I’m planning to visit Uzbekistan in spring — from 30.04 to 24.05. Departure from St. Petersburg. Approximate route: St. Petersburg – Urgench – Khiva (from Khiva an excursion to the Aral Sea for several days) – Bukhara – Samarkand – Tashkent – Fergana – Tashkent – St. Petersburg. A few questions right away:
Khiva — 2–3 days
Bukhara — 3–4 days
Samarkand — 3 days
Tashkent — 1 day and +1 for shopping
Everything is interesting, as for Fergana I’m not sure, maybe Kokand? At the Aral Sea there are only 2 hotels where you can stay overnight: a yurt camp and Aral Plaza by the shore. The round-trip transfer from Nukus costs about $400, the road is interesting, I really liked it. There aren’t that many companies there in reality, a lot of intermediaries.
Khiva — 2 days, Nukus and the Aral Sea — 2–3 days including the desert fortresses and the Aral Sea itself, in Nukus there is the Savitsky Museum, Bukhara — 2–3 days, Samarkand — a couple of days, Tashkent — 2 days, go to the mountains outside Tashkent, there are resorts near Chimgan and Charvak (Yusupkhona and Burchmulla), go to the Fergana Valley.
If you’re going only for a week, then 3 days in Tashkent, 2 days in Samarkand, 1 day in Bukhara. It’s more convenient to fly into one city and depart from another.
Tashkent is beautiful, but it’s similar to many other big cities.
Bukhara is distinctive and grand, I would stay there longer than one day. Well, if you want to see everything at a relaxed pace, and not rush at a gallop from the Kalyan Minaret to the Shukhov Tower)))
Two days in each city is enough, and in Khiva one day is sufficient. Between cities you can take the Afrosiyob train on the Tashkent–Samarkand–Bukhara route, and to Khiva there is a regular train or taxi. Hotels cost from $45–50 for 3* hotels, Afrosiyob train $25–30, entrance tickets in Samarkand and Bukhara are $25–30 for all sites, in Khiva $25, lunches in national eateries $15, dinners in restaurants from $18–20 and higher depending on whether you’ll have alcohol, roughly like that. In Tashkent you can go to the mountains to see the Charvak reservoir.