Bukhara After the Buses Leave

You are met at Bukhara airport or at Bukhara-1 railway station in Kagan (about 25 minutes from the centre) and driven to your hotel in the old town. In the early evening your guide takes you on a short first walk around the Lyabi-Hauz pool, ending with a welcome dinner.

1. Meeting at Bukhara airport or Bukhara-1 station and transfer to the hotel

   • Arrive by Afrosiyob train from Tashkent or Samarkand, or by air. Check-in from 14:00

2. 17:30Orientation walk around Lyabi-Hauz (1.5 hours)

   • The pool and its old mulberry trees
   • Nadir Divan-Begi madrasah and khanaka
   • The statue of Khoja Nasreddin
   • Chor-Minor, the gatehouse with four turquoise towers, a few lanes away

3. 19:00Welcome dinner in the old town

The classic Bukhara walk, done properly over six to seven hours with a long lunch break. You cover the trading domes, the Poi-Kalyan ensemble, the Ark and the Samanid park, and finish with tea on a rooftop as the light turns on the Kalyan Minaret.

1. 09:00Walking tour of the old town, part one (3.5 hours)

   • Magoki-Attori Mosque, set below today's street level
   • Trading domes of the jewellers, hat sellers and money changers, and the Tim of Abdullakhan
   • Ulugbek and Abdulaziz Khan madrasahs
   • Poi-Kalyan: Kalyan Minaret, Kalyan Mosque and Mir-i-Arab Madrasah

2. 12:30Lunch break (at own expense)

   • Your guide will suggest a tea house near the domes

3. 14:00Walking tour, part two (3 hours)

   • Ark Fortress, the citadel of the emirs
   • Bolo-Hauz Mosque and its wooden columns
   • Samanid Mausoleum, a 10th-century cube of patterned brick
   • Chashma-Ayub shrine over Job's spring
   • A stretch of the surviving city walls
   • The museums inside the Ark are reported to close on Wednesdays: if day 2 is a Wednesday, the programmes of days 2 and 3 are swapped

4. 17:30Sunset tea on a rooftop facing the Kalyan Minaret

   • Timed to sunset: about 17:20 in December, close to 20:00 in June. In summer there is a rest at the hotel between the walk and the tea

A half-circle through the countryside north and east of Bukhara by private car. You visit the emir's summer palace and the Naqshband memorial complex, then continue to Gijduvan for ceramics and lunch, and are back in the old town by late afternoon.

1. 09:00Pick-up at the hotel; 20 min drive to Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa

2. 09:20Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa summer palace (1.5 hours)

   • The White Hall with its carved ganch plaster
   • The harem building and pool
   • The museum of suzani embroidery

3. 11:00Bahauddin Naqshband memorial complex (1 hour)

   • 15 min drive. The tomb of the founder of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, the khanqah of Abdulazizkhan and the old mulberry tree. Modest dress: shoulders and knees covered, a headscarf for women

4. 12:15Drive to Gijduvan (about 40 min)

5. 13:00Lunch of Gijduvan kebab

6. 14:15Family ceramics workshop in Gijduvan (1.5 hours)

   • The potter's wheel, the kiln and the brown, ochre and green glazes of the Gijduvan school; time to try the wheel

7. 16:00Drive back to Bukhara (about 50 min)

8. 19:00Optional: folklore show and dinner in the Nadir Divan-Begi madrasah, or an evening in a historic hammam

   • Booked on request, paid locally

A final morning among the people who keep Bukhara's crafts alive: a merchant's house, embroiderers, a miniature painter and a blacksmith. Your transfer to the airport or station is timed to your onward flight or train.

1. 08:45Hotel check-out

   • Luggage waits at the hotel until your transfer; late check-out on request

2. 09:00House-museum of Fayzulla Khodjaev (1 hour)

   • A 19th-century merchant family home with painted reception rooms. The house is reported to close on Sundays: on that day we drive 15 min to the Chor-Bakr necropolis instead

3. 10:15Craft walk in the old town (2.5 hours)

   • Suzani embroidery workshop: stitching on the frame
   • Miniature painting studio: brushes, pigments and paper
   • Blacksmith's forge near the trading domes, where knives and the bird-shaped scissors of Bukhara are made

4. 12:45Free time for lunch and last purchases

5. Transfer to Bukhara airport or Bukhara-1 station

   • Timed to your flight or train