Deserts and Domes: 10 Days

Airport pick-up and time to rest. In the afternoon, Tashkent's old and new faces: the Hazrati Imam complex, Chorsu Bazaar, the Kukeldash Madrasa, Amir Timur Square and a few of the most beautiful metro stations.

Morning flight to Urgench and transfer to Khiva. Check in inside or next to the old town and spend the afternoon getting lost in its lanes, then watch the sun set over the domes from the city walls.

A guided day in Khiva's inner town: the Kunya-Ark citadel, the Juma Mosque, the Tash Hauli palace with its tiled harem, the Pahlavan Mahmud Mausoleum and the Islam Khoja minaret, the tallest in Khiva. Free time in the late afternoon for the craft shops.

About 450 km by road along the Amu Darya and across the Kyzylkum Desert, the route caravans once took between the two khanates. Arrive in Bukhara by late afternoon.

On foot through two thousand years of history: Lyab-i Hauz, the trading domes, the Kalyan Minaret and Po-i-Kalyan, Mir-i-Arab Madrasa, the Ark fortress, the Bolo Hauz Mosque, the Samanid Mausoleum and Chor Minor.

The Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa summer palace of the last emir and the Bahauddin Naqshband complex, one of the most visited shrines in Central Asia. Free afternoon in the old town.

Leave Bukhara for Gijduvan and a master potter's workshop, then Nurata, with the ruins of a fortress attributed to Alexander the Great and a spring full of sacred fish. In the afternoon, reach a yurt camp in the desert near Aydarkul Lake: a short camel ride, dinner and a campfire, often with a local singer.

Morning by the lake, then about 4 hours' drive to Samarkand. In the afternoon, Registan Square and the Gur-e-Amir Mausoleum.

Morning in Samarkand: Shah-i-Zinda, the Bibi-Khanym Mosque and Siyob Bazaar. Then over the Takhtakaracha Pass to Shakhrisabz to see the gate of Timur's Ak-Saray palace and the Dorut Tilovat and Dorus Saodat complexes. Back in Samarkand for the evening high-speed train to Tashkent.

Breakfast and transfer to Tashkent International Airport.