An Uzbekistan Itinerary

As a French man told us in a Korean restaurant in Bukhara, after sharing with us shots of local vodka, Uzbekistan travel is trendy. Europeans are, believe it or not, flying in for weeklong trips, taking advantage of direct charter flight routings such as Paris to Urgench and Verona to Samarkand. Tourism is booming, countless monuments have been renovated and repainted (for better or for worse) and police checks are definitely down from what we experienced in 2003 (though petty bribery among the locals still seems to be in fashion). If you are curious about the heart of the Silk Road, the history of Tamerlane and the funny geopolitics of contemporary Central Asia, Uzbekistan is your top choice, and the best part is that this small, now reasonably well-touristed country is easy to experience in a relatively short amount of time–a great return on your vacation investment.

You can fly to Tashkent from Asia or North America through Urumqi, Beijing or Seoul, as well as through cities such as Bangkok and Delhi. (See the guest post of 6.10 for the route from Hong Kong to Uzbekistan.) From Europe, in addition to the various charter flights I have mentioned, and other scheduled flights including on the fairly reliable Uzbekistan Airways, BMI travels from London and Air France from Paris to Tashkent. Uzbekistan is horizontally long, and so the best plan is to, after arriving in Tashkent, take one domestic flight to Urgench and then head back overland to Tashkent, sightseeing on the way. You could do it in the other direction, but we feel strongly that the order below is the optimal one.

1 – Arrive in Tashkent
2 – Morning flight to Urgench; taxi to Khiva; Khiva sightseeing
3 – Khiva sightseeing; possible half-day trip to see the ancient castles of Khorezm
4 – Taxi to Bukhara (up to 6-7 hours through the Kyzylkum desert)
5 – Bukhara
6 – Bukhara
7 – Morning train to Samarkand (4 hours); Samarkand sightseeing
8 – Samarkand
9 – Samarkand (including a long visit to the Siob Bazaar)
10 – Train to Tashkent; evening or next day, fly out of Tashkent

If you have one more day, you should spend it in Bukhara, which is easily the highlight of the country, combining magnificent structures and a strollable old city, or on a day trip from Samarkand to Shakrisabz, Tamerlane’s hometown. If you have two extra days, do both.