We had an extremely unpleasant time with this company. the tour guide was rude to the host, demanded tips in dollars from first day and said because you are from the USA $5 dollars is nothing for Americans you should give $10 dollars or more per person every day and separate money to driver and was constantly demeaning Islam, even though she was told multiple times that the entire group is Muslim women and not to offend anyone. she skipped items on the tour and when confronted she would start yelling at the travelers and host that she is the guide and she knows better. The guide would also walk extremely fast even when told multiple times that a traveler has a foot injury we need to not run everywhere. She also made the entire group walk through a live construction site where men were working and Debree was all around the walking path in a very secluded area because she thought it was a "shortcut " to the madrassa. When complained to advantour and we wanted to change the guide we were first told that we should pay extra for the new guide, then after push back we were told that we are making up stories. after much back and forth when the guide was finally replaced the old guide held our train tickets hostage and would not give back to us unless we "met her" AKA gave her a huge tip in dollars. we got late to our tour because of this and was a cause of frustration. the guide also kept messaging the travelers privately and badmouth the host, those travelers showed host all texts that were sent. the company did not apologize, kept pushing this guide on us till the end. All in all, a very nonprofessional company, with untrained guides and bad morals. they destroyed what could have been an amazing women only trip, we did not feel safe and were constantly stressed 1000% would not recommend!!!!!!

Hello Mr. Marat, Overall, I had a great experience on this trip. Advantour organized everything very well, and a special thanks goes to Mr. Marat for his excellent coordination. We enjoyed fantastic local food, traditional music, and singing—with a very special thank you to the Uigur family. The hotels JUST in Bishkek, Tashkent, Bukhara, Samarkand, Dushanbe, and the Yurt Camp were all good. The tour guides were knowledgeable and professional; I want to give special thanks to Maria, Feruz, Susana, and Adib. The vans used throughout the trip were comfortable, and the drivers were excellent. Suggestions & Highlights: In my opinion, the trip to Iskanderkul felt like a waste of time, causing us to miss out on a day. Instead, it would be much better to allocate more time for a comprehensive Dushanbe city tour. During the journey, I sent hundreds of photos and updates to my friends, highly recommending that they visit these countries—especially Uzbekistan and Tajikistan during the spring and Nowruz festivals. Hopefully, you will plan a special tour for Nowruz festival in Dushanbe. Throughout this trip, I truly felt my heart connect with the ancient history of Iran. Best regards, Bijan Pirzadeh

This was an excellent tour, despite a few challenges with the weather and logistics. For anyone who wants to learn about, experience, and truly appreciate different cultures and environments, this is exactly the kind of tour to choose. If your top priority is luxury or maximum comfort, you may prefer a different locations to visit. That said, this tour was by no means uncomfortable. Quite the opposite. It provided a comfortable experience while emphasizing education, authenticity, adventure, and cultural exposure.

Altogether the trip was average in all aspects except some of the tour guides who were really sweet and knowledgeable. Only two hotels first and last were good, the rest were below average. Some even weren’t hotels, they were hostels. The programs for sightseeing were awful. Traveling long hours (5 or 6 hours) on unpaved roads with unbearable shaking move for seeing a lake or going 5 hours or more on these roads to see a show with a bird. The trip to first country was really not worthwhile at all. Uzbekistan was the only good part of the trip. Tashkent, Bokhara and somehow Samarkand were good but still the best place was where we went in our free hours, it was Magic City a wonderful experience with lakes, cafes and everything you want to see. The next country was Tajikistan which the best part was Dushanbe which we had only one day to see it because we wasted 2 days going through 5 hours unpaved roads twice to see 2 lakes which were the same and not worth to go through that difficult travel on unpaved roads to see them which we could see the beautiful Dushanbe instead. For you to know how we rated the trip, whoever scheduled the trip, did really bad job. You wasted most parts of our trip just for you to know. In the meantime I wanted to thank Maria and Adib the two tour guides who somehow compensated some of the shortages of this trip. I don’t recommend anyone to go to this trip, in fact it made me think not to go with tours any more.

Prompt response from Anvar before and throughout the trip which I greatly appreciate. Excellent local guides in every city, who are knowledgeable and patient in answering all the questions I have about their beautiful countries. They are very helpful and cater to my requests. Small group is a major plus point. Will highly recommend to anyone who is looking for reliable tour operator for Central Asia.