Central Asia's The Five 'Stans

Independent departures from the U.S.

Connect via a gateway city on the way to Bishkek.

On arrival in Bishkek clear local immigration and customs. Then meet your transfer agent and drive into the city, check in at the hotel, and rest.

Enjoy a morning free to rest, or to explore independently.

Overnight: Hyatt Regency Bishkek

Meals: B

In the morning, attend a lecture by your Harvard Study Leader at the hotel.

Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, was founded as the Russian garrison of Pishpek and is situated against the northern edge of the Ala-Too Mountains. Originally a forested stop on the Silk Road, it was taken over by the Russians in 1877 and later renamed Bishkek when Kyrgyzstan gained independence. The city is known for its wide boulevards, friendly locals, and abundant trees. On clear days, breathtaking views of the snowcapped mountains are revealed.

Stop at Ala-Too Square, the central square of Bishkek, which features a large statue that has undergone several changes over the years, from Lenin to Freedom, and finally to the hero of the national epic, Manas. Explore the National History Museum, located in Ala-Too Square, which houses a diverse collection of Soviet art and artifacts from ancient Kyrgyz history, including gold, jewelry, and coins. Enjoy a traditional lunch at a local restaurant.

Continue to the State Museum of Fine Arts, focusing on art from the Soviet era, with over 15,000 paintings, sculptures, and decorative pieces. The museum also features a permanent exhibition on Kyrgyz folk art and life, showcasing a yurt, costumes, and traditional crafts. 

Enjoy a traditional folklore concert with a Manas performance during dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight: Hyatt Regency Bishkek

Meals: B, L, D

Enjoy a leisurely morning with free time for rest or independent exploration before check-out.

Head to a meeting at the U.S. Embassy (subject to embassy approval and scheduling) to discuss current affairs.

After lunch, transfer to the airport for your flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan. Upon arrival, clear immigration and customs and transfer to your hotel.

The remainder of the afternoon and dinner are left independent, considering the potential for a late arrival.

Overnight: InterContinental Almaty

Meals: B, L

Explore Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, nestled at the foothills of the Zaili Ala-Too Mountains in the Tien Shan range. The city's name means "the place with apples," believed to be where apples were first domesticated.

Visit Panfilov Park, named after the 28 Kazakh soldiers led by General Panfilov who died near Moscow during WWII. Explore the park's monument honoring the soldiers and the Eternal Flame memorializing all war victims. Also in the park is Zenkov Cathedral, a wooden Orthodox church built at the turn of the century.

Experience local culture at the Green (Zelyony) Bazaar, shopping for fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, flowers, spices, and more. Discover traditional Kazakh instruments at the Museum of Musical Instruments, where a guide demonstrates and explains each instrument.

Have lunch at a local restaurant and head to Republic Square, Almaty's main square, featuring the Monument of Independence, an obelisk topped by the legendary Golden Man standing on a winged snow leopard. Explore the Central State Museum, showcasing Kazakhstan's history from the Bronze Age to the present day.

After dinner, meet with political scientist Bakhytnur Otarbaeva to discuss modern Kazakhstan. Dr. Otarbaeva teaches at Almaty Management University, specializing in political science, Kazakh history, global security, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable development.

Overnight: InterContinental Almaty

Meals: B, L, D

In the morning, stop by the U.S. Consulate to meet with staff and discuss current affairs (subject to consulate’s approval and scheduling).

Have lunch at a local restaurant before exploring the area surrounding Almaty.

Travel to the Small Almaty or Maloye Almatinskoye Gorge, which ascends to approximately 5,000 feet, home to the Medeo Sports Complex. The complex's Olympic-size skating rink has witnessed over 180 world records. Admire the dam overlooking the Medeo complex, constructed in 1966 to protect the valley from mudslides and floods, offering a stunning view of the landscape below.

Take a cable car to Shymbulak, a ski resort near Almaty situated in the upper Medeo Valley, where the 2011 Asian Winter Games were hosted. The cable car transports you to Talgar Pass, at an altitude of 10,500 feet.

Continue to the Sunkar Falcon Center. For millennia, steppe nomads used birds of prey for hunting, with the saker falcon being a favorite due to its keen eyesight and ability to survey the grasslands from great heights. However, habitat loss and poaching nearly drove them to extinction in the 1980s and 1990s. To raise awareness, the center was established as a breeding facility to reverse the decline of falcons and educate the public about falcon hunting history. The center also serves as a sanctuary for other birds of prey, including owls, golden eagles, hawks, and vultures. Led by Kazakhstani-German ornithologist and bird trainer Pavel Pfander, the center has bred and released hundreds of saker falcons and golden eagles back into the wild. Learn about these incredible birds' history while watching a demonstration.

Dinner is independent this evening.

Overnight: InterContinental Almaty

Meals: B, L

After breakfast, check out of your hotel in Almaty and head to the airport for your flight to Dushanbe, Tajikstan.

On arrival in Dushanbe, clear local immigration and customs. Then meet your guide, transfer into the city, and check in at the hotel. After lunch head into the city for an introductory tour of the city.

Dinner this evening is at the hotel.

Overnight: Serena Hotel

Meals: B, D

In the morning, stop by the U.S. Embassy to meet with staff and discuss current affairs (subject to Embassy’s approval and scheduling).

Named for the Persian word for Monday, Dushanbe was at one point a small market village where traders would gather each Monday to sell their goods. During the Soviet era the city grew to be the most important center of production in Tajikistan, and the Shohmansur covered market reflects its historical ties to local trade. As Tajikistan's capital, the city's tree-lined streets are home to many national museums and monuments, but watching the colorfully dressed locals stroll by from a park or café is a highlight in and of itself.

Venture to the small but fascinating Gurminj Museum of Musical Instruments, founded by Badakhshani actor Gurminj Zavkybekov. Displaying a fine collection of beautifully crafted antique and modern instruments from Afghanistan, the Pamirs, Turkey and China, the museum is often the scene of exuberant performances and demonstrations.

Overnight: Serena Hotel

Meals: B

Just 18 miles from Tajikistan's capital in a valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains, the town of Hisor is dominated by the 18th-century Hisor Fortress. The area has been inhabited since antiquity and features an 8th-century mosque, but it was the emirs who inhabited the fortress and the Silk Route traders who crossed the valley who made Hisor a center of commerce and learning.

Hisor Fortress also houses the remains of the palace of the Bukhara Emirate. Its thick baked brick walls once guarded a pool, garden, and palace, and sat opposite a noisy market and caravanserai. The strategically important fortress guarded the town, which was a staging post on the old Silk Road, and it is said that it was overcome and destroyed by the likes of Cyrus the Great and Alexander the Great.

Next, visit Dushanbe's Museum of Antiquities. It displays ancient artifacts of the many cultures and religions that influenced the Silk Road, including Greek, Roman, Buddhist, Zoroastrian and Hindu. Its centerpiece is the 5th century Reclining Buddha, unearthed from a Buddhist monastery complex in Ajina Tepe in southern Tajikistan. 

Explore the 12 opulent halls of the massive cultural and entertainment complex, Navruz Palace, which hosts weddings, celebrations and business gatherings of up to 3,000 guests. Each sumptuous hall is unique, with architectural and design details created by local artists and Tajik craftsmen, such as carved wooden columns and doors, Florentine mosaics inlaid with semi-precious stones, and allglass, all-stone, and all-wood walls stretching 150 feet to the ceiling. 

Meet several of Tajikstan's most accomplished artists at the Art Foundation of Tajikistan, and learn how they honed their artistic talents in Central Asia

Visit the new National Museum of Tajikistan, opened to the public in 2013. This large, modern building is filled with exhibits on Tajikistan's natural and political history. An airy, light-filled space stretching from the ground floor to the glass ceiling four stories up forms the heart of the museum. 

Overnight: Serena Hotel

Meals: B, L, D

After breakfast, check out of your hotel in Dushanbe and head to the airport for your flight to Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Although it doesn't look it today, Tashkent is one of the oldest cities in Uzbekistan. Rock paintings in the Chatkal Mountains about 50 miles away show that humans have been here since perhaps 2000 BC. Today, the city is a jumble of wide tree-lined boulevards, oversized 20th century Soviet buildings and reconstructed traces of the old city with mud-walled houses, narrow winding lanes, mosques and madrassahs (Islamic religious schools).

Browse the Applied Arts Museum. A wealthy czarist diplomat to Turkestan admiring Uzbek architecture, Alexander Polovtsev built a traditional mansion in 1898 and invited artisans from Samarkand, Bukhara and Fergana to decorate the interior. Exhibits include the Uzbek embroidered wall coverings called suzani, ceramics, jewelry, rugs, and musical instruments.

Learn about the history of Independence Square (Mustakillik Maydoni), revealed in the different names it has borne throughout its existence. Originally named Cathedral Square in honor of the Orthodox cathedral built here by Konstanin Kaufman, the first Russian Governor-General of Turkestan, it became Red Square in 1917. In 1966 it was designated Lenin Square, and it was not until 1992 that it became Independence Square.

This evening over dinner, enjoy a special opportunity to meet with Marinika Babanazarov, the former director of Uzbekistan’s world-class Savitsky Art Museum. Housing the extraordinary life’s work of its founder, Igor Savitsky, the museum shelters the world’s second-largest collection of banned Sovietera avant-garde art — currently totaling some 90,000 pieces — in the remote desert town of Nukus. Marinika assumed directorship of the museum after Savitsky's death in 1984, and served in her role for more than 30 years, helping to safeguard the museum’s priceless treasures from being sold to other museums and art collectors. (Subject to Marinika’s schedule. If not available, another local expert may be invited instead).

Overnight: Hyatt Regency Tashkent 

Meals: B, L, D

Stroll through a labyrinth of mud-walled houses surviving from the 19th century to Khast Imam Square, where some of Tashkent’s oldest monuments remain. The 16th-century Kaffal Shashi Mausoleum, the tomb of one of the first imams of the Muslim world, and Barak-Khan Madrassah, also 16th-century, are flanked by the 19th-century al-Bukhari Madrassah and the early 20th-century Tillya Sheikh Mosque, which houses the oldest Koran in the world.

Written on calfskin some time after the death of Mohammed, the manuscript is believed to have been compiled in Medina by Uthman, the third caliph of Islam. (Shi’a Muslims believe that Uthman’s successor, Ali, was the first true caliph, and his version of the Koran is held to be the only true version.) Only a third of the manuscript remains, about 250 large pages bound into a huge book. It has been inscribed onto the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. The experience of viewing this 7th century sacred document is a powerful one.

For lunch, a local chef will guide you through the colorful Chorsu Bazaar, pointing out local delicacies and special ingredients used in creating delicious Uzbek dishes. 

Pending availability, attend a visit to the U.S. Embassy to meet with staff and discuss current affairs. Please note that this visit is dependent on embassy approval and scheduling.

Stroll though Central Tashkent's Broadway Street—also known as Sayilgoh and formerly Karl Marx Street—is an energetic walkway dedicated entirely to pedestrians, lined not only with clothing shops, art galleries, and eateries but also Uzbeks selling antiques, paintings, handicrafts, and a wide variety of take-and eat treats and foods. 

Overnight: Hyatt Regency Tashkent

Meals: B, L, D

After breakfast, check out of your hotel in Tashkent and head to the railway station. Board the Afrosiab (high-speed) train to Samarkand, arriving around 11:00 AM. Upon arrival, explore the city before checking in at the hotel.

Samarkand, a fabled oasis on the fringes of the Kyzyl Kum Desert, has been settled since the 6th century BC and served as a major Silk Road crossroads. Begin at Registan Square, the centerpiece of Samarkand, framed by three emblematic madrassahs and known as the "Crossroad of Cultures" by UNESCO.

Enjoy a lunch of traditional favorites at a local restaurant and continue to the massive and beautiful Bibi Khanum Mosque, built by Tamerlane to be the largest mosque in the Islamic world. Explore the animated Siab Bazaar, just across the street from the mosque.

In the evening, have drinks and hors d'oeuvres on the rooftop of the charming Sultan Hotel with its spectacular views.

Continue to the 15th-century Gur-Emir Mausoleum, Tamerlane's final resting place, after regular opening hours for an exclusive experience not available to regular visitors.

Dine at a local restaurant this evening.

Overnight: Movenpick Hotel

Meals: B, L, D

After breakfast, attend a lecture by your Harvard Study Leader at the hotel.

Explore the ancient city of Afrosiab, just outside modern-day Samarkand, an archaeological site guarding treasures of antiquity. Stop at the Afrosiab History Museum, which houses artifacts from the area, including pottery and tile found among the excavated walls of the town, on a private tour with an archaeologist.

After lunch at a local restaurant, head to Shah-i-Zinda, a row of tombs and mausoleums stretching between modern-day Samarkand and the ancient city of Afrosiab. Explore the mausoleums and the active cemetery behind the complex.

Learn about Ulug Bek's observatory, one of the most advanced observatories of the ancient world, where he made groundbreaking astronomical observations with the naked eye.

Next, attend a demonstration of traditional Uzbek bread making, known as non, in a clay oven called a tandir.

Dinner this evening is on your own.

Overnight: Movenpick Hotel

Meals: B, L

Travel by train to Bukhara, an oasis in the desert with preserved ancient architecture.

Upon arrival, visit the Old Town with its unified feel and major monuments. Learn about Bukhara's history, including its role in the Great Game between Russia and England, and its significance to the Sephardic Jewry.

Stop at Labi-Hauz Plaza, a historic meeting place, and explore Bukhara's old Jewish Quarter, home to a unique community with its own dialect, dress, and form of Judaism.

Also enter the Magoki Attori Mosque, now a carpet museum, and wander the covered bazaar with its vibrant carpets, felt hats, jewelry, and embroidered suzani.

Visit a concert of traditional shashmaqom folk music. Enjoy a meal of Uzbek plov at a charming, family-operated establishment, and learn first hand how this dish is made. Meet the cook and participate in the plov cooking process, then sit down to partake in your freshly cooked creation.

Overnight: Wyndham Bukhara 

Meals: B, L, D

Following a lecture by your Harvard Study Leader, continue to explore Bukhara with visits to Poi Kalon, the Ark Citadel, and the Ismael Samani Mausoleum. Learn about the history and architecture of these significant sites.

Continue to the Zindan Prison and the Chashma Ayub Mausoleum, which features a sacred spring and the Water Supply History Museum of Bukhara.

Admire the Chor Minor Madrassah and ascend the enclosed water tower for drinks and hors d'oeuvres with a panoramic view of Bukhara.

Dine at a local restaurant for dinner.

Overnight: Wyndham Bukhara 

Meals: B, L, D

Explore Bukhara with a morning guided tour, visiting sites like the Summer Palace of the last Emir of Bukhara and its Museum of National Crafts, Bahauddin Naqshband Mausoleum, and a village studio specializing in the art of suzani.

After lunch, enjoy free time for rest and independent exploration.

Overnight: Wyndham Bukhara 

Meals: B, L

Check out of your hotel in Bukhara and embark on an approximately 8-hour drive across the Kyzyl Kum Desert to Khiva. Have lunch at a rest area along the way.

Upon arrival in Khiva, take a walk in the old town and have dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight: Farovon Khiva Hotel 

Meals: B, L, D

Attend a lecture at your hotel by your Harvard Study Leader before spending the day exploring Khiva with your guide.

Khiva's Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a well-preserved example of a Silk Road oasis. Visit the Tash Hauli Palace, the largest existing building in Khiva, which was the home of the Khan and his four wives. Admire the Islam Khoja Madrassah & Minaret, known for its towering minaret—the tallest in Uzbekistan.

Explore the Muhammad Amin-Khan Madrassah and the Kalta Minor, an unfinished minaret with stunning turquoise tiles. See the Tash-Hauli Palace, the former residence of the Khan, and the Kunya Ark, the khan's fortress and residence.

Have lunch at a local restaurant before learning about Khiva's wood carving tradition at the Juma Mosque and meeting with an expert from the Khorezm Academy of Mamun.

Also see the mausoleum of Pahlavan Mahmud, built in 1810 to honor the patron of Khiva.

Dinner this evening is at a local restaurant.

Overnight: Farovon Khiva Hotel

Meals: B, L, D

After breakfast, check out of your hotel in Khiva and transfer across the border to Turkmenistan. Be prepared for some walking between border checkpoints and a change of vehicles at the borders. Customs formalities can be time-consuming, so patience is advised.

Dashoguz, located in northern Turkmenistan near the Uzbek border, is a small regional capital with a rich history as a stopover for Silk Road travelers. Stop here for lunch and, time permitting, a visit to a local market before transferring to the airport for your flight to Ashgabat.

Upon arrival in Ashgabat, take a scenic transfer to your hotel, allowing you to see the capital city illuminated in a bright rainbow of neon lights.

Have dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight: Divan Hotel

Meals: B, L, D

Have a full day exploring Ashgabat with your guide.

Start at the archaeological site of Nisa, located 15 miles outside Ashgabat, which was once a major center of the ancient Parthian Kingdom. Explore the remains of Nisa with a local archaeologist.

Next, see the impressive mosque in Kipchak, former Turkmen President Niyazov's hometown. This mosque, inaugurated in 2004, is large enough to hold 10,000 people and features a 164-foot golden dome. The mosque also houses the family mausoleum where Niyazov is buried.

Continue to the National Museum of Turkmen Carpets to admire an abundance of gorgeous carpets, kilims, cushions, and costumes. Learn about the nuanced differences in carpet and textile patterns among different Turkmen tribes and regions.

After lunch at a local restaurant, take a leisurely stroll through Independence Park, a huge green space in the center of the city lined with monuments and statues.

Visit the Monument of Neutrality, originally built by Niyazov with a revolving golden statue of himself. The monument now includes the Museum of Neutrality and a transparent elevator.

In the evening, gather for a festive Farewell Dinner featuring a folk show with Turkmen costumes and music.

Overnight: Divan Hotel

Meals: B, L, D

Check out and head to the airport in time for your outbound flight(s).

Meals: B