Turkmenistan Tours and Trips

I'm finally writing my review after being home for a month. What an interesting trip. Great people along the way, marvelous scenery in both the cities and the countryside. The accommodation ranged from 5 star to quirky and the hosts were always warm and welcoming. The homestays were a highlight with lovely people in stunning settings. All the guides (and drivers) were knowledgeable and ready to share their knowledge of the sites around us. The trip was a great highlight of central Asia and I would go back in a shot.

Overall, this was an excellent trip and one of the best I have done with Explore over very many years. It was certainly helped by having a good, small group and two superb leaders (one in each country), who were extremely knowledgeable and very personable. The local guides were also outstanding. The sights were extraordinary (the Islamic architecture is simply breath-taking), the people were lovely and I did not mind the long drives (on spacious air conditioned coaches) or the 9.5 hour train journey. to Samarkand As expected, the trip’s pace was full-on. As a group we took advantage of the optional extras offered and I would recommend that others seriously consider those too, especially the spectacular Uzbek music and dance show at the Grand Hall in Samarkand. Hotel accommodation was better than I had expected and generally pretty good. If I have a criticism it is that the trip should perhaps be a day longer. It would have been nice to have spent more time in Khiva and the last day in Tashkent was too long, tiring and rushed. Thankfully, I had booked an extra day in the city, although others had early morning flights. While Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are very different, I much preferred the time we spent in the latter.

An exciting and fascinating Adventure Tour through a mix of amazing Central Asian countries. Each of the Five Stans was unique, as were the caring and very knowledgeable guides. The meals were great; accommodation was good to amazing.

This was a trip of a lifetime and the itinerary and guides were exceptional. My only criticism would be to make the booking of the tour easier. Living on the west coast of Canada I had a very difficult time reaching G agents. The chat bot was not live and after waiting in a queue of 8, I was disconnected. It would be good to say how long the expected phone wait is and to know the approximate time of the call back. It was often an almost all day effort to get a question answered. Roxanne is amazing but with a 9 hour time change it was often difficult to reach her even by email. The only glitch was the day room we though we had booked for arrival in Biskek - a place for 3 of us to rest and freshen up after our overnight flight. Instead two rooms were booked and ready and I had to wait several hours to sort out the reservation confusion. The transfer for 3 was great though.

This was a wonderful tour in an amazing part of the world, with stunning varied scenery, friendly people, and beautiful ancient buildings. Our G Adventures tour was excellent, and this company will be the first I consider for future travels.

Fascinating, varied, inspiring from historical, cultural, scenic perspectives. This journey challenged my geopolitical biases and introduced me to some truly extraordinary people- both fellow travellers and guides. For me- just a bit more time in beautiful mountainous Kyrgyzstan please. In any event I will be returning