Kalyan Minaret, Kalyan Mosque and Miri-Arab Madrasah. Overnight in Bukhara.

After breakfast you continue on foot to the Ark Fortress, the walled citadel from which the emirs ruled for centuries, then cross to the Bolo-Khauz Mosque with its slender painted columns. You carry on to the Ismail Samani Mausoleum, the oldest surviving monument in the city, and the Chashma-Ayub Mausoleum beside it. In the afternoon you drive out to Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, the summer residence of Bukhara's last emir, where Russian and Oriental design meet, and to the House Museum of Fayzulla Khodjaev. Overnight in Bukhara.

This morning you drive north-east to Gijduvan (45 km, 50 minutes), a town whose ceramics are recognised across Uzbekistan. At the Narzullayev family workshop, now in its sixth generation, you watch clay thrown and glazed in the town's distinctive greens and blues, then try the wheel and the brush yourself under a master potter's eye before visiting the adjoining ceramics museum. Returning to Bukhara you stop at the Chor-Bakr necropolis in Sumiton village and end the day at the shrine of Bahouddin Naqshband. Overnight in Bukhara.

Your last morning is free for the trading domes and the coppersmiths and miniature painters who work beneath them, or for a final cup of green tea by the Lyabi-Khauz pond. After lunch you are transferred to Bukhara station for the afternoon Afrosiyob train, arriving in Tashkent in the early evening. You are met on the platform and driven either to your hotel or straight to Tashkent International Airport for your onward flight. End of the Bukhara Heritage Discovery tour.