Jewels of the Silk Road: Baku to Almaty

Day 1 — Baku, Azerbaijan

Arrive in Baku and transfer to your hotel on the Caspian shore — the Four Seasons, or similar. Azerbaijan's capital pairs a walled medieval core with a skyline of glass towers built on oil money, and the contrast is worth an evening's walk. Tonight is the welcome dinner, where the wines, as at every meal on this journey, are included.

Day 2 — Khiva, Uzbekistan

After breakfast a private charter flight carries the group from Baku to Khiva, so the Silk Road proper begins the moment you land. Founded some 2,500 years ago at the crossing of the routes between Persia, Russia, China and Mongolia, Khiva survives as a complete walled city and a World Heritage Site. Inside the walls the mosques, madrassas, minarets and bazaars stand close enough together that the whole town reads as a single piece of architecture.

Day 3 — Bukhara

Bukhara marked its 2,500th anniversary in 1999 with a UNESCO-backed restoration, and it shows. The day centres on The Ark, the fortified residence from which the Emirs ruled until Soviet times, and on Poi-Kalyan Square with its Kalyan Mosque — still in use, and a working example of traditional Islamic design rather than a museum piece. Afterwards there is time among the Trading Domes and at Lyabi-Hauz Square, where mulberry trees shade the pool and the tea houses. Weather permitting, the day closes with a barbecue on the station platform before the train departs.

Day 4 — Samarkand

No name conjures the Silk Road quite like Samarkand. Founded in the 6th century BC, it reached its height as the capital of Timur's empire, and the architecture of the 14th to 17th centuries is what you come to see: Registan Square, the great proportions of the Bibi Khanum Mosque, and the Ulugh Beg observatory of 1428, among the earliest in the Islamic world. After dark you return to Registan for the illuminated light show, watched from front-row seats.

Day 5 — Tashkent

Uzbekistan's capital was largely rebuilt after the earthquake of 1966, so the city reads as Soviet modernism with an older quarter threaded through it. In the Old Town, narrow streets of traditional houses and religious buildings lead to a small library holding one of Islam's most sacred relics — the world's oldest Koran. The day also takes in the Railway Museum and the Museum of Applied Arts.

Day 6 — On board the Golden Eagle

A slower day, and a welcome one. The train runs east through the Uzbek landscape and crosses into Kyrgyzstan while you read, watch the country go by from the Bar Lounge Car, or simply let the day pass at the pace of the railway.

Day 7 — Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan

Issyk-Kul is the second largest alpine lake in the world. Its name means warm lake: depth, mineral content and geothermal activity together keep it from freezing, even ringed by snow-capped peaks. This morning a festival is arranged privately for the group on the lake shore — the steppe sports and games handed down through generations. Archery you will recognise; horseback wrestling, hunting with golden eagles and ordo, played with animal bones, you very likely will not. Music, dance, costume and craft demonstrations round it out. Afterwards there is the option of the open-air Museum of Petroglyphs before you return to the train for the farewell dinner.

Day 8 — Almaty, Kazakhstan

The train arrives in Almaty this morning and you say goodbye to the Golden Eagle. A tour of the city includes Panfilov Park at its centre and the Zenkov Cathedral, a 19th-century Russian Orthodox church built entirely of wood and standing without nails. Tonight you stay at the Ritz-Carlton, Almaty, or similar.

Day 9 — Almaty

After breakfast you are transferred to Almaty airport for your onward flight. Almaty rewards a longer stay if you have the time — the mountains begin at the edge of the city — and we are glad to arrange extra nights.