Introduction
Uzbekistan has many things to offer for tourists. The towns on the ancient Silk Road are famous: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva.
Uzbekistan railways offer a comfortable, reliable and cheap way to explore the touristic highlights of the country. Alltough shared-taxis and buses often provide a more frequent means of transportation, I recommend to travel by train. Several new trains have been introduced in the past years, as you can see on the photo:
The main line Tashkent - Samarkand - Bukhara is served by two express trains named "Registon" and "Sharq": The "Registon" brings you from Tashkent in 3h30min to Samarkand and the "Sharq" makes the 600-km-journey Tashkent - Bukhara (with intermediate stop in Samarkand) in about 6,5 hours.
A daily overnight train from Tashkent to Bukhara offers the possibility to travel during the night and win one day. Comfortable sleeping cars allow a good sleep.
Overnight trains also run from Tashkent and Samarkand to Urgench (3 times weekly) and to Nukus - Kungrad (2 times weekly), so it's also possible to travel to Khiva (30 kilometers from Urgench, taxi/bus available) or to the Aral lake (Moynaq, 70 km from Kungrad) by train.
ROUND TRIPS
I have also included some suggestions for round-trips by train:
Tashkent - Bukhara - Samarkand - Khiva - Tashkent in 9 days
Tashkent - Samarkand - Bukhara - Tashkent in 7 days
More details about round-trips
INTERNATIONAL TRAINS
International trains are available to Almaty in Kazakhstan, Moscow, Ufa, Celjabinsk, St. Peterburg, Novosibirsk in Russia (so you can link to the Transsiberian railway) and to Kharkov in Ukraine. From Almaty connecting trains are provided to Urumchi in China.
With only one change of trains in Moscow you can travel overland from Central and Western Europe (Berlin, Cologne, Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Helsinki, etc.) to Tashkent and v.v..
More details about international trains
With this website I want to make it easier for tourists to use rail services in Usbekistan. I myself travelled by train through Usbekistan and it was a great experience.
I hope you like the website. It is still under construction, and if you find a mistake or have any idea to improve something, please feel free to contact me: helmut.uttenthaler@gmx.at
Helmut Uttenthaler
Vienna - Austria
