How to choose Uzbekistan tours (part 1)

As a tour operator, I always wonder how travelers choose tours to Uzbekistan. I often look at the sites of our competitors, the number of which is growing year after year. Among the local companies that have been on the market for a long time foreign firms also in the market, whose websites are very well promoted in search services and all these tourist resources have a huge amount of offers for tours both to Central Asia and Uzbekistan. It should be noted that the offered tours from the companies, which are included in the top 10 on request in Google, have quite well-thought-out proposals, especially  classical Itineraries that include visiting Tashkent-Samarkand-Bukhara-Khiva, the so-called tours along the golden ring. If you have never been to Uzbekistan and have a week at your disposal to get acquainted with the sights that so attractive everyone from all over the world, then these standard tours, which are in great demand, will satisfy your request. Such routes are offered unambiguously by everyone who makes money on tourism, from local large and small companies to local guides and travel bloggers. You will be bombarded with so many offers, after studying which you get the impression that you already know everything about the country and have been there at least ten times. I will briefly dwell on how to choose from so many choices of a suitable Uzbekistan tours that meets exactly your wishes. In fact, it's hard to make a mistake with the classic route, because everyone offers the same cities, visits to the main attractions, and all this will be in the same price range. Here's what usually paid attention when choosing a particular individual offer:

TRANSPORTATION: Each tour operator may move you along the route differently. Many people prefer to get from Tashkent to Khiva by plane and move back along the entire route by car with a driver, the advantages of this tour are that you will have the opportunity to additionally visits of several famous places that are located along the roads. There will also be proposals to replace some of the long drives by train, which undoubtedly adds comfort, taking into account the excellent speed of these trains and the long distance of crossings and the quality of roads. Study carefully the route, the sights that are visited during transfers and your preferences for transportation, and after weighing all the pros and cons, ask your tour operator to remake your program as you wish.

ACCOMMODATION: Once you have decided what categories of hotels you want to stay in, take a closer look at factors such as location, past guest reviews and photographs to get an idea of a particular hotel. Reviews and photos from booking.com do not always reflect reality, so you better listen to the advice of your tour operator. It is also worth noting that a lot of new hotels were built this year, and new does not always mean better, the building and rooms may be fresh, but the staff may not have enough experience and you will be disappointed in the service. Pay attention to how often this or that hotel is repeated in offers from different operators, and perhaps it will be the right choice.

GUIDES: Thanks to the Internet and social networks, today you can get feedback on many guides, how professionally they do their job, and their competence in the field of knowledge of the objects that you will visit. It will depend on the guide how your day will go, so do not hesitate to find out in advance who will be your guide in each city and read reviews about them, ask for contacts of past clients from your region, many will gladly exchange their impressions with you and will also advise additional useful tips.

PRICE: Don't worry too much that you will overpay, the competition is very high on such products and no one will dare to try to sell you a tour at overpriced price. Just make sure to study carefully on the included and not included services and compare them according to the prices.

DRIVER: Ask for a photo of the vehicle that will serve you, visually assess the condition of the car and compare the models of different offers. You also need to be confident in the driver, if a guide can ruin your day, a bad driver can ruin your whole life! Just like with a situation with a guides, find out in detail about the driver, since at any time a driver from outside the tourism industry may show up on your transfers.

These are the main points that we stopped at when choosing a classic route, in the next part we will tell you what to look for if you decide on non-standard Uzbekistan tours.