10 days in Uzbekistan
A ten day Silk Road circuit joined by train, and the one booking window that has to be hit weeks before you fly.
Last updated . Rail timetables, the ticket release window and visa rules all move, and the booking window moves most. Recheck the official railway portal and your government's travel advice before fixing dates.
Uzbekistan looks like a country trip and plans like a train timetable. The four stops almost everyone wants sit on one line, Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, and the high speed Afrosiyob covers the first three legs in under 2 hours each. What catches people is that the tickets are released only about 45 days before departure, the window shifts by route, and the morning departures sell out. The trip is therefore planned backwards from a booking date, not forwards from a wish list.
How many days do you need in Uzbekistan?
10 days: 2 in Tashkent, 3 in Samarkand, 2 in Bukhara, 2 in Khiva and 1 riding back.
A week works if you drop Khiva, which is the furthest stop and the one whose fast trains run on the fewest days. Two weeks is what people take who add the Fergana valley or slow down properly.
How far ahead can you book Uzbekistan train tickets?
About 45 days before departure on the official e-ticket portal, with the exact window moving by route and season.
Recent travellers report morning Afrosiyob legs appearing 54 to 56 days out on some routes and 30 to 45 on others, so treat 45 as the planning number and check your exact legs on the portal. Agencies resell the same seats at a markup and cannot open the window earlier.
Do the fast trains run to Khiva every day?
No. The high speed service to Khiva runs on only some days of the week, typically 3, and it sells out.
The fallback is a conventional train or a shared taxi across the desert from Bukhara, both far slower. Read the Khiva timetable first and set the direction of your whole circuit by it.
Is Uzbekistan easy to travel independently?
Yes, and 2016 era advice is badly out of date: most European, UK and many Asian nationals now enter visa free for 30 days.
Registration is handled by hotels automatically. The practical frictions left are cash for bazaars and taxis, summer heat, and the train window this page keeps repeating because it is the thing that actually bites.
The plan at a glance
- Days
- 1 to 2
- Where
- Tashkent
- What needs arranging
- Nothing fixed. The city page covers it in depth
- Days
- 3 to 5
- Where
- Samarkand
- What needs arranging
- Afrosiyob seats, released about 45 days out
- Days
- 6 to 7
- Where
- Bukhara
- What needs arranging
- The next Afrosiyob leg, same window
- Days
- 8 to 9
- Where
- Khiva
- What needs arranging
- The fast train, which runs certain days only
- Days
- 10
- Where
- Fly or ride back to Tashkent
- What needs arranging
- A domestic flight from Urgench saves a day
| Days | Where | What needs arranging |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Tashkent | Nothing fixed. The city page covers it in depth |
| 3 to 5 | Samarkand | Afrosiyob seats, released about 45 days out |
| 6 to 7 | Bukhara | The next Afrosiyob leg, same window |
| 8 to 9 | Khiva | The fast train, which runs certain days only |
| 10 | Fly or ride back to Tashkent | A domestic flight from Urgench saves a day |
The route at a glance
12 mapped stops · 10 days
Live route map
OpenStreetMap tiles
Loading the OpenStreetMap map.
Route stops
Follow the numbered order through each day.
Day 1: Tashkent, arriving
- 1Khast Imam complex · about 2 hours
- 2Chorsu Bazaar · about 2 hours
Day 2: Tashkent, and the first train south
- ·The Tashkent metro · about 2 hours
- ·Tashkent to Samarkand by Afrosiyob · about 2.5 hours with boarding
Day 3: The Registan
- 3Registan · about 3 hours
- 4Gur-e-Amir · about 90 minutes
Day 4: Shah-i-Zinda and the observatory
- 5Shah-i-Zinda · about 2 hours
- 6Ulugh Beg Observatory · about 90 minutes
Day 5: Samarkand loose ends, and the evening train
- 7Bibi-Khanym Mosque and Siyob Bazaar · about 2.5 hours
- ·Samarkand to Bukhara by Afrosiyob · about 2 hours with boarding
Day 6: Bukhara old town
- 8Poi Kalyan · about 2 hours
- 9The Ark fortress and Bolo Hauz · about 2.5 hours
Day 7: Bukhara slowly
- 10Lyab-i Hauz and the trading domes · most of the day
Day 8: The desert leg to Khiva
- ·Bukhara to Khiva · 4 to 7 hours depending on the service
- 11Itchan Kala at dusk · about 2 hours
Day 9: Khiva inside the walls
- 12Itchan Kala, properly · about 4 hours
- ·The watchtower at sunset · about an hour
Day 10: Back east
- ·Khiva to Urgench to Tashkent · about 3 hours door to door
Day 1: Tashkent, arriving
The capital is the gateway and the best eating of the trip, and it has its own page on this site.
- On foot
- About 4 km on foot
Afternoon
Khast Imam complexabout 2 hours
The old religious heart of the capital, and the home of one of the oldest Qurans in existence. The full city treatment lives on the Tashkent page; this stop is here so day one has a centre of gravity.
Evening
Chorsu Bazaarabout 2 hours
The domed market. Come hungry, leave with dried fruit you did not plan to buy.
Day 2: Tashkent, and the first train south
A slow morning, then the afternoon Afrosiyob to Samarkand, about 2 hours and 10 minutes.
- On foot
- About 3 km on foot, plus the rail leg
- Book before you go
- This seat, from the release window weeks ago
Morning
The Tashkent metroabout 2 hours
Palatial Soviet era stations that were illegal to photograph until 2018. Ride a loop; it costs pennies.
Afternoon
Tashkent to Samarkand by Afrosiyobabout 2.5 hours with boarding
Around 2 hours and 10 minutes on the Spanish built high speed set. Seats are assigned; the window side facing the steppe is the one to want.
Day 3: The Registan
Three madrasas around one square, and the reason most people are in the country at all.
- On foot
- About 5 km on foot
Morning
Registanabout 3 hours
Go at opening for the light and the emptiness, then again after dark when the square is lit. Two visits are the honest minimum for the one sight the whole country is known by.
Afternoon
Gur-e-Amirabout 90 minutes
Timur's mausoleum, a short walk south west. The dome that taught the builders of the Taj Mahal.
Day 4: Shah-i-Zinda and the observatory
The most intensely tiled street in Central Asia, then the ruin of a 15th century scientific instrument.
- On foot
- About 6 km on foot with steps
Morning
Shah-i-Zindaabout 2 hours
A necropolis climbing a hillside, mausoleum after mausoleum of blue tile. Morning light and modest dress; it is a working pilgrimage site.
Afternoon
Ulugh Beg Observatoryabout 90 minutes
The buried arc of a giant sextant from the 1420s, from the era when this city measured the stars better than anywhere in Europe.
Day 5: Samarkand loose ends, and the evening train
Bibi-Khanym and the bazaar, then about 1 hour and 40 minutes of rail to Bukhara.
- On foot
- About 4 km on foot, plus the rail leg
- Book before you go
- The Samarkand to Bukhara seat, same release window
Morning
Bibi-Khanym Mosque and Siyob Bazaarabout 2.5 hours
Timur's over ambitious congregational mosque, partly rebuilt, with the city's main bazaar beside it for lunch supplies.
Evening
Samarkand to Bukhara by Afrosiyobabout 2 hours with boarding
About 1 hour 40 minutes. Arriving at dusk puts you in the old town for the first lit up view of Poi Kalyan.
Day 6: Bukhara old town
A whole living old city rather than restored set pieces, and it is walked, not toured.
- On foot
- About 6 km on foot
Morning
Poi Kalyanabout 2 hours
The great minaret that Genghis Khan reputedly spared, with its mosque and working madrasa. The heart of the old town and the place to start.
Afternoon
The Ark fortress and Bolo Hauzabout 2.5 hours
The emirs' citadel and the wooden columned mosque across the road. The Ark's ramparts give the town plan in one look.
Day 7: Bukhara slowly
The trading domes, a pond square that has not changed in 400 years, and no transport at all.
- On foot
- About 5 km on foot
All day
Lyab-i Hauz and the trading domesmost of the day
Tea by the pond, carpets and scissors under the domed bazaars, and the small Maghoki-Attor mosque between them. This is the day the circuit stops being a checklist.
Day 8: The desert leg to Khiva
The one awkward leg of the circuit, and the reason the timetable sets your direction.
- On foot
- About 2 km on foot, plus the long leg
- Book before you go
- The fast train, which runs certain days only, or the fallback
All day
Bukhara to Khiva4 to 7 hours depending on the service
The fast service does it in under 4 hours but does not run daily; the conventional train and the shared taxi across the Kyzylkum take far longer. If your dates miss the fast days, flip the whole circuit before you book anything else.
Itchan Kala at duskabout 2 hours
Arrive, climb nothing, just walk the walls' inner streets as the tour groups leave.
Day 9: Khiva inside the walls
A complete walled city small enough to learn by heart in a day.
- On foot
- About 6 km on foot with two towers
Morning
Itchan Kala, properlyabout 4 hours
The combined ticket covers most courts and museums inside the walls. Kalta Minor, the unfinished fat turquoise minaret, is the postcard; the Juma Mosque's forest of 213 carved columns is the keeper.
Evening
The watchtower at sunsetabout an hour
The Kuhna Ark's tower for the classic view over mud walls to the desert. Queue early; the platform is small.
Day 10: Back east
Urgench airport is 30 minutes away, and the domestic flight buys back the day the rails would take.
- On foot
- About 1 km on foot
Morning
Khiva to Urgench to Tashkentabout 3 hours door to door
The short transfer and a roughly 90 minute domestic flight, against a full day and night by rail. Book it when you book the trains and the arithmetic is easy.
The options below are separate choices rather than a package. Read how RoamWeek chooses and orders suggestions before using any of them.
Book the separate parts
Book the parts that need booking
The trains are bought on the official portal and nowhere else. What is worth arranging elsewhere is the flight in, the rooms inside the old towns, and the guided days where a historian earns the fee.
You book each service directly with its supplier. These separate bookings do not form a RoamWeek package.
- Flights
Tashkent is the only realistic gateway for the circuit, and pricing the return from Urgench as an open jaw is what saves the last day.
Search on Aviasales
- Stays
In Bukhara and Khiva the entire point is sleeping inside the old city walls, and those small courtyard guesthouses sell out with the same seasonality as the trains.
Search on Booking.com
- Activities
Timurid architecture reads as pretty tile without a guide who can explain what a madrasa actually taught; the Registan is where that knowledge pays most.
Search on GetYourGuide
What is worth the time, and what is not
Worth your time
- Setting reminders for each leg's ticket release. The window opens about 45 days out per route and the good departures go fast; five minutes of calendar work decides the whole trip.
- The Registan twice, at opening and after dark. It is the country's one unmissable sight and the two lights show two different buildings.
- A night inside Khiva's walls. The day tour crowds leave at dusk and the walled city at night is the closest the Silk Road gets to time travel.
Skip it
- Riding the rails all the way back from Khiva. It costs a full day and night to repeat scenery you have seen; the Urgench flight returns the day for a modest fare.
- Buying train seats through agencies at a markup. They hold no earlier window than the portal; you pay more for the same release date.
- July and August afternoons outdoors. The desert cities regularly pass 40 degrees; this circuit is at its best in April, May, September and October.
Why this order
Tashkent opens the trip because it is the gateway and the gentlest introduction, and its own city page carries the depth. Samarkand comes before Bukhara because the Registan is the sight expectations are set by, and seeing it fresh beats seeing it tired. Bukhara gets the slow middle because it is a lived in old town rather than a set of monuments. Khiva is last because it is the far end of the line and the leg with the thinnest timetable, so putting it at the finish means one awkward booking rather than two. The flight back from Urgench, booked with the trains, is what makes a 10 day circuit fit 10 actual days.
Book the trip
Start with Uzbekistan, dates and travellers
Compare the travel services first, then use the itinerary below to plan each day.
- Flights
Choose your airports, travel dates and passenger count.
Search flights - Hotels
Search stays near the places in this route.
Search Booking.com - Activities
Check tours and tickets for the stops you want to keep.
Find activities
You book each service directly with its supplier. These separate bookings do not form a RoamWeek package.
Read next
- 3 days in Tashkent
The capital's own page, for the depth this circuit deliberately does not repeat.
- 7 days in Kyrgyzstan
The mountain half of a longer Central Asia run, one border east.
- 4 days in Almaty
The usual add on for anyone flying the region rather than one country.
What we checked
- Uzbekistan Railways read 31 August 2026
- Uzbekistan Railways e-ticket portal read 31 August 2026
- Uzbekistan Travel, national tourism portal read 31 August 2026
- Journal of Nomads, Uzbekistan trains guide read 31 August 2026
Why this page exists. This is the only RoamWeek route that tells you Afrosiyob tickets are released roughly 45 days before departure on the official portal and that the fast Khiva legs run only on certain days, which together decide the direction of the circuit.