Review

This is my feedback on trips to Bukhara and Samarkand in the first half of April of 2024.

Both trips lasted 2 days with an overnight stay in the respective city.

Our small group consisted of three tourists from Germany - me (60), my son (32) and his future wife (32).

Before the trips to Bukhara and Samarkand, I had visited Uzbekistan 4 times (always stayed in Tashkent only). Whereas my son and his future wife visited Uzbekistan for the first time.

Both trips were organized by Nargisa from the travel agency Silk Tour.

The trips' preparation by Nargisa was perfect:

First of all, the travel program was very well put together, both in terms of the number of sights and their quality (history, beauty, impression, ...).

Any questions I had prior to the trip, I asked either by written messages, or voice messages or voice calls. I always got exact answers, and always on time. Additionally I like to emphasize Nargisa's very friendly and pleasant manner, in which she answered all my questions.

So, when we started our trips, we felt well prepared and briefed.

In both cases we started the trip from Tashkent where we stayed at my wife's family's place.

To Bukhara we went by airplane, to Samarkand by train.

In Bukhara we were met by our very friendly driver with an A4 sheet of paper with my name written on it.

In Samarkand both a friendly driver and our guide met us, again with an A4 sheet of paper with my name on it.

In Bukhara, the driver took us on his very spacy and clean van to our hotel where our guide was already waiting for us. After checking-in we started our sightseeing tour.

In Samarkand we arrived earlier than in Bukhara (around 9:40 a.m.), so we immediately started our tour, which lasted until early evening. During this time, we could leave our things in the van that was as spacy and clean as the one in Bukhara.

Both of the hotels we liked very much in terms of location, architecture, design, interior, space and food.

The hotel in Bukhara was sort of simpler than the one in Samarkand, but it was situated right in Bukhara's historical center! The hotel in Samarkand was a bit more than a kilometer away from the historical city center, but it was sort of more luxurious than the one in Bukhara.

Both cities with about 2,500 years of history and their impressive, beautiful and breathtaking sights made deep and overwhelming impressions on us, which I find difficult to describe in words...

Aside from the historical places of interest, which we immersed ourselves very deeply in, we also experienced a lot of pleasure to wonder through the different stores showing a high level of craftsmanship.

We particularly liked the wool carpets and even more the silk carpets - such a beauty...

As we had more time in Samarkand than in Bukhara, we managed to visit a carpet manufactory as well as a paper manufactory where they've applied the same production technology since the 8th century AD.

The three of us agreed that it was the right decision to first visit Bukhara, and then Samarkand.

Last but not least I like to especially thank our two guides.

Both of them did not "just do their job", no, they enjoyed it, as if they lived for their work.

We got lots of vivid explanations combined with legends and stories, as well as answers to any question that we asked.

All in all, the both of the trips were simply amazing.

We are sure that we'll go back to Bukhara and Samarkand again.

I recommend visiting these two cities to everyone who is interested in history, especially, in ancient times and the Middle ages, particularly, in Central Asia.