A guy from the hotel where we stayed hooked us up with a driver. Locals often know someone who does these trips, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding someone.

We used the same car that brought us from Khujand to Penjikent. The standard fare to Dushanbe is $10 somoni per person. For a six-seater Zafira, it’s $50 for the whole car. With a stop at Iskanderkul for three hours, we negotiated a price of $70 (it’s about 25 km of rough road off the main highway to reach Iskanderkul). Later, the driver who took us to the lakes offered the same trip for $60 in a RAV4. However, we stuck with the first driver out of fairness.

If I had to choose, I’d go for Iskanderkul. It’s a more relaxed option overall—cheaper, easier to get to, and less tiring. Plus, it offers more variety: aside from the lake, there’s a decent waterfall, the Five Springs, and Snake Lake. The only downside is that it’s more crowded and developed compared to the Marguzor Lakes.