Fergana Valley Artisan Trail

You arrive in Tashkent and are met by our driver, who transfers you to your hotel in the centre; check-in is from 14:00. The rest of the day is free to rest before the drive into the valley. In the evening you might walk to Amir Timur Square or along Taras Shevchenko Street, where the restaurants and cafes stay busy late. Your guide will meet you at the hotel to run through the week ahead. Overnight in Tashkent.

A day that sets up everything you will see in the valley. You start in the Old City at the Khast-Imam Complex, then visit the Centre of Rishtan Ceramics housed in the restored Kallakhon Madrasah, where valley potters sell and demonstrate their work in the capital. Next comes Chorsu Bazaar itself, one of the oldest and liveliest markets in Tashkent. You ride the Tashkent Metro into the modern centre for the State Museum of Applied Arts, with its carved ganch and painted ceilings, finishing at Amir Timur Square.

An early transfer to Tashkent railway station for the 08:05 train to Kokand, arriving at 12:16 (private transport is also available). Your valley guide meets you at the station and you visit the Khudoyar-Khan Palace, one of the largest and most opulent palaces in Central Asia, the Jami Mosque with its long hall of carved wooden columns, and the Hamza Museum. You then drive to Rishtan (40 km, 1 hour) for the house and workshop of master potter Rustam Usmanov, before continuing to Fergana (50 km, 1 hour) for dinner with a local family.

After breakfast you drive to Margilan (15 km, 30 minutes), the silk capital of Uzbekistan. At the Silk Factory you follow the whole process — cocoons unwound into thread, thread tied and dyed to make the blurred ikat pattern, then woven on hand looms. You also visit the Crafts Centre, which produces velvet and silk carpets under the Golden Silk brand, and the Said Akhmad-Khoja Madrasah, now home to weavers and carpet makers. Afterwards you walk the Kumtepa Bazaar on a Thursday or Sunday, otherwise the Margilan Central Bazaar.

A full day given over to ceramics. You return to Rishtan (50 km, 1 hour), the town that has made pottery from the same local red clay for a thousand years. At the Rishtan Ceramics Centre you see how the ishkor glaze is prepared from mountain plant ash, which is what gives Rishtan ware its particular turquoise and cobalt. You then take a master class of your own: throwing on the wheel, sculpting a small figurine, or painting a fired piece to carry home. Lunch is with the potters, and you return to Fergana in the late afternoon.

This morning you visit the Fergana Regional Museum of Regional Studies, one of the oldest museums in the country, and walk in Ahmad Al-Fergani Park, named for the ninth-century astronomer born in the valley. You then drive out to Kuva, 20 km north-east, where excavations uncovered a whole residential quarter and a Buddhist temple that predates Islam in the region. In the afternoon you return to Tashkent over the Kamchik Pass at 2,267 metres, the serpentine road that links the valley to the rest of Uzbekistan.

You check out of the hotel at noon, with free time until your transfer. If you have space in your luggage, this is the moment for a last visit to Chorsu or to the applied arts shops near Amir Timur Square — an ikat chapan, a Rishtan lyagan dish or a length of hand-woven adras. Your driver then takes you to Tashkent International Airport. This is the end of your Fergana Valley Artisan Trail with Naseem's Travel.