Private tour — price per person depends on group size:
| 1 traveler | $350 / person |
| 2 travelers | $220 / person |
| 3 travelers | $170 / person |
| 4 travelers | $145 / person |
| 5 travelers | $130 / person |
| 6 travelers | $120 / person |
Most people move between Bukhara and Samarkand on a fast train. This does it the long way, and turns the transfer into the trip.
Day one runs north-east across the steppe with three stops — the Narzullaev ceramics workshop at Gijduvan, the Rabati Malik caravanserai portal, and Nurata, where a sacred spring full of carp sits below the ruins of a fortress attributed to Alexander the Great. You finish the day in Asraf, a village in the Nuratau mountains, staying with a family.
Day two is a morning walk around the village, a last home-cooked lunch, and the drive down to Samarkand — arriving mid-afternoon with your luggage already where it needs to be.
Pickup at 08:30 from your Bukhara hotel with all your luggage — you will not come back this way.
Gijduvan ceramics, the Rabati Malik caravanserai, and the Chashma holy spring at Nurata below the old fortress.
You arrive at Asraf in the late afternoon and stay with a village family. Dinner is home-cooked, eaten together.
A morning walk around the village, a final lunch, then the drive to your Samarkand hotel by around 5 PM.
Pickup from your hotel with luggage, then north-east out of the city.
The Narzullaev family workshop, now in its seventh generation. Hand-painted plates and bowls, and a look at the kiln.
A photo stop at the surviving Karakhanid portal on the old Silk Road between Bukhara and Samarkand.
A sacred spring full of carp beside an old mosque, below the hilltop ruins of the Nur fortress — attributed to Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC.
Lunch at a local restaurant in Nurata.
Arrive at Asraf, a small village in the Nuratau mountains, and settle in with your host family.
Dinner with the host family.
Breakfast with the host family.
A gentle morning walk around Asraf with your host — rock carvings on the hillsides, orchards and irrigation channels, and long views north over the steppe.
A final lunch with the host family before you leave.
The drive down out of the mountains, direct to Samarkand.
Door-to-door drop-off at your Samarkand hotel, around 5 PM.
The same village and homestay as a round trip from Samarkand, with a guided mountain hike.
The same Bukhara to Samarkand idea, but sleeping in a desert yurt camp instead.
Two nights in the mountains and a proper guided hike between villages.