In a Lost World: Dinosaurs, Desert and an Underground Lake

Day 1

Departure for Ashgabat

• Departure for Ashgabat.

Day 2

Ashgabat

• Arrival. Entry visa at the airport, customs formalities.
• Meeting with the guide holding a LATIF sign. Transfer to the hotel, accommodation. Breakfast at the hotel.
• Start of the city programme: walks through the central parks and squares, the Monument of Independence, the Arch of Neutrality, the Wedding Palace (Bagt Koshgi) and the Russian Bazaar.
• Visit to the Ertugrul Gazi mosque.
• Excursion to the National Museum of Turkmenistan. Visit to the carpet shops.

Overnight: Hotel in Ashgabat

Day 3

Flight to Kerki

• Packed breakfast. Check-out from the hotel, transfer to the airport.
• Flight to Kerki. Arrival, transfer to the campsite.
• Please note: the campsite is NOT a 5-star hotel; despite this it has all conditions, with a shower and toilet in each room.
• Leisure time at the campsite.

Overnight: Campsite

Day 4

The Dinosaur Plateau and Koytendag

• Excursion to the Dinosaur Plateau — a sloping limestone slab of about 200 × 80 m near the village of Hojapil in the Kugitang mountains. Over 2,000 tracks make it the world's largest repository of dinosaur footprints. The three-toed prints, 20 to 70 cm across, were left by Megalosaurs, Iguanodons and Tyrannosaurs 140–145 million years ago, at the end of the Jurassic.
• The Kyrk-Gyz grotto (Forty Girls): tens of thousands of long ribbons adorn this sacred place, always busy with pilgrims and travellers.
• Excursion to the Umbar-Dere gorge — the narrowest in the region.

Overnight: Campsite

Day 5

Back to Ashgabat

• Transfer to Kerki airport, check-in, flight to Ashgabat.
• Arrival. Hotel accommodation.
• Excursion to a private horse farm to see the world-famous Akhal-Teke horses. Riding available for an extra fee.

Overnight: Hotel in Ashgabat

Day 6

Nisa — Darvaza

• Breakfast at the hotel. Take what you need for the trip into the sands.
• Excursion to Ancient Nisa — capital of the once-powerful Parthian kingdom; its ruins stretch 18 km west of Ashgabat and are divided into New and Old Nisa.
• Departure into the Karakum desert to the Darvaza gas crater, formed by the collapse of a drilling rig. Return to Ashgabat late at night.
• Please note: the crater must be seen after dark.

Overnight: Hotel in Ashgabat

Day 7

Carpet Museum and the Kipchak mosque

• Breakfast at the hotel. Leisure time.
• In the afternoon, excursion to the Carpet Museum.
• Excursion to the largest mosque in Central Asia, in the village of Kipchak. The Turkmenbashi Ruhy mosque stands 11 km from Ashgabat and was built in white marble between 2004 and 2006.

Overnight: Hotel in Ashgabat

Day 8

Nokhur — Baharden — Kov-Ata

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Excursion to Nokhur: the Chinar tree over 2,000 years old, the remarkable old cemetery with argali horns, and the sacred site of Kyz-Bibi.
• Departure for Baharden. Visit to the Kov-Ata underground lake — bring swimwear and towels. The water contains 27 minerals and stays at +33 °C all year.

Overnight: Hotel in Ashgabat

Day 9

Departure

• Transfer to the airport. Departure from Ashgabat. End of the programme.