10-day Uzbekistan Food Tour10 Days | Private | All year round | Tashkent, Samarkand, Gijduvan, Bukhara, Khiva

Overall, we had a wonderful experience and were very pleased with Advantour. The itinerary gave us an excellent introduction to Uzbekistan, and we came away with a much deeper appreciation for the country’s history, culture, food, and hospitality.
All of our guides were excellent. I would particularly like to recognize Ms. Charos and Ms. Guljon, who were outstanding. Both were extremely knowledgeable about the history and culture of their regions, very kind, and willing to go beyond the basic itinerary.
Ms. Guljon in particular made our time in Bukhara memorable. She took us out in the evening to explore artisan shops and also gave us several excellent restaurant recommendations. Those more informal experiences helped us experience Bukhara as a living city rather than simply a collection of monuments.
We enjoyed each city for different reasons.
Tashkent was particularly interesting because of the combination of a modern Central Asian capital with its Soviet history and architecture.
Khiva and Samarkand were visually spectacular, with beautiful architecture and historic monuments.
Bukhara was our favorite city. We especially enjoyed the combination of Silk Road trading history, historic architecture, and the mahallas and smaller streets where we could simply wander and experience everyday life.
One suggestion for future gastronomy tours would be to incorporate more visits to local restaurants, markets, and informal or street-food establishments. We enjoyed the organized culinary experiences, but some of our most memorable food experiences came from eating in places frequented by local people. A guided introduction to these kinds of establishments would add another dimension to the tour.
The quality of the organized food experiences varied.
Because we were traveling as a group of only two, our favorite experiences were the private-home cooking experiences. These allowed us not only to participate in preparing food but also to spend meaningful time with local families and learn about their lives and culture.
The visit with the family in the small village outside Bukhara was particularly special. They were exceptionally kind and welcoming, and we greatly enjoyed sitting with them, talking, cooking, and learning about their daily life. Experiences like this felt authentic, personal, and closely connected to the purpose of a gastronomy tour.
In comparison, the experiences at the Shirin Ethno House and the Gijduvan ceramics center/master class felt more formal and less interactive. We were not fully incorporated into the activity and at times felt more like observers - or even somewhat in the way - rather than active participants.
For future tours, particularly for very small groups, I would consider replacing some of these more formal demonstrations with additional home-based cooking or food experiences with local families. For us, those were by far the most meaningful culinary components of the trip.
We genuinely loved our trip through Uzbekistan and remain very pleased with Advantour. The guides were excellent, the itinerary was thoughtful, and many of the culinary and cultural experiences were memorable.
Thank you again for organizing such a memorable trip and for considering this feedback.

We did the 10-day Food Tour of Uzbekistan that took us from Tashkent, to Samarkand, Bukhara, Gijduvan and Khiva and back to Tashkent. From the sign up process to the execution of the itinerary, Advantour did a fantastic job. Olga was patient and thorough in answering all our questions before our trip and she also checked up on us during our trip at every city. Their guides and drivers are professional, friendly, punctual and knowledgeable. The vehicles they use are roomy and comfortable. We selected the Premium level of the tour and the hotels we stayed in were excellent especially the Hilton Tashkent, which was a world class hotel. The guides are eager to share the rich history of Uzbekistan (sometimes an overload of information...hehehe). One great thing being on a private tour is that you can dictate the pace of each day. It was our first time in Central Asia and we will definitely use Advantour on our next trip.

Mark and I had a fabulous vacation to Uzbekistan. Really enjoyed the master classes as they were fun and a break from sightseeing. The only thing I would have changed was to have been told to bring a bathing suit to the village home we went to for last master class in Bukhara as they had a lovely pool and we had a lot of downtime there. Our host was very gracious and welcomed us to use one of his guest rooms for an after nap which was much appreciated. The trip ran like clockwork thanks to you. I highly recommend your services.