Owadan Tourism is the first agency in Turkmenistan to offer fixed departure tours. These include a Navruz Special tour (March), an Ahalteke Horse Special Tour (April), a Carpet Special Tour (May), and several jeep tours with multiple departures during the summer months (June-August). The jeep tours in particular are aimed to make unique areas in Turkmenistan accessible to travelers on various budgets, and allow for flexibility before and after the tour program, to reach Ashgabat from various directions and visit the city at your own pace. All tours can be combined with travel through neighboring countries, such as Uzbekistan and/or Iran. Basically: tailor-made travel components can be added to the beginning or the end of these fixed departure tours.
Tailor-made programs are fully personalized to your specific interests and travel wishes: services are privately arranged for you or your group. While visa support, accommodation and transportation are compulsory components of such programs, they allow for flexibility in tour duration (from 2 to 20 days), in accommodation comfort levels (from camp arrangements to 5-star hotel room reservations), in means of transport (from off-road jeep safari transport, to road travel, and train and air travel), in meal arrangements (bed and breakfast, half board or full board meal services), and in guide and interpretation services (fully guided tours, local excursions or non-guided leisure). Programs can be completely adjusted to your wishes with the help of the advice of our sales team. Tailor-made programs are also available from our sales team for groups with special interests, such as:
Please note that no specialized guides are available for the first 5 above-mentioned programs, and therefore you will need to bring your own expertise on such tours, in the form of specialized or trained staff or literature. Of course, horse riding and hiking and trekking tours will be accompanied by appropriately trained staff.
Last but not least, Owadan Tourism is also able to arrange services for your onward travel through Uzbekistan, and able to advice on service support for travel through Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Owadan Tourism is licensed to apply at the state visa authority for Letters of Invitation (LOI) for travelers requiring a Tourist Visa (for several border areas, additional border zone permission is required; these permissions are automatically applied for in conjunction with the general visa application). We process requests for applications as early as 10 weeks prior to your intended arrival in Turkmenistan, and up to as late as 3 weeks prior to your intended arrival. In order to process such applications, we will need to formally agree with you on your day-to-day travel plan, including your chosen modes of transport and type of accommodation. We will also need to receive the following information:
Once we obtain the above information in the correct formats, our team will prepare and submit the LOI application. The duration of processing is variable (between 5 and 10 working days) and the process and/or the result cannot be predicted or influenced by Owadan Tourism. Once the result of the application is issued, we will immediately notify you. We are able to scan and send the LOI to you by email. You will need to print it, and bring it with you to the place where you intend to pick up your Turkmenistan Tourist Visa: at a Turkmenistan Embassy abroad, on arrival at one of the land borders that offers visa services, or at Ashgabat International Airport. Please note that Turkmenistan does not issue group tourist visas, so each person needs to be in a possession of a passport with a validity of no less than 6 months at the moment of arrival in Turkmenistan, and needs to have at least 2 empty pages, for visa and registration stamps.
Owadan Tourism does not offer visa support for people on a personal (friends or family) visit or medical treatment trip, business or conference trip, media trip or official visit to Turkmenistan. People traveling to Turkmenistan with these purposes will need to contact a Turkmen Embassy abroad for advice on obtaining the appropriate Letter of Invitation. However, on receiving proof of having received the appropriate LOI, Owadan Tourism does offer other travel services, such as accommodation and transportation services. See more information in the chapter MICE Services below.
Owadan Tourism owns a wide variety of vehicles, and employs its own drivers, in order to offer safe, clean and comfortable overland travel. Our car park in Ashgabat consists of city cars, minivans, SUV’s, jeeps, minibuses and touring cars. At our car parks in Mary and Dashoguz towns several more vehicles are located.
We also arrange for your domestic train or air tickets. Even though our agency is based in Ashgabat, ticketing services are offered on all routes in Turkmenistan, irrespective of the departure point of such train journeys or flights.
Owadan Tourism has contracts with a large number of hotels in Turkmenistan. In Ashgabat, Mary, Turkmenbashi and Awaza Seaside Recreational Zone we offer room reservations in hotels of various categories. In Dashoguz, Turkmenabad and Balkanabad hotels do not yet offer diverse categories, and we make reservations in those hotels available. In Koyten (Kugitang) reservations can be made for stay in the local base lodge. Outside these locations, accommodation is restricted to ad hoc camp arrangements.
We have our own camp accommodation gear, that includes a large number of trekking tents for single or double share use, sleeping mats, sleeping bags, pillows and tent lights. We also bring camp dining gear, such as floor covers, plates, cups and cutlery and camp lighting. On request, camp tables and chairs can be provided, as well as camp latrine tents and camp shower tents.
In terms of meals, Owadan offers as a minimum Bed & Breakfast services, plus dinner services at those locations where no form of public dining is available. In practice, this means dinners are automatically served for overnight location where accommodation is either in tents or in the base lodge in Kugitang. Picnic lunches are recommended on those route sections where no alternative dining services are available. Restaurant-based lunch and dinner services are optional and are offered in every city.
Due to the limited volume and detail of foreign-language information available about places to visit in Turkmenistan, both locally as well as abroad, Owadan Tourism employs its own guides. Various guides have been trained and licensed by the Turkmenistan Tourism Committee, and work in various languages:
Guides have been trained in particular on providing excursions in Ashgabat, Merw (UNESCO), Kunya Urgench (UNESCO) and Nissa (UNESCO), and the various cultural characteristics that are reflected in Turkmenistan today.
Owadan Tourism offers fully guided tours, which means that a guide can accompany travelers on an entire route, both on transfers from one location to another, as well as during site visits, where excursions are taking place. Alternatively, local guides can be requested selectively, for excursions in Ashgabat (for city tours and day trips from Ashgabat), Mary (for trips to Merw, Gonur Depe or Talkhatan Baba) or Dashoguz (for trips to Kunya Urgench and Yzmukshir) only.
Although travelers arriving in Turkmenistan on a Transit Visa do not require visa support or Letters of Invitation from a local travel agency, they may wish to contact us for transport or accommodation services, or local excursions at sites located on their way from one land border to the next. Please contact us directly for more information, and terms and conditions of service agreements and payment.
Please note that Owadan Tourism is unable to facilitate Transit Visa support: transit visas must be applied for directly by travelers at a Turkmen Embassy abroad. For more information about the pros and cons of a Transit Visa versus a Tourist Visa, contact us directly.
An increasing number of people choose to experience the Silk Road by traveling in their own mode of transport, between Europe and Asia. In recent years, we have welcomed and supported a steady and growing number of travelers arriving in buses, trucks, jeeps, and cars, and on motorbikes and bicycles. Although such travelers do not require transport services on their journey through Turkmenistan, they may wish to contact us for visa support, accommodation and overland travel escorting.
For more information about temporary motorized vehicle transit procedures, please contact us directly.
Another growing group of travelers arrive in Turkmenistan from Baku in Azerbaijan, using the services of the cargo ferry that connects Baku and Turkmenbashi. Although there are no timetables for these cargo ferries, and arrival in Turkmenbashi cannot be predicted, Owadan Tourism can support such adventurous travelers with flexible visa support, accommodation and transport arrangements. Please contact us directly for more information.
Although expatriates based in Turkmenistan for work purposes do not require visa support, Owadan Tourism offers accommodation, transport and guide services to expatriates and their visiting friends or family, and can compose various day trip or short breaks to various destinations inside Turkmenistan, as well as to neighboring Uzbekistan. Programs included, but are not limited to, the following suggestions:
Please note that several trips, such as those to Kunya Urgench and/or Kugitang Mountains are subject to availability of relevant border zone permissions. Such permissions have to be arranged for by the inviting party (employer) and cannot be facilitated by Owadan Tourism. For detailed information on the trip suggestions mentioned above, as well as additional possibilities, please contact us directly.
Although traditional dinner shows are not organized by Owadan Tourism on fixed or recurring dates or weekdays, in high season they may take place fairly frequently. The venue is at a central location in Ashgabat, and the duration is from 1900h till 2100h. Please contact us directly for information about planned dinner shows in the month that you plan to be in Ashgabat.
Although people that travel to Turkmenistan for meetings, conferences or exhibition purposes will not require visa support (these must be facilitated by the inviting party of such events), Owadan Tourism does offer other forms of assistance to such travelers, such as:
For an overview of the complete selection of MICE support services available and a price list, please contact us directly.