Chimgan, Charvak and Amirsoy from Tashkent: getting there

Chimgan, Charvak and Amirsoy: three parts of one mountain district

They are three parts of Bostanliq district, north-east of Tashkent, and since March 2026 one minibus loop links them. Charvak is the reservoir, with the beaches and most of the resort hotels on its shore. Chimgan (Chimyon in Uzbek) is the village and mountain massif above it, with Beldersay next door. Amirsoy is the all-season resort with two gondolas and ski runs on the northern slopes of Mount Maygashkan.

By road from central Tashkent it is 74 km to Charvak town and 89 km to Chimgan village, on OpenStreetMap routing; Amirsoy quotes 65 km from the city, and an aviasales.uz guide updated on 28 May 2026 allows 1.5–2 hours to the Charvak shore. The highest summit, Greater Chimgan, is 3,309 m, according to the national tourism portal.

The railway ends at Chinorkent, a station opened on 22 January 2025 on a 1.5 km extension past Khodjikent, near the town of Charvak. The minibuses start there.

How to get there from Tashkent without a tour

Take the express electric train to Chinorkent and change to minibus 324. It is the cheapest way up: the train costs 30,000 som in cash, and one 10,000-som minibus fare covers the whole mountain loop, which has run since 21 March 2026. The train times come from the Tashtrans suburban timetable of 8 September 2026, still the current edition on 27 September, and the fares from its September 2026 fare table.

The express calls at Tashkent Central (also called North) at 08:55 and 12:36, then Salar, Kibray, Chirchik, Gazalkent and Khodjikent. You pay the conductor on board in cash, by bank card or with an ATTO transport card, and card payment is 500 som cheaper. Express tickets are also sold online at elektropoyezd.uz, for the current day only. Tashkent South and Tashkent Central are different stations, so board at the one nearer your hotel.

Minibus 324 leaves Chinorkent station and runs via Qoranqul, the Pana hotel, Amirsoy, Tibet, Beldersay, Chimgan, Sevarsoy, Layner, Piramida and Bochka back to Beldersay; 325 runs the loop the other way and returns to Chinorkent. The operator, Toshshahartransxizmat, announced 16-seat air-conditioned Ford minibuses, 10,000 som in cash or by card, daily from 06:00 every 15 minutes and about 40 minutes to the destination. A report of 27 August 2026 gives ordinary-day hours of 06:00–18:30 with 20 minibuses, and holiday service on 29 August–1 September from 05:30 every 10 minutes until about 22:00; it numbers the routes 324M and 325M.

A day trip by train and minibus: the times that work

Leave on the 08:47 express and be back at Chinorkent for the 14:19 express, or at Khodjikent for the 16:12 regular train. In the September 2026 timetable these are the last two trains to Tashkent; nothing runs back in the evening.

If you miss both, you need a car. A traveller paid 50,000 som for a taxi from Amirsoy to Gazalkent in May 2026, and the 16:12 train calls at Gazalkent at 16:34. For the gondola, the lake and a meal together, an overnight stay is simpler than a day trip.

1. 1

   08:47 Tashkent South (08:55 Tashkent Central)

   Express train 7201 to Chinorkent, arriving 10:33.

2. 2

   About 10:40, Chinorkent station

   Minibus 324, about 40 minutes of travel by the operator's figure; Amirsoy comes after Qoranqul and the Pana hotel, and the Charvak shore stops come at the end of the loop.

3. 3

   Middle of the day

   Gondola, lake or a walk. Sightseeing tickets at Amirsoy are sold until 17:00.

4. 4

   14:19, Chinorkent

   Express 7204 to Tashkent, arriving at Tashkent South at 15:52. It calls at Gazalkent at 14:45.

5. 5

   Or 16:12, Khodjikent

   Regular train 6436, arriving at Tashkent South at 18:23. Khodjikent is one stop before Chinorkent, about 15 minutes' walk from the Chinorkent cable car by a traveller's account.

Charvak: where and when to swim

Swim from the end of May: the water warms to 23–25 °C in summer, according to an aviasales.uz guide updated on 28 May 2026. It names the 800-metre beach at the Piramids resort and the White Sands beach, and points to Brichmulla and Sidjak for wilder, quieter shores.

Weekends are crowded, so the same guide suggests a weekday. It mentions boat and jet-ski hire and paragliding but gives no beach prices. Minibus 324/325 stops at Piramida and Bochka on the shore, so the lake and the gondola fit into one loop. Why the mountains help in July and August: summer in Uzbekistan.

Charvak is a reservoir on the Chirchik River, below the point where the Pskem and Chatkal rivers meet. CAWater-Info gives its area as 40.1 km² and its capacity as up to 2,006 million m³, behind a 168 m rock-fill dam built from 1963 to 1972. Uzbekistan is one of only two doubly landlocked countries, with Liechtenstein: none of its five neighbours has a sea coast either.

Where to stay, and what a room costs

Places to stay are mostly resort hotels and rest zones (oromgoh in Uzbek): in Afisha's list, rooms start at about 600,000 som a night in Chimgan and pass 2 million som in the chalets. The table uses Afisha's summer-2026 round-up of resorts in Tashkent region, with prices valid on 25 March 2026, per room per night. It is a price snapshot for choosing a level, not a ranking.

Resorts also run their own offers, and Afisha publishes a winter edition each December; for a ski trip, use that one.

What the Amirsoy and Chinorkent cable cars cost

A return ride on Amirsoy's main gondola costs 115,000 som on weekdays and 135,000 som at weekends for adults aged 14 and over, on the resort's tariff page re-read on 27 September 2026. You do not need to ski: these are sightseeing tickets, single-use paper tickets with a barcode, or an e-ticket on your phone if bought online. Children under 4 ride free.

The same page gives summer gondola hours of 08:00–19:00 and winter hours of 08:00–16:00 for skiers and 08:00–17:00 for walkers, while its ticket table says 09:00–17:00; plan around the ticket hours. The lower car park is free; the upper one costs 150,000 som on weekdays and 200,000 som at weekends from 08:30 to 17:00, and nothing after 17:00. Cyclists buy a bike pass: 180,000 som for Prima, or 260,000 som for the Express and Prima together.

The resort warns that bad weather changes lift times without notice; on 24 September 2026 its daily post listed both gondolas, Amirsoy Express and Prima, as running. The Chinorkent cable car in Khodjikent is a separate, shorter outing at the end of the railway, with views over the Charvak reservoir; its cabins are built by Doppelmayr, and its site gives daily hours of 10:00–22:00, weather permitting.

Skiing at Amirsoy, Chimgan and Beldersay

The season runs from late December to mid-March, according to the national tourism portal, which names February as the month for skiing. Last winter Amirsoy had part of its runs ready on 19 December 2025, held its official opening on 27 December and was still skiing in March 2026.

Amirsoy publishes 15 km of runs over 660 m of vertical, served by the Amirsoy Express and Prima gondolas (2,913 m and 2,193 m long), the Chalet Express chairlift (686 m) and carpet lifts for beginners. The top station is at 2,290 m, the longest run, Papa, is 3,550 m long, and the resort says its snowmaking gives a season of up to 100–120 days.

Ski passes for winter 2026–27 were still unpublished on 27 September 2026: the tariff page showed summer sightseeing and bike tickets only. Ski-pass prices from earlier seasons found online are out of date, so they are not repeated here.

The same portal lists Chimgan and Beldersay as ski areas next to Amirsoy, but neither publishes an official tariff, lift status or opening date, so a ski trip based there starts with a call to your hotel. Over the New Year holidays the road fills up: on 2 January 2026 the Interior Ministry's road-safety service made the 4R6 Tashkent–Chirchik–Chimgan road one-way from km 57 to km 92. New Year in the cities is covered in winter in Uzbekistan; for skiing across the border above Almaty, see Shymbulak and Medeu.

Walking: the foothills without a permit, Greater Chimgan with a guide

The national tourism portal says no special permit is needed to visit Chimgan, Beldersay, Khodjikent and the Parkent foothills. These places lie in the Ugam-Chatkal national park, set up in 1990 and covering 574,000 hectares of Bostanliq, Parkent and Ohangaron districts; since 2016 it has been part of the Western Tien Shan World Heritage property. No official visitor fee is published.

Greater Chimgan (3,309 m) is a full mountain day with no official route description, so go with a local mountain guide; independent or guided weighs the two. Longer treks, such as the Pskem and Ugam valleys, are outside this page.

If you would rather stay near the lifts, Amirsoy's daily post of 24 September 2026 listed a rope park, quad bikes, archery, a roller rink and bike trails, open 09:00–18:00 that day.

Chimgan, Charvak and Amirsoy by season

Winter is for skiing, summer for the lake, and spring and autumn for walks and gondola views without the crowds. For the rest of Uzbekistan in those seasons, see spring and autumn.

What goes wrong

• The last train leaves early. The last express leaves Chinorkent at 14:19 and the last regular train leaves Khodjikent at 16:12; after that you need a taxi.
• Minibus frequency is disputed. The operator announced a minibus every 15 minutes in March 2026, but a traveller wrote in May 2026 that the 324/325 minibuses 'run rarely' and were hard to stop on the way back. Before you go, call the Toshshahartransxizmat call centre on 1062 from an Uzbek number.
• Bus 1226 is seasonal. Tashtrans marked the Mashinasozlar–Charvak bus as closed on 14 September 2026, so do not plan on it in autumn or winter.
• Weekends and holidays are busy. The aviasales.uz guide suggests weekdays for Charvak, and at New Year 2026 the mountain road became one-way to cope with traffic.
• Lifts depend on the weather. Amirsoy and Chinorkent both run their cable cars only when conditions allow, and Amirsoy closed completely on 7–8 June 2026 for maintenance.
• Building work on the east shore. The Sea Breeze Uzbekistan project covers about 577 ha between Yakkatut and Boladala, with about 7 km of shoreline, built in phases over 10 years; its first phase was approved on conditions in April 2026.

Common questions