Getting In During Covid

Myself and 4 friends flew from Istanbul direct to Tashkent (British and Maltese passports, no visa required for either). PCR Test within 72 hours required and checked in Istanbul, vaccinated or not. On the plane they gave us 2 forms to fill out (pictures attached), one for the PCR test information and one telling us to quarantine for 14 days at wherever we are staying in Uzbekistan. This worried us slightly, but upon arrival into Tashkent the border staff never checked anything but our passports, asked if we were here for tourism, and told us to enjoy 🙂 the quarantine was never mentioned or enforced at all.

Day 1 & Days 8-9 / Tashkent

Taxis from the airport will try to be extortionate (relatively) asking for a minimum of 125,000 som (£9/$12) per car for the 5k journey to the city, which we paid the first time we arrived. A week later when arriving into the domestic terminal (much further away from the city centre than international) we knew typical taxi prices and got down to 40,000 som per car. The going price to international should be about 15,000 som, which you can probably get from the Yandex Go taxi app.

We stayed around the Oybek metro station both times which is a great area with nice restaurants/cafes and walkable to Amir Temur main square. We took the metro around the city which was cheap, easy and an attraction in itself, but brush up on your Cyrillic for the place names!

Overall not a huge amount to see in Tashkent considering the rest of the country. We stayed in Home Boutique Hotel near Oybek metro station which is highly recommended and cost about £20/$28 a night. When we returned that place was full, so we stayed in Manor Hotel costing £26/$36 a night, and the value for money here is incredible with an essentielly perfect location.

We then booked our train tickets to Samarkand online at e-ticket.railway.uz which is the official Uzbekistan Railway website. I only had issues when converting the page to English so good luck with Cyrillic again! We booked the night before our 08:30 train (taking less than 2 and a half hours) and a lot of the seats were booked so I’d suggest doing the same or earlier. Business class tickets with the new high-speed Afrosiyab were 137,000 som each (£9/$11).

Tashkent Main Recommendations:

• Amir Temur Square
• Take the Metro – Impressive Soviet style stations (1,400 Som per journey)
• Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin – Nice Russian Orthadox Cathedral
• Chorsu – Huge local bazaar
• Socials – Breakfasts to die for
• Irish Pub – Friendly, good beer
• Manor Hotel – Incredible luxury hotel with local decor, friendly English speaking staff
• Home Boutique Hotel – Very nice modern hotel with friendly English speaking staff in a great part of Tashkent

Day 2-3 / Samarkand

So the train station is about a 20 minute drive from the centre, and when walking out you’ll get swarmed by taxi offers which will also be overpriced (offering minimum 60,000 som per taxi).

Busses weren’t running to the centre that day due it being Election Day, you could also use the Yandex Go taxi app, but we didn’t use it. We were also told there that tourists weren’t allowed in standard yellow taxis, however we just walked about 5/10 minutes down the main road then flagged down 2 yellow taxis from the street, who charged 25,000 som per taxi. For the return journey we got our hostel to book the taxis for 20,000 som each.

Samarkand obviously has the spectacular Registan, which puts you right back into the times of the Silk Road. You should also see it at night as it has a light show (free view from the street).

Samarkand also has many other fascinating things to see such as mausoleums, museums, necropolises, mosques, the many nice parks and the observatory, so 2 days is definitely needed. We didn’t find the city had much of an atmosphere though, or that it had much traveller amenities (nice centeal cafes or restaurants which are slightly friendly and speak any English) perhaps it’s the time of year/covid apocalypse.

We booked the high-speed Afrosiyab again the night before departure, costing 99,000 som (£7/$9) for business class (seats were almost all gone). The best train was a 09:50 departure, getting us in Bukhara at about 11:15.

Samarkand Main Recommendations:

• Registan (day and night)
• Gur-e Amir (Amir Temur) Mausoleum
• Bibi Khanym Mosque
• Platan – Incredible local restaurant, best lamb/potato/olive oil dish I’ve ever had
• Bibikhanum Chaykhana – Another great local restaurant where we had excellent Pilav (main local dish)
• Ulughbek Observatory

Day 4 / Bukhara

Right outside the train station is a small bus terminal, with bus #378 going towards the centre. We ignored the taxis and hopped on, and our 2,000 som per person bus ride took us to within a nice 25 minute walk to the very centre along the nice straight road. You can change busses probably but walking is nice.

We all fell in love with Bukhara straight away, the buildings are all similar in local architecture and well-kept, there is a nice atmosphere with many central restaurants, cafes and shops. We found the people much friendlier too and more English speakers.

We managed to see the main sites in a day, but we wished we added another day here at least to take more time with it and enjoy the city more as it is beautiful and our favourite in Uzbekistan by far. The central plaza area surrounded by Madrasahs was such a perfect spot to chill.

We stayed at Safiya Boutique Hotel which was very nice, comfortable, friendly and mostly English speaking, costing about £27/$37 each for a night when you add tax and service charges.

Bukhara Main Recommendations:

• Ark of Bukhara
• Kalyan Mosque
• Ulugbek Cafe – family run cafe with panoramic roof-top views of Kalyan and other impressive Madrasas, it’s also a nice shop
• Lyabi Hauz restaurant and central square area
• Safiya Boutique Hotel – central and very nice hotel
• Bella Italia – non-traditional but very nice restaurant (we stopped on our way from the train station)

Day 5 / Khiva

We arranged a transfer from Bukhara to Khiva with Islambek Travel, where each car costs $49, so a total of $98 for us 5. We spoke with Murad who is the manager of Islambek via phone and WhatsApp and he was very informative and helpful!

We chose a transfer because there was only one train per day leaving Bukhara to Urgench/Khiva and it was a sleeper train which left at 04:40 which we didn’t fancy, although it is efficient if you’re tight on time. Our journey took almost 7 hours, and we had just enough time in Khiva to explore the city before sunset.

The main nice part of Khiva is the walled old town where most tourists stay, as did we. We stayed in Zukhro Boutique Hotel which was about £15/$20 each for the night, highly recommended. I’d still recommend another day here.

Khiva Main Recommendations:

• The whole city is an open air museum so just waking all the streets!
• Zukhro Boutique Hotel – great friendly hotel with English speaking staff who arranged ongoing tour
• Terressa Cafe – the main restaurant in the old city with amazing terrace views of Khiva and amazing traditional food and beer

Day 6 / Khorezm Fortresses, Muynak, Nukus (Tour Day)

We arranged a full day tour via our hotel in Khiva to visit 3 of the Khorezm fortresses, all the way up to the boat graveyard in Muynak, and then drop us off in Nukus. They arranged a comfortable minivan for all 5 of us for $200 for the day, which we thought was a fair price between us all. I have heard of single car tours costing around $90 for the day so it made sense.

The fortresses are great and very interesting, dating from around 2,500 years ago and still standing despite being made of mud/straw bricks. We also had them all to ourselves! Some of them ask for around 10,000 som per person to enter, but some not.

We briefly stopped for lunch in Nukus before heading up to Muynak. Muynak used to be a bustling port town at the edge of the Aral Sea, which was one of the biggest lakes in the world but has now mostly dried up.

The museum to the Aral Sea, featuring a boat graveyard, is located at the edge of Muynak and is rather surreal, and we made just in time for sunset. This was a stunning time to be there, as the sky turns all sorts of nice colours as a backdrop over the now arid Aral Sea, with the old rusted boats in the foreground.

A wedding party also arrived at the museum which was great fun, with everyone saying hello and getting pictures with us, it’s a shame we didn’t have time to join the after party! After leaving Khiva at 08:30 in the morning, we eventually got back to our hotel in Nukus at about 21:30, so a total tour time of 13 hours, totally worth it.

Day 7 / Nukus

An opinion from all 5 of us, even 1 day here is too much. Nukus is a desolate and isolated place and it totally feels like it too. The only thing noteworthy to do here is to visit the “State Museum of Art named after I.V.Savitsky” which is very good, but not a reason to spend a day in Nukus in our opinion, unless you really have the time.

Even if arriving late the night before as we did, I would still suggest leaving early the next day, the main reason to be here is to visit Muynak. Luckily there is an airport in Nukus, so after a full day here, we took the following morning 09:35 flight to Tashkent. We literally walked to the airport from our hotel and got through check-in and security in about 10 minutes, no drama.

Nukus Main Recommendations:

• State Museum of Art named after I.V.Savitsky – Only thing to do
• Cinnamon – A nice cafe opposite the museum serving good food
• Premier Lounge – A very nicely decorated restaurant
• Neo – A nice restaurant/bar and probably the only place that serves alcohol, but we had good food and drinks here for many hours
• Nukus International Airport – Leave when you can

Day 8-9 / Tashkent

Domestic arrival back into Tashkent was straight forward and we just enjoyed our nice end-of-trip hotel and Taras Shevchenko Street for the day. Next morning we got our hotel to arrange two taxis to the international terminal at the airport costing 15,000 som each.

Uzbekistan was an incredible place to see and I fully recommend, although winter definitely starts creeping in during October! The sun during the day was still very warm though. Our biggest regret was not spending more time in Bukhara and having a full day in Nukus.