An experienced and well-established tour operator that offers an enormous choice of excursions throughout Kazakhstan, as well as in Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Silk Road is the company to talk to for arranging individual adrenaline experiences including hot-air balloon and hang-glider rides, parachute jumps and white-water rafting, but it also offers horse-trekking, mountaineering and hiking trips and even tulip-hunting forays into the steppe during April and May. Further afield it can host trips to the Soviet-established Baikonur Cosmodrome and Aral Sea plus a variety of jeep tours around the country. For a truly hedonistic experience, charter a plane or helicopter for an aerial view of some of the destinations detailed in the introduction – the helicopters are even able to land in some locations for further exploration on foot. Understandably, such unforgettable experiences don’t come cheap, with prices for such trips all into six figures… but what a way to explore the region!