Central Asia Destination Specialist

MIR offers customized programs throughout five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. We are at home walking the blue-tiled Silk Road oases of Uzbekistan – Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva – all of them UNESCO Sites; motoring along the breathtaking Pamir Highway in the mountains of Tajikistan; picking our way through the cacophony of Turkmenistan’s bazaars; strolling the shores of Kyrgyzstan’s high-altitude Lake Issyk-Kul; and ducking into the portable round dwellings of Kazakh nomads.

With a representative office in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, MIR is ideally positioned to receive individual travelers, cultural explorers, adventure and outdoor enthusiasts, and private jet and train expeditions. Accommodations available through MIR in Central Asia can range from high-level downtown hotels and bed-and-breakfast-type properties with traditional décor, to remote desert yurt camps and ancient caravanserais along the old Silk Road.

Places to Visit

The countries of Central Asia are laced together with traces of the old Silk Road that linked the Eastern and Western worlds. These great trade routes formed the conduit not only for the silks and spices that gave the world some of its brilliance and flavor, but also for ideas, languages, art, architecture and religions. Travelers discover unfamiliar cultures, abundant bazaars, fabulous UNESCO World Heritage Sites, up-to-the-minute politics and down-to-earth, welcoming people as they follow the path of early merchants, traders and conquerors. MIR can help your clients to break through the overarching air of Silk Road mystery and become familiar with a region that is once again coming to the forefront of modern commerce.

unescO-lIsted sIlk rOad Oases Of uzbekIstan

The Old Towns of Uzbekistan’s three fabled oasis cities – Bukhara, Samarkand and Khiva – are incredible mazes of exotic architecture and gorgeous decorative art. Bukhara’s quilted and patterned mud-brick constructions and billowing turquoise domes; Samarkand’s blue-tiled arched madrassahs and stately minarets, embellished by Tamerlane’s finest artisans; and Khiva’s undulating city walls of plastered mud glowing in the sunset, evoke images of ancient traders arriving from the desert with their weary camels.

UNESCO World
Heritage Sites:

Signature Experiences

The ancient Silk Road continues to entice today's travelers with its exotic fusion of Persian and Turkish architecture, its brilliant silks, fine hand-woven carpets, kaleidoscopic bazaars and overarching air of mystery. MIR can help your clients to break through that air of mystery and become familiar with a region that is once again coming to the forefront of modern commerce.

MIR’s depth of experience and extensive network of expert guides and talented staff assure you of a partner who can deliver high-quality service and creative itineraries to your clients. We delight in working closely with incentive travel and tour professionals to satisfy even the most challenging and unusual requests. And we know our way around the cobbled streets and mud-brick alleyways of Central Asia, a skill we picked up during our 30 years of experience here.

Thematic itineraries including:

• Desert of Forbidden Art
  Tour the brilliant Savitsky collection at the State Art Museum of the Republic of Karakalpakstan. Here thousands of banned avant-garde Russian art pieces were amassed in the desert, hidden from the watchful eyes of the KGB.

• Ancient Crafts Revived
  From hand-crafted paper-making to puppetry to miniature painting, meet local masters and watch demonstrations of age-old craft traditions.

• Brilliant Artisan Ceramics
  Make exclusive visits throughout the region to private studios and workshops of celebrated ceramics masters where traditions have been passed down from father to son.

• Flourishing Desert Fashion
  Attend a sylish Turkmen fashion show or visit the studio of an international fashion designer in Uzbekistan.

• Classical Persian Gardens
  The classical Persian Garden is a formal oasis that typically includes pools and fountains, walls, pavilions, orchards and flowering plants. Often it surrounds a palace, and always it is gracefully and masterfully composed to take advantage of its surroundings.

• The Art of Falconry
  Attend a demonstration of Kazakh or Kyrgyz falconry at a falcon farm where birds of prey are trained for the hunt by dedicated masters of the sport.

• Steppe Traditions
  Enjoy a thrilling presentation of Kyrgyz horse games, including kurosh, wrestling on horseback.

• Central Asian and Persian Applied Arts
  Through visits to dedicated museums and private workshops, learn about hand-painted silks, the Uzbek ikat design, Kyrgyz felted rugs, Persian carpets and the wonderful embroidered Uzbek suzani.

• The Grand Bazaars
  Wander among booths piled with pomegranates and silvery grapes and stacked with handwoven carpets looking as if they had just arrived on the backs of Silk Road camels.

• Architectural Wonders
  Admire the shapely blue-tiled domes, arching mosaic-clad mosques and soaring mud-brick minarets of the desert oases, and survey Isfahan’s gracefully proportioned Imam Square, decorated with cobalt, turquoise and lapis lazuli mosaic tiles.

• UNESCO World Heritage Sites
  Travelers can experience more than a dozen wonderful attractions of architectural and cultural significance on MIR’s trips to Central Asia.

• Folklore of the Steppe
  Kyrgyz mythical hero, Manas, is the champion of The Epic of Manas, a Kyrgyz epic poem with nearly half a million verses. Never written down until the 19th century, the poem has been handed down verbally for generations.

• Archaeological Treasures
  The countries of Central Asia are treasure troves for enthusiasts intrigued by the ruins of 2,000-year-old desert citadels, as well as the ancient cities of Merv, Nisa and Penjikent.

• Uzbek Hospitality at its Best
  Venture inside a private Uzbek home for an authentic homecooked meal of Uzbek specialties such as savory plov and the fragrant flatbread called nan, baked in clay ovens.

• Jewish Heritage in Bukhara
  Visit Bukhara’s old Jewish Quarter in the heart of the Old Town, where in the mid 19th century 2,500 families of prosperous merchants were estimated to have been living.

• Music & Dance Traditions of the Silk Road
  Dance, music and musical instruments are an integral part of Central Asian culture. From visits to musical instrument museums to private concerts of traditional music and dance with brilliantly-costumed artists, experience the living arts of the Silk Road.

• Zoroastrian Legacy
  Zoroastrians from around the world visit the Fire Temple in Yazd to see its eternal flame, said to have been burning since 470 AD. Zoroaster, founder of the religion, lived in Persia sometime between 1000 and 600 BC, and his traditions are still practiced in Yazd.

Silk Road Suggested Itineraries

MIR can take you and your clients from Tamerlane’s blue-tiled capital, fabled Samarkand, to the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid kings, mighty Persepolis; from the yurts of Kyrgyz nomads to the palaces of the Persian Empire; from the mud-brick desert citadels of Uzbekistan to the skyscrapers of Tehran. And everywhere in between.

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