On the trail of Marco Polo: route guide

Marco Polo left Venice in 1271 and returned around 1295, travelling the branches of the Silk Road east to the court of Kublai Khan at Xanadu (Shangdu). The route below follows the best-documented stops rather than one fixed road: there was never a single trail, and the branches shifted with politics and season.

Treat the line as a spine, not a track. You can join or leave it at any city with an airport, which is what most travellers do. The western half is straightforward by public transport; the eastern half needs more planning and, in places, a guide or a permit.

Leg 1, Venice to Istanbul, is the easiest. Trains and buses run the whole way via Trieste, Ljubljana, Belgrade and Sofia, and you can do it in a week without flying. It is the section to pick if you have two weeks and want a taste of the route.

Leg 2 crosses Turkey to the Iranian border and on to Tabriz. Buses are frequent and cheap on the Turkish side; the border crossing at Doğubayazıt is the usual entry to Iran. Check current visa and entry rules for Iran before you commit — they change (check).

Leg 3, Tabriz to Samarkand, is the classic Silk Road stretch: Tehran, Mashhad, then across Turkmenistan to Merv, Bukhara and Samarkand. Turkmenistan transit is the awkward part; many travellers fly over it rather than cross it (check).

Leg 4, Samarkand to Kashgar, goes through the Fergana Valley and over the Irkeshtam or Torugart pass. This is the section where a guide or a pre-arranged vehicle is often required, and where weather closes passes in winter (check).

Leg 5, Kashgar to Xanadu, is the longest. Turpan, Dunhuang and Xi'an are the stops worth slowing down for; Beijing is the practical end for most travellers, with Shangdu (Xanadu) a further overland trip into Inner Mongolia (check).

The route crosses temperate Europe, the Iranian plateau, Central Asian desert and northern China, so no single month suits all of it. April to June and September to October are the safest windows for the middle and eastern legs: passes are open and desert heat is manageable.

July and August are hot across Iran and Central Asia and busy in Europe. December to February closes the high passes between Kyrgyzstan and China and makes the eastern desert legs cold and windy. If you are doing only the Venice–Istanbul leg, spring and autumn are still the best choice.

Book along transport hubs rather than sights: the route rewards travellers who sleep near the bus station or rail line and move early. In Venice, Trieste, Istanbul, Tehran, Samarkand, Bukhara, Kashgar and Xi'an there is a full range from hostels to mid-range hotels, and prices are lowest outside the European summer.

In the smaller stops — Doğubayazıt, Merv, Osh, Turpan — choice is thin, so reserve a day ahead in high season. Guesthouses in Central Asia are often the easiest way to arrange the next leg's transport as well.

This is a multi-country overland route, so the paperwork matters more than the packing. Check visa rules for every country you cross, including transit states, and carry printed copies of bookings and onward tickets. Some sections require a registered guide or a permit; arrange these before you arrive, not at the border (check).

Travel insurance should cover the countries on your list, and some insurers exclude parts of the route. Carry a mix of cash and cards: cards work in Europe and Turkey, cash is more reliable in Iran and parts of Central Asia. A paper map or offline maps are worth having where signal drops.