Silk Road in 3 weeks: Almaty to Khiva through Osh and the Fergana Valley

Visa-free in all three countries, and for whom

Holders of ordinary UK passports and of most European passports need no visa for any of the three countries, and each stay on this route is well inside the limit. Kazakhstan allows UK and EU citizens 30 days per entry and no more than 90 days in any 180, and your hotel registers your arrival within three working days. Kazakhstan is also bringing in QazETA, an electronic travel authorisation that becomes mandatory on 1 July 2027. Our Kazakhstan entry guide has the details.

Kyrgyzstan allows 30 days without a visa to passports of the UK, all 27 EU countries, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, the United States, Canada and Australia. Uzbekistan allows 30 days without a visa, counted from the border crossing, to citizens of the UK, Ireland and most European countries, and also to the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In Uzbekistan each hotel registers you, and you must be registered within three days of arrival, weekends included; keep every registration slip, because officials can ask for a record of where you stayed when you leave. Other passports follow each country’s own list, set out in our Uzbekistan entry guide and the ministries’ pages.

A passport valid for six months beyond your return meets the rules of all three countries; carry the original at all times. Leave e-cigarettes and vapes at home: Kyrgyzstan bans bringing them in, and Uzbekistan has banned them since 1 April 2026, so that possessing even one can lead to criminal charges. The UK Foreign Office says that problems with medicines are more likely at Uzbek land borders, so carry prescriptions in their original packaging on day 9.

Each country has its own currency and its own SIM card. Kazakhstan uses the tenge (KZT), Kyrgyzstan the som (KGS) and Uzbekistan the sum (UZS). Cards and cash machines are easy to find in Almaty and Bishkek, but in Uzbekistan international cards are not widely accepted outside Tashkent and the main cities, and you enter Uzbekistan in the Fergana Valley, before Tashkent. Agree the price and the currency with the Fergana drivers when you book, and change money only at banks and official exchange booths. Kyrgyzstan’s clocks are one hour ahead of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan: put your watch forward at Korday and back at Dustlik.

Cross borders only at official crossings, which can close at short notice; the UK Foreign Office advises checking local media before you travel to see which border posts are open. France reports mines near Uzbekistan’s borders with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and advises keeping to towns, main roads and marked paths there: Kokand and Rishtan lie close to the Tajik border, so stay on the main roads with your driver. Charyn Canyon and Big Almaty Lake lie in Kazakhstan’s 25 km border strip, but France reports that the Kazakh authorities have said they and their access roads stay open to foreign tourists without a permit.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Days 1–4: Almaty, Charyn Canyon and Big Almaty Lake

Day 1. Land at Almaty International Airport. Bus No. 92 runs to the city from 06:00 to 23:00, and night bus No. 3 after that, for KZT 120 with an ONAY card, which is sold in international arrivals. Stay four nights at Hotel Uyut, Gogol Street 127/1 at Seifullin Avenue, where a standard double is KZT 51,000 a night with buffet breakfast.

Day 2. Walk the centre. In Panfilov Park stands the Ascension (Zenkov) Cathedral, built in 1904–1907, 54 m high and almost without metal nails, which survived the 1911 earthquake. The Green Bazaar at Zhibek Zholy Street 53 is open 09:00–19:00 and sells dried fruit, spices, meat and dairy. In the evening take the Kok-Tobe cable car from Dostyk Avenue 104B, 1,620 m in six minutes, for KZT 6,000 one way or KZT 10,000 return, to the hill above the city.

Day 3: Charyn Canyon. The Valley of Castles, a 3 km gorge of red rock, lies about 200 km east of Almaty, so most of the day goes on the road there and back. Group day trips such as Blast Tour’s leave Almaty in the morning and return in the evening, from about KZT 9,500 each with transport, a guide and the park’s fee; bring your own food. The guided trip below collects you in Almaty and includes lunch.

Day 4: Big Almaty Lake. Private cars must stop at a barrier, and from there it is a 7 km walk with about 600 m of climbing, two and a half to four hours up, to the lake above 2,500 m. Zabugorshiki’s guided walk costs USD 120 each for two, with pick-up and lunch; bring your passport. More options are in our day trips from Almaty.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Days 5–6: across the border to Bishkek

Day 5. Take a taxi to Sayran bus station, Tole Bi Street 294, for a Nurdan-Tur bus to Bishkek. Buses leave several times a day and a seat costs about KGS 680; take a morning one. The road is about 240 km and takes about five hours, including the Korday–Ak-Zhol border, where you leave the bus for passport control. Stay two nights at the Ambassador Hotel, Orozbekova Street 32, close to Ala-Too Square, where a standard double is from KGS 8,984 with breakfast. In the afternoon visit the National Historical Museum on Ala-Too Square, open until 18:00 (ticket office until 17:30) and closed on Mondays and on the last Friday of each month, for KGS 200.

Day 6: Ala-Archa. The Ala-Archa nature park lies in the mountains about 40 km from Bishkek. Entry is KGS 250 for adults, paid by card or QR code at the checkpoint, and Trip to Kyrgyzstan lists an SUV with driver from Bishkek to the park at KGS 4,000 per car. Petrol and diesel cars stop at the car park by the checkpoint, and the park’s free electric cars take you on into the valley. Walk up the valley in the morning and come back for Osh Bazaar in the afternoon: it is one of Bishkek’s biggest markets, with spices, flat bread, sweets, dried fruit and nuts, and the UK Foreign Office warns that pickpockets target tourists there. Our Bishkek guide has more.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Days 7–9: Osh and the walk into Uzbekistan

Day 7. Take Manas Airport Taxi to the airport, a fixed KGS 800 for about 25 km, and fly to Osh in under an hour. A one-way fare range of KGS 3,800–5,900 was agreed by the airlines on the route from 1 May 2026, but Economist.kg reported in October 2026 that the recommended ceiling had since been raised to KGS 6,600 and that Asman Airlines’ fares have run from KGS 4,100 to KGS 6,500 since 1 August; the budget counts KGS 5,000 each. Advantour charges USD 50 for a sedan from Osh airport to the city. Stay two nights at Level Hotel, Shota Rustaveli Street 12, at about USD 62 a night.

Day 8: Sulaiman-Too. The sacred mountain rises in the middle of Osh and, in UNESCO’s words, dominates the Fergana Valley. It is a World Heritage Site: its five peaks and slopes hold 17 places of worship still in use, 101 sites with rock carvings and two largely rebuilt 16th-century mosques, all linked by footpaths. Climb it in the cool of the morning. The Sulaiman-Too museum complex at the foot of the mountain, founded in 1949, has more than 33,000 objects; WE project lists it as open daily 09:00–18:00 for KGS 50. In the afternoon walk through Jayma bazaar, the busy heart of the city.

Day 9: into Uzbekistan. Dostyk, just outside Osh, is the biggest crossing between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and the easiest way through is to walk across from the Osh side and pick up transport at Dustlik on the Uzbek side. Advantour charges USD 50 for a sedan from Osh to the Dostyk post. Leave after breakfast: the border can be slow, and the Uzbek side is one hour behind. From Dustlik it is about an hour to Andijan and about two hours to Fergana. Book the car through a Fergana Valley Community Tourism Network (CTN) operator or a driver such as Dolina Avto, whose private driver for a day starts at USD 50, so that someone is waiting for you. Stay two nights at Fergana Hotel, 30B Maturidi Street, at about USD 67 a night with buffet breakfast.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Days 10–11: Margilan silk, Rishtan clay and the train over Kamchik

Day 10: Margilan. Hire a car with driver for the day; OrexCA lists a sedan for a full day, up to 70 km between 09:00 and 18:00, at USD 110. Margilan is 20 km from Fergana, about 30 minutes. Start at the Kumtepa bazaar outside the town, which opens on Sundays and Thursdays. Then visit the Yodgorlik silk factory, 138 Zahiriddin Street, open 08:00–17:00 every day. It opened in 1972, and Uzbekistan Travel describes it as the only factory where the whole silk cycle is still done by hand. A metre of atlas, the bright striped silk, takes about two and a half months and 22 separate steps. Our Fergana Valley guide covers the valley in more depth.

Day 11: Rishtan and Kokand. Check out after breakfast and drive west through Margilan. Rishtan, a pottery town known for its glazes, is 50 km and about an hour beyond Margilan; workshop visits must be booked ahead, so ask a CTN guide or your driver to arrange one. Kokand is a further 50 km, about an hour. Have devzira plov for lunch, then see the palace of Khudoyar Khan, built in 1871: of its 119 rooms, two courtyards and 19 rooms survive and hold the local museum. The Jami Mosque, built in 1819–1822, has 98 wooden columns and a 22.5 m minaret.

Your driver leaves you at Kokand station for train 729, which leaves at 16:48 and reaches Tashkent at 19:55. The line runs north to Pap and then through the Kamchik mountains: the electrified Angren–Pap line, opened in 2016, crosses the pass at about 2,200 m and uses a 19.2 km tunnel. Stay two nights at MIRZO Boutique Hotel, 4 Zarqaynar Street, Shaykhantakhur district, where a twin room is USD 95.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Days 12–15: Tashkent and Samarkand

Day 12: Tashkent. See the Khast Imam complex, whose library keeps the Quran of Osman, written on 353 parchment leaves. Walk on to Chorsu Bazaar for crafts and bread, and ride the metro, opened in 1977. The State Museum of History of Uzbekistan charges foreign visitors UZS 100,000; ask your hotel for its opening hours, which vary between listings. Taxi apps such as Yandex Taxi and MyTaxi work in Tashkent and Samarkand.

Day 13: Samarkand. Take a morning Afrosiyob fast train from Tashkent to Samarkand, about two and a half hours, for UZS 311,000 in economy. Stay three nights at Bibikhanum Hotel, 10 Tashkent Street, beside the Bibi-Khanym mosque and Siab Bazaar, where a double is USD 95. See the Registan, with its three madrasas, for UZS 100,000; it opens 07:00–24:00 from 20 February to 20 November and 08:00–20:00 in the rest of the year. Then walk to Gur-e-Amir, the tomb of Timur.

Day 14. Walk the Shah-i-Zinda, a pilgrimage street of tiled tombs built between the 11th and the early 20th centuries, then the Bibi-Khanym mosque, built in 1399–1404, and Siab Bazaar next to it. Day 15 is free for the sights you have not yet seen, or for a day trip to Shahrisabz, the birthplace of Timur; that trip is not in the budget below.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Days 16–21: Bukhara, Khiva, the desert fortresses and home from Urgench

Day 16: Bukhara. The Sharq train 710 has been timetabled to leave Samarkand at 11:55 and reach Bukhara-1 at 14:10 since September 2025. The station is in Kagan, about 12 km from the old town, so take a taxi. Stay two nights at Komil Boutique Hotel, 40 Barakiyon Street, where a standard double is USD 80 with breakfast and registration from 15 March to 15 November, and USD 70 in winter. Spend the evening around Lyabi-Hauz, the square built around a pool: the 16th-century Kukeldash madrasa, one of the largest in Bukhara with 160 rooms, faces the Nadir Divan-Begi madrasa and khanaka across the water. Nearby, the Tim Abdullah Khan trading dome, built in the 16th century, is closed on all sides but a west gate, so it stays cool in any weather; light reaches the stalls of carpets, crafts and musical instruments only through holes in the dome.

Day 17. Start at the Kalon minaret, the symbol of Bukhara, built in 1127 by the Karakhanid ruler Arslan Khan and 46.5 m high. Its architect, Bako, is named on a ledge near the top, and a legend says Genghis Khan spared it after bowing his head to it. It stands in the Poi-Kalon ensemble with the Kalon Mosque of the 15th–16th centuries and the 16th-century Mir-i-Arab madrasa. Then walk to the Ark, the oldest monument in the city: the citadel of Bukhara’s rulers, once home to Avicenna and Omar Khayyam, for UZS 60,000. The Zindan prison and the Ulugbek and Abdulaziz Khan madrasas are among the smaller museums of the Bukhara museum-reserve, each UZS 20,000.

Day 18: Khiva. Keep the morning for two smaller monuments. The Samanid mausoleum, built between 892 and 907, has walls up to 1.8 m thick, and the pattern of its brickwork seems to change with the light through the day. Chor Minor, built in 1807 as the gatehouse of a madrasa, takes its name, “four towers”, from the dome-topped towers with glazed tiles at its corners. Train 706 leaves Bukhara-1 at 15:45 every day except Monday and reaches Khiva at 20:25, with 415 economy seats, for UZS 270,800. OrexCA charges USD 20 for a sedan from Khiva station, 2 km from the old town. Stay three nights at Meros B&B, A. Boltaev Street 57, inside the walls of Itchan Kala, where a twin room with balcony is USD 60 with breakfast.

Day 19: Itchan Kala. The walled inner town is an open-air museum of madrasas, mosques and minarets. See the Kalta Minor, the tiled minaret left unfinished in 1855, the Kunya-Ark fortress, the Tosh Hovli palace with its 163 rooms, the Juma Mosque with its roof on 213 columns, and the 56.6 m Islam Khoja minaret, whose 175 steps you can climb. No ticket price is published, so the budget counts about UZS 250,000 each for a combined ticket. Our Khiva guide has more.

Day 20: the desert fortresses. In the Ellikkala district of Karakalpakstan, a drive from Khiva, the fortresses of ancient Khorezm stand in the desert. Toprak Kala, found by the archaeologist Sergei Tolstov in 1938, was the residence of the Khorezm kings in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD: a walled city of 120 hectares with ten quarters, whose palace may have stood 40 m high. Ayaz Kala, 20 km north-east of the village of Buston, means “fortress in the wind”: three fortresses stand on hills above the plain, the oldest from the 3rd–4th centuries BC, and the third is ringed by a powerful wall around the ruins of a palace. Book a private car with driver from Khiva for the day: the trip below collects you at your hotel, or OrexCA arranges cars to the Ellikkala sites and charges USD 110 for a one-way sedan there. Entry fees at the sites are not published, so carry some cash. Take water, a hat and sunscreen.

Day 21. Urgench airport is about 30 km from Khiva, a 40-minute drive; OrexCA charges USD 30 for a sedan, and its driver collects you three hours before an international flight. For a late flight there is also an evening airport train: train 7058 leaves Khiva at 21:00 and reaches the airport at 21:42, for UZS 25,000. Turkish Airlines flies between Istanbul and Urgench; with the Tuesday start, day 21 is a Monday, so book the trip only once you have a Monday flight from Urgench.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

Other ways to run the three weeks

For Lake Issyk-Kul instead of the south: this route leaves out the lake. If two nights on the shore matter more to you than Osh and the Fergana Valley, follow our Central Asia in 14 days plan, which runs from Tashkent to Bishkek by way of Cholpon-Ata.

For Turkestan instead of Kyrgyzstan and the Fergana Valley: Kazakhstan’s own great Silk Road monument is the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in Turkestan, built on Amir Timur’s initiative in 1389–1405 and a World Heritage Site since 2003; the ticket is KZT 2,000. KTZ, the Kazakh railway, runs trains No. 11/12 and No. 25/26 from Almaty-2 to Shymkent and train No. 6937/6938 between Shymkent and Turkestan, and Zhibek Zholy is Kazakhstan’s road checkpoint into Uzbekistan on the way to Tashkent. The swap leaves out Bishkek, Osh and the Fergana Valley, and the budget below does not cover it.

By road to Osh: instead of the day 7 flight you can hire an SUV with driver from Bishkek to Osh, a full day across the mountains, which Trip to Kyrgyzstan lists at KGS 30,000 per car. Tajikistan is close to this route but not part of it: the Konibodom–Beshariq crossing links Kokand with Khujand in Tajikistan, which has its own entry rules. In reverse, fly into Urgench and home from Almaty; train 707 from Khiva to Bukhara runs every day except Tuesday, so plan the weekdays again.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026

What three weeks cost, all in

About EUR 2,210 (GBP 1,850) per person, EUR 4,420 (GBP 3,690) for two, before international flights. This covers all twenty hotel nights, every meal and ordinary drink, the bus, the domestic flight, the four Uzbek trains, the cars and taxis, the sights, the fortress day, SIM cards and a 10% buffer. With flights to Almaty and home from Urgench, it is about GBP 2,450–3,050 per person.

The budget is for two adults with UK passports sharing a double or twin room at the hotels above, on spring or autumn dates between 15 March and 15 November outside public holidays, arriving in Almaty by midday on day 1 and flying home from Urgench after lunch on day 21. Uzbek room rates are counted with Uzbekistan’s 12% VAT and the tourist tax added; the tax is UZS 22,000–66,000 per guest per night, depending on the hotel’s number of rooms, and the top rate is used where a hotel gives no room count. Exchange rates are the central-bank rates for 5 November 2026: EUR 1 = KZT 509.43, GBP 1 = KZT 610.48 and USD 1 = KZT 452.91 in Kazakhstan; EUR 1 = KGS 98.3463 and USD 1 = KGS 87.45 in Kyrgyzstan; and EUR 1 = UZS 13,432.07, GBP 1 = UZS 16,093.65 and USD 1 = UZS 11,935.37 in Uzbekistan. The Kyrgyz part is converted into pounds through the Kazakh euro and pound rates. Rounded figures can differ slightly from the totals.

• Rooms: about EUR 1,730 (GBP 1,440) for two. Four nights at Hotel Uyut at KZT 51,000 with breakfast. Two nights at Ambassador at KGS 8,984 with breakfast and two at Level Hotel at about USD 62. In Uzbekistan, with VAT and tourist tax: two nights at Fergana Hotel at about USD 67 (this rate and Level Hotel’s are those shown on the KAYAK booking site), two at MIRZO (USD 95), three at Bibikhanum (USD 95, 18 rooms), two at Komil (USD 80) and three at Meros (USD 60, nine rooms), about UZS 13,874,000 together.
• Food and drinks: about EUR 670 (GBP 560) for two. In Almaty, three lunches at KZT 6,072 a person, Navat’s set lunch for two with its 10% service charge, and four dinners at about KZT 7,500 each, the average bill reported at the Kazakh restaurant Orta; day 4 lunch comes with the lake walk. In Kyrgyzstan, about KGS 1,500 a day each for lunch and dinner, from menus such as Faiza’s in Bishkek, where a 250 g lagman is KGS 370, plus about KGS 500 for each breakfast in Osh. In Uzbekistan, about UZS 225,000 a day each for two restaurant meals and drinks from lunch on day 9 to lunch on day 21, less UZS 75,000 for each of the seven breakfasts included at Fergana Hotel, Komil and Meros.
• Getting around: about EUR 860 (GBP 720) for two. In Kazakhstan, about KZT 12,000 for the airport ride and taxis to Kok-Tobe, the Charyn meeting point and Sayran, estimated from Yandex Go’s published Almaty tariff. In Kyrgyzstan, the bus (KGS 679 each, the Nurdan-Tur fare on the GoBus booking site), the Osh flight (KGS 5,000 each), Manas Airport Taxi (KGS 800), Advantour’s cars from Osh airport and to the Dostyk post (USD 50 each), the Ala-Archa SUV (KGS 4,000 per car each way) and about KGS 1,500 of city taxis. In Uzbekistan, the car from Dustlik to Fergana (USD 50, Dolina Avto’s starting day rate), the day 10 car (USD 110) and the day 11 car from Fergana through Rishtan to Kokand (about USD 140, from OrexCA’s two USD 70 transfers Margilan–Rishtan and Rishtan–Kokand; Fergana is 20 km before Margilan); the trains, with the Afrosiyob at UZS 311,000 and train 706 at UZS 270,800 each, and trains 729 and 710, which publish no fare, at about UZS 200,000 each; OrexCA’s Khiva station and airport cars (USD 20 and USD 30); and about UZS 1,000,000 for taxis in Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara.
• Sights and tours: about EUR 730 (GBP 610) for two. The Kok-Tobe return (KZT 10,000 each), Blast Tour’s Charyn trip (from about KZT 9,500 each, its fare on the kino.kz ticket site) and Zabugorshiki’s Big Almaty Lake walk (USD 120 each). The Bishkek museum (KGS 200 each), Ala-Archa (KGS 250 each) and the Sulaiman-Too museum (KGS 50 each). In Uzbekistan, about UZS 400,000 for the Fergana Valley workshops and the two Kokand sights, which publish no fees; UZS 600,000 in Tashkent, with the History Museum at UZS 100,000 each and two more sights at about the same price; UZS 970,000 in Samarkand, with the Registan at UZS 100,000 each and five more sights at the UZS 75,000–80,000 listed by Silk Road Tour, a tour operator; UZS 480,000 in Bukhara, for the Ark and five smaller museums at the museum-reserve’s prices and about UZS 40,000 a person for each of the Kalon Mosque and the Samanid mausoleum, which its list does not price; UZS 700,000 in Khiva, a combined ticket of about UZS 250,000 each and about UZS 100,000 each for the minaret climb and other extras; and about USD 220 for the day 20 car to the fortresses, twice OrexCA’s one-way rate.
• SIM cards: about EUR 30 (GBP 30) for two. A Kazakh plan of about KZT 5,000 each, from operators’ monthly tariffs of KZT 2,690–7,999; an O! plan with 50 GB for four weeks at KGS 230 each; and a Beeline Hello 1 plan at UZS 60,000 each in Uzbekistan.
• Buffer: about EUR 400 (GBP 340) for two. The single 10% buffer covers small extras such as the fortress entry fees, tips and price changes.
• International flights: about GBP 600–1,200 per person in economy for London–Almaty out and Urgench–London home, an estimate from Turkish Airlines’ London–Almaty return fares of GBP 502–1,132. With flights, the trip costs about GBP 2,450–3,050 per person, GBP 4,890–6,090 for two.

Prices and times checked 5 November 2026