Hospitality, friendliness, service are wonderful in Uzbekistan!
For the New Year 2018, we decided to go to Uzbekistan. Package tours were offered from Moscow mainly to three cities Tashkent-Samarkand-Bukhara. We thought that 3 cities are a lot for us with moving, we took Uzbekistan Airways tickets ourselves. (approximately 19.000 rubles per person, flight from Moscow to Samarkand, back from Bukhara to Moscow). The tour program and hotels were ordered and paid for through a Moscow agency.
The hotels we chose were the first 4 * hotels, we only had 1 night in Samarkand and 2 in Bukhara.
Flight: Uzbekistan Airways is an excellent choice - 4 hours of flight passed without notice. The service, food quality, maintenance and the plane itself are all excellent.
Hotel in Samarkand - Grand Samarkand Superior. What a pleasure we experienced when we saw the hotel! I did not even want to leave for excursions. The decor is just great - ceramics on the walls, brocade-type curtains, chandeliers from the UAE, national paintings on the walls.
The courtyard is a greenhouse with songbirds and paintings on the walls, you sit there in the evening drinking coffee, as if in an oasis under a plane tree! The rooms are huge. The beds are comfortable, lots of towels, slippers, bathrobes. Again - decorated with suzani (national embroidery), calligraphy-engravings. The windows from our room overlooked the terrace-balcony to the courtyard. Everything was decorated for the new year, breakfast - buffet - very worthy. The Internet worked. TV - plasma-panel, hairdryer, electric kettle in the room (coffee-tea set). The staff - no question - excellent, friendly, professional, helpful.
Hotel in Bukhara - Devon Begi - the very heart of the old city. Decor - chasing, painting. Outdoor patios. What was important - the floors in the room and the bath were heated. It was nice to return to the hotel, this is not an option - just spend the night, you can safely live there with pleasure.
Transfer from Samrkand to Bukhara - by high-speed modern train Afrosiab (Sapsan type) 1.5 hours. (tickets were already included in the tour). At the station, cleanliness and unprecedented security - a lot of police and controls. No queues and crowds, the organization is clear, professional and friendly.
The program: we completely relied on our guide Gulya - we knew almost nothing about Samarkand, Bukhara, we saw pictures on the Internet. Gulya adjusted to our rhythm and made a program - an overview of Samarkand during the day, we visited the Timur Mausoleum, Ulugbek Observatory, Registan Square, in the evening we had dinner at a national restaurant, then we drove again and looked at the Timur Mausoleum with night illumination. Everywhere we were driven by a driver in a Hyundai minibus. The architecture, history, antiquity of Uzbekistan are amazing.
We had 2 days in Bukhara - the first day we walked around the center, the guide told us everything during the walk.
We visited the most central streets, squares, madrasahs, a minaret, and shops. An excellent and wonderful respite was in the national tea house. We were brought 3 types of Bukhara tea, oriental sweets, coffee brewed in cezve. Everything was fragrant and delicious. The teahouse itself is decorated with carpets, embroidery and embossing. The next day we went to the market - we bought sweet gifts and a box of tomatoes). We walked in the old fortress, inside a very interesting museum of history, admired the mosque of 40 columns from the tea house. And it was an unusual day, we ended up in two sacred places - Sufi places of power. The ancient Mausoleum of Ismail Samani of the 9th century in Bukhara and the Nokshbandi Sufi center are a 15-minute drive from Bukhara. These places are amazing in their beauty, architecture, as well as the physical sense of spiritual power, the spiritual heritage of the greatest and most ancient philosophies of the Sufis and Zoroastrianism.
In these places it was very warm and sincere, the beauty of nature and architecture complemented the inner uplift. Great trip.
In the evening we went to a pilaf master class with a graphic designer and restorer. He makes such classes for tourists in his private home, and also shows his oil paintings and calligraphic engravings. We were delighted!
I won’t write much about food - no matter what they order, everything was delicious - samsa, kebabs, lyulya, pilaf, tea from 13 herbs... you can list endlessly.
Service, hospitality and service in Uzbekistan at the highest level, which made our trip even more comfortable and sincere! We only want to wish that in Russia they take an example and the quality of domestic tourism grows.
Weather - in Samarkand it was +5 and rain with drizzle. Cleared by 14:00 not for long. We were lucky in Bukhara - it was sunny, + 8-10. For walks around the city we were well dressed in winter shoes, jackets and hats.
