Uzbekistan by High-Speed Rail

You are met at Tashkent International Airport and transferred to your hotel. Your guide begins the tour at the Courage Monument, raised in memory of the 1966 earthquake, then leads you into the historic old city for the Mausoleum of Kaffal Shashi and the Khast-Imam Complex. You explore Chorsu Bazaar under its great ribbed dome and ride the Tashkent Metro, one of the most decorated underground systems anywhere, into the modern centre for the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre and Amir Timur Square. Overnight in Tashkent.

After breakfast you transfer to Tashkent railway station and board the Afrosiyob for Samarkand, covering 300 km in two hours and ten minutes. Your guide and driver meet you on the platform and the sightseeing starts at once with Registan Square, the ensemble of the Ulugbek, Sher-Dor and Tillya-Kori madrasahs that remains the noblest square in Central Asia. You continue to the vast remains of the Bibi-Khanum Mosque, walk through Siab Bazaar and end at the Gur-Emir Mausoleum. Overnight in Samarkand.

This morning you climb the stepped lane of Shah-i-Zinda, where tiled mausoleums crowd together around the shrine of Qusam ibn Abbas, then drive to the Ulugbek Observatory to see the buried arc of the great sextant with which the astronomer-king measured the year. In the afternoon you visit the Afrasiab Museum and its seventh-century murals, and continue to Konigil village to watch mulberry bark beaten into Samarkand paper at a working water mill. Overnight in Samarkand.

You leave after breakfast for Shakhrisabz (90 km, about two hours), crossing the Takhtakaracha pass into the valley where Timur was born. In town you stand beneath the surviving portal of the Ak-Saray Palace, which took twenty-four years to build, then visit the Dor-us Saodat complex with the mausoleum of Timur's son Jakhongir and the crypt prepared for Timur himself, and the Dor-ut Tilavat ensemble with the Kok-Gumbaz Mosque. Lunch is at a tea house on the mountain pass on the way back. Overnight in Samarkand.

The morning is yours in Samarkand before an afternoon transfer to the station for the Afrosiyob to Bukhara, a run of 270 km covered in about an hour and a half. A driver meets you and takes you to your hotel near the old town. Once you have checked in, your guide walks you out into the evening for a first look at the Lyabi-Khauz Ensemble, the pond and plane trees at the heart of Bukhara, and the four brick towers of the Chor-Minor Madrasah. Overnight in Bukhara.

A full walking day in the UNESCO-listed old city. You start at the Magoki-Attori Mosque, sunk below the level of the modern street, then pass through the covered trading domes to the Kalyan Minaret, the Kalyan Mosque and the Miri-Arab Madrasah, with the Ulugbek and Abdulazizkhan madrasahs facing each other nearby. In the afternoon you tour the Ark Fortress, cross to the Bolo-Khauz Mosque and finish at the Ismail Samani and Chashma-Ayub mausoleums in the park. Overnight in Bukhara.

This morning you drive out of the centre to Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, the summer residence of Bukhara's last emir, where Russian and Oriental design sit side by side in the same rooms, and continue to the House Museum of Fayzulla Khodjaev. You then visit the shrine of Bahouddin Naqshband, founder of the Naqshbandi order and the holiest site in the Bukhara oasis, before returning for a free afternoon among the workshops of the old town. Overnight in Bukhara.

Today the rails give way to the desert. You leave Bukhara after breakfast and drive to Khiva (480 km, seven to eight hours) across the Kyzylkum, the route caravans took for centuries carrying porcelain and spices, stopping where the road runs closest to the dunes and again at the Amu Darya. Roadside cafés are basic, so a packed lunch is arranged with your hotel the evening before. You reach Khiva in the late afternoon and have the evening free inside the walls. Overnight in Khiva.

You spend the day inside Ichan-Kala, the walled inner town listed by UNESCO, visiting the Mukhammad Aminkhan and Mukhammad Rahimkhan madrasahs, the squat turquoise stump of Kalta-Minor, the Juma Mosque with its 213 carved wooden columns, the Tash-Khovli Palace, the Pakhlavan Makhmud Mausoleum and the Islam-Khoja minaret, the tallest in Uzbekistan. In the evening you transfer to Urgench airport (30 km, 45 minutes) for the flight to Tashkent. End of the Uzbekistan by High-Speed Rail tour.