Asian Adventure Tours

Join us on a Central Asian adventure unlike anything offered anywhere else! In 2014 Koryo Tours is offering two very different but equally amazing itineraries in the mysterious and unique country of Turkmenistan – the region’s least visited and least-known but most fascinating country – come with us and we will show you this remarkable country – the history, weirdness, amazing scenery, giant flaming pits, and much much more!

Our first tour of the year will take place in – We’ll see the highlights of Ashgabat; a city best described as a melange of Las Vegas, Dubai, and Pyongyang! Including the world’s largest indoor Ferris Wheel, some of the monuments that mark the different areas of the city, the old town itself where sleepy tree-lined streets merge into marble-clad mega-boulevards built in the gas-funded ‘golden age’ (as the government calls the 21st Century). We’ll see giant bazaars and all the local colour on display, see the sacred Ahal-Teke horses at the races and at a stud farm, we’ll travel up to the Caspian Sea coast to see the oldest city in the country; Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnavodsk) as well as the newest (the massive and bizarre beach resort complex of Avaza). And we’ll travel deep into the desert for a night of camping next to the Darvaza Gas Crater; the ‘Mouth of Hell’ the simply the most amazing place you will ever have the chance to sleep next to and stare deep into – is like nowhere else on earth! All this and a swim in a lake 100m below the surface of the Earth as well!

Our Second tour for 2014 takes place from late September to early October and will take a more land-based route around the country. For this tour we also hit all the highlights of Ashgabat and head into the interior of the country for a look at local life as well as the night next to the giant gas crater (unmissable, one of the truly unique things you can do in your life). We’ll also drive on to the Northern city of Dashoguz and the nearby UNESCO world heritage site of Konye-Urgench; a stunning series of ruins of an ancient Silk Road settlement ravaged by Genghis Khan, Tamerlane, and other warriors that lend colour to the complicated history of this area. We’ll see the famed Ahal-Teke hordes ride in races and at a farm and then travel on the Yangykala Canyon, a stunning natural area akin to the more well-known Grand Canyon. Little-visited and almost unknown to outsiders this area offers truly remarkable views and an amazing experience exploring, taking photos, looking out for local wildlife, and experiencing something almost no tourists to this country ever get to see. We’ll even have time to hit the Caspian Sea resort of Azava for a quick explore before heading back to Ashgabat to finish the tour. An exhausting but exhaustive trip to this amazing country, you’ll have stories enough for a lifetime in just a week!