Uzbekistan Winter Group Tour

You are met at Tashkent International Airport and transferred to your hotel. Winter arrivals are mostly early morning, so the first day is deliberately light: once you have warmed up, your guide takes you to Amir Timur Square and the Courage Monument, which marks the 1966 earthquake, and there is free time on Taras Shevchenko Street, where the restaurants are busiest after dark. Bring a proper coat, as Tashkent nights in January drop well below freezing. Overnight in Tashkent.

A full day in the capital, with plenty of it indoors. You begin in the Old City at the Khast-Imam complex, home to one of the oldest Qurans in existence, and the Mausoleum of Kaffal Shashi, then move into the warmth of Chorsu Bazaar, which is at its best in winter for dried fruit, nuts and hot samsa. You ride the tiled metro into the centre and spend the afternoon at the State Museum of Applied Arts before seeing the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre. Overnight in Tashkent.

An early transfer to the station for the Afrosiyob high-speed train, which leaves at 07:38 and covers the 605 km to Bukhara by 11:17. Your driver takes you to the hotel and, after lunch, you make a first walk into the old town while the light is still good: the Lyabi-Khauz ensemble around its frozen pool, the four-turreted Chor-Minor and the domed bazaars, where the hat-makers do a brisk trade in sheepskin telpaks at this time of year. Overnight in Bukhara.

A full day on foot in the historic centre, listed by UNESCO in its entirety. You visit the Magoki-Attori Mosque, sunk below the modern street, then the Poi-Kalyan ensemble with the 47-metre Kalyan Minaret, the Kalyan Mosque and the Miri-Arab Madrasah, which is at its most photogenic with snow on the domes. The afternoon takes in the Ark fortress, the Bolo-Khauz Mosque with its painted wooden columns, and the tenth-century Ismail Samani mausoleum. Overnight in Bukhara.

The morning is spent outside the old town at Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, the summer palace of Bukhara's last emir, and at the memorial complex of Bakhouddin Naqshbandi, founder of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, where winter pilgrims warm their hands over the tea urns. You also see the house museum of Fayzulla Khodjaev. In the afternoon you transfer to the station for the Afrosiyob train at 15:52, arriving in Samarkand at 17:25. Overnight in Samarkand.

A full day in Timur's capital, and the reason to come in winter. You start at Registan Square, which in January you may well have largely to yourself, then walk to the Bibi-Khanum Mosque and through Siab Bazaar. In the afternoon you climb the tiled alley of the Shakhi-Zinda necropolis, visit the underground arc of the Ulugbek Observatory, and end at the Gur-Emir Mausoleum. If it has snowed, the ribbed domes against a clear sky are the picture you came for. Overnight in Samarkand.

You check out by noon after a slower morning: the Afrasiab Museum beside the mounds of the pre-Mongol city, the tomb of Saint Daniel on the riverbank, and then Konigil village, where the Meros workshop still makes Samarkand paper from mulberry bark by hand and the water wheel turns even in the cold. In the late afternoon you take the Afrosiyob high-speed train back to Tashkent, arriving in the evening, and transfer to your hotel. Overnight in Tashkent.

The last day heads for the mountains. You drive about two hours north-east into the western Tian Shan to the Amirsoy resort in the Chimgan range, where the gondola lifts you to around 2,300 metres for views over snow-covered ridges; skis and boards can be hired on the spot if you want a few runs. On the way back you stop above Charvak Reservoir, frozen blue between white peaks. You return to Tashkent and transfer to the airport. End of your winter journey.