Fergana Valley in 2–3 days: Kokand, Rishtan and Margilan

Two days with one night, or three days with two

Since 1 October 2026 you no longer need to arrive the evening before. The morning train 730 reaches Kokand at 10:26 and train 729 leaves Margilan for Tashkent at 16:13, so two days and one night cover Kokand’s palace and mosque, one pottery workshop in Rishtan and the Yodgorlik silk factory in Margilan. Three days and two nights give pottery and silk a day each, with room for a class, the Kumtepa market or an evening in Fergana.

A fourth day adds Andijan, 74 km east of Fergana, or the knife and skullcap workshops of Chust. Andijan is also the town for the crossing to Osh in Kyrgyzstan. Book the hotel nights around the trains: the first night is in Kokand, the second in Margilan or Fergana.

Choose three days if you want to work at a potter’s wheel yourself, talk textiles at length, or travel with children, who tire of back-to-back workshops. Choose two if crafts are one interest among several and a spare day matters more in Tashkent or Samarkand.

Six towns, 230–350 km from Tashkent, in route order

The route runs west to east. Kokand, the old capital of the Kokand khanate, sits at the western entrance of the valley, 232 km from Tashkent by road. Rishtan, the pottery town, lies between Kokand and Fergana. Margilan, the silk town, has the station for the trains home, and Fergana city, 13 km from Margilan, has most of the hotels. Andijan is the last stop of the line, 74 km beyond Fergana towards the Kyrgyz border.

The drives between the towns are short. Kokand to Rishtan is 41 km, Rishtan to Margilan 48 km and Fergana to Andijan 74 km, each 30–65 minutes by car on OpenStreetMap routing. Chust lies apart on the north side of the valley, 79 km from Kokand and 21 km from Pop, where train 730 calls at 09:56.

Fergana city, Fergana Region and the Fergana Valley are different things. The city is the capital of one of three Uzbek regions in the valley, with Andijan and Namangan; the rest of the valley belongs to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Train or car from Tashkent: 3 h 06 min on train 730, 232 km by road

Take the train unless you want to stop on the pass. Train 730, a high-speed electric train that entered service in September 2026, runs daily from Tashkent Central at 07:20 and calls at Pop, Kokand, Margilan and Andijan; its return, 729, leaves Andijan at 15:33. The sleepers 126 and 130 start from Tashkent South, take one to two hours longer to Kokand and cost less: an open-plan berth is 136,100 som against 213,180 for a seat on 730. The evening pair, 732 out and 731 back, runs four days a week.

The line crosses the mountains in a 19.2 km tunnel on the electrified Angren–Pop railway, so the train never climbs the road pass. Trains 730 and 732 have seats only; the sleepers have open-plan berths (platskart) and four-berth compartments (kupe). Tickets go on sale 60 days before departure at 10:00 Tashkent time, and the railway’s booking site takes Visa and Mastercard; buying train tickets walks through the steps.

By road, Kokand is 232 km from central Tashkent on the A373, which climbs over the Kamchik pass. OpenStreetMap routing gives 3 h 10 min of driving, and a January 2026 guide on aviasales.uz allows 3.5–4 hours and puts a shared-taxi seat at 250,000–350,000 som in winter. The pass is prepared for winter every year: on 11 August 2026 the Ministry of Mining Industry and Geology met on hazardous geological processes along the A373 and the Angren–Pop railway. A private car suits groups, heavy luggage and anyone going straight to Rishtan.

Two days, one night: Kokand, then Rishtan and Margilan

Day 1 needs only the train and short taxi rides in Kokand. Day 2 needs a car and driver from the Kokand hotel to Margilan station, with both workshop times booked and your luggage in the boot, so you check out once. Give the driver both workshop addresses and the train time in advance, and agree whether waiting time is included. A driver is not a guide: if you want the crafts explained in English, add a guide or interpreter. The visit lengths below are our planning allowances.

• More time on day 2: take a later sleeper from Margilan, 125 at 16:43 every day or 129 at 17:33 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, arriving at Tashkent South at 21:45 and 22:27. On Saturdays the 17:33 service runs as train 093 to Tashkent Central.
• A slower first day: take train 732 from Tashkent Central at 17:50 on a Wednesday to Saturday, sleep in Kokand from 22:12 and start at the palace the next morning. That adds one hotel night.
• A pottery class does not fit into day 2: making something yourself takes most of a morning, so it belongs to the three-day plan.

Three days, two nights: pottery one day, silk the next

Put day 3 on a Thursday or Sunday for Kumtepa, the market about 5 km from Margilan that trades only on those two days. Yodgorlik and the market together fill a morning, and the 16:13 train leaves time for lunch.

For Osh, end the trip in Andijan instead: a car covers Margilan to Andijan, 75 km, in about 70 minutes, and the Dostuk border post lies beyond. Travellers heading back west can take train 729 from Andijan at 15:33.

The extra day pays off at the workshops. You can stay longer with one potter, compare two silk workshops, or take a class without watching the clock. It is also the plan to choose when two workshop slots will not fit into one day.

Linking the valley with Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva

The valley does not have to be a return trip from Tashkent. The long-distance sleepers run through Tashkent South without a change: train 125 leaves Margilan at 16:43 and reaches Samarkand at 02:21, Bukhara at 06:28 and, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, Khiva at 13:26 the next day. Train 126 runs the other way, from Bukhara at 21:55 or Samarkand at 01:30 to Kokand at 11:12.

The most useful of these is the evening sleeper from Margilan to Bukhara: 13 h 45 min overnight, arriving at 06:28, which saves a day of backtracking through Tashkent. The Samarkand times fall in the small hours, so most travellers pair the valley with Tashkent and take the Afrosiyob west from there; Tashkent to Samarkand by train has that timetable.

In a 10- or 14-day trip, put the valley at the start or the end, next to Tashkent: the itinerary guide shows how the extension joins the classic route. The two-week Central Asia route crosses the valley from Margilan to Osh.

Kokand: the khan’s palace, a 98-column mosque and the royal tombs

Start at the palace that Khudoyar Khan built in 1871. The national tourism portal counts Rishtan craftsmen among its decorators, so the tilework on the facade previews the next day’s pottery; inside, look for carved doors, painted ceilings and ganch plaster. Only a fraction of the palace survives, and the local history museum fills it.

The Jome Mosque, also called the Juma Mosque, was built in 1819–1822. Its iwan rests on 98 wooden columns: compare the carving on the columns with the painted ceiling above them. Dakhmai Shakhon, the burial complex of Kokand’s rulers, adds a glazed portal and carved wood; follow local instructions near the graves and before taking photos.

The three sites are spread across town, so take short taxi rides between them. Dress for mosques and conservative streets: the valley is the most conservative part of the country, and what to wear gives the rules of thumb.

Rishtan: blue and turquoise pottery, 41 km from Kokand

Rishtan pottery is known for its blue and turquoise glazes and for skills passed from master to apprentice. The national tourism portal names two places to start, the Hunarmand crafts centre and a museum of traditional Rishtan pottery, and the state news agency UzA has written about masters such as Rustam Usmanov and his family workshop. Book a named host with a map pin rather than just the town.

Choose the format before you book. A shop visit means time to see and buy finished pieces. A demonstration means a potter shows you throwing, painting or glazing. A class means you make something yourself; the piece is fired after you leave, so agree collection or shipping, and its price, before you start.

At the workshop, start with the object itself: compare a bowl’s shape, its painted pattern and the finished glaze, and ask the maker which stages were done there. Prices are modest: in January 2026 an aviasales.uz guide found small bowls (piyola) at 50,000–80,000 som and a large hand-made plate (lagan) at about 200,000 som. Find out whether a piece is made for food or for display, and have it packed for the road.

Without a car, a shared taxi from Kokand costs 50,000–60,000 som a person and takes about an hour, according to the same guide.

Margilan: Yodgorlik silk and the Kumtepa market

Yodgorlik, founded in 1972, still weaves atlas and adras mostly by hand. The national tourism portal puts its output at up to 6,000 metres of cloth a month and says most of the staff are women. The visit follows the silk from cocoons to finished cloth; the factory publishes no hours or fee, so book a time. Allow 60–90 minutes for the tour.

Khan-atlas, the classic Margilan ikat, is made by wrapping and dyeing the threads again and again before weaving, so the pattern exists in the threads before the cloth does. Ask to see tied threads and a finished length side by side.

In 2017 UNESCO added the Margilan Crafts Development Centre’s programme for safeguarding atlas and adras weaving to its Register of Good Safeguarding Practices. The centre is a separate institution from Yodgorlik.

Kumtepa, about 5 km from Margilan, is a market that trades on Thursdays and Sundays only, with cloth, produce and everyday goods. When buying fabric, agree the fibre, the width and the price per metre before the length is cut.

Fergana, Andijan and Chust: the other three towns

Fergana city, 13 km from Margilan, is the regional capital and the easiest place to find a hotel. It was founded in the 19th century and has a leafy centre; Central Park and the monument to Al-Fargani, the ninth-century astronomer, make an easy evening after the workshops.

Andijan, 352 km from Tashkent, is the end of the line: train 730 arrives at 11:42 and train 729 leaves at 15:33. The Babur memorial park on Bogishamol and its museum recall Babur, founder of the Mughal dynasty and author of the Baburnama, who was born in the city. Jahon bazaar is open every day and busiest on Thursdays and Sundays.

Chust, 79 km from Kokand on the north side of the valley, makes knives and embroidered doppi skullcaps in workshops where the skills pass from one generation to the next. It fits a half day on the drive from Pop, or from Namangan, 284 km from Tashkent.

Where to stay: Kokand for the first night, then Margilan or Fergana

Two bases work better than one. You sleep in Kokand, move on once with your luggage and finish near Margilan station; a single base means driving the 89 km between Kokand and Margilan twice. In Kokand, the January 2026 aviasales.uz guide found budget rooms at 350,000–450,000 som a night and upper-range hotels from 600,000 som.

When to go: spring and autumn beat the July heat and winter smog

Summer in the valley is hot even by Uzbek standards. July 2026 set new station records in all three valley regions: Fergana 43.9 °C, beating 42.2 °C from 1944, Namangan 44.2 °C and Andijan 43.0 °C, according to Uzhydromet. In a normal August the valley reaches 40 °C only once in 5 to 10 years; the month-by-month picture is in the summer section of our seasons guide.

Winter brings air pollution: the UK Foreign Office names November to February as the risk period, with Tashkent and the Fergana Valley most affected. The road over the Kamchik pass is a mountain road in snow, while the train runs through the tunnel.

Time the craft day to the markets: Kumtepa trades on Thursdays and Sundays only, and Andijan’s Jahon bazaar is busiest on the same days. Margilan’s Atlas Bayrami textile festival has been held every two years since 2015; its sixth edition ran on 19–21 September 2024. For the milder months, see spring and autumn in our seasons guide.

What it costs: trains, taxis, rooms and pottery

Carry som in cash for taxis, markets and small workshops; money in Uzbekistan covers cards, ATMs and exchange. The table collects the prices on this page with their dates, so you can budget the whole valley in one place.

What goes wrong in the Fergana Valley

• Two Tashkent stations. Trains 730, 729, 732 and 731 use Tashkent Central; the sleepers 126, 125, 130 and 129 use Tashkent South. Check the station on your ticket before you order the taxi; stations explains the difference.
• No train to Fergana city. None of the Tashkent trains calls at either Fergana station, so a Fergana hotel adds a 13 km transfer to Margilan station at both ends.
• The craft day needs a car. Rishtan is 41 km from Kokand by road, and short train hops are dear: Kokand to Margilan costs 136,200 som on train 730 for a 33-minute ride.
• No published hours or prices. Kokand’s monuments, Yodgorlik and the Rishtan studios have no online tariffs, and potters and weavers work to orders; book each visit for a time and carry cash.
• Heat from June to August. Do the Kokand sights before 11:00 and the workshops in the afternoon; Fergana reached 43.9 °C in July 2026.
• Late arrivals. The evening train 732 reaches Kokand at 22:12 and Andijan at 23:53; book a hotel with late check-in and a pickup at the station.

Common questions