Uzbekistan – Jewel of the Silk Road

Your driver meets you at Tashkent International Airport and transfers you to the hotel, where check-in is from early afternoon. Sightseeing starts at the Courage Monument, which commemorates the 1966 earthquake, before you move into the old city for the Mausoleum of Kaffal Shashi and the Khast-Imam Complex. You browse Chorsu Bazaar and a pottery gallery, ride the tiled Tashkent Metro into the modern centre, look in at the State Museum of Applied Arts and end at Amir Timur Square. Overnight in Tashkent.

An early transfer to the domestic terminal for the flight west to Urgench, roughly 1,090 km in an hour and forty minutes. Your driver meets you for the short 30 km run to Khiva and you check in beside the old walls. In the afternoon you begin a walking tour of Itchan Kala, the UNESCO-listed inner town, visiting the Mukhammad Aminkhan and Mukhammad Rahimkhan madrasahs, the fat turquoise stump of Kalta-Minor and the Juma Mosque with its 213 carved columns.

A second day in Khiva, unhurried. You explore the Kunya-Ark citadel and climb its watchtower for a rooftop view over the whole of Itchan Kala, then visit the Tash-Khovli Palace with its tiled aivans and courtyards, and the Mausoleum of Pakhlavan Makhmud. Those with a head for heights can climb the Islam-Khoja Minaret, the tallest in the country. The afternoon is free for the wood carvers and silk-carpet workshops, and for a walk along the city walls as the sun goes down.

After breakfast you set out on the 480 km desert road to Bukhara, seven to eight hours across the Kyzylkum on much the same line the caravans took with their porcelain and spices. You stop for views of the desert and the Amu Darya; a packed lunch is worth arranging the day before, as roadside cafes on this stretch are basic. You arrive in Bukhara in the late afternoon, check in and have the evening free around the pool and teahouses of Lyabi-Khauz.

A walking day through the old city. You begin at the Lyabi-Khauz ensemble, then the Magoki-Attori Mosque, built over a pre-Islamic temple site, the four-turreted Chor-Minor Madrasah and the covered trade domes where jewellers, hatters and knife-makers still work. The centrepiece is the Poi-Kalyan: the Kalyan Minaret, the Kalyan Mosque and the Miri-Arab Madrasah. You also see the Ulugbek and Abdulazizkhan madrasahs facing each other across the street.

The morning covers the Ark Fortress, the emirs' citadel, the Bolo-Khauz Mosque with its tall painted columns, the Chashma-Ayub mausoleum and the tenth-century Ismail Samani Mausoleum. You then drive 48 km out to Gijduvan to visit the Narzullaev family ceramics centre, with its workshop, its museum of five generations of potters and a chance to try painting a piece yourself. Returning to Bukhara you finish at Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, the last emir's summer palace.

You start with the Mausoleum of Bakhouddin Naqshbandi, the great Sufi shrine just outside the city, and the House Museum of Fayzulla Khodjaev. After lunch you drive east to Samarkand, around 280 km and four hours, stopping on the way at the eleventh-century Rabat-i-Malik caravanserai, of which the monumental portal survives beside the road. You arrive in Samarkand in the evening, check in and have time to walk out to the Registan once it is lit.

Your first full day in the Timurid capital. You visit the Gur-Emir Mausoleum, where Timur, his sons and his grandson Ulugbek lie under a ribbed turquoise dome, then the Registan Square with the Ulugbek, Sher-Dor and Tillya-Kari madrasahs, the remains of the Bibi-Khanum Mosque and the crowded rows of Siab Bazaar beside it. The afternoon takes in the Shakhi-Zinda Necropolis, a stepped avenue of tiled tombs, and the Ulugbek Observatory on the hill above the city.

An early start for the drive south over the mountains to Shakhrisabz, Timur's birthplace, about an hour and a half away. You see the vast surviving pylons of the Ak-Saray Palace, the Dor-us Saodat complex with the mausoleum of his sons Jahongir and Omar-Shaykh, the Dor-ut Tilavat ensemble where his father and spiritual teacher are buried, and the blue-domed Kok-Gumbaz Mosque. Lunch is at the pass on the way back, with tandoor-roasted lamb and a view over the valley.

The morning begins with a plov masterclass at a national guest house, where you help prepare a Samarkand-style pilaf in a cast-iron kazan over the fire and then sit down to eat it. Afterwards you visit the Afrasiab Museum and its archaeological site, home of the seventh-century ambassadors' murals, the Tomb of Saint Daniel, and Konigil village, where mulberry bark is still beaten into Samarkand paper. In the late afternoon you take the Afrosiyob train back to Tashkent.

Check-out from the hotel is at noon and the time before your transfer is free. You might visit the Islamic Civilisation Centre, walk past the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre or make a last run to Chorsu Bazaar for spices, dried fruit and suzani embroidery. Your driver then takes you to Tashkent International Airport for your onward flight, ending eleven days on the Silk Road.