Extended Uzbekistan – Nukus to Samarkand

You are met at Tashkent International Airport and transferred to your hotel. After check-in your guide takes you through the capital, beginning at the Courage Monument, which marks the earthquake of 1966, and continuing into the old city for the Mausoleum of Kaffal Shashi and the Khast-Imam Complex. You then explore Chorsu Bazaar and a pottery gallery, ride the decorated Tashkent Metro into the modern centre, visit the State Museum of Applied Arts and finish at Amir Timur Square. Overnight in Tashkent.

A morning transfer to the domestic terminal for the flight to Nukus, some 810 km and about an hour and forty minutes away in the far west of the country. On arrival you visit the Savitsky Karakalpakstan Art Museum, where Igor Savitsky assembled the world's second largest collection of Russian avant-garde painting, far from the censors, alongside Karakalpak applied art. A short drive around the centre takes in the statue of the poet Berdakh, the city hall and the drama theatre. Overnight in Nukus.

Today you drive south towards Khiva, about 200 km, stopping among the archaeological monuments of ancient Khorezm on the way. You climb to Chilpyk, the ring-walled Zoroastrian dakhma above the Amu Darya, then continue to Toprak-Kala, capital of Khorezm in the third century AD, and to Ayaz-Kala, a group of Kushan-era fortresses on a desert hill with a very wide view. You reach Khiva in the late afternoon and check in beside the old walls. Overnight in Khiva.

A full day on foot inside Itchan Kala, the walled inner town and a UNESCO World Heritage site that is still lived in. With your guide you visit the Kunya-Ark citadel, the Tash-Khovli Palace, the Mukhammad Aminkhan and Mukhammad Rahimkhan madrasahs, the stumpy turquoise Kalta-Minor, the Juma Mosque with its forest of carved wooden columns and the Mausoleum of Pakhlavan Makhmud. The afternoon is free for the workshops, the wood carvers and a walk on the walls at sunset.

A long but memorable driving day: 480 km across the Kyzylkum Desert on the road that shadows the old caravan route between the two khanates, seven to eight hours with stops. You pause for views of the desert and the Amu Darya, and it is worth arranging a packed lunch the day before, as the roadside cafes are basic. You arrive in Bukhara in the late afternoon, check in and have the evening free around Lyabi-Khauz, where the plane trees and teahouses come to life after dark.

A walking day through the old city, which is compact enough to cover on foot. You start at the Lyabi-Khauz ensemble, then work through the Magoki-Attori Mosque, the four-turreted Chor-Minor Madrasah, the covered trade domes where the jewellers and hatters still work, and the great set piece of the Poi-Kalyan: the Kalyan Minaret, the Kalyan Mosque and the Miri-Arab Madrasah facing each other across the square. You also see the Ulugbek and Abdulazizkhan madrasahs. Overnight in Bukhara.

The second Bukhara day begins at the Ark Fortress, the citadel from which the emirs ruled, and the Bolo-Khauz Mosque opposite with its slender painted columns. You continue to the Chashma-Ayub mausoleum and the tenth-century Ismail Samani Mausoleum, whose woven brickwork is the oldest in the city. In the afternoon you drive out to Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, the last emir's summer palace, and to the Mausoleum of Bakhouddin Naqshbandi, the most important Sufi shrine in Central Asia.

You leave Bukhara after breakfast and stop first at Gijduvan, where the Narzullaev family have been potters for generations, to see the workshop and the ceramics museum. The road then runs east into the Kyzylkum, with a halt at Nurata to see the holy spring and the mosque beside the remains of the fortress attributed to Alexander the Great. You reach the yurt camp in the afternoon, ride a camel into the dunes, and after dinner sit around the fire while a Kazakh akin sings.

You wake in the yurt and drive out to Aydarkul Lake, a startling sheet of water in the middle of the desert, with free time on the shore and a swim if the season allows. There is the option of reaching the lake by camel instead, or of a shorter ride to the village of Dungalak to bake non with a local family. In the afternoon you leave the camp for Samarkand, around 270 km and five hours, arriving in the evening.

Your first full day in Samarkand takes in the city's greatest monuments. You begin at the Ulugbek Observatory, where the buried arc of the fifteenth-century sextant survives, continue to the tiled avenue of the Shakhi-Zinda Necropolis and the remains of the Bibi-Khanum Mosque, and walk through the souvenir alley to the Registan Square, flanked by the Ulugbek, Sher-Dor and Tillya-Kari madrasahs. The day ends at the Gur-Emir Mausoleum, the tomb of Timur himself.

After check-out you continue sightseeing with the Afrasiab Museum and the archaeological mound beside it, where the seventh-century ambassadors' murals were uncovered, and the Tomb of Saint Daniel with its long sarcophagus above the Siab stream. You then drive to Konigil village to watch mulberry bark being turned into Samarkand paper. In the late afternoon you transfer to the station for the Afrosiyob train to Tashkent and are met on arrival.

Check-out from the hotel is at noon, with free time beforehand for any last shopping. Depending on your flight you might visit the Islamic Civilisation Centre, walk the shaded avenues near the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre or return to Chorsu for dried fruit and spices. Your driver then takes you to Tashkent International Airport, and your twelve-day journey from Nukus to Samarkand comes to an end.