We are planning a trip to Uzbekistan in February for 17 nights without a car, traveling by public transport.
Here’s the plan: 7 days in Tashkent, 4 in Samarkand, 3 in Bukhara, and 3 in Khiva. We love “slow” city travel: not rushing, visiting not only museums and landmarks but also walking in city parks, exploring markets, and taking day trips to the suburbs, etc. And although many say there’s nothing to do in Tashkent, I’m sure we’ll find enough to do for a week. But I’m not so sure about the other cities.
Should we remove one night from each? If, as some say, everything in Bukhara or Khiva can be seen in half a day to a day, why should we bother the locals for three days? Moreover, as I understand it, nature there is relatively poor, with no large parks or bodies of water. Or am I mistaken, and if we look carefully, there’s always something interesting to find?
If you’re confident about Tashkent (though I also don’t see what there is to do for a whole week there), you can leave the days in the other cities as they are. From Samarkand, for example, you could take a day trip to Shahrisabz.
7 days in Tashkent, 4 in Samarkand, 3 in Bukhara, and 3 in Khiva – what exactly do you plan to see, what are your plans?
I liked Khiva the most, though it’s small. You can walk around the whole fortress in half an hour. But it’s charming (the food at the Terrace is delicious), soulful – I could spend a week there, but just to sleep, walk, and relax. Plus, they have a children's amusement park, so you could easily spend a lot of time there. From Khiva, you can go to Turkmenistan (visa required), 100 km away – the photos are amazing. My German neighbors went there, and there’s some fire phenomenon in the ground, like a volcanic crater with flames. I haven’t looked it up yet, so I’m not sure what it is.
Khiva has a good bazaar. But it’s not the kind of market to stroll and enjoy, it’s more like an industrial area where you buy and leave quickly. But the prices and selection are great. It’s an affordable city.
Bukhara could also take up to a week, with lots of music, cafes, and relaxation – the locals are wonderful. If we were to return somewhere, it would be there. However, in 1947, the entire city had no electricity, and all the food went bad. We had a strong food poisoning incident from the most delicious meat. The bakery was amazing and cheap, though, and we didn’t get sick from the cakes.
We didn’t visit Tashkent. As for Samarkand, we were disappointed. It’s a big city, and there’s no water! How can they shut off the water for 3-4 days, including weekends, for the entire district in 47°C heat? I don’t know. We were mentally and physically affected by that. We tried to use the bathroom in the only shopping mall. The market is great, though. Lots of markets. But you don’t wander and window-shop; you just buy and move on. The most expensive thing there was currants. But the normal-priced items were nuts from the mountains. The markets in Bukhara, on the other hand, had even higher prices than our markets for nuts and dried apricots.
If you’re going to Tashkent, think about visiting the lakes. But believe it or not, during the off-season, prices for a 3-person room can go up to $200 – that’s expensive for locals.
You could easily skip Shahrisabz. I wouldn’t say it’s great, and the mountains weren’t impressive either. They’re not the kind of mountains worth seeing, even if you mix things up a bit. From Samarkand, I would suggest going to Kazakhstan by train, but I haven’t been there myself. Instead of Tashkent.
I can say about Samarkand that two days will be enough. I took a guide, and I had a fairly busy sightseeing tour that lasted about 5 or 6 hours. You could, and probably should, stay for the evening and the next day, but it’s really just two days.
As for the suggestion to go to Shahrisabz – that’s a good one. After hearing about it from the guide, I was tempted to go, but I was limited by time.
From Tashkent, you could take a trip to Charvak.
Shakhrisabz, I tell you, really isn’t worth the trip. The mountains are small, the road is long, and there are only two ancient walls. There’s nothing to see along the way.
In my opinion, there’s really nothing to do in Tashkent. You’ll cover the parks and the area around the Presidential Palace in a day, but then what? Walk around residential neighborhoods? Most of the old city was destroyed in the 60s earthquake, so you’ll mostly be seeing Soviet-style streets with typical buildings. But Bukhara, Samarkand, and Khiva – now those are full of history, much more interesting. It’s better to reduce your time in Tashkent to a couple of days and add either Kokand or the mountains (for example, Zaamin – I ended my Uzbekistan trip there).
Hello everyone!
We’re planning to visit Uzbekistan in early October. We’ll arrive in Samarkand and depart from Urgench. We have a full 7 days for sightseeing. We want to visit Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva.
Could you advise how to best distribute our time?
So far, we’re planning 2 days in Samarkand, 2 days in Bukhara, and 3 days in Khiva.
Should we redistribute the days? Or add something else?
3 days in Khiva.
The whole old town of Khiva can be slowly walked through in half a day, there’s nothing else for a typical tourist to do. So, limit your visit to just one day in Khiva and add Tashkent to your itinerary. Two days there would be just right.
Bukhara is more interesting than the other cities, so you could add an extra day there.
@megalaktik In Khiva, you definitely need to go inside the buildings, at least the Mahmud mausoleum.
I agree. In Khiva, it’s important to take the time to explore the sites and have a clear idea of what you want to see. For instance, the Friday Mosque could easily be missed from the outside – it looks like just a barn, but inside it’s an incredibly unique place.
Otherwise, of course, you can rush through the old town in two hours and think there’s nothing special there, then leave for Tashkent.
We’re all different, and you’ll get all possible suggestions, so in the end, it’s up to you to choose 🙂
Personally, I’d add an extra day in Samarkand. I didn’t have enough time there – I had 2.5 days/3 nights. It’s a big city, and the distances are greater than in Bukhara. You’ll want to see everything, both in the daytime and in the evening light, plus spend time in the restaurants…
As for Khiva, I’ll plan to spend two days there for my next trip.
I visited Bukhara and Samarkand in September. I had planned two days for each city, having read that you can wander for hours through the local streets. It turned out that Bukhara is quite compact. In fact, you can explore everything in half a day, probably. But one day is definitely enough. You can stroll during the day, then enjoy the evening illumination.
Samarkand is indeed larger, but the sights are not scattered too much, and if you don’t waste time, don’t get too comfortable in restaurants, and don’t visit every single museum, one day is sufficient. That’s even if you are walking around. I stayed right in the center in both cases, and though I had a bicycle, I didn’t use it for sightseeing, as everything was close by.
By the way, in Bukhara, there are so many madrassas that after a while they all start to look the same, even if they are beautiful. But I honestly tried to visit as many landmarks as I could in both cities. As for the residential streets in the old quarters — those are for connoisseurs. They all look alike and, in general, aren’t very interesting. There’s no particular charm to them, and I personally lost interest very quickly. This is despite the fact that in many cities, it's the old, shabby neighborhoods that captivate me the most. But not in Uzbekistan.
Good afternoon, what do you think of the day-by-day itinerary:
