3-Day Rural Homestay in the Nuratau Mountains

Traditional Activities

Guided Mountain Hike

Immersive Village Experience

Experience Heartwarming Hospitality in Remote Villages of the Nuratau Mountains

Embark on a captivating 3-day journey through the pristine beauty of the Nuratau Mountains, where you’ll unravel the tapestry of traditional village life while nestled within the breathtaking landscapes of Uzbekistan. Settle into the comfort of local homestays, with your first night in Asraf and second night in Sentob, and get a firsthand glimpse into the daily rhythms of the communities as they engage in activities such as harvesting, butter-making, and preserving fruits.

En route between the villages, a detour to the mesmerising Lake Aydarkul promises encounters with the rich aquatic birdlife that calls its shores home. Whether you choose to swim, stroll the lakeshore, or observe the vibrant avian residents, the lake’s allure is irresistible.

This immersive experience serves as more than just a journey; it’s a bridge that connects you to the heart of these remote valleys. Your presence resonates positively, contributing to the well-being of the communities you visit. Each step fosters sustainable growth, enabling locals to thrive and ensuring the preservation of cultural heritage for generations to come.

Highlights of the Tour

Experience rural Uzbek hospitality in not one but two different remote villages nestled in the Nuratau Mountains

Discover the enchanting Lake Aydarkul, a serene oasis amidst the vast Kyzyl-Kum steppes

Spot wildlife such as steppe tortoises, hares, and desert agamas as you traverse the unique ecosystem

Explore Sentob village with a leisurely walk to discover the mosque, local school, village shop, and the architecture that defines the local houses

Connect with your host family, and observe or participate in traditional cooking practices

Day 1 – Bukhara to Asraf Village with En-Route Stop at Lake Aydarkul: 9:00 AM: Meet your driver at the tour’s starting point and head to Asraf village. En route, stop at Lake Aydarkul for a picnic lunch by the water. Continue to Asraf, arriving in the afternoon. Settle into your homestay, explore the village, relax on a tapchan or supa under walnut trees, and help prepare a traditional dinner.

Day 2 – Transfer from Asraf to Sentob Village: Leave Asraf for the nearby mountain village of Sentob (1-hour drive). Settle into a local homestay and meet your guide to explore the village. After lunch, hike to Kadavan Valley to visit the ruins of an ancient fortress, an abandoned village, and rock inscriptions. Return to Sentob by the same route.

Day 3 – Transfer from Sentob to Samarkand: After breakfast, leave for your next destination.
END OF THE TRIP

Click the “Itinerary” tab to see a detailed itinerary.

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Trip Details

9am

In Bukhara: at the statue of Naserridin at Labi Haus Pool

All year round. Recommended to book between end of March to end of June and September to November.

Check the availability for this tour on the sidebar calendar.

3 days

From 2 to 12 travellers

TBC

2 nights accommodation in the homestays
2 breakfasts, 2 lunches, 2 dinners
Mountain guide in Sentob (Day 2)
Registration
Transport: Samarkand/Bukhara-villages-Bukhara/Samarkand

Additional tours and activities not mentioned in the itinerary
Tips
Items of personal nature

TBC

Homestay host
Mountain escort guide for a day

Your 3-Day Rural Homestay in Nuratau Mountain Villages Sentob & Asraf Itinerary

Day 1 – Bukhara – Lake Aydarkul – Asraf Village
9:00 AM: Meet your driver and start the journey to Asraf village, with a detour to Lake Aydarkul. The last 20 kilometers pass through the Kyzyl-Kum desert, where you may spot steppe tortoises, hares, and desert agamas. Upon arrival at the lake, enjoy a swim, walk along the shore, or observe the rich birdlife, including cranes, pelicans, ducks, and geese (season permitting).

Continue to Asraf village (1.5 hours). Arrive in the afternoon and settle into your homestay, which has a large garden with fruit trees and traditional tea beds (tapchans and supas) for relaxing. Explore the village, observe daily life, and in the evening, help prepare the traditional dish Plov with your host family, using homegrown vegetables and mountain spices. Enjoy dinner together.
Overnight at a local homestay in Asraf.

Day 2 – Asraf to Sentob Village
After breakfast, depart at 9:00 AM for Sentob village. On arrival, settle into your homestay, where gardens and a river add to the scenic setting. Begin with an easy guided walk through the lower part of the village to see the mosque, school, shop, and traditional rock-built homes. Sentob is known for preserving these building techniques, and wandering the village offers insight into local daily life, with friendly villagers often eager to chat.
After lunch, take a guided hike to Kadavan Valley to explore the ruins of an ancient fortress, an abandoned village, and Arabic stone inscriptions. Return to your homestay along the same route.

Overnight at a homestay in Sentob.

Day 3 – Sentob to Samarkand
After breakfast, bid farewell to your host family and transfer to Samarkand.

Map of Asraf & Sentob Villages

Private Tour Enquiry

All our tours are available as private tours, the private tours can depart from Samarkand or Bukhara. To request private tour departure dates you can send us an enquiry here. Please fill in your details and select your preferred hiking tour in the form below and we will get back to you with available departure dates.

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Which tour are you interested in?
- 2-Dy Sentob Mountain Tour
- 2-Day Hiking Tour around Uhum
- 3-Day Hiking Tour of the Nuratau Mountains
- 3-Day Sentob Hiking Tour
- 4-Day Sentob Hiking Tour
- 4-Day Hiking Tour of Hayat, Uhum & Asraf
- 7-Day Village to Village Hiking Tour in the Nuratau Mountains
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Not Ready to Let Your Trip Come to an End?

Why not make it longer? We have more exciting activities in store for you! If you have a private tour booked with us, extend your 3-Day Nuratau Mountain Homestay with further cultural and historical exploration. Check out these extension trips to add an extra “check” to your Uzbekistan holiday wish list!

See What Previous Travellers Have Said About Our Tours

					Wonderful time in the mountains The trip was extremely well organised, and our guide, the driver and the hosts in the guesthouses were very nice and helpful. We got a great insight in the way of people's lives in the valleys, in the amazing variety of nature and also in ancient culture (we took a glimpse at the stoneages). Alibek, our guide, made sure that we felt comfortable while hiking, we learned a lot from him about the history and the surroundings, and the food in the guest houses was delicious. We are vegetarians and the dishes provided were much better for vegetarians than in the cities. Thank you so much for giving these wonderful four days to us!
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Esther B
8/06/2023
					Hiking and relaxing to recover from Silk Road After having had wonderful days at Sayyod Camp I want to review this experience . - It started perfectly with your very nice driver who picked us up in Bukhara. - the lunch in Nurota was very delicious, the location perfect, the sight interesting - the Camp is so nice, we loved our yurt, the place in the mountains, the pool (!) , it is kind of luxury mountain camping - the meals where very good and traditional and the people working there were all very kind and friendly. - both hiking tours were fantastic, the view, the nature, perfect after many days with all the Ms (mosquées, medreses,…), it was a wonderful break and the guide was also very nice! - the only thing we did not like was the trip to the lake. It was very time consuming ( ok, the villages on the way were interesting to see), and there was nothing but millions of huge grasshoppers, we could nor sit, walk nor swim and left after 3 minutes (trip of 2,5 hours) But all in all we totally enjoyed the stay in nature and the hiking tours and relaxing in the pool with mountain view!
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916susanneg
6/13/2023
					Best cooking class! This cooking class is fantastic, it is hands-on and very informative. We did this course when we stayed at Sayyod Yurt Camp. We all really enjoyed our stay at the camp. The camp offers different activities such as hiking and cycling. The camp is ideal to have a rest and enjoy the nature.
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Andres R
5/23/2023
					Fantastic Trip to Uzbekistan Just got back from a fantastic 15 day trip to Uzbekistan with Responsible Travel & cannot recommend the company highly enough. From the start Sherzod of Responsible Travel was extremely helpful & responsive, answering multiple small queries, always on the same day. He put together a fantastic & varied itinerary for us (details of which I have included below), taking in the major Silk Road cities, but also including a few days in the countryside in & around Nurata. The 2 nights spent in the Nurata Mountains (Hayot Village) were the particular highlight of our trip. The homestay we stayed in was a geuinely special place, set in a beautiful wild flower garden beside a small stream & the family who run the homestay were very friendly and welcoming. A fantastic local guide (arranged by Sherzod) took us for a day's hiking in the mountains - not only was he extremely knowledgeable, but his connections in the area got us an invite to lunch with a local family celebrating a national holiday! We were also extremely well looked after by our driver Mr Bahtiyor, who not only spoke flawless English, but was also an extremely nice guy, very professional. & a great source of restaurant recommendations. We felt like we really lucked out in getting him!! ********************************************** Itinerary: Day 1 - Tashkent Day 2 - Tashkent Day 3 - Overnight Train from Tashkent – Khiva Day 4 - Khiva Day 5 - Khiva Day 6 - Khiva – Bukhara Day 7 - Bukhara Day 8 - Around Bukhara (06.05) Day 9 - Bukhara-Nurata-Yurt Camp (07.05) Day 10 - Yurt Camp - Lake Aydarkul - Nuratau Mountains (08.05) Day 11- Nuratau Mountains Day 12 - Nuratau Mountains – Samarkand Day 13 - Samarkand Day 14 - Samarkand – Tashkent Day 15 - Tashkent
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CATW351770
5/21/2023
					Fantastic experience I did the 4-days hiking tour Sentob in March 2023. It was a fantastic experience! The driving to and from Sentob was smooth. A warm welcome in Rahima's guesthouse in Sentob, and in the guesthouse in Uhum, with very good food. The hikes were great, with beautiful scenery, and my guide Sherali was very nice, informative, and would adapt to my pace. Because of the season we had to adapt the schedule and do a different hike than foreseen in the program the second day and it all went very smoothly. As a solo female traveler, I also felt very safe the whole time. It was a great way to discover the nature and countryside in Uzbekistan, and to have a break between visiting cities. I highly recommend booking a trip with this agency.
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Tiphaine M
4/11/2023
					Amazing time We did a 4 days hiking tour in Sentob and Morjam and it was really perfect. The guesthouses were great, the guide explained a lot of things about nature and culture. Landscapes were awesome and the food delicious. Do not hesitate !
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Aubertin N
10/19/2022
					6 days hiking in Nuratau, 3 days trekking in Chimgan We spend 6 days hiking in Nuratau Mountains (hiking tour to Hayat, Uhum and Asraf villages, yurt stay and Lake Aydarkul) and did a 3 days trekking tour in Chimgan Mountains in september 2022. Both trips were great and very well organized. As well as very different, we saw a lot of typical scenery and had a good impression of the life in the mountains. Always really good food, great quality and traditional dishes. Thanks a lot to our guides Nuriddin and Barlan and of course to our donkeys in Chimgan Mountains. All of them did a great job in difficult conditions! The price was really reasonable for this quality of individual trekking tour! We warmly recommand Responsible Travel for his trekking and hinking tours in the Mountains of Uzbekistan.
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Didier P
9/25/2022
					Wonderful Hiking tour 3 days Asraf I and my husband Enzo took the "Hiking tour 3 days Asraf" from 18 to 20th of August.2019. It were a very very fantastic experience. The drivers from Bukhara to Asraf and from Asraf to Samarcanda, were very very professional. .Our hiking through the Nuratau Mountain was wonderfull thanks to our guide Ali. The people of village Asrf are very friendly and nice.Thanks a lot
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Rosanna T
9/29/2019
					Local embedded company with great service! Excellent way to explore Uzbekistan Responsible travel organised our 3 day trip to the Nuratau mountains. We stayed in a yurt camp for one night and in a family guesthouse for the other 2 nights. Responsible travel organised everything from taxi to hiking guide to accomodation. We are very happy with our trip and enjoyed every bit of it!
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LittleBerrie
8/08/2019
					Nuratau Trekking Experience In mid May 2019, we went for a trip to Nuratau Mountains to 3 different villages: Hayat, Uhum and Asraf. It was an amazing experience. We got to meet the families living in the mountains, see how they manage daily arrangements: work, school, watering the crops, cooking. The families mostly speak Uzbek or Tajik. Children and teenagers learn English at school and older family members speak some Russian. Our guide, Sherali, spoke very good English, we were very lucky to spend time with him. He told us a lot about the Uzbek culture and landscape and made sure our trip is diverse. I appreciate that, apart from the fixed attractions in the itinerary, we could pick from different options, for example change the additional hiking for spending time with the local family. On top of that, we could take some rest from the Internet and mobile networks. Only UzMobile would work in few spots. The families had stationary satelite phones to communicate within the country. Overall, it was a precious experience, we met very kind and welcoming people who will stay in our memories for long. If we ever get a chance to come back to Uzbekistan, we would definitely get in touch with the company and Sherali for another trip. Thank you for your kindness! 🙂
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Magda Ż
6/23/2019