Uzbekistan in 10 days: the Silk Road cities and Shahrisabz

Reserve the nine nights in order

The route never doubles back: Tashkent for two nights (days 1–2), Samarkand for three (days 3–5), Bukhara for two (days 6–7) and Khiva for two (days 8–9), then the flight on day 10. That makes four hotel bookings and no tenth night. Start on any day except Monday: day 8 falls on the same weekday as day 1, and the Bukhara–Khiva train 706 runs every day except Monday.

The example rooms are MIRZO Boutique Hotel in central Tashkent, Bibikhanum Hotel in Samarkand, Komil Boutique Hotel in Bukhara and Meros B&B in Khiva. Bibikhanum stands on Tashkent Street beside the Bibi-Khanym mosque and Siab Bazaar, five minutes’ walk from Shah-i-Zinda. Komil is a nineteenth-century house, and Meros is inside the walls of Itchan Kala. Their websites list a twin at 95 USD (MIRZO), a double at $95 (Bibikhanum), a standard double from $80 with breakfast and registration (Komil) and a twin with balcony at $60 with breakfast (Meros). These are spring-to-autumn rates, winter rates are lower, and the cost section adds taxes.

Book the trains first. Domestic tickets go on sale 60 days ahead at eticket.railway.uz. They are issued against the passport you travel on, an order must be paid within 15 minutes, and card payment ends with an SMS code sent to the phone number linked to the card. Train 706 has only 415 seats, all economy. The rooms, the Urgench–Tashkent flight and the Shahrisabz car come next; the transport guide covers the other trains and flights between the cities.

Entry, registration and money on this route

Ten days sits inside the 30-day visa-free stay that Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry lists for UK and Irish passport holders and a long list of other countries. Our entry guide sets out the passport rules by nationality.

Hotels register foreign guests. You must register within three days of arrival, weekends counted, and on departure the authorities can ask for a full record of where you have been, so keep every hotel’s registration slip. Carry your passport at all times. UK advice says photography restrictions have been relaxed, but to check before taking photos near airports, border checkpoints, military barracks, bridges, police stations and metro stations, Tashkent’s decorated metro included.

France advises against the Afghan border area (including Termez city, except for imperative reasons), and Germany against non-essential travel near any border except at official crossings (it names the Afghan, Tajik and Kyrgyz border regions for extremist risk); in border zones France says to keep to towns, main roads and marked paths; this route stays in the cities and on the railway and main roads, so do not take a detour towards the Turkmen border near Khiva, and every road leg runs by day. Other governments may draw the line differently, so read your own government’s advice.

International cards are not widely accepted outside Tashkent and the main cities, and few ATMs outside them take foreign cards, so draw enough cash in Tashkent for the regions. Change money only at official exchange booths, which refuse damaged notes and US dollars printed before 2013.

A local SIM costs little. Beeline’s Hello 1 plan costs UZS 60,000 a month (price notice effective 3 October 2025), and activating a new eSIM costs nothing; buy it in Tashkent with your passport. A phone must be registered with UZIMEI within 30 calendar days of first using a local SIM; the fee is UZS 88,000 per phone in that window, which the budget’s buffer would absorb.

Days 1–2: Tashkent, the old city and the metro

Day 1 — arrive: Take a taxi from Tashkent airport to the hotel; Uzbekistan Travel names the Yandex Taxi and MyTaxi apps for Tashkent and Samarkand. The hotel registers you when you check in. Keep the evening light with dinner at Caravan, 22 Mahmud Tarabi Street in Yakkasaray, whose website lists hand-pulled lagman, plov and shashlik. Sleep in Tashkent: night 1.

Day 2 — old city, bazaar and museums: Start at Khast Imam (Hazrati Imam), the old-city ensemble of the Tillya Sheikh mosque, the Kaffal Shashi mausoleum, the Barak Khan madrasa and the Imam al-Bukhari Islamic Institute. The complex’s library stores the Quran of Osman, a manuscript of 353 parchment leaves. Walk on to Chorsu Bazaar for lunch and for the crafts the tourism board lists there: ceramics, wood carving, clothing and forged knives.

In the afternoon take the metro, which runs daily from 06:00 to 00:00 and opened in 1977 with every station designed differently. It reaches the centre, where the State Museum of Applied Art and the State Museum of History fill the afternoon. The History Museum charges foreign visitors UZS 100,000 (and UZS 200,000 to photograph exhibits) and is open Monday to Saturday, 10:00–17:00. Sleep in Tashkent: night 2. Our Tashkent guide covers the old city and the centre in more detail.

Days 3–5: Samarkand and the road to Shahrisabz

Day 3 — train to Samarkand and the outlying sights: Take Afrosiyob train 766 from Tashkent, which leaves at 07:21 and reaches Samarkand at 09:51 (2 h 30). The operator has also published a change notice moving 766 to 06:51–09:21, so take the time printed on your e-ticket. Leave your bags at the hotel, then take one taxi for the two outlying sights: the Afrasiab museum and Ulugh Beg’s observatory. Ulugh Beg, the Timurid ruler who built the madrasa on the Registan, also built the observatory and compiled a catalogue of stars. Both are open until 23:00.

Finish at Gur-e-Amir, the mausoleum of Timur, his teacher Mir Sayyid Barak and members of his family, which is also open until 23:00. Sleep in Samarkand: night 3.

Day 4 — tombs, mosque and market: Begin at Shah-i-Zinda, a necropolis of mausoleums that pilgrims revere, with tiled buildings dating from the eleventh century to the early twentieth. Walk on to Bibi-Khanym, built in 1399–1404 as the largest mosque in Central Asia, with a courtyard of 5,000 square metres where up to 10,000 people can pray. Siab Bazaar sits beside it for dried fruit, nuts, sweets, bread and halva. Bibi-Khanym is open until 23:00. Sleep in Samarkand: night 4. The Samarkand guide has the sights in more depth.

Day 5 — Shahrisabz: The town lies 85 km south of Samarkand, over the Takhta-Karacha pass. STANTOURS lists a private sedan for one to three people at EUR 75 (tariff updated 14 February 2026). In its plan the driver collects you at 09:00 and waits at the Kok Gumbaz car park at 13:00 for the return, and the whole excursion takes 6–7 hours. Most travellers go without a guide, and the driver may not speak English. The operator estimates entry fees at about EUR 8 per person in total, payable on the spot.

Ak-Saray, the palace Timur began in 1380 and spent 24 years building, survives only as the pillars of its entrance portal, which are impressive in size; its gate arch, once the largest in Central Asia, collapsed almost 300 years ago. The Kok Gumbaz mosque stands in the Dorut Tilovat ensemble. The operator’s plan also takes in the mausoleum of Jahangir, Timur’s son, in the Dorus Saodat complex. Have lunch in Shahrisabz and return to the same Samarkand room: night 5. If the pass is closed, move the car to another day or take the longer bypass, and treat day 5 as a free day in Samarkand. The Shahrisabz guide covers the monuments and the road.

Days 6–8: Bukhara, then the afternoon train to Khiva

Day 6 — the Registan, then Bukhara: Be at the Registan when it opens and see it by morning light. Three madrasas frame the square: Ulugbek’s (built in 1417–1420), Sherdor and Tilla-Kari. It is open daily, 07:00–24:00 from 20 February to 20 November and 08:00–20:00 from 20 November to 20 February, and the foreign-visitor ticket is UZS 100,000; winter hours have changed before, so check them on registon.uz before an evening visit. Then check out and take a taxi to the station for Sharq 710, a conventional train that leaves Samarkand at 11:55 and reaches Bukhara-1 at 14:10 (2 h 15) on the operator’s September 2025 timetable; the other conventional trains take up to 2 h 32. Faster Afrosiyob trains also run to Bukhara, and the railway’s date search shows the times, classes and fares. Bukhara-1 is in Kagan, about 12 km in a straight line from Lyabi-Hauz, so take a taxi to the old city.

After checking in, walk Lyabi-Hauz, the pond square at the centre of the old town, and the trading domes. Add the Magoki Attori mosque, now a carpet museum. End with the exterior of the Poi-Kalon ensemble at dusk. Sleep in Bukhara: night 6.

Day 7 — the Ark and Poi-Kalon: Start at the Ark, the citadel that was destroyed and rebuilt many times over a thousand years and now houses the regional history museum. Add the Zindan, the emir’s prison museum, then pass Bolo-Hauz and visit the Samani mausoleum. Chashma Ayub, the water-supply museum in a mausoleum, comes next, and the Kalon mosque closes the day beside the Kalon minaret. Sleep in Bukhara: night 7. Our Bukhara guide has the walking order and the smaller museums.

The Bukhara museum reserve’s list, effective from 1 January 2025, gives foreign visitors UZS 60,000 for the Ark and UZS 20,000 each for the Zindan, Chashma Ayub, Magoki Attori and the Abdulaziz Khan and Ulugbek madrasa museums. Its hours are 09:00–18:00, 08:00–21:00 in season and 09:00–17:00 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays, with no weekly closing day; photographing exhibits costs UZS 30,000.

Day 8 — a Bukhara morning, then Khiva by train: Before the train, visit the two madrasa museums facing each other near the trading domes: the Ulugbek madrasa, with its calligraphy museum, and the Abdulaziz Khan madrasa, with its woodcarving museum. Check out, take a taxi to Bukhara-1 and board train 706, a CRRC-Dalian high-speed electric train, at 15:45. It reaches Khiva at 20:25 after 4 hours 40 minutes and has run every day except Monday since 9 September 2026. On a Monday the only train listed from Bukhara is No. 701 to Tashkent (15:17–21:22), which goes the wrong way, so a Monday day 8 needs a car or an extra night in Bukhara. Overland it is 455 km and 7–8 hours by car, and Advantour’s sedan transfer costs USD 240 (about UZS 2,860,000). If 706 is full on another day, search the railway for other trains to Khiva, among them the Jaloliddin Manguberdi, which calls at Bukhara on its Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday runs from Tashkent. Because 706 arrives at 20:25, arrange a pickup with Meros before you leave Bukhara. Sleep in Khiva: night 8.

Days 9–10: Khiva, then home through Tashkent

Day 9 — Itchan Kala: Khiva’s walled inner city holds more than 100 mosques, madrasas, minarets and mausoleums along stone-paved streets. The museum reserve publishes no price or validity for its combined Itchan Kala ticket, so plan on about UZS 250,000 a person, an estimate, and ask at the ticket office how long it is valid. Start at Kalta Minor, by the west gate Ota-Darvoza: Muhammad Amin Khan began it in 1852 to be the world’s largest minaret, planned at 80 metres, and work stopped in 1855 when he died. Kunya-Ark, the khans’ citadel completed in 1688, is a fortress within the fortress, with mosques, a mint, stables and the harem. The Islam Khoja minaret, begun in 1908, is 56.6 metres high and stands in the middle of Itchan Kala. The Juma Mosque, which Uzbekistan Travel dates to the tenth century, has no domes, and its roof rests on 213 columns of different shapes and from different centuries. Finish at the Pahlavon Mahmud mausoleum. Have dinner inside the walls. Sleep in Khiva: night 9. The Khiva guide covers the other sights.

Day 10 — fly home through Tashkent: The airport train 7058 leaves Khiva at 21:00 and 7055 runs the other way at 08:40, so a daytime flight needs a car; ask the hotel to book a licensed one to Urgench airport (UGC), about 35 km by road, where the airport train takes 42 minutes. Fly Uzbekistan Airways to Tashkent, booking on booking.uzairways.com. The airline’s tariff notice effective 16 October 2026 lists Tashkent–Urgench from UZS 442,336 one way, and the budget prices Urgench–Tashkent at about UZS 500,000 per person, an estimate from that opposite-direction fare. The notice has no timetable, so check that a flight runs on your day 10 before you fix the dates.

Book the Urgench flight first, then an international flight that leaves at least four hours after it lands. Uzbekistan Airways ends check-in at Tashkent one hour before departure, so that gap leaves about three hours for baggage, the move between the domestic and international terminals and check-in. Tickets bought separately are not linked, and the carrier’s conditions (1.16) exclude responsibility for a missed connection on a separate ticket. If you prefer a night in Tashkent before the long-haul flight, a room such as MIRZO’s adds about UZS 1,400,000 and makes the trip 11 days and 10 nights.

If your dates line up, the Hyundai Rotem Jaloliddin Manguberdi high-speed train is an alternative to the flight. It leaves Khiva at 07:20 on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and reaches Tashkent Central at 14:51 (7 h 31). Starting the trip on a Wednesday or a Friday puts day 10 on a Friday or a Sunday.

What ten days in Uzbekistan cost, all in

About UZS 12,700,000 per person, UZS 25,300,000 for two, for ten days and nine nights at mid-range, before the flights from London. Every room, meal and drink, the three trains, the Urgench–Tashkent flight, taxis and the Shahrisabz car, entry tickets, two eSIMs and a 10% buffer are in.

Method: two adults share a room for nine nights on ordinary spring or autumn dates outside public holidays, with prices read on 25 October 2026. Mid-range rooms are the four hotels above at their listed rates, plus 12% VAT where it is not stated and the tourist tax, which depends on the size of the hotel, from UZS 22,000 to 66,000 per guest per night (the top rate where a hotel publishes no room count); dollar prices are read as US dollars. Conversions use the central-bank reference rate of 23 October 2026 as shown on Ipoteka Bank’s page: USD 1 = UZS 11,903.15, EUR 1 = UZS 13,329.15, GBP 1 = UZS 15,916.89. Entry prices that are not published are estimated at UZS 40,000–100,000 a person (UZS 100,000 for the Applied Art Museum and the Quran display and 40,000 for the Kalon mosque and the Samani mausoleum) and UZS 250,000 plus 100,000 for Khiva, where the museum reserve publishes no price; the five Samarkand sights besides the Registan use the UZS 75,000–80,000 foreign-adult prices that Silk Road Tour, a tour operator in Uzbekistan, listed in July 2026. The Afrosiyob from Tashkent to Samarkand is UZS 311,000 in economy on the fares in force since 1 February 2026; the two train legs without a published fare are estimated from those fares at about UZS 200,000 (Samarkand–Bukhara) and UZS 510,000 (Bukhara–Khiva) a person, and the flight at UZS 500,000 for the Urgench–Tashkent flight, from the fare in the other direction. Budget averages about UZS 0.8 million a night for rooms and UZS 150,000 a day each for food; comfort about UZS 1.7 million and UZS 350,000.

At mid-range, food is UZS 225,000 a day each for ten days (three meals and tea or water), less the eight breakfasts that the Komil and Meros rates include. Getting around is the three trains, the flight and UZS 1,000,000 for taxis and car transfers for the two of you; since 1 February 2026 the Afrosiyob has cost UZS 311,000 from Tashkent to Samarkand and UZS 509,000 from Tashkent to Bukhara in economy, and the railway shows other fares only for a dated search. Sights and tours are Tashkent UZS 600,000, Samarkand 970,000, Bukhara 480,000 and Khiva 700,000 for two, plus EUR 91 (about UZS 1,213,000) for the Shahrisabz car and entries. SIMs are two Hello 1 plans at UZS 60,000 each. Photographing exhibits is charged separately, and the buffer covers it.

Flights: about GBP 550–1,200 per person return from London to Tashkent, based on the economy fares that Turkish Airlines shows for October and November 2026 departures. With them the mid-range trip comes to about GBP 1,350–2,000 per person (UZS 12,700,000 is about GBP 800), or about GBP 2,690–3,990 for two. Fares vary with the date.