Zarafshan Valley

I spent a month volunteering with the ZTDA earlier this summer (teaching English to some of the homestay owners). I split my time staying with families in the village of Shing and the village of Padrud. Padrud is located between the 4th and 5th lakes and the homestay there is right on the river, it's really nice. If you can stay in Shing, I highly recommend it because the family was incredible and the food SO good! That isn't quite to the Seven Lakes yet, but there are still some nice day hikes with really good views.

Obviously I have a different view since I was volunteering, but while I was in Shing a couple of British women came and stayed for the night. They told me they had arrived in Penjikent with no real idea of what they were going to do. They found the ZTDA office and within like half an hour they had a car and driver set to drive them around to the Seven Lakes and Iskanderkul for a couple days. They seemed very pleased with their experience.

Thanks very much for the information!

I was less than impressed with ZTDA's operation. I called in advance to plan my trip to the region, got lots of advice, and then when I arrived I received totally different advice. I would go across the street to ZTDB (the "official" tourist info board) first. However, the homestays are excellent (I stayed in Padrud). One thing to consider is that transportation in the region can be expensive if you're a solo traveler as I was, but the alternative is the very cheap and crowded shared taxis which will take all day to get you to either Seven Lakes or Artuch. There is almost no way to get between Seven Lakes and the Artuch area (not to mention Iskander-Kul and Sarytag village) if you are an independent traveler without a private driver. Unless, of course, you have endless time on your hands. In any case the Fan Mountains are absolutely glorious, and you'll have a great time if you like to hike.

ZTDA... in Penjikent I tried to meet the coordinator in the office but he is just always out and so I couldn't arrange the multi-day trekking. Yet, two travel fellows could get in touch with the guy directly and got some good information.

We finally went to Seven Lakes. The transport, yeah, same as what LP suggested. We stayed in the small town Nofin. The homestay is Jumaboi. Wow, comfy and good food! We did trekking from the 4th lake to the 7th lake. On the way, locals are so eager to say salom with you or even invite you for tea at their home or watermelon...We were even be invited by a group of Tajik-bourgeoisie to ride on their car from the 6th to 7th lake. (yeah, quite steep and long way) and we'd a brief picnic at lakeside! we started our walk at 9 and back at homestay at around 5.
The lakes are like steps on a stairway. very interesting. with the sound of the river... a good trip.

on the third day, we travelled back to Penjikent. (there is public jeep at 4, 5 and 6am departing Seven Lakes but we called a shared taxi but locals could still join in. A jeep could ride 10 persons!!!!!) And we find another taxi to Iskander-ful. First, we went to Sarvoda. and then changed another one. We stayed in Sarytag which is 5km uphill from Iskander-kul. Oh, the village is so pictureque. with dramatic mountains and river as backdrop. We stayed for 2 night and then continue our journey to Khojand.

HI there! Just to add my bit to the experience of previous posters. Been there about 3w ago, stayed in Penjikent (Elina GH - very nice place, good food, run by friendly Russian woman, only RU spoken) and Padrud (Mijgon homestay, basic but well kept, run by a friendly family). ZTDA: as previous poster said, Umed appears to be almost always out of office but his mobile phone nr is posted on the office door (saw him couple of times at Elina's though); I've thought that I have arranged our stay in Padrud with Umed over the email, since Umed wasn't in the office during office hours I simply explained the issue to Elina who promptly called the homestay in Padrud and everything was settled in 5min. Transport up to the seven lakes area is a bit of an issue (unless you can afford a private taxi). Several shared jeeps appear to be leaving to/from seven lakes every day - going down very early in the morning and returning in the early afternoon. That's the good part, the issue is that they are impossibly cramped - be ready for very close encounters with the locals (in our case altogether 11 people on the way up (+all the shoppings from the bazaar) and 15 on the way down (no joke :-)). The price is 30tjs up and 15tjs down (depending on the vehicle the ride takes about 2h).
Padrud village was a very pleasant place to stay, ideally located for the hike to the seventh lake (about 7-8hrs return if taking it easy, not possible to lose the way as there is only one road). Really beautiful scenery, friendly locals, once you get to the seventh lake you could probably also continue hiking into the mountains (we only tried to go half way around the lake - very good path - and returned to the homestay afterwards). Enjoy your travels, Bostjan