Samarkand: Registan, Shah-i-Zinda and the monuments in two days

Two nights near the Registan and Bibi-Khanym

Stay in the old town, within walking distance of the Registan, Bibi-Khanym and Siab Bazaar, and keep one room for both nights. Registon Saroy (Sozangaron Street 66) is 400 metres from the Registan and lists a standard double at UZS 640,000 a night and advertises free breakfast. Bibikhanum Hotel (Tashkent Street 10) stands beside Bibi-Khanym Mosque and Siab Bazaar, five minutes on foot from Shah-i-Zinda, and lists a double at USD 95 a night. L’Argamak (4 Sulton Muhammad) lists a double or twin from EUR 99, about UZS 1,320,000, with breakfast included.

Hotel staff register you with the authorities, so keep the registration record with your passport. The UK Foreign Office advises registering within three days of arrival, counting Saturdays and Sundays; our entry guide gives the rule for your passport.

Day one: Gur-e-Amir, the Registan and Bibi-Khanym

Begin at Gur-e-Amir, the mausoleum of Timur, whose ribbed blue dome rises between two minarets. Timur's grandson Muhammad Sultan began it in 1401 as a madrasa; when he died it was rebuilt as his tomb, and Timur was buried beside him. Inside, a dark jade gravestone marks Timur's grave.

The Registan is a square closed on three sides by madrasas, and its name means “sandy place”. Ulugh Beg's madrasa came first (1417–20). Sherdor (1619–36) replaced his ruined khanaka opposite it, and Tilla-Kari (1646/47–1659/60) went up on the north side on the site of a caravanserai. Sherdor's name, “abode of lions”, comes from the tympanum over its portal, where a big cat chases a gazelle beneath a rising sun, an unusual picture for a religious building. Historical exhibitions now fill all three madrasas, showing how teaching and science went on in them in the 15th–17th centuries, and the directorate added an audio guide in 12 languages, it said in October 2025. Come back after dark.

Bibi-Khanym is a short walk away. Timur ordered it after his campaign in India; work began in 1399 and the mosque was finished five years later as the largest in Central Asia. When Timur came home in 1404 he thought the entrance portal too modest and had it rebuilt. The courtyard covers about 5,000 square metres and has minarets on four sides; the walls carry paintings, carved marble and tile, the work of masters from many countries.

Siab Bazaar sits next to the mosque. It is considered the oldest and largest market in Central Asia and is mentioned from the 8th–9th centuries. Dried fruit, nuts, sweets, bread and halva are the things to buy; take bread and fruit from the stalls and have lunch nearby.

Day two: Shah-i-Zinda, Afrasiab and the observatory

Shah-i-Zinda, “Living King”, is a necropolis of mausoleums faced in blue and turquoise tile, with buildings from the 11th century to the early 20th, and the most revered pilgrimage place in Central Asia. It is linked with Qusam ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet, who is said to have gone alive into paradise from a well here. The monuments line an old street and fall into a lower group, a middle group, a northern courtyard and the complex of Qusam ibn Abbas; enter by the lower group and walk through them in that order. Women should cover shoulders, back and legs.

Afrasiab is the ancient city on the northern edge of Samarkand, where the town stood until the Mongols destroyed it in 1220. It was founded in the 8th century BC and covered 219 hectares inside four rings of walls; excavations found palaces with carved ganch plasterwork, houses, mosques, baths and cobbled streets of the Samanid era. In 1965 archaeologists uncovered seventh-century wall paintings there, and the Afrasiab museum on the site now shows them with the other finds.

Two shrines stand on the same plateau. The Hazrat Khizr Mosque, at the southern tip of Afrasiab where Shahizinda and Tashkent streets meet, is named after Khizr, the prophet who protects travellers; the mausoleum of Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan’s first president, opened in its grounds in 2018. At the north-eastern edge, on a low rise above the small Siab river, the Mausoleum of Khoja Doniyor holds, by an 18th-century legend, the remains of the prophet Daniel, brought to Samarkand by Timur; the present building dates from the start of the 20th century.

The Ulugh Beg Observatory closes the day. Ulugh Beg, Timur's grandson, had it built in 1428–29 as a round three-storey building 46.4 metres across, and his school compiled a catalogue of 1,018 stars there. Its great instrument was a marble quadrant with an arc radius of 40.2 metres, set in the meridian and sunk more than 10 metres into the hill. The building was dismantled in the late 17th century and its site was found in 1908; today you see the surviving underground part of the quadrant and the museum beside it.

Afrasiab and the observatory lie north-east of the old town, about 2 km and 3.5 km from the Registan in a straight line and 1 km from each other, so book one taxi for the circuit, with Hazrat Khizr on the way from Shah-i-Zinda; at the Yandex tariff below a ride of that length costs roughly UZS 15,000–25,000.

Tickets, opening hours and the evening Registan

The Registan sells tickets online at tickets.registon.uz. When its directorate last published the prices, in October 2025, foreign visitors paid UZS 100,000 and citizens of Uzbekistan UZS 15,000. The ensemble is open every day: its home page gives 07:00–24:00 in the season from 20 February to 20 November and 08:00–20:00 out of season from 20 November to 20 February. Winter hours have changed before, so check them before a winter evening visit.

A notice of 9 September 2026 extended evening visits: the Afrasiab museum, Gur-e-Amir, the Bibi-Khanym complex and the observatory museum complex open to 23:00, the Registan to 24:00 and Siab Bazaar to 24:00 (not every stall), with a music show on the Registan square every day at 21:00. Shah-i-Zinda is not on the list and publishes no hours, so see it in daylight.

Only the Registan publishes a foreign-visitor price. Shah-i-Zinda, Gur-e-Amir, Bibi-Khanym, the observatory and the Afrasiab museum each sell their own ticket at the gate. Silk Road Tour, a tour operator in Uzbekistan, listed foreign adults’ prices in July 2026 of UZS 75,000 for Gur-e-Amir, Bibi-Khanym and the observatory and UZS 80,000 for Shah-i-Zinda and the Afrasiab museum; SAIGA Tours’ list of July 2025 was lower, at UZS 40,000–75,000 for the four of them it priced. Plan on the newer figures, about UZS 385,000 for all five, and carry cash.

Trains from Tashkent, on to Bukhara, and getting around

Afrosiyob 766 leaves Tashkent daily at 07:21 and reaches Samarkand at 09:51 (2 h 30); 765 leaves Samarkand at 17:35 and reaches Tashkent at 20:08 (2 h 33). The operator has also published a change notice moving 766 to 06:51–09:21, so take the time printed on your e-ticket. Conventional trains take 3 h 05 to 3 h 49 on the timetable effective 9 September 2025, and the Tashkent–Khiva train launched on 5 May 2026 also stops here. Search Tashkent → Samarkand for your date on eticket.railway.uz or in the Uzrailway tickets app: the results list each train with its times, free seats and fare. Domestic tickets go on sale 60 days ahead, so book the seats first. Afrosiyob economy is UZS 311,000, business UZS 455,000 and VIP UZS 709,000 on the fares in force since 1 February 2026, when Uzbekistan Railways raised its fares by 15%. Uzbekistan Airways lists Tashkent–Samarkand flights from UZS 201,062 one way from 16 October 2026, but the train is the easier choice. Our transport guide covers the classes and the other trains.

On to Bukhara, Sharq 710 is the practical train: it leaves Samarkand at 11:55 and reaches Bukhara-1 at 14:10 (2 h 15), and the other conventional trains take up to 2 h 32, on the timetable effective 9 September 2025. Faster Afrosiyob trains also run to Bukhara, and the railway’s date search shows their times, classes and fares. No fare for this leg is published; plan on about UZS 200,000 a seat, the difference between the Tashkent–Bukhara and Tashkent–Samarkand Afrosiyob economy fares (UZS 509,000 and 311,000). Bukhara-1 is in Kagan, about 12 km in a straight line from Lyabi-Hauz; our Bukhara guide picks up there.

Trains use Samarkand station, about 5 km north-west of the Registan in a straight line, so take a taxi. Yandex’s published Start tariff for Samarkand, read on 2 November 2026, is a minimum of up to UZS 4,100, then up to UZS 1,020 a kilometre and UZS 450 a minute, so a ride between the station and the old town costs roughly UZS 15,000–25,000; the budget uses UZS 25,000 a ride. Samarkand International Airport (SKD) is about 5 km north of the Registan. Buses M1 and 256 run between the airport and the railway station daily from 06:00 to 21:00, for UZS 3,000 in cash or UZS 2,000 with a card from an Uzbek bank, and stop in front of the terminal at the arrivals exit.

Walk between the Registan, Bibi-Khanym and Siab, and take taxis for Afrasiab and the observatory; Yandex Taxi and MyTaxi both work in Samarkand. Ask before photographing government buildings, police or military sites. For the best months and summer heat, see our best-time guide.

A third night allows a day trip to Shahrisabz, Timur’s birthplace, as in our 10-day itinerary. With an evening to spare, the Eternal City at the Silk Road Samarkand resort in the Konigil area recreates an old town on 11 hectares, with craft workshops, national food and, booked ahead, master classes in Samarkand plov and mulberry paper.

What two nights cost, all in

About UZS 3,600,000 per person, UZS 7,200,000 for two, at mid-range level, for three days and two nights, arriving from Tashkent and leaving for Bukhara, with the room, every meal and drink, the train in and the train out, taxis, admissions, two SIMs and a 10% buffer.

These figures are for two adults sharing one room for two nights in spring or autumn outside holiday peaks, with each hotel’s listed rate plus 12% VAT where the rate is not stated gross and the tourist tax, which depends on the size of the hotel, from UZS 22,000 to 66,000 per guest per night: UZS 44,000 at Bibikhanum, L’Argamak’s own EUR 3, and the top rate at Registon Saroy, which publishes no room count. Prices are converted at the central-bank reference rate of 23 October 2026 (USD 1 = UZS 11,903.15, EUR 1 = UZS 13,329.15, GBP 1 = UZS 15,916.89); budget stays at Registon Saroy, mid-range at Bibikhanum Hotel and comfort at L’Argamak.

Food is about UZS 150,000, 225,000 or 350,000 per person a day at the three levels, over three days, less the breakfasts included in the L’Argamak rate. Getting around is the Afrosiyob seat from Tashkent at UZS 311,000 each, Sharq 710 to Bukhara at about UZS 200,000 each, two station taxis and short rides in town; our Tashkent guide also counts the seat from Tashkent, so add it only once if you use both. Admissions are the Registan at UZS 100,000 plus UZS 385,000 for the five other sights at the operator-listed prices above, and comfort adds a private guide for one day at EUR 60, about UZS 800,000, the day rate STANTOURS lists for a guide on its tour from Samarkand (price updated 14 February 2026). The SIMs are two Beeline Hello 1 plans at UZS 60,000 a month each with free eSIM activation, for eSIM-compatible phones. A third night and the Shahrisabz day trip are priced in our 10-day itinerary.

Flights: about GBP 550–1,200 per person for a London–Tashkent return in economy. With the flight, the mid-range stay comes to about UZS 12,300,000–22,700,000 per person; fares and availability vary.

• Rooms: UZS 2,700,000 for two at the mid-range level, two nights.
• Food and drinks: UZS 1,400,000 for two.
• Getting around: UZS 1,400,000 for two, of which the trains from Tashkent and on to Bukhara are UZS 1,000,000.
• Sights and tours: UZS 1,000,000 for two.
• SIMs and extras: UZS 100,000 for two.
• 10% buffer: UZS 700,000 for two.