Route: Tashkent – Shymkent – Turkestan (route with border crossing).
Total distance: 300 km (Tashkent – Shymkent 130 km / Shymkent – Turkestan 170 km).

Description:

• Tashkent: Pick up from your hotel/airport/train station and transfer to the Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan border. Cross the border. Meeting with our driver. Start of the trip. Along the way you can see the camels and at some stop try mare's milk (depends on season).

• Shymkent: Scientists mentioned that the city is at least 800 years old. Firstly, the name of the city is given by a medieval historian writes that in 1365-1366, during Tamerlane's military campaign, his army stopped in the village of Chimkent near the city of Sairam. Caravans of the Great Silk Road passed through Shymkent until Genghis Khan's troops captured the city in the XIII century. Nowadays, Shymkent is the second most populous city in Kazakhstan, and is also the administrative centre of the South Kazakhstan region.

• Friday Mosque: Main mosque of Shymkent. Photostop.

• Turkestan: Visit to the main monument of the city, the Yassawi Complex, the largest mausoleum in all of Central Asia. In addition, the mausoleum is the only one that includes all the rooms in an enclosed space. One of the spiritual tutors of Sufism of the local nomadic peoples was buried here. We continue with the mausoleum of Rabiyabegim, the pre-Mongolian underground mosque, the Caravanserai and the new Friday Mosque. In the complex it is offered to take a ride on the two-humped camels (extra).

Lunch at the local restaurant (extra).

• After visiting the old part of the complex, we continue to the new part, where the Central Asian “Venice” avenue is located, where you can have a rest. In addition, you can visit the 8K Cinema in the “Golden Egg” complex, which is the only one in Central Asia and where you can get complete information about the history of Kazakhstan.

There are also photography services with eagles and traditional dresses of the Kazakh nomads.

• Tashkent: Finishing the tour of Turkestan, return to Tashkent and on the way some stops to take photos of green camps (April-May), farms and livestock farms.
  End of the tour.

Useful tips:

• Recommended restaurants-Sandyq, Navoiy, Karavan Saray, Wow Plough.
• Budget for lunch of 12-20 USD minimum per person.
• The money exchange on both sides of the border is the same.
• In Turkestan, you can enjoy camel rides.
• Photography services with eagles and traditional dresses of the Kazakh nomads.

Include:

• Professional guide
• Vehicle with a/c
• All transfers in both countries

Not Included:

• Entrance tickets to the mentioned monuments
• Lunch/Dinner
• Other and personal expenses that are not mentioned in the programme