Tashkent in one or two days: sights, metro and tickets

One day, two days or an arrival afternoon

Give Tashkent one full day for the old town, Chorsu bazaar, the metro and Amir Temur Square, and a second day if the Islamic Civilization Center or the State Museum of History matters to you. Each of the two big museums fills half a day: the Center sells 2-hour sessions, and the history museum reopened in July 2026 with 20 exhibition zones.

Count the day from the moment your bags are at the hotel. The airport is 7.4 km from Amir Temur Square, about 10 minutes by car without traffic, so a noon landing still leaves an afternoon. An evening arrival, a full day and a morning train need two hotel nights. Mondays shrink the museum choice: the Timurid museum and the State Museum of History are closed that day.

Tickets, hours and time needed at 11 sights

Prices are for a foreign adult, with the date we read them; the time needed is our estimate and leaves out travel. Hours come from the Visit Tashkent portal of the city administration, the museums and the ticket sellers. Where the ticket cell says the price is not published, the city portal gave none on 27 September 2026.

Two days, block by block

Day 1 runs west to east, from the old town to the centre, so the metro carries you back towards the hotels. Day 2 starts with a booked Civilization Center session. If day 2 falls on a Monday, swap the State Museum of History for the TV tower (10:00–20:00) or the Minor mosque (05:00–19:00).

Hazrati Imam is the old town’s religious centre

Hazrati Imam, also written Khast Imam, grew around the tomb of Abu Bakr Kaffal Shashi, Tashkent’s first imam, born in the city in 903 and counted a follower of the scholars al-Bukhari and al-Tirmidhi. The square holds the Friday mosque, the Barak Khan madrasa, the Tilla Sheikh mosque and the Muyi Muborak madrasa, on Qorasaroy Street in the Olmazor district. The mosque is open around the clock and the Muyi Muborak madrasa from 09:00 to 17:00; no entry fee is published for the square.

The square was closed for restoration in 2025. By February 2026 it was open again with its buildings in use, and the Muyi Muborak madrasa now shows a copy of the Uthman Quran: the original moved to the Islamic Civilization Center, 300 m away. Guidebooks that send you to the madrasa library for the manuscript describe the arrangement before 2026.

The mosque and the madrasas are places of worship, so dress as for any mosque, with shoulders and knees covered (dress code), and stay out of the prayer hall at prayer times. Chorsu bazaar is a 1.8 km walk, and the city’s own old-town walk links Hazrati Imam, its madrasas and the bazaar in 2.5 km and 2.5–3 hours.

The Islamic Civilization Center needs its own two hours

The Center opened on 17 March 2026 beside Hazrati Imam and tells the region’s history from pre-Islamic Sogdiana to the present, around a Quran Hall that holds the Uthman Quran. The standard ticket buys a 2-hour group session with an English or Russian audio guide: 425,000 som for a foreign adult. An individual ticket at 660,000 som lets you stay until the 22:00 closing, and a live guide costs 480,000 som per group of up to 10.

The route opens in the Hall of Glory, with 14 arches on the region’s history and touch screens that bring up avatars of more than 100 scholars. The Sogdiana sector covers the pre-Islamic past, and the Timurid rooms prepare you for Samarkand.

Book a session on iTicket, arrive 15–20 minutes early and enter within the first 30 minutes, or the ticket lapses without a refund. Shorts and revealing clothes are not allowed. Every hall, every ticket type and the cheapest way to add a guide are in the Islamic Civilization Center guide.

Chorsu bazaar and the Kukeldash madrasa

Chorsu is the old town’s market, under a blue-tiled dome completed in 1990 that UNESCO inscribed with Tashkent’s modernist buildings in July 2026. It opens 09:00–18:00, next to Chorsu metro station. Under the dome you find dairy (kurt, suzma), meat and spices; the open-air cooked-food row serves naryn, khanum, kazy and shashlik; the craft rows sell ceramics, engraved knives and atlas and adras fabrics.

Ask the price per kilo or per piece before anything is weighed or wrapped, and pay in som; the money guide covers cards and cash. For a seated lunch, pick a stall with tables in the cooked-food row, and ask before you photograph a stallholder.

The Kukeldash madrasa stands 400 m from the bazaar, a 6-minute walk. The vizier Darvish Khan, called Kukeldash, founded it in the 16th century, and its yellow-brick portal rises about 20 m. Since the 1990s it has worked again as a madrasa, with classes and Friday prayers, so visitors see the courtyard and facades from 08:00 to 18:00 and the rooms only with permission. The Khoja Ahror Vali mosque is also by the bazaar.

Amir Temur Square and three museums

Amir Temur Square is the centre of the newer city: the equestrian statue of Timur stands in a park, with the 1974 Hotel Uzbekistan and the Palace of Forums around it. The city’s walking route through the square and its alleys covers 2–2.5 km in 2–3 hours, and Amir Temur xiyoboni and Yunus Rajabiy metro stations are at its edge.

The State Museum of the History of the Timurids, 400 m from the statue, opened in 1996 for the 660th anniversary of Timur’s birth. Its round, three-storey domed building holds more than 3,000 exhibits and an 8.5 m crystal chandelier with 106,000 pendants. It opens 10:00–18:00 and closes on Mondays.

The State Museum of History of Uzbekistan, founded in 1876, reopened in July 2026 after a two-year reconstruction, with 20 exhibition zones instead of 9 and more than 350,000 items; a 1st-century Buddha from Surkhandarya is among them. A foreign visitor pays 100,000 som, and a tour in Uzbek, Russian or English costs 100,000 som per group of up to 5. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–18:00, at 3 Sharof Rashidov Street, 1 km from Amir Temur Square and 600 m from Mustaqillik maydoni station; the rebuilt museum has ramps and lifts.

The Museum of Applied Arts grew out of a 1937 crafts exhibition and holds more than 10,000 pieces: ceramics, embroidery, wood carving, embossed metal, jewellery and weaving. It opens 09:00–18:00 at 15a Rakatboshi Street, 1 km on foot from Kosmonavtlar station. Choose it over the history museum if crafts interest you more than archaeology.

North of the centre, the Minor mosque opened in 2014: white marble, two 43 m minarets, a 36 m dome and 2,400 places in the main hall, with a separate hall for women. It is open 05:00–19:00, 1.2 km on foot from Bodomzor metro station.

Metro stations and Soviet modernism

Tashkent began building its metro in 1973 and opened the first line, nine stations of the Chilonzor line, in 1977. Four lines run today: Chilonzor (red, 17 stations), Oʻzbekiston (blue, 11), Yunusobod (green, 8) and the above-ground Circle line (14). Each underground station has its own decoration, and the city’s metro route covers the showpieces in 1.5–2 hours.

Ride the Oʻzbekiston line from Chorsu. Two stops on, Alisher Navoiy has domed vaults and panels drawn from Navoi’s poems; two stops further, Kosmonavtlar is a deep-blue, space-themed hall with glass columns and portraits of cosmonauts and scholars. At Alisher Navoiy you can cross to Paxtakor, with its cotton mosaics, and ride one stop to Mustaqillik maydoni for white marble and glass. Toshkent station, by the main railway station, is dedicated to the city’s history.

Much of the centre was rebuilt after the 1966 earthquake, and on 26 July 2026 UNESCO inscribed ten buildings of Tashkent modernism on the World Heritage List, nine of them in central Tashkent. Two are on this page’s routes: the Chorsu bazaar dome and Kosmonavtlar station. The State Circus, still a working circus, the Palace of Friendship of Peoples (1981) and the former Panorama cinema, which sells concerts through iTicket until December 2026, are seen from outside or during a show.

Hotel Uzbekistan (1974) is not part of the listing; the city’s Retro Tashkent walk pairs it with Kosmonavtlar station, the 1970s Blue Domes alley and the TsUM department store, 2–2.5 km in 2–3 hours. The Tashkent TV Tower, completed in 1985, is 375 m tall, with a viewing deck at about 100 m and a revolving restaurant at 110 m. It opens 10:00–20:00, near Bodomzor and Shahriston metro stations.

Getting around: metro, buses and Yandex Go

Tashkent is spread out: Chorsu is 5.8 km by road from Amir Temur Square and the Civilization Center 7.3 km, so plan one area per half day and link the areas by metro or taxi. The metro is the fastest way across the centre. A ride costs 1,700 som by transport card or contactless bank card and 3,000 som with a QR ticket (September 2026 fares). The Chilonzor, Oʻzbekiston and Yunusobod lines run 05:00–00:00 and the Circle line 05:00–23:00. Transport cards are sold at station ticket windows without ID, and each card is for one passenger.

City buses charge the same fares but have taken no cash on board since 1 January 2025: pay by card, or buy a QR ticket at a kiosk before boarding. Buses 40 and 67 stop at the airport; the airport arrival guide covers that stop, the taxi rank and the ride to a train.

Yandex Go works across the city. On its published Start rates, valid to 29 September 2026, a ride costs a minimum of 4,600 som, then up to 1,050 som per km and 500 som per minute; waiting is free for 2 minutes, then up to 650 som a minute. Those are maximums before the surge coefficients the app adds at busy times, and a distant pickup is charged on top. At the airport, licensed taxis and Yandex Go pick up in lane 1 outside arrivals, and the airport’s official carriers quote city fares from 50,000 som (December 2025).

The table compares the trips you are most likely to make. Taxi fares are our calculation from the rates above: the low figure assumes free-flowing traffic, the high one twice the driving time.

Where to stay: pick the area by your first and last journey

For a short stay, choose the area by your onward train and by the sights you want on foot. Around Amir Temur Square the Chilonzor and Yunusobod lines meet and the museums are a walk away. The old town puts Chorsu and Hazrati Imam on your doorstep but lies 9.2 km from Tashkent Central. Tashkent City, by Paxtakor and Alisher Navoiy stations, has the Hilton Tashkent City hotel and a mall open until 23:00, two metro stops from Chorsu. The streets around the Central station suit a 06:10 or 07:30 Afrosiyob.

Landing in the morning, ask the hotel in advance for luggage storage and an early check-in.

Trains out leave from Central or South station

Tashkent has two long-distance stations, 9.6 km apart by road. The Afrosiyob, Sharq, Nasaf and Jaloliddin Manguberdi trains leave from Tashkent Central (Toshkent-Yoʻlovchi), a 400 m walk from Toshkent metro station on the Oʻzbekiston line. Train 054 and the night trains that start in Tashkent leave from Tashkent South, which has no metro station within walking distance. The ticket names the station.

Tickets go on sale 60 days ahead at 10:00 Tashkent time, and in late September 2026 the morning Afrosiyob trains to Samarkand were sold out about four weeks ahead. The Tashkent–Samarkand guide lists every train, and the Afrosiyob guide covers classes and booking.

For a day in the mountains, the express train leaves Tashkent South at 08:47, calls at Tashkent Central at 08:55 and reaches Chinorkent at 10:33, for 30,000 som in cash; minibus 324 (10,000 som) runs on to Amirsoy, Chimgan and the Charvak shore. The last trains back leave Chinorkent at 14:19 and Khodjikent at 16:12 (September 2026), and the Amirsoy gondola costs 115,000 som return on weekdays. The Chimgan and Charvak guide has the whole day, and the Fergana Valley needs two or three days of its own.

Flights leave from two separate terminals: international flights from Terminal 2 and domestic flights from Terminal 3. Uzbekistan Airways closes check-in 30 minutes before domestic and 1 hour before international departures (May 2024 notice). Samarkand is about 1 hour away by air, with 11 direct flights a week in September 2026, but with the ride to the airport and check-in the Afrosiyob is faster door to door.

Six things that trip up a Tashkent day

• Mondays: the Timurid museum and the State Museum of History are closed, so put the museums on Tuesday to Sunday.
• Two stations: Tashkent Central and Tashkent South are 9.6 km apart, and Toshkent metro station serves only Central. Read the station on your ticket before you order a taxi.
• The Civilization Center admits you only in the first 30 minutes of your session, and tickets are not refunded: book a morning slot on a day without a flight or train.
• Fares: a rise to 2,500 som a ride by card from 1 October 2026 went to public discussion in September; by 27 September no adopted decision had been published.
• Yandex Go’s published rates are maximums before surge pricing, and a distant pickup costs extra. At Chorsu and Hazrati Imam, set the pin on the gate you want, because one name covers several entrances.
• Kukeldash and the Hazrati Imam mosque hold Friday prayers: visit the courtyards outside prayer times, and enter Kukeldash’s rooms only with permission.

Common questions