Central Asia in 14 days: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Thirteen nights from Tashkent to Bishkek

The route combines an Uzbek rail loop with a one-way journey through Kazakhstan to Kyrgyzstan: fly into Tashkent and home from Bishkek's Manas airport on an open-jaw ticket. Book Tashkent for night 1, Samarkand for nights 2–3, Bukhara for nights 4–5 and Tashkent again for night 6. Night 7 is on the Talgo sleeper from Tashkent to Almaty, and it counts as one of the 13 nights. Then come Almaty for nights 8–9, Bishkek for night 10, Cholpon-Ata on Lake Issyk-Kul for nights 11–12 and Bishkek for night 13, with the flight home on day 14. That is twelve hotel nights in six hotels and one train berth.

One hotel per stop keeps the bags light. MIRZO Boutique Hotel, 4 Zarqaynar Street in Tashkent's Shaykhantakhur district, lists a twin room at USD 95; book it for night 1 and night 6. Bibikhanum Hotel on Tashkent Street in Samarkand stands beside the Bibi-Khanym mosque and Siab Bazaar and lists a double at USD 95, and Komil Boutique Hotel, a 19th-century house at 40 Barakiyon Street in Bukhara, lists a standard double at USD 80 from 15 March to 15 November with breakfast and official registration. In Almaty, Hotel Uyut at Gogol Street 127/1, at the corner of Seifullin Avenue, lists a standard double at KZT 51,000 a night. In Bishkek, Ambassador, Orozbekova Street 32, two blocks from Ala-Too Square, lists a standard double from KGS 8,984 with breakfast. In Cholpon-Ata, ArchaMax, an apart-hotel at Kurortnaya Street 5a about 800 metres from the town beach, had rooms from about KGS 3,400 a night on Ostrovok, a booking site, on 27 October 2026; July and August cost more.

Book the trains first, because they fix the dates. Uzbek domestic tickets go on sale 60 days ahead at eticket.railway.uz. The Talgo from Tashkent to Almaty goes on sale 45 days ahead on bilet.railways.kz, the Kazakh railway's site, and it is popular. The rooms, the Almaty–Bishkek bus seats and the two cars to and from Issyk-Kul come next; the flight home closes the list.

Three visa-free stays, three sets of rules

UK and EU passport holders need no visa for any of the three countries, and each stay on this route is far shorter than its limit. Uzbekistan allows 30 days without a visa for UK and Irish passports and a long list of other countries, and your hotel must register you within three days of arrival, weekends counted; keep every registration slip, because officials can ask for a record of where you stayed when you leave. Kazakhstan allows 30 days per entry and no more than 90 days in any 180; apply for QazETA, Kazakhstan’s free electronic travel authorisation, at qazeta.kz at least 72 hours before you travel. It reaches Almaty and Astana airports on 1 January 2027 and every other crossing, the Talgo’s included, on 1 March 2027, is voluntary until 30 June 2027 and is mandatory from 1 July 2027. The hotel registers your arrival within three working days. Kyrgyzstan allows 30 days without a visa and needs no registration for a stay of that length. Our Uzbekistan entry guide and Kazakhstan entry guide give the details by nationality.

A passport valid for six months beyond your return meets the rules of all three, and the Kyrgyzstan entry guide covers the Korday crossing. On entering Kazakhstan from Uzbekistan, declare cash worth more than USD 10,000, while Kyrgyzstan’s threshold starts at USD 10,000; Uzbekistan wants a written declaration above the equivalent of UZS 100 million (about USD 8,300 at the bank rate below). Carry your original passport at all times in all three countries.

Each country has its own currency and its own SIM card. Uzbekistan uses the som (UZS): cards are not widely accepted outside Tashkent and the main cities, so draw cash in Tashkent before the Silk Road leg, and change money only at official booths. In Almaty and Bishkek cards and cash machines are easy to find. Beeline's Hello 1 plan in Uzbekistan costs UZS 60,000 a month, and O! in Kyrgyzstan sells foreigners an eSIM against a passport; a Kazakh SIM for two nights is optional, and the budget allows about KZT 5,000 each. Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan keep the same time; Bishkek's clocks are one hour ahead.

The route needs no detour for safety: it crosses borders only at official crossings, by train and by road, and Medeu and Shymbulak stay open to tourists without a border-zone permit. Germany advises against driving between towns in Kyrgyzstan after dark, so both lake drives are booked for daylight. Other governments may draw the line differently, so read your own government’s advice.

Days 1–3: Tashkent, then the Afrosiyob to Samarkand

Day 1 — arrive in Tashkent: Take a taxi or MIRZO's airport car to the hotel; Uzbekistan Travel names the Yandex Taxi and MyTaxi apps for Tashkent. The hotel registers you at check-in. If you land in the morning, walk the old city around Khast Imam and Chorsu Bazaar. Have plov at Beshqozon or lagman at Caravan, and go to bed early. Sleep in Tashkent: night 1. Our Tashkent guide describes Khast Imam, the bazaar and the rest of the city.

Day 2 — Afrosiyob 766 and the Registan: Afrosiyob train 766 leaves Tashkent at 07:21 and reaches Samarkand at 09:51 (2 h 30); since 1 February 2026 economy has cost UZS 311,000. Leave your bags at Bibikhanum and go to the Registan, where three madrasas, Ulugbek's, Sherdor and Tilla-Kari, face one another across the square. It opens daily from 07:00 to 24:00 between 20 February and 20 November and from 08:00 to 20:00 in winter, and the foreign-visitor ticket is UZS 100,000. In the afternoon visit Gur-e-Amir, the mausoleum of Timur, his teacher Mir Sayyid Barak and members of his family. Sleep in Samarkand: night 2.

Day 3 — Bibi-Khanym, Siab Bazaar and Shah-i-Zinda: Walk from the hotel to Bibi-Khanym, built in 1399–1404 as the largest mosque in Central Asia, with a courtyard of 5,000 square metres. Siab Bazaar beside it sells dried fruit, nuts, halva and Samarkand's round bread. Give the rest of the morning to Shah-i-Zinda, a necropolis of tiled mausoleums from the 11th century to the early 20th and a place of pilgrimage, so dress as for a mosque. In the afternoon take a taxi to the Afrasiab museum and Ulugh Beg's observatory on the edge of town. Sleep in Samarkand: night 3. The Samarkand guide has the sights in more detail.

Days 4–7: Bukhara, back to Tashkent and the Talgo north

Day 4 — Sharq 710 to Bukhara: Sharq 710, a conventional train, leaves Samarkand at 11:55 and reaches Bukhara-1 at 14:10 (2 h 15) on the operator's timetable effective 9 September 2025. The linked operator timetable gives no fare for this leg, so the budget allows an estimated UZS 200,000 a person. Bukhara-1 is in Kagan, about 12 km from Lyabi-Hauz in a straight line, so take a taxi to the old city. Walk the Lyabi-Hauz pool square and the trading domes, then the carpet museum in the Magoki Attori mosque (UZS 20,000 for foreign visitors). Sleep in Bukhara: night 4.

Day 5 — the Ark and Poi-Kalon: Start at the Ark, the citadel destroyed and rebuilt many times over a thousand years, now the regional history museum (UZS 60,000), and the Zindan, the emir's prison (UZS 20,000), on the museum reserve's list effective from 1 January 2025. Walk on to Poi-Kalon, where the Kalon minaret rises between the Kalon mosque and the Mir-i-Arab madrasa, then to the brick Samani mausoleum and Chashma Ayub, now a museum of Bukhara's water supply. Eat osh-sofi, Bukhara's plov, by Lyabi-Hauz. Sleep in Bukhara: night 5. Our Bukhara guide has the walking order.

Day 6 — Afrosiyob 769 back to Tashkent: Spend the morning in the Ulugbek and Abdulaziz Khan madrasa museums (calligraphy and woodcarving, UZS 20,000 each), then take a taxi to Kagan for Afrosiyob 769, which leaves Bukhara-1 at 14:58 and reaches Tashkent at 19:17 (4 h 19); the published economy tariff from Tashkent to Bukhara is UZS 509,000 from 1 February 2026. The budget uses that amount as an estimate for this reverse leg, whose fare is not stated in the linked tariff notice. Sleep at MIRZO again: night 6.

Day 7 — the metro, a museum and the Talgo: Use the morning for the Tashkent metro, open daily from 06:00 to 00:00, and the State Museum of History, open Monday to Saturday 10:00–17:00 for UZS 100,000 (on a Sunday, see Khast Imam instead if you missed it on day 1). Buy food and water for the train, check out and take a taxi to the Tashkent station printed on your ticket. Talgo No. 1/2 leaves Tashkent at 14:41 and reaches Almaty-2 at 08:51 the next morning, and runs every day; the women-only carriage marked ЖН in the booking system is an option for women travelling alone. On bilet.railways.kz, read on 1 November 2026 for departures on 20 November and 5 December 2026, a compartment berth from Tashkent cost from about KZT 18,000 to 20,200, a seat about KZT 8,700 to 9,700 and Lux about KZT 26,400; the site shows the fare for your date. Keep your passport and the Uzbek registration slips at hand for the border. Sleep on the train: night 7.

Days 8–10: Almaty, Shymbulak and the bus to Bishkek

Day 8 — Almaty's centre and Kok-Tobe: Take a taxi from Almaty-2 to Hotel Uyut and leave your bags. Walk to Panfilov Park, open round the clock, where Zenkov Cathedral, a yellow wooden church 54 metres high built in 1904–1907 almost without metal nails, survived the 1911 earthquake. Go north to the Green Bazaar, Zhibek Zholy Street 53 (09:00–19:00), for dried fruit, spices, kazy horse sausage and kurt, then west along the pedestrian Arbat. Keep the evening for Kok-Tobe: the cable car from Dostyk Avenue 104B covers 1,620 metres in six minutes to the hill above the city, for KZT 6,000 one way or KZT 10,000 return; it opens at 10:00 except on Tuesdays (13:00) and closes at 22:00, or 23:00 on Fridays, Saturdays and public holidays. Sleep in Almaty: night 8.

Day 9 — Medeu and the gondola to Shymbulak: City bus No. 12 or a taxi runs up the valley to Medeu, the high-mountain rink, closed for a reconstruction that the city plans to complete in the fourth quarter of 2027. From there the gondola climbs to Shymbulak, the ski resort, a base for summer walks with the Ile-Alatau peaks all round. The resort’s walkers' tariff, read on 1 November 2026, is KZT 7,000 one way and KZT 12,000 return for adults aged 15 and over. Its Medeu–Shymbulak, Combi-1 and Combi-2 lifts closed from 19 October to 1 November 2026 and are due to reopen on 2 November. Carry warm layers, because snow can fall at altitude even in summer. If the lifts are closed, a guided walk to Big Almaty Lake is the alternative, a full day with about 7 km each way on foot from the barrier, since the road is closed to private cars, at about USD 120 a person for two with pick-up; the Almaty day-trips guide covers it. Sleep in Almaty: night 9. Our Almaty guide has more of the city.

Day 10 — Almaty to Bishkek by bus: Take a taxi to Sayran bus station, Tole Bi Street 294. GoBus sells seats on Nurdan-Tur buses from Sayran to Bishkek at KGS 679 and on 1 November 2026 listed departures for 5 November at 08:00, 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 18:00 Almaty time; the operator schedules 175 minutes (2 hours 55 minutes), with border delays possible. Weproject’s March 2026 report estimates about 240 km by road and about five hours by bus through Korday. Take the 08:00 to have the afternoon in Bishkek, where clocks are an hour ahead of Almaty. The Kazakhstan transport guide covers the other ways across. Check in at Ambassador and walk to Ala-Too Square, with its equestrian statue of Manas, and the National Historical Museum behind it (24.kg’s February 2025 reports listed 09:00–18:00, closed on Mondays, KGS 200), then along Erkindik Boulevard under its double avenue of trees. Sleep in Bishkek: night 10.

Days 11–14: Burana, Cholpon-Ata and home from Manas

Day 11 — Burana Tower and the road to the lake: Book a car and driver to Cholpon-Ata, on the north shore, with a Bishkek operator: Trip to Kyrgyzstan, a Bishkek travel agency, lists KGS 12,000 per SUV with driver for the direct Bishkek–Cholpon-Ata transfer, read on 1 November 2026. The Burana stop adds about KGS 1,600 to the car, an estimate: about 29 km more driving at the agency’s published KGS 28 a km for other routes, plus an hour’s waiting at its KGS 750 an hour. GoBus runs a day bus to the lake for most of the year (only night coaches out of season), but a car lets you stop at Burana on the way. Manas Airport Taxi lists 240 km and three and a half hours from the airport to Cholpon-Ata; the city departure and Burana stop change that route, so set off in the morning and arrive in daylight. Stop at Burana Tower, about 10 km south of Tokmok, a short detour from the main road: the brick minaret is the most visible remnant of Balasagun, one of the Chuy valley cities that held power in the region from the 9th to the 14th centuries, and the field around it is lined with balbals, carved stone figures with faces. Bring cash for the ticket; no official tariff is published, so the budget counts about KGS 220 a person, the higher of the two figures (KGS 150 and 220) that Asia Odyssey Travel, a tour operator, gives on its Burana page updated on 27 August 2026. Continue through the Boom Gorge to Balykchy and along the north shore. Sleep in Cholpon-Ata: night 11.

Day 12 — petroglyphs, Ruh Ordo and the beach: Spend the morning in the open-air petroglyph museum above the town, a field of glacial boulders carved with ibex, deer and hunting scenes dating back to the second millennium BC; the low sun of early morning picks out the lines. In the afternoon walk the Ruh Ordo cultural complex, named after the writer Chingiz Aitmatov, with its lakeside chapels of different faiths, and swim from the central beach if the water is warm enough; it is liveliest in July and August. Sleep in Cholpon-Ata: night 12. The Issyk-Kul and Karakol guide covers the rest of the lake. Neither site publishes an official tariff, so the budget counts about KGS 80 a person for the petroglyph museum and about KGS 500 for Ruh Ordo, the prices on Central Asia Guide’s Cholpon-Ata page, updated on 19 September 2025. For meals in town, cafés on 2GIS list average bills from about KGS 300 to 1,500 a person; Edem, on Sovetskaya Street, lists about KGS 1,100 and has an English menu.

Day 13 — back to Bishkek and Osh Bazaar: Drive back to Bishkek by day in a separately booked car. The model estimates about KGS 12,000 per SUV for this reverse transfer, based on Trip to Kyrgyzstan’s published outbound fare read on 1 November 2026; the operator does not list a Cholpon-Ata–Bishkek quote. In the afternoon go to Osh Bazaar, about 2 km west of Ala-Too Square, for dried apricots, walnuts, round loaves, felt and kalpak hats, and keep your phone in a closed pocket. If day 10 fell on a Monday, see the National Historical Museum now. Sleep in Bishkek: night 13; the Bishkek guide has more for the evening.

Day 14 — fly home from Manas: Manas International Airport (BSZ on Turkish Airlines’ booking pages) is about 25 km from the centre, 30 minutes by car on the airport taxi company's figure. Its official taxi charges a fixed KGS 800 from the airport to central Bishkek, and the budget allows the same back; book a car through the hotel or Yandex Go the evening before an early flight.

Other ways to run the fourteen days

Fly instead of the Talgo. A flight from Tashkent to Almaty is quicker, but night 7 then needs a hotel in one city or the other, and you add two airport transfers. The train turns the journey into a night's sleep and keeps day 8 whole.

Mountains instead of the lake. Keep Bishkek for nights 10 to 13 and spend day 11 in Ala-Archa National Park, the gorge south of the city: city bus No. 1 ran there from Old Square in Kabar’s 16 May 2025 report, and the Bishkek guide gives the fare and the gate fee. This trades the two long drives for four nights in one hotel.

Karakol instead of Cholpon-Ata. Karakol, at the eastern end of the lake, is about 400 km and six to seven hours from Bishkek by road, so it needs at least three nights to be worth the drive: replace nights 11–13 with Karakol and return to Bishkek on day 14, then transfer to Manas for an evening flight. Trip to Kyrgyzstan lists KGS 16,500 per SUV with driver for Bishkek–Karakol; a direct Karakol–airport transfer needs a separate quote.

Home from Almaty. If an Almaty return is cheaper, spend night 13 in Almaty instead of Bishkek: drive from Cholpon-Ata to Bishkek early on day 13 and take an afternoon bus back across Korday, a long day on the road, then fly from Almaty International Airport (ALA) on day 14.

What fourteen days cost

About EUR 1,350 (GBP 1,130) per person, EUR 2,700 (GBP 2,260) for two, all in for 14 days and 13 nights at mid-range, before flights. This prices the published rooms with Uzbek VAT and tourist tax, the Talgo berths, every meal (priced Bishkek meals, the Uzbek and Kazakh meal allowances and Cholpon-Ata meals at local cafés’ listed bills), four trains, the bus to Bishkek, the cars to and from Issyk-Kul with the Burana stop, taxis, every sight on the route, SIMs and a 10% buffer for snacks and tips. Burana, petroglyph and Ruh Ordo admission and the Burana stop have no official price, so they are counted as estimates, each with its basis below.

The model is two adults sharing a double or twin room at the hotels above, on ordinary spring or autumn dates from 15 March to 15 November outside public holidays. The Uzbek room tariffs were re-read on 1 November 2026; other prices retain the dates below. For the dollar room rates and the Uzbek total, we use the central-bank reference rates displayed by Ipoteka Bank for 30 October 2026, read on 1 November: USD 1 = UZS 12,066.22, EUR 1 = UZS 13,444.18 and GBP 1 = UZS 16,075.82. Kazakhstan uses the National Bank rate of 27 October 2026 (EUR 1 = KZT 504.95, GBP 1 = KZT 603.05); Kyrgyzstan uses the National Bank rate of 28 October 2026 (EUR 1 = KGS 97.5408, GBP 1 = KGS 116.9756). Rounded subtotals can differ slightly from the total.

Uzbekistan: rooms use the actual hotels’ published tariffs, read on 1 November 2026: USD 95 per twin room per night at MIRZO, USD 95 per double at Bibikhanum and USD 80 per Standard double at Komil from 15 March to 15 November, with breakfast and registration at Komil. Two nights at each cost USD 540, about UZS 6,516,000 at the stated rate. None of the three pages says whether tax is included, so the budget adds 12% VAT, the standard rate in Uzbekistan’s Tax Code, and the tourist tax, which the Cabinet of Ministers sets by hotel size at 5%, 10% or 15% of the base calculation amount (UZS 440,000 since 1 September 2026) per guest per night: UZS 44,000 at Bibikhanum, which has 18 rooms, and the top rate of UZS 66,000 at MIRZO and Komil, which publish no room count. Rooms with taxes come to about UZS 8,000,000 for two. The food allowance is an estimated UZS 225,000 per person a day for seven days, less the two Komil breakfasts. Getting around is the three trains at about UZS 1,020,000 a person (311,000 to Samarkand, about 200,000 to Bukhara and an estimated 509,000 back to Tashkent based on the published outward tariff) and about UZS 1,000,000 for the two of you for taxis to and from the airport, stations and sights. Sights are UZS 600,000 in Tashkent (the History Museum at UZS 100,000 each, the Applied Art Museum and the Khast Imam Quran estimated at UZS 100,000 each), UZS 970,000 in Samarkand (the Registan at 100,000 each and five more sights at the UZS 75,000–80,000 that Silk Road Tour, a tour operator, listed when read on 1 November 2026) and UZS 480,000 in Bukhara. SIMs are two Hello 1 plans.

Kazakhstan: two nights at Hotel Uyut (KZT 102,000) and two Talgo compartment berths at about KZT 40,000, the upper end of the KZT 18,000 to 20,200 a berth that bilet.railways.kz listed for November and December 2026 dates, rounded to KZT 1,000. Food prices two Navat lunches at KZT 6,072 and two Orta dinners at an estimated KZT 7,500 per person, plus a KZT 2,500 breakfast allowance on arrival day 8. Breakfast on days 9 and 10 is included at Hotel Uyut. The Navat lunch is a two-person menu basket with the mandatory 10% service charge; Orta’s dinner allowance is its average bill reported by Digital Business on 22 September 2025. Both the menu and Uyut inclusion were read on 1 November 2026. Getting around is the taxis from the station, to Kok-Tobe and to Sairan, and bus No. 12 to Medeu. Sights are the Kok-Tobe return at KZT 10,000 and the Shymbulak return at KZT 12,000 each. Two local SIMs are about KZT 5,000 each, an estimate from operators' monthly tariffs of KZT 2,690 to 7,999 in January 2026.

Kyrgyzstan: two nights at Ambassador (KGS 17,968 with breakfast) and two at ArchaMax (about KGS 6,800). Food covers the lunches and dinners in Bishkek on days 10 and 13 and the six lakeside and transfer-day meals each. A KGS 1,490 daily basket per person uses Navat’s posted online prices before the advertised 10% delivery discount: a 500 g guyru lagman (KGS 520) and flatbread (85) for lunch, then a 500 g home-style lagman (520), 200 g boorsok (135) and maksym (230) for dinner. City delivery is free for orders above KGS 500; the two-person lunch and dinner orders exceed that minimum. Two days for two cost KGS 5,960. ArchaMax’s room listing does not state meal inclusion, so lunch and dinner on days 11 and 12 and breakfast on days 12 and 13 are counted at the average bills that Cholpon-Ata cafés list on 2GIS, read on 8 November 2026: about KGS 1,050 a person for lunch or dinner, between Edem (KGS 1,100) and Markhaba (KGS 1,000), and about KGS 300 for breakfast at Golden Street, which serves breakfast. That is KGS 4,800 a person, KGS 9,600 for two. Getting around is the Almaty–Bishkek bus at KGS 679 a seat, KGS 12,000 for the direct outbound SUV with driver plus about KGS 1,600 for the Burana stop (about 29 km more driving on OpenStreetMap routing at the agency’s KGS 28 a km for other routes, and an hour’s waiting at its KGS 750 an hour), an estimated KGS 12,000 for a separately booked reverse transfer, based on Trip to Kyrgyzstan’s outbound fare read on 1 November 2026, KGS 800 to the airport and about KGS 1,000 of city taxis. Sights are KGS 1,000 each: the National Historical Museum at KGS 200 and three estimates for sites without an official tariff, Burana at about KGS 220 (the higher of Asia Odyssey Travel’s two figures, KGS 150 and 220, on its page updated on 27 August 2026), the petroglyph museum at about KGS 80 and Ruh Ordo at about KGS 500 (Central Asia Guide’s Cholpon-Ata page, updated on 19 September 2025). SIMs are two O! eSIMs estimated from Economist.kg’s 15 July 2026 report of a promotional offer of about KGS 330 for four weeks of data. Ambassador’s room includes breakfast on days 11 and 14.

Flights: about GBP 600–1,200 per person for London–Tashkent out and Bishkek–London back in economy, an estimate from the return fares Turkish Airlines showed on its own route pages, GBP 549–1,001 between London and Tashkent and from EUR 833 between Bishkek and London for November 2026 departures, read on 1 November 2026; these are round-trip fare examples used as a planning basis, not a quoted open-jaw fare, and vary with dates and availability. With them, the mid-range trip comes to about GBP 1,730–2,330 per person, or GBP 3,460–4,660 for two.