TOUR OVERVIEW
This tour is your chance to see Nowruz, but Turkmen style. And everything is more fun Turkmen style! Although Nowruz is originally a Persian holiday, marking the start of spring and the start of their new year, it has been well and truly commandeered by Central Asia. You'll find Nowruz celebrations all throughout Central Asia, with differening extents of extravagance and authenticity, but Turkmenistan has really taken it to the next level and made it their own.
We'll start off this tour by heading out of Ashgabat, visiting the ancient ruins of Nisa, and the Turkmenbashy Mosque and Mausoleum, before swimming in Kow Ata, which is one of the few chances you'll have to see locals relaxing a bit. Venturing into the mountains we'll visit the village of Nokhur, famous for its unique cemetery, before going all the way to the west of the country to the Caspian Sea coast. Here you'll have the chance to explore the resort town of Avaza, built in the same over the top glamorous white marble and gold as Ashgabat. Next we'll drive out into the desert to see Yangykala Canyon, an old ocean, now a vast canyon with striped coloured walls. Finally we'll fly on Turkmenistan Airlines (an experience in itself!) back to Ashgabat to explore this bizarre sparkly city, and be part of all the Nowruz events.
View the full itinerary
If you like the look of this tour but the dates don't work for you, or you'd like to do part of the tour, please
get in touch
and let us know. All our tours are able to be split into smaller sections, we're always scheduling new tours and your dates might work for one of them, or we can always organise an independent tour.
There is also a
shorter budget version
of this tour available, for anyone who would like to see Ashgabat, the Gates of Hell and Nowruz, but doesn't have time to explore the rest of the country.