About UJourneys

I believe travel is one of the best gifts we give our families, our children, and ourselves. It expands our horizons and it connects us. Time in the natural world brings us closer to ourselves. The diversity of culture humbles us, and history teaches us a great many lessons.

In Bukhara, beneath the Kalyan Minaret, I heard a story I have never forgotten. When Genghis Khan rode into the city in 1220, he looked up at the tower — already nearly a century old — and his helmet fell from his head. He bent to pick it up, and then laughed. Asked why, he said he had never in his life bowed to any man, and a fallen helmet had made him bow here. Much of the city was destroyed. The minaret was left standing.

I think about that story often. It is not something you can take from a guidebook, and you certainly cannot photograph it. It has to be told to you, in the place where it happened, by someone who knows it well. That is what I want a UJourneys journey to be.

My background is in the study of Muslim societies and cultures, and I have spent many years traveling. I have had the good fortune to travel through Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, to spend real time with the people there, and to love the culture deeply. Sharing that with fellow travelers is why UJourneys exists.

Most travel companies will show you a place. I would rather you experienced one. There is a difference between seeing the Registan and standing in it as the light turns the tilework gold, with someone beside you who can tell you what you are looking at and why it was built that way.

We begin in Uzbekistan because it is the heart of the Silk Road. Ideas and goods moved through here for centuries, and what remains is an extraordinary story of friendship, learning, and human connection. It seemed the right place to start a company built on those things.