Jewels of the Silk Road: Baku to Almaty

You are met at Baku airport and taken to your centrally located hotel. In the evening you join fellow travellers for a welcome dinner, served with wines chosen for the journey.

After breakfast at the Four Seasons, a private plane flies you from Baku to Khiva. Once a key Silk Road trading post at the crossroads of routes to Mongolia, Russia, China and Persia, the walled city rises from the desert with a wealth of mosques, madrassas, bazaars and minarets to explore.

Visit the Ark, the fortified residence of the Emirs of Bukhara, and Poi-Kalyan Square with the great Kalyan Mosque and its pillared galleries. Explore the bustling Trading Domes and relax at Lyabi-Hauz, a pool shaded by mulberry trees and teahouses. Weather permitting, a barbecue on the station platform sees you off as the train departs.

Tour Registan Square, the elegant Bibi Khanum Mosque and the Ulugh Beg observatory, one of the earliest Islamic astronomical observatories. After dark you return to the illuminated Registan, where a light show tells the city's story from front-row seats.

Explore Uzbekistan's capital, largely rebuilt after a great earthquake. In the Old Town a small library holds one of Islam's most sacred relics, the world's oldest Koran, and the day continues at the Railway Museum and the Museum of Applied Arts.

A leisurely day of scenic rail travel crosses the open landscapes of Uzbekistan into Kyrgyzstan. In the late afternoon a short tour of Bishkek visits Ala-Too Square and the city's leafy parks, with Soviet-era statues of Marx and Engels and the Memorial to the Red Guards.

Spend the day at Lake Issyk-Kul, an alpine lake framed by snow-capped peaks. A privately arranged festival on the shore brings horseback wrestling, hunting with golden eagles, the bone game ordo, music, costume and crafts. You may then visit the open-air petroglyph museum before the farewell dinner on board.

The train arrives in Almaty, where you leave the Golden Eagle. A city tour includes Panfilov Park and the Zenkov Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church built entirely of wood, and you spend the night at the Ritz-Carlton or similar.

After breakfast you are transferred to Almaty airport for your onward flight, or you can add extra nights to explore the city and its surroundings.