Republics of the Silk Road: Almaty to Samarkand

Day 1 — Almaty, Kazakhstan

Arrive in Almaty and transfer to a five-star hotel in the centre. Kazakhstan's former capital is a leafy, low-rise city under the Tien Shan, and easy to like on first acquaintance. This evening a champagne reception introduces your fellow travellers and the tour management team, followed by the welcome dinner.

Day 2 — Almaty

A guided tour of the city this morning: Panfilov Park with its Second World War memorial, and the Zenkov Cathedral, built entirely of wood without a single nail. Almaty takes its name from alma, apple, and the orchards still run up to the city limits. In the afternoon you board the Golden Eagle and settle into your cabin, with the welcome dinner on board.

Day 3 — Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan

Issyk-Kul is the second largest alpine lake in the world. Its name means warm lake — depth, salinity and geothermal activity keep it from freezing despite the snow on the peaks around it. A cultural festival is arranged privately for the group on the shore: traditional steppe sports passed down through generations. Archery is familiar; horseback wrestling, hunting with golden eagles and ordo, played with animal bones, are not. Music, dance, costume and craft demonstrations fill out the programme, and there is an optional visit to the open-air Museum of Petroglyphs before dinner on board.

Day 4 — Bishkek

Bishkek began as a caravan stop and spent the 20th century as a Soviet capital, which is largely what you see: Ala-Too Square, built in 1984 for the 60th anniversary of the Kirghiz SSR, and the parks around it with their statues of Marx and Engels and the Memorial to the Red Guards. Afterwards the train continues, crossing into Uzbekistan.

Day 5 — Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Tashkent was largely rebuilt after the 1966 earthquake, giving it broad avenues and monumental architecture over a much older core. The tour starts in the Old Town at the Khast-Imam Complex, a centre of Islamic scholarship, then moves to the Museum of Applied Arts, housed in the lavishly decorated former residence of the Russian diplomat Alexander Polovtsev, Independence Square and the Railway Museum.

Day 6 — Kokand, Rishtan and Margilan

A day in the Fergana Valley, and one of the best on the journey. Kokand was a major Silk Road trading post: you see the Palace of Khudayar Khan, the Pearl of Kokand, and the Jami Mosque. Rishtan is Uzbekistan's ceramics town, where a master potter demonstrates the craft and you see the workshops behind it. At Margilan, a family who have made silk for generations take you through the whole process — mulberry leaves, silkworms, dyeing, and ikat woven on traditional looms.

Day 7 — Bukhara

Bukhara was restored with UNESCO support for its 2,500th anniversary in 1999. The centrepiece is The Ark, the fortress from which the Emirs ruled until the Soviet era, and Poi-Kalyan Square with the Kalyan Mosque — vast pillar-domed galleries and deep recessed niches, still very much in use. There is time at the Trading Domes and at Lyabi-Hauz Square, shaded by mulberry trees around its pool, and a visit out of town to the Emir's Palace of the Moon and Stars. Weather permitting, a barbecue on the station platform before departure.

Day 8 — Nukus

Nukus sits in the remote north-west, surrounded by the Kara Kum, Kyzyl Kum and Ustyurt deserts. Its Igor Savitsky State Museum of Arts is known as the Louvre in the Sands: more than 100,000 works, including the largest collection of Soviet avant-garde art outside Russia, which survived because the remote region of Karakalpakstan escaped official attention.

Day 9 — Khiva

Khiva was founded over 2,500 years ago at the crossroads of the routes linking Mongolia, Russia, China and Persia, and it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It rises out of the desert as a single walled ensemble — mosques, madrassas, bazaars and minarets, all within the walls.

Day 10 — Dushanbe, Tajikistan

An afternoon in the Tajik capital on the Varzob River. The Museum of National Antiquities first, then the Kohi Navruz Palace, which began life as a teahouse and became a palace of chandeliers and decorated halls — a local guide explains how, and who made it. Then the Ismoil Somoni Monument to the first king of the Tajiks, Independence Square and the Mekhrgon Bazaar. This evening the resident pianist plays on board as the train crosses back into Uzbekistan.

Day 11 — Shahrisabz, then Samarkand

Shahrisabz is believed to be Timur's birthplace, and you visit his statue and the UNESCO-listed Ak-Saray Palace, which took more than twenty-five years to build and still carries its mosaics and Qur'anic calligraphy, including the inscription dating it to 1395-96. In the late afternoon you arrive in Samarkand and say goodbye to the Golden Eagle. First stop is the Gur-e Amir Mausoleum, under its azure dome, where Timur is buried; then check in to a five-star hotel for three nights, with a dine-around at the hotel tonight.

Day 12 — Samarkand

Registan Square is the jewel, and you start there, followed by the Bibi Khanum Mosque. Then the Siab Bazaar, the city's largest market, for spices, bread and produce; the Meros paper mill, where you can try the centuries-old process yourself; and plov cooked by a local chef, as close to a national institution as a dish gets here. After dark you return to the illuminated Registan for the light show, from front-row seats.

Day 13 — Samarkand

The morning covers the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, a corridor of mausoleums from the 9th century onward whose tilework is the best in the city, and the Ulugh Beg Observatory of 1428, built by an astronomer who was also a Timurid ruler. Then Afrasiab, where the museum holds the 7th-century frescoes from the Palace of Varkhuman.

Day 14 — Samarkand

After breakfast, transfer to the airport for your onward flight. Samarkand repays a longer stay if you have the time, and we are happy to add nights or extend into the rest of Uzbekistan.