Uzbekistan itinerary: 7, 10 or 14 days, day by day

How many days do you need in Uzbekistan?

Choose the length by the cities you want and by the airport you fly home from. Seven days give three cities, ten days add Khiva, and fourteen days keep the same four cities with more days off the train. Day 1 is the arrival day; the last day is the departure day.

• Count the days without a move, not only the nights. A day with an intercity train or an international flight is a travel day, however short the ride. The 7-day plan has 2 free days (days 3 and 5); the 10-day plan has 5 when you leave from Urgench (days 2, 4, 6, 7 and 9) and 4 when you return to Tashkent (days 2, 4, 6 and 8); the 14-day plan has 8.
• Fast trains do not remove the travel day. The Manguberdi spends 7 h 42 min between Tashkent and Khiva, and checkout, the ride to the station and the arrival transfer come on top.
• Seven days leave out Khiva and a second full day in Samarkand and Bukhara. If you dislike hotel changes, spend 2 nights in Tashkent, 3 in Samarkand and 1 back in Tashkent, and drop Bukhara.
• Ten days also make a slower three-city trip: 2 full days each in Samarkand and Bukhara and a museum day in Tashkent. Khiva is not compulsory.
• Fourteen days buy depth, not more cities: interiors, breaks and one excursion. A village stay, the Aral Sea or the Fergana Valley goes into the calendar first, and a city stay is cut to make room (longer trips).
• Travelling with children, in July heat or at a slow walking pace: keep consecutive nights in one hotel and drop optional visits before you drop rest. The month-by-month weather helps you pick the dates.
• West or east? Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva lie along one railway, so most trips run west and end with a flight from Urgench or the train back to Tashkent. If your flight lands in Urgench, the eastbound plan runs the same line the other way.
• Every plan here is shorter than the 30-day visa-free stay that citizens of the listed countries get, counted from each border crossing, and each hotel registers you at check-in. The rules for your passport are in visa and registration.

Uzbekistan in 7 days: Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara

Six nights and three trains, with the last night back in Tashkent so the ride home and the flight home fall on different days. Samarkand and Bukhara get one full day each. Khiva stays out, or comes in through the four-city variant in the last two rows.

• Day 2: an early Afrosiyob leaves the afternoon for Registan, whose three madrasahs (Ulugh Beg, Sher-Dor and Tilya-Kori) take longer inside than a photo from the square. If the train arrives late, move Gur-e Amir to day 3.
• Day 3: Bibi-Khanym was built in 1399–1404. Add one of Ulugh Beg’s Observatory (1428–1429, with a catalogue of 1,018 stars) or the Afrasiab site, not both.
• Day 4: add the ride from Buxoro-1 station into the old town; the 09:53 train still puts you at Lyabi Hauz by lunchtime.
• Day 6: the afternoon Afrosiyob keeps the Bukhara morning. The Manguberdi at 10:57 (not Mondays) reaches Tashkent at 15:12 if you want an afternoon in the capital.
• Late arrival on day 1: keep the nights and move the Tashkent walk to the evening of day 6. For two cities only, sleep Tashkent 2, Samarkand 3, Tashkent 1.
• Flying into Samarkand instead: Samarkand 3, Bukhara 2, Tashkent 1 drops the first train and gives two full days in Samarkand. The airport’s summer 2026 schedule lists 19 destinations.

Uzbekistan in 10 days: all four cities, Khiva last

Nine nights, four cities and a third night in Bukhara. This is the plan for a first trip that includes Khiva: two short Afrosiyob rides, the Manguberdi across the desert in 3 h 28 min, and a choice of exits on day 10.

• Day 1: the Tashkent airport guide covers the ride into town, cash and mobile data for the first evening.
• Day 2 belongs to the Islamic Civilization Center: half a day, and 425,000 som for a foreign adult with an audio guide (13 September 2026). Hazrat Imam and Chorsu follow if energy remains; the metro can wait for the evening of day 1.
• Days 3–4: from the 07:30 train you reach Registan before lunch. Day 4 groups Shah-i-Zinda, Bibi-Khanym and Siyob bazaar on foot; the observatory is a short taxi ride out. The Samarkand guide sets the order and the tickets.
• Days 5–7: the third Bukhara night buys a slow day. Sitorai Mohi Khosa, the last emir’s country residence and now a museum of applied arts with the ganch-decorated White Hall, fills a morning. This is also the night to cut first when the trip gets shorter; see the Bukhara guide.
• Day 8 is a travel day. The Manguberdi reaches Khiva at 14:42, in time for a first walk before dark; on a Sunday train 706 arrives at 20:25 and the walk moves to day 9. The Khiva guide covers the Ichan-Kala ticket.
• Day 10: Urgench airport is 35 km from Khiva, 35–45 minutes by taxi. The 07:10 Manguberdi suits an evening flight from Tashkent: it arrives at 15:12, every day except Monday.

Uzbekistan in 14 days: four cities at a slower pace

Thirteen nights split 2 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 2, four trains and 8 days without a train. Three nights in a city give an arrival evening and two full days; the extra time goes to interiors, breaks and one excursion, not to more cities.

• Day 2: Hazrat Imam stands on Qorasaroy Street in the old town, and Chorsu’s food, dried-fruit, spice and craft rows are a separate visit nearby; take a break between them.
• Days 3–5: arriving on day 3 leaves day 4 whole for Registan’s interiors. Day 5 pairs Shah-i-Zinda with one theme: archaeology and astronomy (Afrasiab’s 7th-century murals and Ulugh Beg’s Observatory) or more Timurid architecture at Bibi-Khanym.
• Day 8: choose between the old town at a slower pace and Sitorai Mohi Khosa outside it. The third night exists to lighten a day, not to fit two programmes into one.
• Day 11: stay in Khiva, or book a car for the desert fortresses: Ayaz Kala, a group of three forts north-east of Bustan, and Toprak Kala, a royal residence of the 2nd–3rd centuries in Ellikqala district. Distances and fees are in the Khiva guide.
• Day 12: if it falls on a Monday, fly from Urgench instead; no train leaves Khiva for Tashkent that day.
• Day 13: the Islamic Civilization Center, unless you saw it on day 2. For a flight just after midnight, the ride to the airport falls on the evening of day 13.
• Other exits, still 13 nights: leave from Urgench with Tashkent 2, Samarkand 4, Bukhara 4, Khiva 3; or land in Samarkand with Samarkand 4, Bukhara 3, Khiva 3, Tashkent 3.

Khiva first: six nights east from Urgench, without Tashkent

Fly into Urgench and travel east: Khiva 2, Bukhara 2, Samarkand 2. You never double back, the desert crossing is a daytime train, and the trip ends at Samarkand’s international airport or with a train to Tashkent.

• Getting to Urgench: connect at Tashkent airport onto a Tashkent–Urgench flight, or fly direct from Istanbul or Moscow. Turkish Airlines lands from Istanbul at 06:50 every day until 24 October, in time for the 08:40 airport train (25,000 som, once a day); five airlines fly from Moscow’s Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky in 3 h 20 min–4 h. At any other hour, book a taxi to your hotel’s exact address.
• Day 3: train 707 is an economy-only electric train, five carriages and 415 seats, and it leaves you the late afternoon in Bukhara. Buy Xiva to Buxoro-1 and add the ride into the old town.
• Day 5: no Afrosiyob leaves Bukhara for Samarkand in the morning except one at 03:34. The Manguberdi at 10:57 is the late-morning option; on Mondays take the 15:09 Afrosiyob and move Registan to day 6.
• Day 7: Samarkand airport’s summer 2026 schedule lists 19 destinations, among them Istanbul 13 times a week and four Moscow airports. For a flight from Tashkent, the Manguberdi (arrives 15:12, not Mondays) or an evening Afrosiyob (16:56–18:49 from Samarkand, 2 h 15 min–2 h 32 min) suits a night departure; if the flight leaves before noon, add a Tashkent night.
• Variants: add a third Khiva night for the desert fortresses. With only five nights, give Khiva one and take the 07:10 Manguberdi on day 2. Want Tashkent as well? Use the 10-day plan.
• Why end in Samarkand rather than Khiva: the departure day then holds a two-hour train or a short airport ride instead of a domestic flight, and you choose between two airports. The westbound version ends at Urgench, which has fewer international flights.
• Without a Tashkent stop, change money or use an ATM on arrival in Urgench or Khiva; the money guide covers cards and cash.

Longer trips: Nuratau, the Aral Sea, the Fergana Valley, Kyrgyzstan

Each extension adds or replaces whole nights. Decide which night it takes before you book anything; the linked pages hold the day-by-day plans.

• A yurt night instead of the Samarkand–Bukhara train: Samarkand to Nurata takes 3–3.5 h by car, then about an hour to a camp near Aydarkul; the camps run roughly April to October. See the yurt route by road.
• A spare Samarkand day fits Shahrisabz: about 90 km each way over the Takhtakaracha pass, 1.5–2 h by car; the pass closes in winter snow. See Shahrisabz from Samarkand.
• Nukus also has a daily night train from Tashkent Janubiy: train 054 leaves at 16:00 and arrives at 08:18, with an open-plan berth at 258,610 som (24 September 2026).
• We arrange the Kyrgyzstan days as part of an Uzbekistan trip, not on their own. For Kazakhstan and Tajikistan we give advice only; their 10-day combinations with Uzbekistan are in the Kazakhstan and Tajikistan guides.

Trains, flights and when to book

Three kinds of train carry every plan on this page, and all go on sale 60 days before departure at 10:00 Tashkent time on eticket.uzrailpass.uz. The fast trains sell out weeks ahead.

1. 1

   Fix the flights

   International flights first, then any domestic flight: Urgench, Samarkand or Nukus.

2. 2

   Buy the train that shapes the route

   The Khiva leg on the morning sales open, 60 days ahead at 10:00; then the Afrosiyob legs.

3. 3

   Book rooms around the trains

   Match each hotel night to a ticket you hold, and ask about early check-in after a 07:30 train.

4. 4

   Arrange the transfers

   Buxoro-1 station, Urgench airport and any fortress or village day need a car booked ahead.

• Afrosiyob: the Talgo high-speed train between Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Qarshi, leaving from Tashkent Markaziy (Central). Night trains to Khiva use Tashkent Janubiy (South), a different station. The tariff since 1 February 2026: Tashkent–Samarkand 311,000 som economy, 455,000 business, 709,000 VIP; Tashkent–Bukhara 509,000, 760,000 and 1,138,000. See the Afrosiyob guide.
• Jaloliddin Manguberdi: the Hyundai Rotem electric train to Khiva, in service since 5 May 2026, with a second trainset since 22 July. It stops at Samarkand, Bukhara and Urgench, each section is sold on its own, and the whole route costs 780,000 som in economy, 1,006,000 in business and 1,815,000 in VIP. See Tashkent to Khiva by train.
• Trains 706 and 707: economy-only electric trains between Buxoro-1 and Khiva since 9 September 2026, the backup when the Manguberdi is full.
• Sharq: slower seated trains on the Afrosiyob line, 3 h 09 min from Tashkent to Samarkand, at about two thirds of the price: 200,060 som in economy against 311,000. They are the first fallback when the Afrosiyob is sold out.
• Door to door, a two-hour train fills half a day: checkout, the ride to the station, the checkpoint, the ride itself and the transfer to the next hotel. Plan sightseeing around the arrival time, not the departure time.
• At the station: the railway’s terms ask you to show the ticket and the matching passport at the checkpoint at least 30 minutes before departure. Each ticket carries up to 36 kg of hand luggage; items over 180 cm in length, width and height combined are not allowed, and bags stay off the seats and out of the aisle.
• Sell-outs: on 27 September, every Afrosiyob from Tashkent to Samarkand for Wednesday 14 October was sold out, and so was every Samarkand–Bukhara Afrosiyob for 7 October; for 11 November the 07:30, 07:55 and 08:30 to Samarkand still had 49–74 economy seats each. On 24 September only 6 of 19 Manguberdi departures to Khiva up to 16 October had any seat left. Search again after 10:00 each day: returned and unpaid tickets come back on sale. The purchase steps are in how to buy tickets.
• Each ticket needs the passenger’s passport details. The railway’s purchase page lists national cards, Visa, Mastercard, Mir and UnionPay; for cards issued in Russia, see money.
• Stations and airports: Buxoro-1, Bukhara’s station, is in Kogon, outside the old town, so every Bukhara arrival needs a ride in. Uzbekistan Airways has sold domestic fares as brands with different baggage allowances since 1 April 2026, so compare flights with the bag included.

What the routes cost per person

Trains and the tourist tax are the costs that change from plan to plan. Rooms, meals and tickets depend on your choices; the trip-cost worksheet prices them line by line.

• The tourist tax is charged per person per night on a base amount of 440,000 som (from 1 September 2026): 22,000 som in hotels with up to 10 rooms, 44,000 with 11–40 rooms, 66,000 above 40 rooms and 8,800 in family guesthouses. Children under 16 pay nothing. Ask the hotel whether the room price already includes it.
• Business class adds 144,000 som on Tashkent–Samarkand (455,000) and 251,000 on Tashkent–Bukhara (760,000).
• Rooms and cars are priced per booking, trains and tickets per person: two people sharing split the room and the car, not the seats.
• For scale: a plate of wedding plov cost 53,000 som and a tomato-and-onion salad 17,500 at Kamolon Osh in Tashkent, and a metro or bus ride in Tashkent 1,700 som (13 September 2026). The money guide covers cash, cards and ATMs.

Common questions