Uzbekistan small group tour, Uzbekistan odyssey

Planet

Being a tour with a strong cultural heritage theme, our emphasis is on historic Silk Road buildings and their preservation in perpetuity. By running a tour of this nature, in our small way we help to safeguard the future of Uzbekistan's invaluable heritage sites by both ensuring continued interest in these patrimonial sites, and by controlling the footfall by promoting low impact tourism with our preference for small-group travel. We support UNESCO's aims by inculcating as many UNESCO world heritage sites into our itineraries. To illustrate this point, we chose Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand as three must-see cities due to their protected status as UNESCO sites. Similarly, our excursions to the UNESCO-protected silk-weaving workshop in Khiva demonstrates our willingness to see UNESCO patrimony as something living and dynamic, which props up local community and keeps ancient craftsmanship from falling into disrepair.

Although this is primarily a heritage tour, we incorporate wildlife conservation into our itinerary by visiting a breeding centre for the endangered goitered gazelle. As well as visibly supporting their aims to reintroduce the jeyran - an endemic keystone species - by offering a steady stream of visitors, we also help, in our own small but not insignificant way, to finance to running of this centre. What's more, our visits there highlight the plight of this little-known species.

Our clients are strongly encouraged to come equipped with a re-usable water filtration system, or, failing that, their own canteen in which to refill water- this is an easy way to save plastic waste and is detailed in our ‘What to bring’ trip notes for all trips to all destinations. Your guide will remind you where and when you can fill up your re-usable water bottle.

People

As regular travellers, one thing that never ceases to amaze and inspire us is the kindness and generosity of local people, and we firmly believe that it is them that make these places special should and that they should benefit from our visit. For that reason, we use local guides who are offered fair working conditions and pay, and as a priority, stay in local accommodation and visit local shops, bars and eateries in order to have the maximum possible economic benefit on the local communities our travellers visit.

Community support and awareness is at the fulcrum of what we do. This itinerary includes a number of stops in both rural and urban areas where interaction with local community members forms the main activity. For instance, in the Nurata Mountains we place our clients with a local family, wherein their break bread together, and learn from our local family about rural ways. In Khiva, we dine with a local family, this deepening our authentic cultural awareness. Further to our promotion of local crafts & culture, our balanced itinerary lets us actively participate in one of Uzbekistan's most ancient and celebrated crafts: silk carpet weaving. Playing a big part in national life, this cottage industry is both a source of employment and cultural pride to Uzbeks. Our interaction with silk weavers helps preserve their arcane knowledge, as well as sustaining a living in a traditional cottage industry.