04 May 2025
A wonderful experience, from the minute our private driver picked us up at our hotel (he drove like a champ and played super cool music all the way). When we arrived we were greeted by our guide Sardon, who was warm, knowledgable and a real hiking pro. Loved spending time wandering around the yurt camp, playing archery and ping pong, meeting some friendly cows, cuddling with Bingo the yurt dog, hiking in the fragrant mountains, and simply chilling outside listening to the river trickle by. The fireplace chats with other guests were also a highlight. The next day, we left towards Bukhara with a stop at the Aydar Lake (which we could have probably done without - not mega special). However, there was also a lovely stop at a little garden restaurant in the Nurata Mountains village for plov before ending the trip right at the door of our next hotel. Extremely practical and beautiful way to go from Samarkand to Bukhara with a tranquil parenthesis in between the two mosque-laden cities.