Two Elements: the Fiery Heart of Karakum and the Dinosaur Plateau

Day 1

Arrival in Ashgabat

• Departure for Ashgabat.
• Arrival. Entry visa at the airport, customs formalities.
• Meeting with the guide holding a LATIF sign. Transfer to the hotel, check-in.

Overnight: Hotel in Ashgabat

Day 2

Ashgabat — Darvaza

• Breakfast at the hotel. Pack a small bag with essentials for the desert.
• City sightseeing tour: the Monument of Independence, the Arch of Neutrality and more.
• Visit to the Russian Bazaar.
• Departure into the Karakum desert to the Darvaza gas crater. Dinner: packed lunch boxes and drinking water. Return to Ashgabat late at night.

Overnight: Hotel in Ashgabat

Day 3

Flight to Kerki

• Packed breakfast. Hotel check-out.
• Transfer to the airport, flight to Kerki.
• Arrival. Transfer to the tourist base.
• Please note: the base is not a five-star hotel, but it provides all necessary conditions — each room has its own shower and toilet.

Overnight: Tourist base in Koytendag

Day 4

The Dinosaur Plateau and Koytendag

• Breakfast.
• The unabi jujube grove — the only natural population of ancient jujube trees in Central Asia, about 4,500 trees, some of them 200 to 500 years old.
• Kete-Kel lake, 25 hectares of mineralised water which locals believe has healing properties.
• Excursion to the Dinosaur Plateau — a sloping limestone slab of about 200 × 80 m near the village of Hojapil. Scientists have counted more than 2,000 tracks here, making 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.
• The Kyrk-Gyz grotto (Forty Girls), one of Koytendag's unique natural monuments. Tens of thousands of ribbons adorn the sacred site; elders say that everyone who comes here may make a wish.
• The Umbar-Dere gorge — the narrowest in the region, winding like the body of a snake. It is at its most beautiful in spring.

Overnight: Tourist base in Koytendag

Day 5

Train to Turkmenabat

• Transfer to the Amudarya railway station, check-in for the train.
• Train to Turkmenabat. Arrival, transfer to the hotel, accommodation.

Overnight: Hotel in Turkmenabat

Day 6

Farap border

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Transfer to the Farap border. Crossing into Uzbekistan. End of the programme.