Uzbekistan Guided Tours was founded by two Samarkandis with almost two decades of Uzbek travel and hospitality experience between them. Avaz Bokiev began his career in 2007 with a Samarkand travel company, learning the Silk Road circuit from the inside out — how to route a group across the Fergana Valley, the Kyzylkum, and the four great oasis cities without a rush. Shukhrat Atakulov started in 2008 in the hotel and hospitality industry, running front-of-house at some of the country's better-known guesthouses and boutique hotels.
They kept crossing paths on the same tours — one designing the journey, the other making sure the beds, meals and evenings were worthy of it. Eventually they combined what they were already doing separately into a single operation, run from a courtyard in Samarkand, with the same principle from day one: the person you email is the person who plans your trip, and the person on the ground is the person you already know.
Today the company runs small-group and private journeys across the Silk Road with regional leads in Bukhara, Tashkent, the Fergana Valley and Nukus. Nothing is subcontracted; nothing is phoned in.
