Rano Eco Village – Lovely Day Trip from Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Rano Eco Village is located about 40 km away from Tashkent in the Parkent district, making it ideal for a relaxing day trip from Uzbekistan’s capital. It’s a nice place for single adults, couples and families with kids. Basically, everyone who loves nature and believes in a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

A big advantage of this place is that you can either come for a day or stay overnight – it’s your choice. The village offers different packages which will suit different tastes.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is not a cheap place and more or less in line with Western prices. For a day trip with lunch and excursion to the eco-farm (no hotel room) we paid about $100 for a 3 person family. Given the focus on premium services and welfare of animals, the price levels are justified, in my view.

If you decide to stay overnight, be aware that the hotel is not very large and rooms are quite small. The idea is that you will be spending most of your time outside instead of staying in the room.

Prices vary throughout the year, so it’s always good to check ahead of your visit on the property’s website. You can either reserve ahead of time or go to the village directly (but then you risk not having a space for you if it’s a popular time, like in summer).

The property promotes healthy lifestyle and living in harmony with nature. Smoking is prohibited except for designated areas (to my big delight!). Air is fresh and cool even during summer months, due to a large number of tall trees. Eco Village looks absolutely delightful in the fall when you can admire hundreds of trees covered with bright leaves.

What can you do at Rano Eco Village?

There are plenty of things to do, regardless of season, so your day trip to the village will be a fun experience no matter what. You will likely have the most enjoyment during the warmer part of the year. This is when the pool is open and you can spend a lot of time outside. But you’ll find activities to do in winter too, as long as you dress warm. The advantages coming during the off-season are lower prices, less crowded facilities and various special offers (like celebration of New Year with a gala dinner).

Feeding the animals at the eco-farm

The farm has a large area designated to different animals, including deer, camels, horses, goats, rabbits and ostriches. The enclosures for all the animals are spacious and they have a beautiful view of the mountains to see every day. There are some signs with information about animals and even their names, which I found very thoughtful.

If you’d like to see these animals for yourself, you can check out our short video about the visit to the farm here.

There are buckets of apples and dry food available for purchase to feed the animals. The price is very low (5000 soums or $0.5 per bucket). As we understood, the staff first allow the visitors to feed the animals (morning and afternoon time). Soon after the feeding time for visitors finishes, the staff come with hay and other food.

Animals are all very interactive, so both kids and adults will have a great time feeding the residents of this farm.

Camels are super fun, although small kids might be a bit intimidated to feed them from their hands. A good idea is just to put the food into the tray in front of the camels. Goats are my definite favorite. They are a fun and motley crew, fit for a TV show.

Ostriches appear a bit obnoxious and strict, but they are really fun to watch. Definitely keep your fingers away from their sharp beaks. They mostly mind their own business and won’t be too concerned about chopping off your finger. Generally speaking, these are not the most intelligent animals. Ostriches’ brains are very small, the size of walnut, and even smaller than each of their eyes. On the other hand, other residents of the farm (horses, deer and goats) are some of the most intelligent animals you can find.

Please note that the excursion to see the animals is included in the price of the day at the Eco Village. You can also ride horses if you’d like (this is a paid activity and we have not tried yet).

Other activities

(1) Play different games. There is a small soccer field for playing ball with your kids, as well as a nice playground. There is also a ping pong table, chess and plenty of space if you’d like to play badminton. These activities will definitely keep you busy.

(2) Do lots of hiking. The property is quite large and has several hiking trails which you can take.

(3) Swim at the pool. During summer months, the pool is open. There are beach chairs available if you’d like to relax and get some sun.

(4) Have a nice meal. The restaurant cooks delicious and nutritious meals in line with a healthy living lifestyle. My daughter still cannot get over the amazing chuchvara soup which she tried at Eco Village. It’s an Uzbek soup which includes lots of vegetables, spices and dumplings.

(5) Relax, unwind and find your inner harmony while taking a yoga class or one of the spa procedures, including different types of massage, sauna, hammam and others.

The Final Word

There is a lot of focus on eco tourism these days. Every time I go to a facility where animals are kept, I always feel a bit anxious. Do the staff take good care of animals? Can they be harmed in any way? For simple visitors like us who come for a day, it’s impossible to know what’s hiding beneath the surface.

I realize that it’s always tricky to balance the desire to educate people (especially kids) about animals with the need to give the animals some space and comfortable living conditions. There are still traditional zoos, like the Tashkent Zoo or the Smithsonian National Zoo in DC, which I wrote about on my blog. But it’s good that we now have more examples of ethical and interactive zoos, like Nova Wild in Northern Virginia in the US which my daughter and I visit frequently.

I hope that Rano Village takes a good care of animals who live there and invests into their well-being.