Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia (trip)

Chinese Turkestan & Central Asia

  • Almaty Airport, Almaty, Kazakhstan
  • Culture & Nature
“"We loved all parts of the trip: scenery, cities, people, customs, border crossings - especially with our great MIR Tour… ”
China, Kazakhstan, Asia

from $7,395* per person24 DaysMay, August
Comfort accommodations Exertion level: 3
Operator: MIR Corporation 12 people max
Silk, spices, tea, precious metals and jewels, carefully lashed to pack camels, made their way from one world to another along the old Silk Road. Follow in the footsteps of early explorers who plied these trade routes connecting East with West.

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Locations visited/nearby

China, Kazakhstan, Asia

2 testimonials about this trip

  1. Reviewer: D. Goodell located in Ben Lomand, CA USA
    "We loved all parts of the trip: scenery, cities, people, customs, border crossings - especially with our great MIR Tour Manager, Yulia. Lots of favorites! Visiting families and their hospitality, fascinating musical and dance performances, bargaining in the markets. I loved the mountains we traveled through and the yurt stay. Samarkand has been a place I always wanted to visit and I was not disappointed."
  2. Reviewer: S. Richards located in Belleville, MI USA
    “A well organized, excellent experience of something totally unknown before setting out. The trip is for the intrepid traveler with lots of humor” “but, totally balanced by the exquisite people and experiences gained in a relatively unknown part of the world”

3 testimonials about the provider, MIR Corporation:

  • Reviewer: K. Knack located in Malibu, CA USA
    Every day I am grateful for this fabulous trip. The destinations you specialize in are of much more interest now that I know what a well-delivered service you provide.

    MIR's tour manager made my trip more deeply meaningful and made sure that everyone on the train came away with a greater appreciation for this vast country. Thank you so much for your great itinerary, for the tremendous abilities of your staff... You can be certain I will recommend your company.



  • Reviewer: The Tobys located in Rockville Center, NY USA
    …It is safe to say without the expertise of your superb cadre of guides in the country we never could have put it all together. In fact, we were totally dependent on them to benefit from the extraordinary experienced of visiting three regions of [Ukraine] within a two-week time period.

    Clearly, MIR Corporation has a well-deserved reputation for superb customer service. We support that well-deserved reputation, which is possibly rooted in the fact that your associates like their jobs and that job satisfaction has been transferred to customer and client relations….

    Honestly, we were duly impressed with each of the regional guides and the drivers who accompanied us. Their local knowledge of the unique features of their respective region was so evident, impressive, and unmatched by any we have encounters over our 40 years of visiting 140 countries.

    I want to thank you for a most stupendous trip; 5 stars plus. Loved Ukraine, the people, the sites, the precision of our tour; the fine quality of the guides and drivers - how much they care, how much they know and how much they kept our interests foremost in their hearts and their minds. It was just stupendous.

    It was so fabulous we cannot stop talking about it. Again, thank you very much. And I will certainly recommend MIR Corporation when it is appropriate for our friends & colleagues.

    It was excellent beyond all expectations.


  • Reviewer: The Repkos located in Princeton, NJ USA
    We don’t know where to start – a perfect itinerary which satisfied all of our needs, excellent accommodations superbly located, flawless execution of all aspects including visas, vouchers, theatre tickets, etc., and last but certainly not least, truly outstanding and professional guides and drivers.

    …We only wish that MIR provided tours everywhere, in which case we would never use another tour company again..

    MIR Office in Seattle was outstanding…We have already told several friends about MIR and how wonderful they are! You all put together a trip for us that was perfect to our budget, time frame and interests. Russia is a fabulous destination – wonderful history, magnificent sites we can’t say enough about MIR and Russia.

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Special information

  • May accommodate certain types of disabilities. Contact the operator for more information.

Itinerary

Days 1-6: Almaty, Urumqi, Kashgar, Shache, Taklamakan Desert

Assemble in Almaty, Kazakhstan's most important city, before heading into Western China, where Urumqi and Kashgar won renown as Silk Road centers. Browse the animal bazaar in Kashgar, still as exciting as in ancient times. Visit the oasis city of Shache and skirt the nearby Taklamakan Desert on camelback.

Day 7: Torugart Pass, Tash Rabat

After driving over the 12,000-foot Torugart Pass into Kyrgyzstan, overnight near Tash Rabat, a 15th century stone caravanserai in a boundless alpine setting.

Days 8-13: Lake Issyk-Kul, Bishkek, Osh, Fergana Valley, Khujand

Near high-altitude Lake Issyk-Kul, attend a demonstration of horse games and learn how to put up a yurt. Visit Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, and Osh, in the Fergana Valley, heart of Central Asian silk production. Cross the Tajik border for an overnight in Khujand, founded by Alexander the Great.

Days 14-21: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva

Drive to the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, and continue overland to the fabled Uzbek oases of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, finding gorgeous blue-tiled mosques and madrassahs in these World Heritage Sites.

Days 22-24: Tashauz, Ashkabad, Nisa

Fly to Turkmenistan's capital, Ashkabad, where gleaming new government buildings rub shoulders with traditional bazaars. Visit the UNESCO-listed ancient Parthian site of Nisa before celebrating the journey with a farewell dinner.

More information from MIR Corporation: