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We thought that we’d best start ticking off some of the bucket list destinations before we get too old and Uzbekistan’s been on the list for years; what was surprising is that the majority of tourists that we saw were older than us, maybe in their 70s. Perhaps Joanna Lumley is the inspiration for people of a certain age.
We decided to arrange everything ourselves; I enjoy the planning almost as much as the trip. Equipped with a Lonely Planet Central Asia and 8 days for the trip it became clear that rather than do Tashkent-Samarkand-Bukhara-Khiva as the tour groups seem to do, we’d just do Samarkand and Bukhara, putting in an extra day in both over the recommended time so there’s no rush and we can sit people watching once all the sights are ticked off.
Turkish fly to both Samarkand and Bukhara. The fare pp from London is ~£2160 in Business, but from Amsterdam ~£1260. We compromised on Southampton to Amsterdam on KLM using Virgin points, stay in the Hilton at AMS airport on points and then AMS-IST-Samarkand and Bukhara-IST-LHR for £1430pp.
We planned 4 nights in Samarkand and 3 nights in Bukhara. The Hilton Garden Inn Samarkand was recommended on a reddit thread, so booked that and the Lonely Planet recommended Hotel Amelia in Bukhara. It transpired that the Amelia was full but the owner has a new boutique hotel, the Alexia almost next door.
There’s no direct flights Samarkand-Bukhara so it’s train or taxi. The fast trains are TGV-like and although I was warned that they sell out quickly I forgot to book until August. The fast train (90mins ish) was sold out so we booked the semi-fast (2h30min) for £8pp which was as easy as booking a train in the UK.
I’ll not dwell on the flights, points to note were KLM economy means free beer and snack and free checked bag for Virgin Gold. Turkish flights that connected through were non-lie flat business and as 2-2 seating much more comfy than BA short haul. Food featured various artichoke creations and was good, the beef cheeks were edible and the lounge at Istanbul is fabulous, especially if you’re a fan of picky bits rather than table service dining.
First off the plane in Samarkand at 0400, not as bad as it sounds as Uzbekistan is 4 hours ahead of UK and to immigration. Through that in seconds, no paperwork or quizzing (unlike Amsterdam), with a ‘you are most welcome to Uzbekistan’. To customs, where three officers were poised to intercept us. One asked for passports, another tapped into an iPad and all three smiled and welcomed us, saying that they don’t get many visitors from Ireland….odd, as we’re not Irish.
As I couldn’t get the TaxiOK! app to load or sign in to the airport wifi to activate my e-sim we ignored the taxi drivers and went to a TaxiOK! booth where everything was sorted and 10 mins later we were at the HGI Samarkand.
I hadn’t expected such a nice room/hotel, around £125/nt and they try and treat Golds well with free breakfast at a reserved table. It’s a bit out of town but taxis are cheap so not really an issue; rookie error was day 1 when I asked the bell boy how much to town and he (in retrospect) said 16,000som (£1ish) but I gave him 60,000som as my brain hadn’t processed that it could be that cheap. Oops. Many of the taxis use what looks like Google Maps with an integrated cost display.
The no.1 attraction, Registan Square is breathtakingly beautiful, our surprise was, having done e.g. Istanbul, Taj Mahal etc that it was so quiet. At some times you could take photos without another soul in the way which means that you don’t have to remove people using Google Photos magic eraser. We did all the sights and did them again at different times of day. Entry was around £4 and a personal human guide £20. I wouldn’t bother with the audio guide.
Samarkand isn’t festooned with restaurants in the northern part of the city; we walked back to the hotel from the centre one day and didn’t pass any that appealed, so we nibbled on items from the market, pastries from bakeries and ate at the hotel in the evening. A bit of a cop-out maybe but in common with every meal we had, even in the most touristy of places, we struggled to chalk up a bill greater than £15 for two including service and beer/wine. MrsMetty had a one hour sports massage in the hotel, £25. We liked Samarkand.
The train to Bukhara departed on time but arrived an hour late; having feasted on some freshly cooked bread the size of car hubcaps, I dozed much of the way in a perfectly nice seat.
Arriving at the Hotel Alexia, we were greeted by the effusive owner, Bakh, who was clearly very proud of his boutique hotels and explained the history. A Jewish family’s residence once upon a time; our room (£125/nt) was faultless, the breakfast substantial and there’s a nice roof terrace. It’s only 2-3 mins walk to the centre of the Old Town and lots more mosques and sights.
Bukhara had loads of eating options, still cheap, and you have to go – as it’s the holiest city – but to me it felt a bit ‘Hoi An’ as opposed to Hanoi which doesn’t make any sense if you haven’t been to Vietnam, but those who have will get what I mean. The Old Town in Bukhara had more of a touristy vibe which Samarkand didn’t.
Overall, we really loved our short time in Uzbekistan, it felt like a proper adventure and arranging everything independently was no problem at all. The majority of tourists were EU OAPs on group holidays. There’s free wifi from UzbekTelecom nearly everywhere, the people are keen to chat, even if it means Google Translate and seemed genuinely interested in us. On the final day, having checked out of the hotel and needing a 15min taxi ride to the airport, even the worst type of ripoff taxi driver touting for business quoted us $5 for the ride, rapidly reducing to $3. We hailed a passing cab and asked how much… £1.
Love it.
Great write up. Definitely on my bucket list, so saving this. The thing that’s always put me off is the perceived lack of spoken/written English there and the reports of corruption by the police. Maybe that’s no longer the case.
Did you ever have to pay a small donation to any security officials at any of the sites you visited?
It was weird that officials, taxi drivers etc weren’t persistent at all, given we look like we’re there to be taken advantage of. And absolutely not even a sniff of corruption from anyone, in fact until now it had never entered my head. Or maybe briefly at Samarkand station where I needed the loo but the Gents was closed; I thought about waving some money at the babushkas who were the Ladies’ toilet police but decided they were just too scary. BTW the toilets (entry 20p) at the sites were spectacularly clean, so much so that MrsMetty has a photo of one.
While we were in Samarkand the German Chancellor was visiting, which ended up being entertainment in itself as they did a huge Soviet-style or US-style operation for him with uniformed police every 50m or so all the way from the airport to The Registan. As the HGI didn’t want alcohol in public areas of the hotel I had visited the corner shop to buy a selection of local beers and was clinking my way with a plastic bag of bottles trying to cross the road back to the hotel looking a bit knackered (think Gary Oldman in Slow Horses) which wasn’t allowed. That was the only time that we were shouted at and this by a non-uniformed scruffy guy; it was as much the way he looked at you as the shouting….after this we noticed that the secret police were the ones who look you in the eye.
But overall, no, not a sniff of corruption or requests for baksheesh anywhere. As far as the language, not a problem at all really, smiles, Google Translate and anything involving money they’ll wave what they want at you (notes) or type on a calculator.
Thanks @Metty it’s just been added to the bucket escalator.
Brilliant. Thankyou
A very interesting review, thank you.
Nice one, thanks.
Excellent, very encouraging.
@Metty great review thanks. It’s on my list for the future
Very nice and succinct write up, thanks
Interesting write up, thanks! I really enjoyed a trip to Samarkand / Bukhara / Tashkent in 2013. When I went, the black market exchange rate was significantly different to the official one, and everyone would exchange cash at unofficial money exchange offices (or ask around for someone at the market). Couldn’t use card to pay for anything due to the big difference in rate. We ended up having to carry around big wads of cash everywhere! Is this still the case?
@Gavin454 the first airport taxi driver did offer Forex services but after a long trip, a little tiddly and mindful that the chances of being ripped off were high ($1 = 12000som so a lot of scope for getting 0s wrong) we didn’t bother risking it. It’s so cheap for normal everyday spend even if the black market rate was double it makes a beer 25p not 50p, so unless you are on a ‘how little can you spend’ challenge, why bother. In the cities, there’s ATMs all over, they work and c/card and Apple Pay accepted in the tourist sites and even in the corner shop.
I was expecting more of a culture shock but technology does seem to have made the world more uniform. One thing I didn’t mention was that although an Islamic country, the call to prayer is not going to wake you, as it – according to someone we met – was banned.
Anything is better than read more tedious reviews of Dubai/Costa del Sol/Maldvives/etc. hotels but that was a fantastic write up, thanks for sharing. I quite fancy a through hike there soon.
Sounds like a great trip, thank you for taking the time to write up.
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