Things to do in Uzbekistan

I was also considering visiting Uzbekistan last month but just don't have the time.  I think I am mainly going for the food and yes to look at the culture too.  Apparently the food is very nice and reasonably priced.   Night life should be interesting there but I am more for sightseeing.   

It's been a while since I've been there but... 

Khiva is beautiful, and different again from Bukhara and Samarkand. I went Khiva-Bukhara-Samarkand-Tashkent, and it felt like a natural progression, with each city getting larger, more cosmopolitan etc. And each city had something different about it - Khiva the old city walls are glorious; Bukhara has the covered market; Samarkand the walk of tombs, and so on. 

I know folks who went up to Moynaq and around to see what's left after the Aral Sea, but it's a looong way for not necessarily much reward, and there's less tourist infrastructure there (like, people speaking English, for example). For some reason I know the name Nukus, but don't know/ can't remember what's special about it. 

Obviously Tashkent is good; the underground/ metro stations there are absolutely glorious. And it's worth looking at the Fergana Valley; it's different again, lusher, more agricultural, and different things to see around the cotton and silk trades. 

Otherwise, I found the people to be fairly friendly and interested in tourists (Tashkent aside); getting around not particular tricky, with decent rail between Samarkand and Tashkent for example. The cops could be dodgy, in a half-hearted "we need to look in your bag, oooh, where's your passport gone, you'll need to pay us $50 to get it back" kinda way - it never felt particularly threatening, as long as you had an eye out and were alert to it; and I suspect that increased tourism has forced them to tidy up. 

We spent a few weeks there about 10 years back on our overland move from Oz to the UK. Tashkent was ok, useful base and some nice food but otherwise meh. Mostly caught sleeper train which were fantastic. We did the classic Bukhara, Samarkand, Khiva loop.  I think we both liked Bukhara the most.  Samarkand, the Registan etc is incredible but the city itself is a bit meh.  Khiva is properly lovely but maybe a bit more museum and less lived in than Bukhara.  One thing we did there which I totally recommend is get a driver out to the Eliq Khala, which are a bunch of ruined forts on the desert you can explore. 

I think the currency situation is less weird now, there was basically two exchange rates when we were there. A crap official one and a black market one that everyone used which was about 4x better.  Also taxis were regarded as dodgy but you could basically flag anyone down and negotiate a fare. We had some great rides around Tashkent via dropping someone's kids off at school etc. 

Eat plov and samsa...lovely. Try to find a Georgian restaurant too while you're out there.

There are mobile apps for taxis now - total game changer. Yandex Go (Russian-owned, so may be inaccessible now) and MyTaxi.

Thanks all, very useful - feels like our plan's a good starting point and there's some interesting stuff here we need to add in. 🙂 

Pretty well agree with the two long posts above. We had three weeks.

We did a trek in the mountains east of Tashkent and at Sentyab near lake aydar.we took the overnight train Tashkent to Khiva and then hopped back by train. The train was fabulous.

IMO Khiva (with the driver trip to the castles) and Bukhara were our favourites. The buildings in Samarkand are amazing but for a short trip I would skip. The town is more like a Disney wonderland. Not a lot in Tashkent except the wonderful underground stations.

Food is definitely hit and miss. An incredible Indian restaurant in Tashkent. Some great restaurants in Khiva and Bhukara. 

Some photos to wet your appetite https://photos.app.goo.gl/3fEz5yY86TGGNq7C7

Our treks were with Nuratau travel