The Silk Road cities sit in an almost straight line across the country, and the high speed train is how everybody moves between them. That single fact decides the shape of a trip here. Seats are released in bulk some weeks before departure, sell quickly in the busy months, and disappear on the popular mid morning departures first, while the hotels in the same cities still have plenty of rooms. Sources disagree on exactly how far ahead the window opens, somewhere between one and two months, so the safe approach is to look at the railway's own site the moment your dates are fixed and book the trains before anything else. Everything else on this trip can be arranged later. The trains cannot.
Entry is unusually easy for the region. More than ninety nationalities, including American, British, Australian and all European Union passports, enter without a visa for a stay of around a month, and the rest apply for an electronic visa that takes a few working days. The one piece of paperwork that surprises people is registration: visitors must be registered at their accommodation within three days of arrival, hotels and guesthouses do it automatically and hand over a small slip, and anyone staying in a private apartment needs the host to register them through the government portal. Keep every slip until you have left the country, because they are occasionally asked for. Compare flight and hotel prices for Uzbekistan once the train seats are held, not before.
The cities themselves are the reason to come and each has a different character. Samarkand is the spectacular one, with the three great facades of the Registan facing each other across a square, the ribbed dome over Timur's tomb and the corridor of tiled mausoleums at Shah-i-Zinda. Bukhara is the atmospheric one, a compact old town you can walk in an afternoon, built around a pool shaded by mulberry trees and a minaret that Genghis Khan reportedly left standing. Khiva is the museum piece, a small walled town where the entire centre is the monument. Tashkent is the modern counterweight, with an enormous produce market and a metro built as an underground gallery. And far to the west, Nukus holds a collection of banned Soviet avant garde painting that has no business being in the desert.
Where you sleep changes the evenings more than the days. Samarkand has boutique hotels and family guesthouses in the old lanes behind the Registan, close enough to walk back after the monuments are lit. Bukhara has converted merchant houses and former madrasas around Lyab-i-Hauz, the most characterful rooms in the country and often the smallest. Khiva has small hotels and guesthouses inside the walls of Ichan Qala, which is the whole point, since the town empties of day visitors in the evening. And Tashkent has international hotels and apartments around Amir Timur Square, useful for the first and last nights and for the airport run.
The practical arrangements follow the railway timetable. Book the fast trains first, remembering that the service out to Khiva runs only a few days a week and that the overnight sleeper is a reasonable substitute that saves a hotel night. Foreign cards now work on the official railway site, and the resellers charge a small fee for the same seat. Hire a car with a driver for the desert stretch to Nukus or for the day trips out to the fortresses, since the distances are long and empty and public transport out there is thin. Take a guide at the big monuments, where the tilework and the dynastic history are meaningless without one. And carry cash: cards work in city hotels and better restaurants and almost nowhere else. Check train, transfer and tour prices for Asia travel together, because the train times decide which day everything else can happen.
Season matters because this is a desert climate at altitude. Spring and autumn are the obvious answer, warm in the day, cool at night, with the added draw of the spring new year festival. Summer is genuinely severe in the low desert cities, where the middle of the day empties the streets, and the monuments offer almost no shade. Winter is cold, sometimes snowy, and the great squares stand nearly empty, which is either the finest way to see them or too bleak, depending on temperament. Personally, I would go in autumn, book the trains the day the window opens, and spend the extra night in Bukhara rather than adding a fifth city.
Q: How far ahead should Uzbek train tickets be booked?
A: As early as the system allows. Sources differ on whether the window opens one or two months before departure, and the popular daytime services sell out in the busy season, so check the railway's own site as soon as you have dates rather than relying on a figure from a guide.
Q: Do you need a visa for Uzbekistan?
A: More than ninety nationalities, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and the European Union, enter visa free for around a month. Everyone else applies for an electronic visa that takes a few working days.
Q: What is the registration slip?
A: Proof that your accommodation registered your stay, required within three days of arrival. Hotels do it automatically and hand you a slip, private hosts register you through the government portal, and it is worth keeping every one until you leave.
Q: How many cities are enough?
A: Three is the comfortable number for a week, usually the capital plus the two great Silk Road cities. Adding the walled town in the far west needs either the sleeper train, a limited weekly service or a flight, so treat it as a decision rather than an afterthought.
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