I flew with Turkish Airlines. The connections are generally good (3 flights a day from Istanbul), but most of the flights are at pretty inconvenient times. Still, I managed to sleep for about three hours on the way, so I arrived in Tashkent fresh in the morning. The border control was quick, and the officer was friendly. Plus, we don’t need a visa for stays up to 30 days. The only downside was the luggage; it took forever to arrive…

The official currency is the Uzbek som (UZS), which is facing relatively high inflation. Currency exchange is fairly easy, whether at ATMs, banks, or exchange offices. From what I noticed, the exchange rates don’t differ significantly, but it was more favorable at the ATM compared to exchange offices (or hotels). ATMs are mostly available only in larger cities, and even there, they sometimes don’t work (e.g., in Khiva). However, there is a very convenient ATM right at the airport, and I also withdrew 1.5 million soms there, which was about 120 EUR. It is very rare to be able to pay with a card, and even then, only at a few places in larger cities (e.g., Tashkent). The Tashkent metro works with cards (and even Apple Pay!!), where a ride costs 1700 soms if paying in cash, but with a card, it’s between 1000 and 1500 soms (depending on the bank, so between 0.07 and 0.14 EUR). Main dishes in restaurants range between 20,000 and 60,000 soms, beer costs between 15,000 and 40,000 soms, and various soups are between 15,000 and 35,000 soms (of course, depending on the restaurant and location).

The trip was as follows – a total of 9 nights, and quite a lot of travel.

Day 1 – Tashkent
Day 2 – Tashkent + surroundings (visit to a Korean collective farm and solar oven), evening flight to Nukus
Day 3 – Karakalpakstan region and excursion to the shores of the former Aral Sea
Day 4 – Nukus and drive to Khiva
Day 5 – Khiva
Day 6 – Drive to Bukhara (train)
Day 7 – Bukhara
Day 8 – Drive to Samarkand (bus)
Day 9 – Samarkand
Day 10 – Drive to Tashkent (train), final visit to Tashkent
Day 11 – Flight home

This trip was something special, as it was the first tour of this agency to Uzbekistan. The founder and owner, Nick, was on the tour, and as a special guest and lecturer, there was Calum McLeod, author of several guidebooks on Uzbekistan.