Tashkent
Plane trees and the oldest Qur’an
The capital and the usual starting point. Old mosques and a great bazaar sit beside wide avenues and the first metro in Central Asia.
Most journeys begin in Tashkent, and the city deserves a day rather than a transfer. Rebuilt on a generous scale after the earthquake of 1966, it is a capital of broad avenues under plane trees, of parks and fountains, and of the first metro in Central Asia, whose stations are finished in marble, ceramic and chandeliers. It lives outdoors, and its pace is easier than its size suggests.
The old city is a short drive from the centre. At the Hazrati Imam complex, madrasas and a mosque enclose a quiet square, and the library keeps one of the oldest Qur’ans in the world. A few streets away, Chorsu Bazaar fills a great domed hall and the lanes around it with spices, bread, dried fruit and the melons of the season. The Museum of Applied Arts, in a house decorated by the city’s master craftsmen, is the place to understand suzani, ceramics and carved wood before you meet them in the regions.
We use Tashkent as the hinge of a journey: the first night after a long flight, an unhurried evening before the train, a last dinner before you leave. Your private guide walks you through the old mahallas and takes you down into the metro, and your travel designer, who lives here, knows which chaikhana is worth the detour and on which evening the Navoi Theatre is worth a ticket. Plov in Tashkent is cooked in the morning and eaten at midday; that alone is a reason to stay the day.
Journeys that go there
Silk Road Classic
The four great cities in one week: Tashkent, Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand, with a day across the desert and high-speed trains between them.
The Grand Journey across Uzbekistan
The whole country in eleven days: all four Silk Road cities, a night in a yurt beside Lake Aydarkul and a day in Shakhrisabz, the town where Timur was born.
Samarkand and Bukhara Express
Four days for the two most celebrated cities of the Silk Road, Samarkand and Bukhara, with the high-speed train between them and time to look rather than hurry.
Fergana Valley Crafts
Three days with the makers of the Fergana Valley: the potters of Rishtan, the silk weavers of Margilan and the palace of Khudayar Khan in Kokand.
Begin your journey
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