8-Day Turkmenistan Desert Tour with Darvaza and Yangykala

• Meet your tour guide upon arrival at Ashgabat Airport and transfer to your hotel.
• Rest and have breakfast at the hotel.
• Drive to Darvaza Gas Crater and witness two more craters on the way. The first is deep, with no fire but a strong gaseous smell. The other, lying 18 km to the south, is visible from the west side of the main road.
• Have dinner at Darvaza.

Overnight in tents or yurts.

• Take a 2-3 hour drive to Damla village, located in the midst of the arid sprawl of the vast Karakum Desert. This tiny village is a little haven of traditional Turkmenistani life.
• Enjoy a traditional-style lunch and dinner, witness the Tazy hunting dogs show and sparrow hawks, and listen to traditional music played on the dutar.

Overnight in tents.

• After breakfast at Damla, drive to see camel cattle and meet a local shepherd.
• Taste a freshly cooked lunch prepared by the shepherds.
• Enjoy the drive back to Ashgabat with your tour guide and rest at the hotel.

Overnight at the hotel.

• Set out early in the morning for Nokhur, a village in a slight depression valley in the mountains of the Kopet Dag Range. The streets in the middle of the town are so narrow that they can fit only a car between the high stone retaining walls on each side. Nokhur is the largest village here, with just one or perhaps two thousand people.
• Have lunch at the guest house.
• Continue to Yangykala. The name is translated from Turkmen as "fiery fortresses". Indeed, the sheer cliffs in different colours, fancifully carved by wind and rain, are very similar to stone castles. The canyons are most beautiful during sunset, when everything is painted in a red-hot colour, followed by dinner.

Overnight in tents.

• After breakfast at Yangykala, drive to Gozli Ata, where a respected Sufi lived in the early part of the 14th century. His mausoleum is a brick building with twin white domes, standing in an old graveyard containing many nicely carved stone tombs.
• Continue to Kow-Ata, an underground lake. The Turkmen name "Kow-Ata" means Father of Caves. The bottom of the cave is covered with lumps of dissolved limestone, and its warm, gushing water is clear and emerald-coloured.
• Drive to Ashgabat and stop for dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at the hotel.

• Drive from Ashgabat to Gokdepe.
• Continue to Dark Gorge and head back to camp for rest.

Overnight in tents.

• Early in the morning, view an ancient settlement, the Archman fortress cave "Div-Govok", and a stream.
• Stop for lunch and head back to camp in Ashgabat.
• Enjoy dinner with folk show performances, including dance, music, and a traditional wedding ceremony.

Overnight at the hotel.

• Take a night transfer to Ashgabat International Airport to board your flight to the next destination.