Tashkent Walking Tour with Local Lady / Gentleman

Aziza took us to see the Soviet side of Tashkent. If not for Aziza, we would not, as tourists, be able to explore these parts of the city and to know more about the Soviet period. In addtion to understanduing Islamic history in Uzbekistan, we had a great time learning about the 70 years of Soviet influence through art and architecture. Highly recommend this tour if you want to experience something different!

We spent the day with Aziza going around Tashkent and found her to be super knowledgeable and fun with a great command of the English language. Her affiliations with local shops really helped to cut through the “tourist traps” and her recommendations for dinner were highly authentic and spot on. Recommend!

A very good walking tour with interesting insights of historical and artistic developments. Aziza is a very friendly and knowledgeable tour guide. Thanks

Travel, over and above historical monuments and history, is about sharing culture and getting to know the soul of a place through its people. This tour began well when the first stop was to Aziza's family home. This would suggest that she was open to sharing an insight to her life, and this made me and my son very happy. Sadly, It went downhill from here. Aziza is clearly knowledgeable about her city, and passionate, particularly, about architecture. But she imparts her knowledge with not a glimmer of joy, or humour. It is like having a history lesson with your most irritable, touchy school teacher: Ask a reasonable question and she rolls her eyes and snaps a monosyllabic answer, takes out her phone and has lengthy conversations. This was not an enjoyable three hours: we should have left half way through and just read the guide book. She did however take us to a good SIM shop, for which we were grateful. Would recommend Aziza attends a spell in Charm School.

I was very excited about my tour with Aziza after reading the positive reviews. I’m afraid it was a massive disappointment and left me feeling extremely uncomfortable. On the positive side, Aziza is very knowledgable about Tashkent and is clearly particularly passionate about architecture. However her complete lack of enthusiasm and engagement was simply rude and unacceptable - it felt like walking next to a thunder cloud for four hours (who was texting and calling on her phone for a large majority of the tour, as mentioned in a review below). Questions were met with monosyllabic answers, no eye contact, and when I asked if she had any nice weekend plans she snapped “you think I’m not from planet earth and like the same things you do”. In all honesty I was thinking of leaving half way through the tour. When my mother spoke to her about this at the end of the tour she apologised and said she was tired and had done a tour earlier in the day. For me tours are about understanding a city and also engagement with a guide to understand from the eyes of a local about their world and life. If you are wanting great facts and knowledge - Aziza is your guide. However if you want any warmth, smiles and genuine engagement I really recommend you go elsewhere.

Aziza was so lovely and friendly. She provided so much historical and current informative. I thoroughly enjoyed my tour. Very personable.

The visit lasted roughly three hours and the guide delivered on all the itinerary points. Aziza was knowledgable and provided relevant information throughout the tour. She also catered to specific questions and was kind enough to also take pictures. The information provided was at the right level : sufficient to get a good understanding of the city and Uzbek history and culture. Overall, a very pleasant tour.

The tour was not informative enough about Tashkent city: its culture, history, people and basic trivia. I have travelled to over 80 countries. Over the past two years alone I have done many walking tours across four continents. Normally a walking tour is highly informative. This tour was more for there to be someone to take your photos with very little information provided. Perhaps it should be marketed as an Instagram walking tour. I have no complaints. It just wasn't what I am accustomed to. On the positive side the guide is happy to take many photos of you with scenic backgrounds.

I had a wonderful walk to the highlights with a mixture of special and entertaining anecdotes .a great start of a trip to get an important taste of Tashkent. Also Aziza surprised me by recommending some excellent addresses leading to some wonderful experiences.

The tour was very good. Monuments were very nice. Tour guide was very good and knowledgeable. …………………………………………,But she was always busy on her phone. We paid for bus and subway rides.