TienShan Explorer

About Us

Why Silk Road Adventures?

Few independent operators know Central Asia as well as we do. We have two decades of hands on experience behind us and we know that we can deliver quality at the right price. The Small Group journeys on this site are our own itineraries, we maintain rigorous quality control over them and we work hard to ensure that our products are amongst the best designed, planned and supported available.

Our leaders and industry associates share our objectives and work hard to ensure that our travellers get the best services and value available. You get plenty of choice when you travel with us, you can work with us to design your own itinerary or join one of our select small group departures.

You can choose to undertake one of our “great overland journeys” join us or mix and match to suit your own interests from the itineraries that we have selected.

Click here for ‘The Basics for our Small group Journeys.’

Fewer Footprints

Our journeys follow the footsteps of explorers and merchants across the spectacular landscapes that lie along the Silk Road and to the great ancient civilizations of Asia . We will take you to interesting out of the way places and provide opportunities to interact with local people. We specialise in small group and personalised independent travel for people who want to get away from the standard Asian destinations. Central Asia is a destination that caught our imagination and captured our hearts. We hope that you will enjoy the region as much as we do.

Softer Steps

Our environmental policy seeks to safeguard the cultures, lifestyles and environments of indigenous peoples in the countries where we operate. We believe that “softer steps” are preferable to the effects that mass tourism can have on ordinary people and we practice what we preach.

Our community support projects in Pakistan provide specialist volunteer advisory services to local communities and conservation NGO’s who are concerned to protect their ecosystems and cultures from the adverse effects of tourism.

We sponsor youth expeditions to assist local people to clean up mountaineering and trekking base camps, place foreign teachers in village schools, provide ecotourism training to local guides and help village organisations develop options for sustainable tourism.

Dreams and Realities

While we work hard to ensure that you will enjoy your holiday we do not believe that our travellers should be shielded from reality. Travel in Central Asia can be challenging, occasionally frustrating and sometimes tiring. Our philosophy is to experience it “as it is” and we prefer to celebrate the region’s diversity, we don’t apologise for it.

We first experienced Asia as independent travellers, hungry for a chance to meet local people and keen to share their culture. Our experiences then are the reason we keep going back, each year we return to discover even more interesting places. This enables us to keep up to date on developments and build on our network of friends and associates. It also means that independent travellers get the best advice available.