Silk Road & Nuratau: 10 Days

Transfer from the airport to your hotel. If time allows, visit the Museum of Applied Arts and ride the Tashkent Metro with its ornate stations.

The Afrosiyob high-speed train (about 2 hours) or a private car to Samarkand. In the afternoon, Registan Square and the Gur-e-Amir Mausoleum, resting place of Amir Timur.

A full day: the Bibi-Khanym Mosque, once among the largest in the Islamic world, Siyob Bazaar beside it, the tiled street of tombs at Shah-i-Zinda and the 15th-century Ulugbek Observatory. Dinner with live music can be added in the evening.

Drive to the Nuratau Mountains (about 3 to 4 hours) and settle into a family guesthouse in Asraf. Walk around the village, meet the neighbours and, if time permits, hike into the hills for the views. Dinner and the night with your hosts.

Down from the mountains to Aydarkul Lake for a picnic or a walk by the water, then into the Kyzylkum Desert to a yurt camp. A camel ride can be added. Evening around the campfire, often with Kazakh or Uzbek folk songs.

An early start. Stop at the Chashma spring in Nurata, a revered pilgrimage site, and at a ceramics workshop in Gijduvan, then on to Bukhara. Evening stroll in the old town or tea in a teahouse.

A full day: Lyab-i Hauz and its madrasas, the Po-i-Kalyan complex with the Kalyan Minaret and the Mir-i-Arab Madrasa, the Ark fortress and Chor Minor. A folk show in an old madrasa can be added in the evening.

An early start for the 6 to 7 hour drive across the desert and the Amu Darya river. Check in inside or near Itchan Kala and take a first look around the walled town.

A full day in Itchan Kala: the unfinished Kalta Minor minaret, the Kunya-Ark fortress, the Tash Hauli palace and harem, and the Juma Mosque with more than 200 carved wooden columns. Finish on the city walls or a minaret at sunset.

Transfer to Urgench airport for your onward flight.