Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan Tours

Turkmenistan is not the best-known tourist destination around, and certainly not the easiest to visit with tight visa regulations and the occasional closed borders, but it is a fascinating place. Of the five ‘Stans’ that formed the USSR’s Central Asian territory before its collapse in the early 1990s, Turkmenistan is probably the least known. Made up largely of desert, the country has rich gas deposits, reflected in the fascinating Darvaza gas crater. Also known as the 'door to hell', this gas pit has been burning since 1971 and is a site unlike any you’re likely to have seen.

Tours to Turkmenistan also visit its capital city, Ashgabat. This, too, is an unusual place, holding the world record for white marble buildings and monuments, a former world record for the biggest flag, a world record for the biggest carpet… it is a city that likes to make things on a grand scale.