In Transit Overnight: Depart on overnight flights from the U.S. Please Note: Regulations require three (3) color passport-type photos for Migration Service registration upon arrival in Turkmenistan. Photos should be 1.2" x 1.6" or 1.6" x 2". Please ensure that you have these photos with you when you arrive on the program.

In Transit Overnight: Program air arrangements are on Lufthansa, with flight connections in Europe and Astana, Kazakhstan, and arrive in Almaty at approximately 1 a.m tonight (overnight Day 2-3). Transfer to the hotel.

Lodging: Astana International

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Start the day with an orientation by the group leader. Then, set out for an exploration of Almaty. First, explore the State Central Museum, a history museum with exhibits that detail the development of Kazakhstan and its people from the Bronze Age through the Russian Empire, the Communist Period and the present day. One of the exhibits is a miniature replica of the country’s chief archaeological treasure, the Golden Man, a warrior’s armor made from 4,000 gold pieces. There are also displays of Kazakh handicrafts and souvenir shops selling rugs and jewelry. Visit Kok Tobe, a 3,800-foot hill on the outskirts of Almaty. The view of Almaty from Kok Tobe is fantastic and gives a unique perspective on this sprawling regional business capital.

Lunch: At a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Continue a city discovery of Almaty including Panfilov Park with its candy-colored Zenkov Cathedral, built without the use of nails. Its yellow and green facade and golden domes are from the era of czars; it is one of the few buildings in Almaty that came through the devastating 1911 earthquake. Visit the local Green Bazaar where all types of produce, nuts and dried fruits are for sale. Stop in at the delightful Museum of Musical Instruments for a short performance. Created in 1980, the museum exhibits a collection of traditional Kazakh instruments, including the dombra, a two-stringed lute-like stringed instrument ubiquitous to Central Asia.

Dinner: Welcome dinner at a local restaurant.

Lodging: Astana International

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Early breakfast in the hotel.

Morning: Enjoy additional exploration of Almaty then travel approximately 30 minutes outside the city to the Small Almaty Gorge. The Gorge is 5,577 feet above sea level and home to the famous Medeo Sports Complex with its Olympic-sized ice rink.

Lunch: At a restaurant in the Gorge with incredible views of the soaring Tien Shan Mountains.

Afternoon: Drive to Bishkek.

Dinner: In Bishkek on arrival.

Lodging: Golden Dragon Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Travel outside of Bishkek to Tokmak village. Pay a visit to the International University of Central Asia. Next visit the Burana Tower - one of the only existing watch towers remaining from the old Silk Road. The open-air museum here features a collection of ancient bal-bals, carved stone figures used as monuments.

Lunch: In the private home of a local family. Enjoy the opportunity to meet the host and hostess and sample traditional Kyrgyz dishes.

Afternoon: Attend a demonstration of Kyrgyz horse games at a local village.

Dinner: In a local restaurant with a Kyrgyz Manas cultural performance.

Lodging: Golden Dragon Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: An exploration of Bishkek includes visits to Victory Park, Ala Too and the National History Museum that features four floors of art and artifacts. Browse the State Museum of Fine Arts, featuring Kyrgyz embroidery, jewelry and unique felt rugs; then pause at Oak Park, the Village of Manas, and the monument "Manas on the Horse".

Lunch: In a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Following lunch, observe a demonstration of the traditional Kyrgyz art of making felt, with an opportunity to make a small shyrdak for yourself. Later this afternoon, enjoy some independent time or visit Ala Archa National Park, centered on the steep forested gorge of the Ala Archa River and the mountains that surround it. An alpine park, Ala Archa includes over 20 glaciers and 50 peaks, which range from 12,000 to 15,000 feet. Soviet alpinists used to train at a camp here.

Dinner: In a local restaurant.

Lodging: Golden Dragon Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Early morning, fly to Tashkent on a short flight. Following some leisurely time this morning to rest from the early flight, visit the highlights of Tashkent: the Alisher Navoi Opera and Ballet Theater, built in 1947 by Japanese prisoners of war and survivor of the terrible 1966 earthquake; the Shahid Memorial Complex, its blue-domed rotunda reminding the nation of Uzbek leaders, artists and poets shot in 1938 during Stalin's purges; the Courage Monument, named for the workers who rebuilt the city after the earthquake; and Independence Square, its history revealed in its parade of names -- first "Cathedral", then "Red", then "Lenin," and finally in 1992, "Independence."

Lunch: In a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Visit the private studio of a sixth-generation Uzbek ceramicist whose family has been making pottery since the 1790s. They have revived the lost art of natural dye use, and are teaching contemporary Uzbek ceramicists their rediscovered techniques.

Dinner: In a local restaurant.

Lodging: Tashkent Palace Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Early breakfast at the hotel.

Morning: Depart early driving south for a few hours and head across the Tajik border today to nearby Khujand. Khujand, situated at the entrance to the Fergana Valley on the Syr Darya River, is the second largest city in Tajikistan. Its origins have been attributed to both Alexander the Great (in 329 BC) and Cyrus the Great of Persia (several centuries earlier); whichever is true, the city is an ancient one. A former religious center and a Silk Road center, Khujand is home to several medieval monuments.

Upon arrival depart for a city tour of Khujand including a visit to the exciting Panshanbe Bazaar. Khujand’s pink-painted covered bazaar is overflowing with goods to buy. The huge columned structure shelters orderly rows of tables covered with bags of brilliant spices and nuts, straw-bedded melons with macramé handles, hanging haunches of meat and piles of vegetables.

Lunch: Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon: This afternoon check in to the hotel. Later we enter the new Historical Museum of Sogdiana through a reconstructed medieval city gate. Displays include ancient Sogdian artifacts and exhibits from more recent Tajik history. Next visit the Muslihiddin memorial complex. 12th century leader and poet Muslihiddin Khudjandi is buried here in the Muslihiddin memorial complex, which has been rebuilt many times since that time. Today the complex includes a 16th century mosque and 19th century minaret as well as the poet's mausoleum. Next visit the Timur Malik Fortress. On the left bank of the Syr-Darya in the middle of Khujand are the remains of its 10th century citadel, restored in 1999. Archaeological excavations around the walls have uncovered artifacts from the 4th century BC.

Dinner: In a local restaurant.

Lodging: Sugd Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Return to Uzbekistan, arriving this afternoon in perhaps the most well known of Silk Road towns, Samarkand, fabled oasis on the fringes of the Kyzyl Kum Desert that has been settled since the 6th century BC. Because of its location on the plains where the Zeravshan River spills out from the Pamir Mountains, Samarkand became a major Silk Road crossroads. It has been visited through time by many of the world’s conquerors — Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. Alexander said of Samarkand, “Everything I have heard about the beauty of the city is indeed true, except that it is much more beautiful than I imagined.” Tamerlane made it his capital city and gathered the finest architects, builders and artisans of the time to enhance its beauty.

Lunch: Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Discover Registan Square, the centerpiece of Samarkand and the most recognizable landmark for visitors. Three emblematic madrassahs frame the square and loom over the empty space in the center. It was this central space that originally gave the place its name, for "registan" simply means "place of sand." This sandy place was at the center of ancient Samarkand and was a public square and marketplace before Ulug Bek built the Ulug Bek, Tillya-Kori, and Shir Dor madrassahs. In its reconstruction, the square maintains the majesty that it has radiated through the ages. Visit Gur-Emir Mausoleum, the final resting place of Tamerlane, built at the turn of the 15th century. The interior of the mausoleum has been restored and is brilliant in gold leaf and fresh tile. The heavily gilded central dome opens over the set of tomb-markers resembling sarcophagi. All are marble, with the exception of Tamerlane's, which is a slab of solid jade reportedly from Mongolia.

Dinner: In a local restaurant.

Lodging: Asia Samarkand Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Today resume discovering Samarkand, visiting the Bibi Khanum Mosque, Ulug Bek's observatory, and the bazaar. Bibi Khanum Mosque, built by Tamerlane to be the largest mosque in the Islamic world, and dedicated to the memory of his favorite wife. Architects from India and Persia were brought in to build the mosque, and 95 elephants were used to transport the marble and other building materials from India to Samarkand. The row of tombs and mausoleums collectively called Shah-I-Zinde, or "place of a living king," stretches between the present and the past. At its front is living Samarkand, and at its back the dusty slopes at the edge of ancient Afrosiab. Even on hot summer days the mausoleums remain shady and cool, and seem to lure the traveler to approach the oldest tomb at the far end. Behind the complex and set into the hill lies an active cemetery with gravesites dating back as far as the ninth century, and as recently as the present day.

Lunch: Lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Visit the local Carpet Factory Workshop. Observe the entire process of dying the thread and weaving carpets. Visit the workshop where hand-crafted paper is made according to traditions handed down from the 8th century, when paper making began in Samarkand. Founded in 1997 with the support of UNESCO, the workshop of Abdurakhim Mukhtarov produces lovely paper crafts and stationery as you watch.

Dinner: In a local restaurant.

Lodging: Asia Samarkand Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Continue along the Silk Road, to Bukhara. Stop at a ceramics master’s home and studio to learn about traditional ceramics and take a private visit of his workshop.

Lunch: Share lunch with the ceramics master in his home.

Afternoon: After arrival in Bukhara, take a short orientation walk around the center of the Old Town. In the mid 19th century 2,500 families of prosperous merchants were estimated to have been living here. Cut off in the 15th century from contact with other Jews, the Bukharan Jews developed their own dialect of the Tajik-Persian language that incorporates many Hebrew words, their own style of dress and their own unique form of Judaism. The only Bukharan synagogue allowed by the Soviets to remain is an unassuming place near the Lyabi-Hauz pool. Almost underground and still somewhat run-down, the synagogue is the center of life for Bukhara’s greatly diminished Jewish community. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, more than 70,000 Jews have left Uzbekistan.

Dinner: Dinner at a local restaurant.

Lodging: Sasha and Son B&B

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Explore the Lyabi-Hauz plaza. With the feel of a true oasis in an oasis town, the Lyabi-Hauz plaza is at the center of Bukhara’s old town and is — as it has been throughout history — a place to meet friends, to eat, to drink, and to relax in the shade. The atmosphere is cooled by the long rectangular reflecting pool that makes up the center of the plaza, and by the shade of the trees that ring the plaza. The mulberry trees here are hundreds of years old and frame the 16th- and 17th-century madrassahs that make up three of the four edges of the ensemble. Visit Poi Kalon, also called the Bukhara Forum. The 12th-century Kalon assembly, including the Kalon Mosque and Minaret, and the Mir-i-Arab Madrassah, surrounds an open plaza teeming with merchants and local vendors.

Lunch: Lunch in a local restuarant overlooking the plaza.

Afternoon: Continue to explore Bukhara, including its Ark Citadel — the original fortress of Bukhara that likely dates back two thousand years or more. The current structure has been built and rebuilt on the same site throughout its history, and has preserved something of the form, purpose and function of the first ark. Like the medieval castle complexes of Europe, the Bukhara Ark served the Emirs of Bukhara as a residence, audience hall and as protection from neighboring enemies. An expert discusses the bountiful archaeological excavations in the Bukhara region at the Ark Citadel.

Dinner: Dinner at a private house. Dinner today includes a master class in the art of making plov (or pilaf), Central Asia’s most ubiquitous dish. Learn how the freshest ingredients are combined to create the savory concoction that you will then consume.

Lodging: Sasha and Son B&B

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Explore the Summer Palace of the last emir and its Museum of National Crafts. A short distance outside of the city sits the Palace of Moon and Stars, or the Summer Palace of the last Emir of Bukhara, built at the turn of the century after the Russians took control of Bukhara. The palace itself is something of a showpiece, as it was designed to keep the emir in luxury, but removed from the city, in isolation and politically impotent. The main palace is a mixture of local materials, regional influences and Russian style. Western furniture abounds, but design choices reflect traditional Uzbek decorations. Witness artisans at work in the USAID-UNESCO Handicraft Development Center near Lyabi-Hauz Plaza. Learn about the history of their crafts at a special presentation by the artisans themselves.

Lunch: In a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Free time.

Dinner: Your choice to explore local fare.

Lodging: Sasha and Son B&B

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Note: The highway between Bukhara and Khiva is currently under construction and delays are possible. Expect a very long drive. Unfortunately there are no direct flight alternatives so this drive remains the best method of getting between these cities.

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Depart Bukhara and drive to Khiva, one of the best-preserved cities along the ancient Silk Road. Legend says that the oasis of Khiva was founded at the place where Shem, son of Noah, discovered water in the desert, and that the city got its name from Shem’s joyful shout, “Hey va!” at the discovery. Today the living city is part museum town, part re-creation of life hundreds of years ago. Archaeologists have found traces of human habitation around Khiva dating from the 5th century BC. It was for hundreds of years a stop on the old Silk Road and a fortress town, but it was not until the 16th century that Khiva became the capital of the Khorezm Khanate. The khanate ruled the surrounding area for over 300 years, and was a well-known slave-trading center.

Lunch: Stop for a picnic lunch en route on the shores of the Amu Darya River.

Afternoon: Arrival in Khiva and check into the hotel.

Dinner: Dinner at a local restaurant.

Lodging: Asia Khiva Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Spend the day exploring Khiva on foot. An expert-led walk explores the monuments of the Old Town, or Ichon-Qala, including the Tash-Hauli Palace, or Stone House, built in the 19th century for the reigning khan and his four wives.

Lunch: In a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Continue the guided walk of Khiva. The late afternoon is free for independent exploration.

Dinner: Dinner in a local restaurant.

Lodging: Asia Khiva Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Early departure for the drive to the Uzbek-Turkmen border crossing. Customs formalities can be time consuming; after clearing customs, continue to Tashauz.

Lunch: In a restaurant in Tashauz.

Afternoon: Later this afternoon, fly over the Kara Kum (black sands) Desert to Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashkabad. Check into the hotel.

Dinner: Dinner at a local restaurant.

Lodging: Ak-Altyn Plaza Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: A guided excursion of Ashgabat includes visits to the Lenin Monument, the new mosque and Turkmen-Turkish cultural and spiritual center, and a local bazaar. In spite of its location on a trade route, Ashkabad never achieved the status and influence of other Silk Road cities like Khiva or Bukhara. Originally known as Konjikala, the city was destroyed by Mongols in the 13th century. In 1881 the Russians built a fortress on the site as a buffer against English-dominated Persia, and by the early 20th century Ashkabad was a prosperous and flourishing city. In 1948 a massive earthquake leveled Ashkabad, killing over two-thirds of the population. Recently Ashkabad has seen a boom in new construction, which has had a major impact on the look of the city.

Lunch: In at a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Visit the National Museum of History and Ethnography with its superb collection of carved ivory drinking horns from Nisa. Also visit the Museum of Carpets and Textiles with its priceless handmade Turkmen carpets.

Dinner: In a local restaurant.

Lodging: Ak-Altyn Plaza Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: In the hotel.

Morning: Set out early to explore the Altyn-Asyr Bazaar, one of the largest bazaars in Central Asia, located about an hour's drive from the city center. The huge market is brimming with all types of goods including traditionally patterned carpets, Turkmen jewelry and animals for sale. Visit a horse-breeding farm devoted to the renowned Akhal-Tekke horse, arguably the oldest cultured breed of horse in the world.

Lunch: Return to Ashkabad for a celebratory farewell lunch with a fashion and folk show or Turkmen dancers.

Afternoon: Visit the site of the capital of the ancient Parthian Kingdom of Nisa. More than two thousand years ago the Parthian Empire spread out from Nisa and took its place among such kingdoms as the Achaemenid under Cyrus the Great and the Macedonian under Alexander the Great. Though Nisa was ruled by a succession of dynasties, it remained an important center in the ancient world until the 13th century, when the Mongols sacked it. Today archaeological work continues at Nisa, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007. Meet with a local archaeologist while visiting the excavations that continue to reveal more about this ancient city. On the way back to Ashkabad, make a stop at Kipchuk village to admire Turkmenbashi's personal mosque. The huge $100-million-dollar mosque in former Turkmen President Niyazov's hometown of Kipchuk was inaugurated in 2004. The mosque is big enough to hold 10,000 people. Its 164-foot golden dome had to be lowered in place by helicopter. Verses from Niyazov's own spiritual book, the Ruhnama, are etched on the walls alongside Koranic verses. Niyazov was buried here in the family mausoleum that he built, along with the mosque, with government funds.

Dinner: A light dinner is served in the hotel.

Lodging: Ak-Altyn Plaza Hotel

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Available at the hotel. However Lufthansa flights out of Ashkabad depart in the early morning hours, in which case, breakfast is on board the flight.

Morning: Departures. *Note: All flights to Europe with connections to the U.S. depart very early in the morning.

Meals Included: Breakfast