It is best to spend a whole day exploring Samarkand - the pearl of the East. Here you can find buildings with their gold leaf interiors, cool courtyards, and colorful bazaars. 1) Visit famous landmarks like Registan square, Gur Emir mausoleum, Bibi Khanym mosque, Ulugbek observatory, Afrasiab museum 2) Get to know the history, culture and heritage of the ancient city
Prices change with the date; the lowest is shown.
Prices are per person when two book together; a solo traveller pays $305.
Larger groups pay less per person.
From the operator’s live schedule on Viator, checked Oct 7.
Gur Emir Mausoleum – As a conqueror there are few that are Tamerlane’s equal, both in territory and legacy left. Today one can visit his tomb in the beautifully reconstructed Gur-Emir Mausoleum (1404-1405, 15-17 centuries) and reflect on his life while looking at the largest piece of jade (greenstone) in the world.
Registan became the city square when the life in Afrosiab stopped. Since that time Registan was reconstructed several times. Today it is surrounded by the three medreses Ulugbek, Sherdor and Tillokori.
Bibi-Khanym Mosque – named after the wife of Temur and built between 1399-1404 – is one of best-known architectural attractions of Central Asia. The Mosque was erected on Timur's order after his combat of Delhi. The Minaret of the Mosque was supposed to be the tallest.
Siab Bazaar is Samarkand’s largest and most vibrant traditional market, located near the Bibi-Khanym Mosque. It is the perfect place to experience local daily life, colorful stalls, and authentic Uzbek flavors — from fresh fruits and spices to traditional bread (non) baked in clay ovens.
Shakhi-Zinda Ensemble – (9 -14, 19 centuries) situated on southeastern mound of Afrosiab. This architectural complex consists of 44 tombs in more than 20 mausoleums. The greatest significance of Shah E Zinda is that he was the First cousin of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and resembles the Prophet the most.
Reviews collected by Viator and Tripadvisor
Excurgo comparison of 233 Viator tours, recalculated daily.
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Samarkand One Day Private Tour from Tashkent with Bullet Train lasts about 9–12 hours. The itinerary has 5 stops.
Prices start at $220 per person for this Tashkent experience, booked through Viator with the price shown before checkout. That is the per-person price when two book together; a solo traveller pays $305. There is 1 booking option, so the final price depends on the option you choose.
According to the operator’s current schedule, it runs every day, starting at 7:00 AM, 7:30 AM, 8:00 AM, 8:30 AM, and 9:00 AM.
Children aged 3–11 pay nothing, adults from $220. Infants go free.
Yes. Cancel at least 1 day before the start for a full refund. Later cancellations are non-refundable.
The meeting point is Meeting with local Guide at entrance with signboard. Hotel pickup is not part of this experience.
The experience is available in AR, DE, RU, JA, EN, FA, IT, FR, TR, ES.
It is a private experience: only your party takes part. Up to 8 travellers can book together.
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
Yes, bookings are confirmed instantly.
Travellers rate it 4.7 out of 5 across 10 reviews on Viator and Tripadvisor; it is run by Silk Tour Ltd.
Reviews collected by Viator and Tripadvisor
Amir was amazing and super helpful in coordinating our high-speed train tickets. He was extremely attentive on WhatsApp and made the whole process smooth and stress-free. The tour in Samarkand was also fantastic, with Laziz as a very knowledgeable guide who brought the history and sites to life. Overall, a great experience and highly recommended!
Thank you friend, we r very proud of both employees who we trained from day 1.
An absolutely fantastic and well-organized tour! Everything was seamless from start to finish, and our guide ‘Timur’ was knowledgeable, engaging, and truly superb. It’s the perfect way to spend a day exploring such a historic city – highly recommended!
Charos, my guide, was so knowledgeable and professional! It was a brutally hot day and she expertly navigated us into shady spots before sharing the historical city of everywhere we visited. She also did an excellent job connecting the key characters and time frames between each location which helped me understand the full history. The car was clean (and cold!) and the driver was kind.
Guide was very knowledgeable, polite and informative. As for Samarkand it was the gem I’d always hoped it would be but our guide Pushi made the trip. I can’t recommend this trip enough. Viator managed to get us a train ticket as we booked 2 days earlier but the bulletin train had sold out .. we should have followed Viators advice and booked much earlier but the normal train was superb too 😀
The tour was highly interesting with unique views of the high culture of Amir Temur and Ulug‘bek. We had a very nice, educational and amusing guide.
Tour operator New Prime India Cochin Tours and Travels recommended we enjoyed it very. Much with family
Samarkand is obviously a must- visit place when travelling to Uzbekistan. We managed to visit the most important parts of old/ancient Samarkand. Tombs, mausoleums, mosques, statues coverted to tourists traps and shops, shops, shops…. Beautiful but quite sad…. Unfortunately, our trip was not as smooth as it could be. When we received a written confirmation from travel agency we were sure that everything is booked. Surprise, surprise….. a day before the trip we got one-way train tickets only. Thanks to hotel staff we arranged on our own taxi to the train station, caught Afrosiab express and reached Samarkanda. We were welcomed by a nice and polite guide, who had no idea why we did not receive return train tickets. She called the office and learnt that they work on this now. Finally, we got two tickets for different trains and timing. Our tour should be cut by 2 hours and participant should travel back to Tashkent separately with different trains. We did not agree and complained. After few hours, the travel agency managed to find two seats in the same train ( one in economy class another one in vip class - vip class is a kind of Uzbek joke, worth nothing). I understand that Afrosiab trains are full in high touristic season and sometimes buying tickets is difficult or impossible but travel agency should never confirm tours if they do not have booked tickets for travel. Now, we will remember mainly travel issues from Samarkand instead of beauty of this place. Travel agency provided us with a knowledgeable guide, good driver, clean car but forgot to book train tickets….
Maciej, first educate yourself before you book or write, bullet train are in extreme high demand, they are open for sale 45 days before departure and are sold out within one hour in high season, so next time book in advance. Second learn to be greatfull for a team that managed impossible by securing your train tickets even on last minute, third open your eyes all airline companies & hotels practise overbooking as they know there will be last minute cancelation, last but not least we take a calculated risk in business that allow us to serve hundereds of tourist with last minute request like yours, if we were to stop this you would have never seen samarkand in peak season on a one day trip, so think before you write next time.
Easy to listen guide’s language Carting, attentive and cheerful guide Flexible schedule of tour Enough information is provided to comprehend
this private tour was amazing, the car was very comfortable, our tour guide (shokhrukh) was very informative and flexible, he also knew very good spot for taking your pict! overall, we were satisfied with this tour! recommended 👍🏻
Everything was organised perfect, beautiful city with a lot of very interesting sights, guide was really very friendly, helpful and had a hugh knowledge about the history and sights
Thanks Amir, we are glad that everything was to your liking,
| Tour | Duration | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samarkand One Day Private Tour from Tashkent with Bullet Train | 9–12 hours | 4.7 (10) | $220 | |
 Uzbekistan 3 Day Private Tour Tashkent-Bukhara-Samarkand Bullet Train | 3 days | 4.7 (29) | $505 | View |
 Uzbekistan 4 Days Private Tour Tashkent-Bukhara-Samarkand-Tashkent bullet train | 4 days | 4.3 (6) | $650 | View |
 Samarkand One Day Tour - Departure From Tashkent | 9–14 hours | 4.7 (355) | $229 | View |
 2 Days Tour to Bukhara and Samarkand from Tashkent by train | 2 days | 4.9 (57) | $499 | View |
 All in One Day Tour of Samarkand from Tashkent | 9–14 hours | 4.9 (41) | $199 | View |
 Samarkand: Complete One - Day Tour from Tashkent | 12 hours | 5.0 (9) | $180 | View |