Places in this article: Samarkand · Bukhara · Khiva · Tashkent
Samarkand to Bukhara: train, car and how long it takes
Samarkand and Bukhara are about 280 km apart by road and less than two hours apart on the fast train. Most of our guests take a morning train and are walking around Did you know? Bukhara's ponds were once its water supply Pools like Lyabi-Hauz, dug around 1620 and 46 × 36 m, were the city's main source of water. Most were filled in during the 1920s–30s because they spread disease; Lyabi-Hauz survived. Read more → by lunchtime. Some prefer the car, because just west of Navoi the old road passes a caravanserai built in the 1070s that went on sheltering travellers for more than six centuries. Here is how we in Tashkent plan the trip from Samarkand to Bukhara: the trains, the drive, the stops worth making and how long each option takes.
Samarkand to Bukhara by train: the Afrosiyob
The ,Uzbekistan's high-speed train: Tashkent to Samarkand in about 2 hours 10 minutes, Tashkent to Bukhara in about 4 hours. Tickets are tied to your passport. Read more → the Spanish-built Talgo high-speed train, takes about 1 h 40 min to 2 h from Samarkand to Bukhara. Most Afrosiyob trains from Tashkent to Bukhara call at Samarkand, so there are several every day. In the timetable published in June 2026, the morning trains left Samarkand between about 8:20 and 11:00, and the earliest of them ran only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. One more left late in the evening, at about 22:15.
In the opposite direction, the Afrosiyob trains leave Bukhara in the afternoon and early evening, between about 15:00 and 18:15, and reach Samarkand before 20:00. Timetables change, so check the current one on eticket.uzrailpass.uz before you plan the day around a train.
Tickets go on sale 60 days before departure on that site, in the Uzrailway tickets app and at station ticket offices. The ticket is issued to your passport, so travel with the same document you booked with. Morning seats on this leg go first, so we buy them as soon as the dates are fixed. Already in Samarkand? We can get you a train ticket from Samarkand. Classes, refunds and boarding are explained in trains in Uzbekistan.
The Khiva train, the Sharq and the night trains
Since May 2026 the Jaloliddin Manguberdi, the new high-speed train from Tashkent to Khiva, also stops at Samarkand and Bukhara. It calls at Samarkand at about 9:10 and at Bukhara at about 11:00, every day except Sunday, and covers the leg in about the same time as the Afrosiyob. The return train from Khiva passes Bukhara in the late morning and reaches Samarkand around 13:00; it does not run on Mondays. Seats on it sell out quickly, because the whole route to Khiva is in demand.
The Sharq is the classic train on the same line: cheaper than the Afrosiyob and slower, about 2 h 50 min from Samarkand to Bukhara. The daytime one leaves Samarkand shortly before noon. The overnight trains to Bukhara and Khiva also call at Samarkand, but in the small hours, so we do not use them for such a short leg.
Stations at both ends
Samarkand station is more than 6 km from the ,Did you know? The Registan's sun-carrying lion went on a banknote The Sher-Dor Madrasah (1619–1636) is named for the big cats with the sun on their backs on its portal. The image appeared on the reverse of Uzbekistan's 200-som note of 1997. Read more → so plan a taxi or a transfer. You show your ticket and passport at the entrance and bags are screened before the platform, so we advise arriving at least half an hour early. If you would rather wait in comfort, we can book the VIP lounge at Samarkand station.
Bukhara's station is in Kagan, about 12 km from the old city. Allow time for the ride in, and keep it in mind when you plan the first afternoon. On the way, many Afrosiyob trains also stop at Navoi, the town where the road stops described below begin.
Samarkand to Bukhara by car
By road it is about 280 km on the M37 highway, west down the Zarafshan valley through Kattakurgan and Navoi. Without long stops the drive takes 4 to 5 hours, depending on traffic and road works. The car is slower than the train, but it has one real advantage: you can stop.
A car makes sense when there are several of you with luggage, when the train you want is full, or when the stops are the point of the day. We send guests in a sedan with a driver: a private transfer from Samarkand to Bukhara. Tell us how many of you there are, how many suitcases you have and where you would like to stop.
Stops on the way: Rabat-i Malik, Karmana and Gijduvan
Did you know? Legend says a nomad chief built Rabat-i Malik Local tradition, recorded by a traveller in the 19th century, remembered the ruin as the castle of a khan and his heirs, built by a nomad chief called Malik Khan. What is known: the Karakhanids raised it around 1078–1079 on the road from Bukhara. Read more → stands by the Bukhara road, a short drive west of Navoi. The Karakhanid ruler Shams al-Mulk Nasr built it in the 1070s, and it served travellers until the early 18th century. Its tall brick portal still carries a Kufic inscription. Across the road is the ,Did you know? A domed cistern by Rabat-i Malik is named “cold water” Across the road from Rabat-i Malik stands the Malik sardoba, a covered cistern of the same period; the Persian name means “cold water”. An underground channel brought water from the Zarafshan, and steps lead more than 10 m down under the dome. Read more → a domed cistern of the same period that was fed from the Zarafshan; steps lead down under the dome. Since 2023 both belong to the UNESCO World Heritage site Silk Roads: Zarafshan-Karakum Corridor.
Karmana, the old town next to Navoi, keeps the small Mir-Sayid Bakhrom mausoleum of the 10th–11th centuries, with Quranic verses in Kufic script on its brick portal. More about these places, and about the Did you know? One gorge near Navoi holds some 10,000 rock carvings Sarmysh gorge in the Karatau hills has about 10,000 petroglyphs: the oldest show wild bulls, later ones argali, riders and even Arabic script. It is on Uzbekistan’s UNESCO Tentative List, valued for both its rock art and its nature. Read more → gorge with its rock carvings north-east of Navoi, is in our guide to Sarmysh and the Navoi road.
Gijduvan, about 40–45 km north-east of Bukhara, is the last stop before the city. It is a potters' town, known for ceramics in green, yellow and brown glazes, and next to the shrine of Abdulkhaliq Gijduvani stands a An Islamic college: student cells and classrooms around a courtyard behind a grand portal. In the old towns many now house museums and craft workshops. built by Did you know? Ulugh Beg measured the year to within 25 seconds Working at his Samarkand observatory, Ulugh Beg put the tropical year at 365 days 5 h 49 min 15 s, about 25 seconds too long, closer than Copernicus a century later. Read more → in 1433. If you go by train, you can still see it from Bukhara: our outing Gijduvan: ceramics workshop and lunch comes with a car and a guide.
With all three stops the drive becomes a full day: leave Samarkand after breakfast and you reach Bukhara in time for dinner.
Train or car: how to choose
- Train: about 1 h 40 min to 2 h on the Afrosiyob or the Khiva train, plus the 12 km from Kagan into Bukhara. The right choice for most travellers, and especially in the summer heat.
- Car: 4 to 5 hours without stops, a full day with Rabat-i Malik, Karmana and Gijduvan. Good for families with luggage and for anyone who wants to see the road between the two cities.
On a moving day we like the morning Afrosiyob: breakfast in Samarkand, check out, and you have the whole afternoon in the old town of Bukhara. How we spend that afternoon and the days after it is in Bukhara in 1, 2 and 3 days. Coming from the capital first? See Tashkent to Samarkand. Going further west, our guide Khiva to Bukhara covers the next leg, and for the trip back we can book a train ticket from Bukhara.
Our trips with this leg
If you would rather not deal with tickets at all, the leg comes ready-made in our tours. Samarkand and Bukhara in 5 days takes the Afrosiyob between the cities, with two nights in each. Crafts of Bukhara and Samarkand also goes by train and adds a morning with the potters of Gijduvan. Our Uzbekistan by Train tour rides the whole line from Tashkent to Khiva. In every tour a guide who speaks your language is included in the price. More on the Samarkand and Bukhara pages.
In short
- The Afrosiyob takes about 1 h 40 min to 2 h from Samarkand to Bukhara; morning departures, plus one late in the evening.
- The high-speed Khiva train also stops at Samarkand and Bukhara, every day except Sunday westbound and except Monday eastbound.
- Buy tickets on eticket.uzrailpass.uz as soon as your dates are fixed; sales open 60 days ahead.
- Bukhara's station is in Kagan, about 12 km from the old city.
- By car it is about 280 km and 4 to 5 hours; Rabat-i Malik, Karmana and Gijduvan turn it into a full day on the old road.
