Palaces of the emirs and Sufi mysteries: a one-day tour of Bukhara

The Uzbek vibe in all its beauty.
Those 7 days in Uzbekistan are still spinning in my head.
We started right away with the mountains. We headed to Chimgan, and it was the perfect decision. After a long flight, we were greeted by fresh air and cool weather. We climbed higher, looked out over the ridges, had rice soup and shashlik in some yurt, and realized we had already fallen in love. The mountains here are completely different: soft, green, not intimidating.
Then we went down to Tashkent. The city turned out to be a pleasant surprise: modern, with huge bazaars where your eyes run wild. In the evening we sat in a teahouse, ate plov and shashlik, drank green tea, and didn't want to leave anywhere anymore.
And then it took off. Samarkand… Registan is simply out of this world.
Bukhara is a universe of its own. Narrow streets, old courtyards, the Lyabi-Hauz square where people drink tea in the evening and nothing is rushed. Time really slows down there.
And the finale: Khiva.
In short, one of the tastiest and most heartfelt trips in recent years. Uzbekistan hooks you strongly and quickly.

Huge thanks to Evgeny for organizing and leading a private one-day tour for my sister and me! A leisurely walk in the mountains in pleasant, informative company, enjoying the incredible scenery, feeling the power and might of a waterfall, flying a paraglider, and coming away with unforgettable impressions of the time we spent: it was all unforgettable!!! Everything was very well organized, professional, safe and comfortable! Our expectations were met 100% and even a little more! :)
Evgeny is a very attentive guide who senses what his guests want and knows how to build comfortable routes. Next time I will only contact him, and I recommend him to everyone! :)

We were offered a trip to the Nurata mountains, to the villages of Sentob and Majrum. We had hiked the mountains around Charvak many times and wanted something new and fresh. Huge thanks to Evgeny for showing us this wonderful place. These places were magical. Every village is full of its own history, way of life and beautiful scenery. We want to go back with our family, despite the long road there.

Thanks to the Xtrail guides for organizing and leading our trip to the ancient cities of Uzbekistan. We were all delighted with the tours of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva. We highly recommend them!

We decided on a very short term to spend one day hiking in the Chimgan mountains. The accommodation was great and the day hike with Lena was wonderful. We walked through less frequented parts of the national park and the views were amazing. Lena was taking care of everything, even cooked tea for us when hiking. The organization of the trip was perfect. We recommend Evgenij and his tour guide Lena for sure. For our next trip to the Chimgan mountains we know for sure who to ask.

First of all — we loved everything!

Tour of almost the entire country, two adults, 9 days, mid-April.

Initially, we were looking for package tours to cover as much ground as possible in a short period of time. We stumbled upon XtrailTour, represented by Evgeny Shabanov, while researching options around the Aral Sea. Evgeny quickly got involved and offered assistance in organizing the sightseeing itinerary and logistics not only for the Aral Sea but also for all the other cities and places we were interested in.

As a result, we had a wonderful individual tour of almost all the main attractions of Uzbekistan: Tashkent (+ the Institute of Solar Physics, Amirsoy, Charvak Reservoir) -> Samarkand -> yurt camp near Lake Aydarkul -> Gijduvan -> Bukhara -> Urgench -> Khiva -> Nukus -> Muynak -> yurt camp on the Aral Sea -> Nukus -> Tashkent

Once we'd agreed on everything on our «wish list», Evgeny put together an itinerary for the entire route with contacts for the guides and transfers.

Great guides, good transfers, everything is very flexible, Evgeny and everyone else are always in touch.

Considering the tight time frame for preparing the tour, the many moves between cities, and the sometimes major changes we made to the itinerary along the way — there were no problems anywhere (we booked the hotels and some of the domestic transfers ourselves).

Communication was mainly via Telegram with everyone.

Getting around the country — transfers arranged by Evgeny, the Afrosiyob high-speed train, domestic flights, Yandex Taxi.

Let me emphasize once again that, as an individual tour, everything was as flexible and convenient for us as possible (wait for us here, let us take more time for photos there, let's also visit this place, etc.).

I would like to separately highlight the guides in Bukhara (Albina) and on the Aral Sea (driver Kasym and guide Ajiniyaz).

We saw almost everything we wanted (the weather made some adjustments). Without any incidents.

Very positive overall impression of the tour and the country as a whole!

I highly recommend XtrailTour and Evgeny.

We want to say a huge thank you to Victoria for these wonderful two days! ❤️ Thanks to her, we didn't just see the beautiful sights of Tashkent, we truly immersed ourselves in the history, culture and traditions of Uzbekistan. We learned a lot of interesting things, tried national dishes and felt the special atmosphere of this amazing country.
And special thanks to Victoria for her responsiveness and willingness to help! In some situations she literally saved us, helped us sort out our problems and did everything to make the trip comfortable and leave us with only pleasant impressions and lots of great photos))
Thank you for introducing us to Uzbekistan, for your attention and your warm, heartfelt approach 🥰🫶

I'm from El Salvador and was discovering Uzbekistan for a couple of weeks.
With Xtrail I could go to the mountains and have a wonderful two-days trip, where everything was well organized, safe and enjoyable.

Dmitry, the guide, is a good person, he even spoke in Spanish with me. He was explaining many history and local insights, which I value the most.
F. The driver, was also very nice, we was always caring about me, and trying to communicate and make me feel comfortable.

I really appreciated their warm hospitality.