Uzbekistan – quick travel guide

Conservative but friendly country of the historic Silk Road, with lots of desert and big picturesque mosques.

One of the 4 “Turkic” STANS…Kazahkstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. I’d say Uzbekistan is the best known tourist destinations. Due to its picturesque colorful mosques. Its conservative culture makes it not as big city fun as Kazahkstan (not much of nightlife or fancy things), not as small town charmy as Kyrgyzstan. And though it isn’t worth staying a long time but it’s very much worth seeing.

Each major city and town on the historic Silk Road can be seen within 2 days (3 if you want to spend time inside each site and museum). And since there’s 4 major towns…Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva. You can see all major sites within 8 to 12 days. And best of all, Uzbekistan is very cheap.

General tips for traveling in Uzbekistan:

• Visas – go to the Official Electronic Visa Portal of Uzbekistan.
• Trains:
  • Trains are largely considered the best way to get around Uzbekistan. Nice, comfortable, cheap, fast (much faster than car or bus). And great views of Uzbek landscapes and local people.
  • National train site
  • You must book your trains early or else they will sell out (or you only have slow trains and crappy times available). Maybe people say book 15-20 days ahead but I would honestly say even 2 months ahead. By 1.5 months ahead, many trains are sold out already.
  • They have fast trains (Afrosiyob) and slow trains (Sharq) and some others. The fast one was recently built and extended like 2011-2016. And runs nearly twice as fast and is much nicer and more comfortable than the old train. I’ve done both trains. The slow ones really aren’t so bad. Enough leg room (probably the thing I worry about most for some countries), just that it goes noticeably slower.
  • Trains are super cheap (especially for foreigners).
  • There is also an app you can use to find cancelled train tickets.
• Buses:
  • https://avtoticket.uz/ – site I use to purchase tickets
  • This is an alternate way to get around the country. Even cheaper than trains, but takes longer. And also a reasonable option if trains are sold out. You are more likely to find available buses last minute, and also at more convenient times.
• Private transfers/shuttles:
  • Most expensive way to get around but can be reasonable if you have multiple people to share the cost and prefer privacy, comfort, door-to-door service. Some of them may also include a little “tour” for you, doing popular stops at interesting places. Keep in mind that it’s still much cheaper than you’d expect. You could totally afford a 5-hour private taxi to another city no problem.
• Rideshare – Yandex (RU) & MyTaxi (UZ) are the 2 popular options. Generally, about $1 gets you anywhere in town.
• Scooters – escooters are a great way to get around town. I’ve Jet and some other brands as well.
• Weather – hottest months are ____, coldest months (rain/snow) are ____.
• Cost – things are very cheap here.
• Map apps – best ones are 2GIS. But since Americans can’t download that, you can just try GoogleMaps instead. I didn’t bother with the other options. Maps.Me charged money, so screw that.
• Friendly locals – locals seem to be especially friendly towards foreigners. It’s not uncommon at all for random people to stop you on the street and say “Hello, where are you from?” They love saying hello to foreigners. Ask you why you’re visiting. Maybe suggest places to go, things to eat. Then say “welcome to Uzbekistan!” I also had different groups of university students interview me for a school project. Feels like the whole country is part of a tourism customer service team, hahaha.
• Nightlife – generally, nightlife sucks in Uzbekistan. The culture is too conservative so nobody goes out. They try to marry young, like age 20. So the only people who go to clubs and create the club culture are the Russians. Nightlife is kind of synonymous with debauchery here, many clubs are also stripclubs. If you must party, Tashkent is your best bet for nice bars and well-behaved clientele. The clubs and bars in other cities felt very cheap…like a divebar with rowdy, belligerent Russians, and occasional foreigners. It’s not a vibe at all. An Uzbek friend of mine explained that all the people with modern-mentality have already left the country.
• Yandex Go – for food delivery.

Miscellaneous tips:

• Mobile Carrier:
  • Seems to me Ucell, UZ Mobile, Beeline work just fine. I’m sure the others would as well.
  • Maybe you might notice differences in coverage once you leave the main cities. You may also notice massive speed slowdowns in the evening hours.
  • Prices are pretty cheap. $12-14/month gets you 100-160GB. Some plans have stipulations where 65% of your plan allotment can only be used during off-peak hours (such as 12-7am). You can always top up anytime through their app or using a 3rd-party service like Rebtel.
  • I did notice that Ucell has better coverage when you’re in rural areas or on the train between towns, and also that you get more data at a cheaper price. But UZ Mobile allows hotspot (sharing your connection with other devices) while Ucell does not. So for me, UZ Mobile wins easily!
  • Although internet speeds tend to be fast enough in hostels and hotels, it’s common that your mobile phone might be the fastest in some places. So it’s important to have a mobile plan that allows hotspot sharing.
• Tap water – not drinkable in Uzbekistan. Get bottled water.
• Petrol smell – I don’t know why. But it seems Uzbekistan smells like petrol everywhere in the cities.

Safety tips:

• Uzbekistan is widely safe, known as one of the safest countries. If there’s any dangerous part of Uzbekistan that I heard, it’s the Chilonzor area (southwest part of Tashkent), where I heard people will try to rob you.

Foods to try:

• Plov – rice with meat, oil (grease). Very delicious! Probably the most common Uzbek food. Basically rice, some veggies, meat and meat fat. It takes a long time to make, like 2 to 4 hours. So most places will make a big batch and sell it only in the morning (until it runs out). A real plov restaurant will probably only serve it up until 2 or 3pm maximum. After that, they don’t make it anymore. If you eat any plov that’s made-to-order, it probably will be rushed and not as good as a dedicated plov place.
• Shashlik – basically meat on skewers that might be listed under “kebab” in the menu. It’s funny since the word “kebab” means different things in different places/countries. Anyway, shashlik is really REALLY good. You’ll be surprised when you find a great shashlik place. It’s cheap and better than so many other countries that claim to be experts at grilling meat.
• Samsa –
• Manti – it’s like a beef dumpling. Really good.
• laglak

Uzbek food is amazing and exotic! Try it all. Lots of meat and cooked VERY VERY WELL. Even better than many other cultures who claim to be experts at meat (like some south American countries).

Customs & Language:

• They speak Uzbek & Russian here.
• Vokzal – means train station. So for example “Tashkent Shimoly” station may show as “Shimoly Vokzal” on Google Maps.

Uzbekistan vs other ‘Stans:

• Kazahkstan is the most developed and feels like a big multicultural city. More developed. Much nicer and modern feeling. More tourists and foreigners here. And obviously, things more expensive. Culture seems quite modern. Girls dressed more westernized, showing more skin, not quite like what you’d see in Spain or Brazil…but trending a little towards that way. Wider range of outside tourists and foreigners visiting and living here.
• Kyrgyzstan is one step down. Less developed and cheaper. But many argue it’s also a super nice, super friendly vibe.
• Uzbekistan is the cheapest and least developed. Seems many foreigners and immigrant population are more Indian. The culture and music also feels more Indian. It’s a little sad to see that Indians by descent (whether living or visiting here) are sometimes racially-profiled and treated badly at clubs or restaurants. It’s common to hear complaints about Indian tourists not being let into clubs.

Uzbekistan cities (* = recommended, ** = must see):

• Tashkent – largely considered boring big city. Not much to see in terms of tourist value, or nature stuff. Nicest thing is probably the famous beautiful subway stations. Everything you might want in a big city, you can find much better and more fun in Almaty (Kazahkstan) or Bishkek (Kyrgystan). Basically…every nice thing you can see in Tashkent, you probably already seen better elsewhere (like in Turkey or Kazahkstan, or other Uzbek cities). 2 days is enough.
• Samarkand** – huge big colorful mosques in Registan Square. This is THE main cultural and tourist destination in Uzbekistan. The most famous iconic tourist things are here. I don’t think the vibe is better here than Bukhara and Khiva, but I feel first time tourists should absolutely go here to see the huge architectural sites.
• Bukhara* – seems like yet another place with beautiful mosques. Smaller city with a cuter, tighter old town area. Feels more charmy and authentic than Samarkand and actually has more history than Samarkand. The vibe here is even better than Samarkand IMO, which feels commercial and touristy in comparison. Some people might even say Samarkand is boring compared to Bukhara.
• Khiva* – and yet another beautiful little town on the Silk Road. Full of history and culture, feels like an open-air museum. Usually this one is skipped since it’s farther off in the distance than the previous 3. But many people like this one even more than Bukhara and also that it’s cheaper. So there you have it. Many people who’ve actually been to all 4 cities will say Khiva is their favorite (in terms of tourist stuff and staying long term).

Lucky for you, Samarkand has an airport. So if I were you (and/or you don’t have much time), I would fly directly into there and skip Tashkent. Just go from Samarkand to Bukhara and then to Khiva. You can knock out those 3 within a week.

Nearby countries:

• Kazahkstan – beautiful, comfy, modern, easy. Nice and convenient to visit. Easy access for many foreigners.
• Kyrgyzstan – same as Kazahkstan but less developed, also cheaper.
• Tajikistan –
• Afghanistan – despite the recent war and regime change, it’s quickly trying to change its image and promote one of being friendly to foreigners and tourists. Recent visitors have said it’s one of the most exotic places they’ve ever been. Everything (sites and people and culture) is so radically different from what they’ve seen before.
• Turkmenistan –
• Azerbaijan – I hear it’s nice

Unfiltered notes: