Silk Road Tours & Trips

Good itinerary given just 21 days. Kyrgyzstan itinerary could be improved upon as there were 2 long travel days just to visit a valley that was hardly impressive. Hotels (aside from Tajikistan homestay) were excellent - surpassed expectations. Best guide (by far) was Ilya in Kazakhstan. He was superb. Faultless. The best guide I have ever had. His knowledge was impressive. His communication and delivery of information was spot on. Perfect. Everything was clear and well-communicated in advance. Promote Ilya! Do not lose him! The other guides were good. Farsa in Tajikistan is learning since she is still young but she is passionate about her job. Our guides in Bukhara, Khiva and Tashkent were good. But Ilya was exceptional. A cut above the rest. The worst guide who we found very bad and dishonest was Gurban in Turkmenistan. He charged us an extortionate $50 for the use of the router for the internet. He also gave us a bad exchange rate of 17 whereas I checked with an Intrepid guide who said his rate was around 20. Gurban also did not prioritise us. He was more interested in playing with his own tech toys (Go Pro selfie stick) and talk about technology than tell us about the history and culture. The worst thing was that at the end of the tour he tried to charge me again for using the router when another tour member had already paid him for my share of the router cost. A very dishonest man. I suggest you consider using another guide for Turkmenistan.

The trip was well organized, hotels were decent and the guides were excellent. Overall totally worth the money and experience. Thank you Global Connect!

It was a great tour that we enjoyed a lot. It was my first trip to Central Asia, and I’m very glad I chose East Site. Everything was well organized and went smoothly from start to finish. The guides were friendly, helpful, and made us feel safe and comfortable throughout the trip. The hotels were clean and pleasant, and overall the tour was very good value for the money. We’re still very interested in the Caucasus tour for next year and hope to schedule it once we settle on the dates. I would gladly recommend East Site to anyone considering this part of the world.