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November 2026
Uzbekistan & Tajikistan
This solo female group tour is designed by women, for women and in collaboration with local women! This tour takes you through three fascinating Central Asian countries, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, but it's not like every other group tour you'll see!
It's an intimate journey along the ancient Silk Road that untangles the past and explores how women live, work, and create in present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
There are plenty of opportunities for cultural exchange and learning, such as cooking and artisan classes, as well as chances to meet local women entrepreneurs and local guides from each city. This tour goes beyond traditional group tours by involving local women at every stage, for a more equitable and responsible experience.
The journey is overland because we like to keep things as sustainable as possible, so no short flights. Instead, you'll get to see the diversity of the landscape rolling by, the sheer vastness of the mountains and memorable interactions along the way.
You might be wondering why you'd go to Central Asia. Maybe you haven't heard much about this part of the world, which is all the more reason to visit. There's something for everyone, from historic heritage sites to pristine, untouched nature.
We encourage women from all backgrounds to come along, so if you have any specific requirements or hesitations, please feel free to ask.
Daily Itinerary
Day 1 | Arrival in Tashkent (12 Nov)
The journey begins with fresh fruit.
Arrival in Tashkent and private transfer to your boutique hotel. Afternoon orientation walk: Independence Square, Amir Timur Museum, and the extraordinary Chorsu Bazaar – a domed cathedral of spices, dried fruits, and warm bread pulled from tandoor ovens. In October, the bazaar is at its most abundant: pomegranates split open to show ruby seeds, towers of dried apricots, fresh walnuts, and grapes still on the vine. Accommodation: Mirzo Boutique Hotel (or similar), Tashkent | Meals: Dinner
Day 2 | Tashkent → Fergana Valley
Through the mountain pass to the cradle of craftsmanship.
Morning train from Tashkent to Margilan (departs 08:05, arrives 12:59 – reserved seating, panoramic views through the snow-dusted Kamchik Pass). Afternoon visit to Kokand: the ornate Khudayar Khan Palace and the serene Jami Mosque. Train: Tashkent → Margilan | 08:05–12:59 | Accommodation: Hotel Asia (or similar), Fergana | Meals: B, L, D
Day 3 | Fergana Valley – Silk and Secrets
From cocoon to cloth – every stage in the hands of talented artisans,
Morning at the Yodgorlik Silk Factory – watching the entire journey from cocoon to finished fabric. Your visit focuses on the women at each station: the reelers, the binders, the dyers, the weavers. Time to sit beside them, ask questions, and witness the astonishing precision of hand-dyeing ikat patterns that have been passed down for centuries. ✋ HANDS-ON WORKSHOP: Ikat Tie-Dyeing In a home workshop, a local woman guides you through a hands-on ikat tie-dyeing session using natural pigments – pomegranate, walnut, indigo. The same palette used centuries ago. You will bind, dip, and unwrap your own piece of silk to take home. Free time in Margilan’s bazaar – one of the most authentic markets in Central Asia. October means fresh produce at its peak: melons, grapes, persimmons, and stacks of warm bread. Accommodation: Hotel Asia (or similar), Fergana | Meals: B, L, D
Day 4 | Fergana Valley → Tashkent → Bukhara
From the green valley to the Noble City.
Morning train back to Tashkent (departs 08:00). Connect to the Afrosiyob high-speed train to Bukhara (approximately 4 hours through the heart of Uzbekistan). Arrival in Bukhara by late afternoon. Evening stroll around Lyab-i-Hauz – the ancient reflecting pool shaded by 600-year-old mulberry trees. Dinner together as the city glows in lamplight. In October, Bukhara’s evenings are warm enough to sit outside, cool enough to relish every sip of tea. Trains: Fergana → Tashkent, then Afrosiyob Tashkent → Bukhara | Accommodation: Komil Boutique Hotel (or similar), Bukhara | Meals: B, L, D
Day 10 | Samarkand – A Morning to Savour
Journeying further into Central Asia.
Free morning for last-minute shopping in Samarkand’s workshops or a quiet walk to revisit favourite spots. Late morning: visit to the Konigil paper-making workshop, where artisans produce mulberry paper using methods unchanged since the Silk Road era. Afternoon transfer to the Uzbekistan–Tajikistan border at Jartepa (approximately 1 hour from Samarkand). Cross the border on foot – a simple, well-organised process. Meet your Tajik driver on the other side and transfer to Penjikent (30 minutes). Evening arrival in Penjikent – a small, peaceful town in the Zerafshan Valley. Dinner at your guesthouse. Transfer: Samarkand → border → Penjikent | ~2 hours total | Accommodation: Guesthouse, Penjikent | Meals: B, L, D
Day 5 | Bukhara – The Noble City
The weight of centuries is still here, in every brick and every stitch.
Morning walking tour: the Poi-Kalon complex (the great minaret, the Kalon Mosque, the Mir-i-Arab Madrasa), the covered trading domes where silks and carpets have been traded for a thousand years, and the Ark Citadel – the seat of power for emirs across centuries. ✦ Cultural Exchange: The Gold Embroiderer Visit a zarduzi (gold embroidery) atelier behind the old bazaar. Meet the women artisans who stitch these extraordinary pieces and hear about practising an ancient art in a modern economy. Afternoon free to explore independently – lose yourself in the maze of alleys, drink chai by the hauz, browse the textile bazaars for suzani, ikat, and handwoven silk. Accommodation: Komil Boutique Hotel (or similar), Bukhara | Meals: B, L, D
Day 11 | Penjikent – The Ancient Sogdian City
Ruins and epic poetry.
Morning visit to the ruins of ancient Penjikent – once a flourishing Sogdian city, now an archaeological site revealing frescoes, temples, and market halls from a civilisation that predated Islam on the Silk Road. Visit the Rudaki Museum, dedicated to the father of Persian poetry, who was born in a village nearby. Afternoon walk through Penjikent’s small bazaar – a world away from the grand bazaars of Uzbekistan, but full of character: dried fruits, honey, mountain herbs, and handwoven textiles. ✦ Cultural Exchange: Village Women of the Zerafshan In a nearby village, women host you for a traditional Tajik lunch. The food is different here – qurutob (bread soaked in yogurt sauce), fresh herbs, and flatbread baked in a stone oven. The conversation flows easily: life in the valley, what the seasons bring, the difference between Uzbek and Tajik traditions, and the stories grandmothers tell. Accommodation: Guesthouse, Penjikent | Meals: B, L, D
Day 6 | Bukhara – Scholars, Stitches, and Sufis
The intellectual tradition that once drew students from Baghdad to Cordoba
Morning excursion to the Bakhautdin Naqshband complex – one of Central Asia’s most important pilgrimage sites, named for the 14th-century Sufi master whose order spread from here to Istanbul to Delhi. ✦ Cultural Exchange: The Professor At Bukhara State University, you will sit with a female professor and talk about education, identity, and what it means to be a woman shaping the next generation in Uzbekistan. The pressures young women face – between tradition and ambition – and the remarkable changes happening right now. ✋ HANDS-ON WORKSHOP: Suzani Embroidery A master embroiderer hosts a workshop where you will learn the basic stitches, choose your colours, and begin a small piece to take home. She will tell you about the tradition: a mother begins stitching a suzani for her daughter at birth, completing it by the time the daughter marries. Three years of patience, stitched into cloth. Farewell dinner in Bukhara – perhaps in a restored madrasa courtyard, with traditional music and the scent of autumn in the air. Accommodation: Komil Boutique Hotel (or similar), Bukhara | Meals: B, L, D
Day 12 | Penjikent → Seven Lakes (Haftkul)
Seven lakes–experience untouched nature
Morning departure into the Fann Mountains toward the Seven Lakes – Haftkul – a chain of turquoise, emerald, and sapphire lakes at altitudes between 1,600 and 2,400 metres. The drive (approximately 2 hours) winds through dramatic gorges, past small villages, and along a river that changes colour with the light. Stop at several lakes for short walks, photographs, and a picnic lunch beside the water. The colours are extraordinary – each lake a different shade, each framed by rock walls and walnut trees turning gold in October. At the highest lake, Hazorchashma (2,400m), you will feel as though you have stepped out of time entirely. Return to Penjikent or continue to a mountain guesthouse for the night – depending on the group’s pace and energy. Transfer: Penjikent → Seven Lakes → Penjikent | ~4–5 hours driving | Accommodation: Guesthouse, Penjikent | Meals: B, L (picnic), D
Day 7 | Bukhara → Nuratau Mountains
The city gives way to silence and mountains
Morning departure by private vehicle (approximately 3–4 hours). The landscape shifts from desert to rolling foothills, walnut groves, and small stone villages tucked into valleys. Arrival in the Nuratau Mountains by early afternoon. Gentle walk through the village and surrounding hills – autumn colours, crisp air, distant peaks, and the vast Central Asian sky. In October, the walnut and almond groves are heavy with harvest. ✦ Cultural Exchange: The Mountain Hostess Your guesthouse is run by a family where the women are the hosts. They will prepare dinner from their garden – fresh vegetables, homemade bread from the tandoor, yogurt, honey, and stewed fruit. Over chai, they will talk about village life: the seasons, raising children far from the city, what they think when travellers arrive. This is the night guests remember most. Transfer: Bukhara → Nuratau | ~3–4 hours | Accommodation: Community guesthouse, Nuratau | Meals: B, L, D
Day 13 | Penjikent → Iskanderkul
Nestled in the Fann Mountains at 2,200 metres.
Morning departure toward Iskanderkul (approximately 3–4 hours). The route climbs through rugged mountain scenery – switchbacks, narrow valleys, and views that make you stop the car every few kilometres. Iskanderkul is a triangular glacial lake named after Alexander the Great, who is said to have passed through this valley 2,500 years ago. It is considered one of the most beautiful lakes in all of Central Asia. Afternoon at the lake: a short hike to a nearby waterfall, time to walk along the shore, or simply sit and absorb the extraordinary stillness. The October light on the water is unforgettable. Overnight in cottages by the lake – simple, clean, with hot water and mountain air that smells of pine and snow. Transfer: Penjikent → Iskanderkul | ~3–4 hours | Accommodation: Lakeside cottages, Iskanderkul | Meals: B, L, D
Day 8 – October 2026 | Samarkand – Enter the Hammam
A day designed around the rituals women have shared for centuries.
This day is all about switching off from the world. There's no guide schedule, no rush and no checklist. Instead, it's all about immersing yourself in Samarkand and a slower rhythm. This day consists of the hammam, garden, a long lunch and time for a late-afternoon nap. It is the rhythm the women of Samarkand have built into their own lives for generations, and one travellers rarely get to share. ✦ Morning at the Hammam The day begins in a private traditional hammam, opened just for the group. Marble warmth, rising steam, and a kese scrub by the hands of a woman who has done this work for thirty years. A massage with rose oil pressed in nearby villages. The hammam is a centuries-old centre of women's social life across the Silk Road, where weddings were planned, gossip exchanged, brides prepared by their grandmothers. To enter it is to enter a private culture that almost no traveller sees. ✦ Garden Lunch and Traditional Beauty Rituals After the hammam, the group gathers in a private garden with pomegranate trees overhead, low cushions on a wooden takht, autumn light filtering through the leaves. A long lunch of fresh herbs, seasonal fruit, warm bread, and tea. Over the meal, optional traditional beauty rituals: henna patterns on the hands, usma (a deep-green local plant) for the brows, walnut oil combed through the hair. Nothing is obligatory, rather it's offered as an act of sharing. The women leading the rituals have practised these arts since girlhood. ✦ Afternoon Rest, Evening Bazm The afternoon is yours. Rest at Amira Boutique, swim, read, walk in the courtyard, sleep deeply. As evening falls, the group gathers for a bazm, the traditional women's gathering of Central Asia, hosted by one of Samarkand's most respected matriarchs. Tea, dried fruit, sweets, music, and conversation that drifts wherever it wishes to go. Women have gathered like this in this city for a thousand years. Tonight, you are among them. This is the day many women later say transformed the trip not because it was a performance, rather because they got to witness another side to Uzbek traditions. Accommodation: Amira Boutique Hotel (or similar), Samarkand | Meals: B, L, D
Day 14 | Iskanderkul → Dushanbe
Tajikistan in one road trip.
Early morning at the lake – mist rising, mountains reflected in glass-still water. After breakfast, depart for Dushanbe (approximately 4–5 hours). The drive descends through the Anzob Pass and the landscape transforms from alpine peaks to rolling foothills and finally to the wide, tree-lined avenues of the capital. Afternoon city tour of Dushanbe: the National Museum of Tajikistan (one of Central Asia’s finest), Rudaki Park, and the colossal Ismoili Somoni statue. Dushanbe means “Monday” in Persian – it was once a small village with a Monday market. Today it is a surprisingly green, pleasant capital of 800,000 people. Farewell dinner at a Dushanbe restaurant – Tajik cuisine, toasts to the journey, and a final evening together. Transfer: Iskanderkul → Dushanbe | ~4–5 hours | Accommodation: Atlas Hotel (or similar), Dushanbe | Meals: B, L, D
Day 9 | Samarkand – In Timur’s Shadow
Architecture You Won't Forget.
Morning: Gur-i-Amir mausoleum – the resting place of Timur, interior covered in gold leaf and jade. Ulugh Beg Observatory – a 15th-century astronomical complex built by a ruler who was also one of the finest astronomers of his age. Shah-i-Zinda, the ‘Avenue of the Living King’ – a necropolis of turquoise-tiled mausoleums climbing a hillside. Late morning visit to the Konigil paper-making workshop, where artisans produce mulberry paper using methods unchanged since the Silk Road era. ✦ WOMEN’S ENCOUNTER: Cooking and Conversation In a village home outside Samarkand, a local woman welcomes you into her kitchen. Together you will make plov from scratch. While the rice steams, the conversation turns to migration – what happens when husbands work abroad and women raise children alone. Half of Uzbek families have been touched by labour migration. A complex, honest story, told by the woman who lives it. ✋ HANDS-ON WORKSHOP: Plov Cooking This is not a demonstration. You will peel the carrots, layer the rice, tend the fire, and eat the result together – the dish that holds Uzbek culture in a single pot. Farewell dinner – the finest Uzbek cuisine, stories shared, and a celebration of the journey and the women you have met. Accommodation: Amira Boutique Hotel (or similar), Samarkand | Meals: B, L, D
Day 15 | Departure from Dushanbe
The end, or the beginning of your trip?
Early morning at the lake – mist rising, mountains reflected in glass-still water. After breakfast, depart for Dushanbe (approximately 4–5 hours). The drive descends through the Anzob Pass and the landscape transforms from alpine peaks to rolling foothills and finally to the wide, tree-lined avenues of the capital. Afternoon city tour of Dushanbe: the National Museum of Tajikistan (one of Central Asia’s finest), Rudaki Park, and the colossal Ismoili Somoni statue. Dushanbe means “Monday” in Persian – it was once a small village with a Monday market. Today it is a surprisingly green, pleasant capital of 800,000 people. Farewell dinner at a Dushanbe restaurant – Tajik cuisine, toasts to the journey, and a final evening together. Transfer: Iskanderkul → Dushanbe | ~4–5 hours | Accommodation: Atlas Hotel (or similar), Dushanbe | Meals: B, L, D
Countries You'll Visit
Uzbekistan
Experience the stunning architecture of historic mosques and madrasas as well as vibrant bazaars in Uzbekistan: a pearl of the ancient Silk Road.
Tajikistan
With its towering mountain peaks, pristine lakes, off the beaten path opportunities Tajikistan, is a country of wonders nestled in Central Asia.
Is This Tour For Me?
Travel Style: Casual
The tour requires walking, with a few hours of hiking.
Service Level: Standard
A standard private vehicle will be used for transportation. Some yurts and a mix of guest houses, hotels, and hostels are included. The price is based on twin rooms.
Physical Rating: 3/5
This tour is not very physically demanding, plus we can make extra accommodations.
Trip Type: Small Group Tour
This small-group trip has a 4-person minimum and accommodates up to 12 people.
Age requirement: 18+
This trip is suitable for adults only.
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Things To Know & How To Book
Visas & Insurance
Each traveller must have travel insurance before embarking on this trip. Please find more info in our t's & c's.
How to Book
If you're interested in the trip, then reach out or book a call. If you're happy to go ahead, then it takes a 30% deposit, and the rest is due up to 6 weeks before departure.
What's Included
Transporation
Reserved-seating trains, Afrosiyob high-speed train, and private vehicle transfers throughout Uzbekistan and Tajikistan
Activities
Entry tickets, hikes, cultural classes and workshops ( Ceramics, ikat dyeing, suzani embroidery, and plov cooking–all materials included, private hammam ritual, garden lunch, traditional beauty rituals, evening bazm meetings with female artisans, entrepreneurs, professors, and hosts in both countries).
Meals
Full board (breakfast, lunch, and dinner)
Please let us know if you prefer vegetarian, vegan, halal, or gluten-free options (or have any other dietary requirements).
Accommodation
This tour is based on twin-sharing rooms. Hotels in Uzbekistan offer comfortable rooms with private bathrooms. Guesthouses in Tajikistan may be more basic. There is a single supplement if you would like your own room.
Pick Up
Airport pick up is included
Expert Guide
Friendly English-speaking Rukhshona throughout Uzbekistan, plus a dedicated local guide for the Tajikistan extension, and an experienced driver.
