ای‌سیم ازبکستان

RegistanSamarkand

Three madrasas facing a single square in tiled blue and gold, built across two centuries. One of them carries tigers and human faces in its mosaic, which orthodox Islamic decoration would not normally allow.

half a day

Shah-i-ZindaSamarkand

A narrow lane of mausoleums climbing a hillside, each face entirely tiled, built for Timur's family and commanders. The most concentrated tilework in the country and best in early light.

2 hours

Gur-e-Amir and Bibi-KhanymSamarkand

Timur's own tomb under a fluted turquoise dome, and the enormous congregational mosque built for his wife that began collapsing almost as soon as it was finished. The Siyob bazaar sits beside the latter.

half a day

Bukhara old cityBukhara

A living old town rather than a monument park: the Kalyan minaret that Genghis Khan reportedly spared, the Ark fortress, the domed trading arcades and the Lyabi-Hauz pool with its chaikhanas.

two days

Itchan KalaKhiva

A walled inner city of mud-brick and tile that you enter through a gate and do not need to leave — madrasas, a squat unfinished minaret and city walls you can walk. It feels staged in daylight and much better at dawn or after dark.

two days

TashkentTashkent

The capital, largely rebuilt after the 1966 earthquake, with a metro whose stations were designed as public architecture and could not legally be photographed until 2018, the sprawling Chorsu bazaar under its blue dome, and the Khast Imam complex holding a Quran manuscript claimed as one of the world's oldest.

two days

ShakhrisabzShakhrisabz

Timur's birthplace, over the mountains from Samarkand, where the two surviving portal fragments of the Ak-Saray palace give a sense of a scale that no longer exists anywhere else.

a day

Nuratau mountains and AydarkulNurata

Village homestays in the foothills between Samarkand and Bukhara, walking between hamlets, and a yurt camp on the shore of a lake that only exists because a Soviet dam overflowed in the 1960s.

two days · رزرو از قبل

Fergana ValleyMargilan, Rishtan and Kokand

The fertile, conservative and densely populated east: silk woven into ikat patterns at Margilan, blue-glazed ceramics at Rishtan, and the Khan's palace at Kokand. Reached through the Kamchik pass.

two days

Nukus and MuynakKarakalpakstan

The Savitsky Museum in Nukus holds a large collection of banned Soviet avant-garde painting, hidden in the desert precisely because nobody was watching. North of it, Muynak's fishing boats sit rusting on sand where the Aral Sea used to be.

two days

Afrosiyob high-speed train

The fast service linking Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara, and the single best thing about travelling here. Seats are reserved and it sells out days in advance in season, so book as soon as your dates are fixed.

low

Sleeper train

Overnight services run from Tashkent to Urgench for Khiva, and on other long routes, in four-berth and two-berth compartments. Slower than flying but it saves a night's accommodation and crosses the desert while you sleep.

low

Shared taxi

Cars leaving when full from set stands at the edge of each city, covering every route the trains do not. Agree the price for your seat, or pay for all four if you want to leave immediately.

low

Tashkent metro

Cheap, frequent and worth riding for the stations themselves, which were built as showpieces. Paid by card or token at the barrier.

very low

Domestic flights

Uzbekistan Airways connects Tashkent with Nukus, Urgench and Termez in about an hour and a half, against a day or more by road.

moderate

تاکسی اینترنتی

Yandex Go, MyTaxi

Both work well in Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara and are very cheap. Outside them, informal taxis are the norm — raising a hand at the roadside will stop an ordinary driver, which is completely usual here but means agreeing a price through the window before you get in.

پرداخت در محل

• Improving fast in Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara, but far from universal. The domestic Uzcard and Humo systems are what most local terminals are built for, and a foreign Visa or Mastercard is not accepted everywhere they are.
• Limited. Do not plan on paying by phone outside the larger hotels and international chains.
• پول نقد هنوز لازم است برای: bazaars, shared taxis, most restaurants outside the tourist centres, guesthouses and homestays, entry tickets at smaller monuments

اطلاعات پایه

• شماره اضطراری: 112, or the direct lines 101 fire, 102 police, 103 ambulance; 1173 is the tourist police
• پریز: Type C, Type F · 220V
• آب لوله‌کشی: no — bottled water throughout, including the cities
• Around 10% where there is table service, but check the bill: restaurants in the tourist centres frequently add a service charge already. Nothing expected at bazaars or in shared taxis.