Taking the train in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan has a good rail network, and trains are the ideal way to travel between Tashkent, Samarkand, Bokhara and (since 2018) Khiva.

  Tashkent to Samarkand, Bokhara & Khiva by train

  How to buy train tickets for Uzbekistan

  Useful country information

  Hotels & accommodation

On other pages

  London, Paris & Moscow to Tashkent by train

  Tashkent to Almaty by train

Pictured right:  Samarkand's modern station.  Photo courtesy of Alan Saunders.

Useful country information

Tashkent to Samarkand & Bokhara

Taking the train is the best way to go between Tashkent, Samarkand, Bokhara & Khiva.  Here's a summary of main trains, shaded = Afrosiyob high-speed trains.

Urgench was the railhead for Khiva 35 km away, but in 2018 the railway was extended to a new station at Khiva.  The new Khiva station is a 15 minute walk from the Itchan Khala at the heart of the city.

See detailed rail map of Uzbekistan, zoom in to see station locations & branch line to Khiva.

Trains 709, 710, 711 & 712 are the Sharq, air-conditioned, runs daily, see the photos below.

Trains 54, 55, 56, 58, 72, 126 have spalny vagon (lux) 2-berth sleepers, kupé 4-berth sleepers, some have platskartny open-plan bunks.

Trains 759 to 780 = Afrosiyob = 250 km/h high-speed air-conditioned Talgo 250 train, highly recommended, introduced 2012 & extended to/from Bokhara in 2016, with VIP class, Business class and Economy class plus a restaurant car.  See the Afrosiyob photos below.

Where two train numbers are shown, the number depends on the day of the week.

How to check these train times

You should check times & days of running at the main Uzbek Railways website railway.uz (click en for English top right) or at their ticketing website e-ticket.railway.uz (change Ozbek'tili to English top right).  Or use agency site 12go.asia.  There are several other irregular trains on this route, I have only shown the main ones here.

Uzbekistan Railways has an excellent app, download for your phone.

How much does it cost? 

Tashkent - Samarkand by Afrosiyob high-speed train costs 245,000 som in Economy, 360,000 som in Business, 495,000 som in VIP.

Tashkent - Samarkand by Sharq costs 147,110.

Tashkent - Bukhara by Afrosiyob high-speed train costs 403,000 som in Economy, 601,000 som in Business, 795,000 som in VIP.

Tashkent - Bukhara by Sharq costs 198,480 som.

Tashkent - Bukhara on train 3, 7, 72, 74 costs 166,000 in platskartny, 225,000 in kupé 4-berth or 392,000 som in 2-berth Spalny Vagon (Lux).

£1 = approx 16,300 Som.  $1 = approx 12,500 Som.  €1 = 13,500 som.  Fares can be checked at railway.uz or e-ticket.railway.uz.

How to buy tickets

• Option 1, buy tickets at 12go.asia.

  You can book tickets for most trains through reliable agency 12go.asia.

  You order online with instant confirmation, overseas payment cards no problem. 

  Remember that booking opens 45 days ahead, you can't book before booking opens.  But book a week or two ahead at least, as trains can sell out.

• Option 2, buy tickets at www.bookaway.com

  You can book tickets for both the premier Afrosiyob  and the main sleeper trains at www.bookaway.com, another reliable train, ferry & bus booking agency, also without any payment problems.  As with 12go, all the main cities/routes are covered, but not all routes.

• Option 2, buy tickets at the Uzbekistan Railways website e-ticket.railway.uz.

  You can also book online at the Uzbekistan Railways website e-ticket.railway.uz.

  Change Ozbek'tili to English top right, if the booking system slips back into Russian, use Google Translate or the Chrome browser translation feature to help with anything it doesn't show in English.

  Booking opens 45 days ahead, sometimes less.  You can't book before booking opens.

  Traveller Nigel Moores' advice:  "I booked all the trains directly on the Uzbekistan railways website.  The English version does the transliteration to Cyrillic without any problems except for a few exceptions such as Khiva for which I just used a cut & paste from Google Translate.  It only accepts payment by Visa or Mastercard and it does not yet produce e-tickets for many trains.  This is not a problem, you just click on a link on the confirmation page to print a voucher which you exchange for the tickets at the station.  In Tashkent, you need to check carefully whether the station for your train is the central station or South (Yuzhniy) as it's a 7 km taxi or bus ride between the two.  Tickets are printed in Cyrillic."

  You can also download the Uzbekistan Railways app for iPhone & Android.  You can book in the app and show tickets on your phone.

At the station

Security is tight, you need a passport and ticket to enter the station, and there's a security check before boarding the train.  So arrive at the station in good time!

Afrosiyob high-speed trains, trains 759-780

In the timetable above, I have shown Afrosiyob trains as shaded.  These are Uzbekistan's premier train, a 250km/h train built by the Spanish Talgo company which links Tashkent with Samarkand in just 2½ hours.  Named after the oldest part of the ancient settlement of Samarkand, the train has VIP (premium 1st), Business (1st class) & Economy (2nd class, pictured below) and a restaurant car.  VIP seats are leather and arranged 2+1 across the car width.  Business seats are fabric, and arranged 2+1 across the car width.  Economy seats are fabric and 2+2 across the car width.

An Afrosiyob train. Courtesy Sebastian Pintilie.

VIP class.  Courtesy Roman Garva.		Economy class.  Courtesy Sebastian Pintilie.

Cafe car.  Courtesy Jay Yen.		Economy class.  Courtesy John Saunders.

Trains 9, 10, 11 & 12 Sharq

The Sharq. Photo courtesy of Gino

Uzbek sleeper train

These have the usual Russian-style sleeper accommodations:  2-berth sleepers known as Spalny Vagon (SV or Lux), 4-berth sleepers known as Kupé and (on some trains) Platskartny, which consists of open-plan sleeping-berths.

A 4-berth soft sleeper on an Uzbek night train.  The train shown here is actually a weekly (and possibly seasonal) train between Bokhara and Urganch, but other trains are similar.  Photo courtesy of John Saunders.

Travellers' reports

Traveller Nigel Moores reports (2019): "We travelled by train from Andijon to Tashkent and then on to Khiva and back to Tashkent via Bukhara and Samarkand. The train service was excellent throughout. Highly recommended. Despite the long journeys only 1 of the trains was late and then only by 20 minutes. The fares are very reasonable and unless you are travelling on a really tight budget it is worth getting the best class available. The new line linking Pop and Andgren is spectacular (see attachment). We did not use the Afrosiyob trains at all because for the journeys we wanted they sold out straight away. To judge from what we saw this was due to block bookings by tour groups. As it happened the regular trains were only marginally slower, probably less cramped and a more "authentic" experience. Food and drink were available on all the trains either in a restaurant car or from enterprising vendors."

Traveller Mark Pascoe travelled from Tashkent to Samarkand on the Afrosiyob.  "As part of an official delegation visiting the country my ticket was purchased on my behalf, however I also dealt with Advantour in a personal capacity and found them to be extremely helpful and professional despite the fact that I didn't end up using their services at all. I took the 8am departure arriving at the station in plenty of time to pass through security. The train was ready early and we were able to board at around 7.30am. The train staff welcomed us on board and looked great in their winter uniforms replete with fur hats and jackets. The train was clean and pleasant and wouldn't have looked out of place in western Europe. It is of course, Spanish built, indeed it was tidier and in better condition than many TGVs I have travelled on. The seats were very spacious and comfortable with plenty of legroom and lots of overhead storage, large enough to handle bit suitcases. The journey was largely smooth and uneventful. Even in economy class we were served tea and a small snack of a banana flavour doughnut shortly after departing Tashkent, I suppose that any class of ticket on the Afrosiyob is significantly more expensive than the slow trains and. If possible, get a seat on the left hand side (if travelling west) of the train when travelling in this direction as that side of the train is flanked by impressive mountains for much of the route. The train ran to time and arrived in Samarkand on schedule - on leaving the station you will be met by plenty of touts offering taxis and tourist services."

Hotels in Uzbekistan

Backpacker hostels

www.hostelworld.com:  If you're on a tight budget, don't forget about backpacker hostels.  Hostelworld offers online booking of cheap private rooms or dorm beds in backpacker hostels in most cities at rock-bottom prices.

Travel insurance & other tips

Always take out travel insurance

Never travel overseas without travel insurance from a reliable insurer, with at least £1m or preferably £5m medical cover.  It should also cover cancellation and loss of cash and belongings, up to a sensible limit.  An annual multi-trip policy is usually cheaper than several single-trip policies even for just 2 or 3 trips a year, I have an annual policy with Staysure.co.uk myself.  Here are some suggested insurers.  Seat61 gets a small commission if you buy through these links.

  www.staysure.co.uk offers enhanced Covid-19 protection & gets 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot.

  www.columbusdirect.com is also a well-know brand.

  If you live in the USA try Travel Guard USA.

Get an eSIM with mobile data package

Don't rely on WiFi, download an eSIM with a mobile data package for the country you're visiting and stay connected.  Most newer mobile phones can download a virtual SIM card so you don't need to buy a physical SIM, including iPhone 11 & later, see device compatibility list.  Maya.net is a reliable eSIM data retailer with a 4.5 out of 5 Trustpilot rating and a range of packages including unlimited data.

Get a Curve card for foreign travel

Most banks give you a poor exchange rate, then add a foreign transaction fee on top.  A Curve MasterCard means no foreign transaction fees and gives you the mid-market exchange rate, at least up to a certain limit, £500 per month at time of writing.  The money you spend on your Curve card goes straight onto one of your existing debit or credit cards.

How it works:  1. Download the Curve app for iPhone or Android.  2. Enter your details & they'll send you a Curve MasterCard - they send to the UK and most European addresses.  3. Link your existing credit & debit cards to the app, you can link up to two cards with the free version of Curve, I link my normal debit card and my normal credit card.  4. Now use the Curve MasterCard to buy things online or in person or take cash from ATMs, exactly like a normal MasterCard. Curve does the currency conversion and puts the balance in your own currency onto whichever debit or credit card is currently selected in the Curve app.  You can even change your mind about which card it goes onto, within 14 days of the transaction.

I have a Curve Blue card myself, it means I can buy a coffee on a foreign station on a card without being stung by fees and lousy exchange rates, just by tapping the Curve card on their card reader.  The money goes through Curve to my normal debit card and is taken directly from my account (in fact I have the Curve card set up as payment card on Apple Pay on my iPhone, so can double-click my phone, let it do Face ID then tap the reader with the phone - even easier than digging a card out).  I get a little commission if you sign up to Curve, but I recommend it here because I think it's great.  See details, download the app and get a Curve card, they'll give you £5 cashback through that link.

Get a VPN for safe browsing.  Why you need a VPN

When you're travelling you often use free WiFi in public places which may not be secure.  A VPN encrypts your connection so it's always secure, even on unsecured WiFi.  It also means you can select the geographic location of the IP address you browse with, to get around geoblocking which a surprising number of websites apply.  See VPNs & why you need one explained.  ExpressVPN is a best buy with a 4.7 out of 5 Trustpilot ranking which I use myself - I've signed up as an ExpressVPN affiliate, and if you go with expressvpn.com using the links on this page, you should see a special deal, 3 months free with an annual subscription.  I get a small commission to help support this site.

Carry an Anker powerbank

Tickets, reservations, vaccination records and Interrail or Eurail passes are often held digitally on your mobile phone, so it's vital to keep it charged.  I always carry an Anker powerbank which can recharge my phone several times over if I can't get to a power outlet.  Buy from Amazon.co.uk or from buy from Amazon.com.

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