Places in this article: Tashkent
A layover in Tashkent: the city in one day between flights
From the runway of Tashkent airport to Did you know? Legend: “Strength lies in justice” were Timur's own words The equestrian statue of Amir Timur in central Tashkent, unveiled in 1994, bears the motto “Strength lies in justice” in four languages. Tradition attributes the words to Timur himself, but historians cannot confirm he said them. Read more → is about 6 km, and on a quiet day a taxi covers it in 15–20 minutes. That makes Tashkent one of the few hubs where a long connection can become a real visit: a mosque square in the old city, a bazaar under a blue dome, a Did you know? A metro designed to ride out a magnitude-9 earthquake The three original lines of the Tashkent Metro were built to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 9.0, and the tunnels lie unusually shallow, only 8–25 m below the street. Read more → station built as a gallery, and back in time for your flight.
Many travellers change planes here, on Uzbekistan Airways and other airlines. This is our guide to a Tashkent layover or stopover, from a team that meets guests at this airport all year: whether you can leave the airport, how much time you need, and what to see in 6 hours or in a full day.
Can you leave the airport during a layover?
To go into the city you enter Uzbekistan: passport control and customs on the way out, and check-in, security and passport control again on the way back. Whether you can do it depends on your passport.
- Visa-free entry. Citizens of close to 90 countries, among them the EU, the UK, the USA, Japan, South Korea and China, enter without a Entry rules depend on your passport. Once you are here, each stay must be registered within three days, and hotels do it for you; customs and registration rules are in our guide. Read more → for up to 30 days. For them a layover is simply a short visit.
- E-visa. If your country is not on that list, check the e-visa on the official portal e-visa.gov.uz, and apply at least three working days before you travel.
- Visa-free transit. Citizens of a set list of countries that normally need a visa can stay up to five days without one when they transit through an international airport of Uzbekistan and hold a ticket to a third country issued by Uzbekistan Airways.
Not sure which case is yours? Send us your nationality and your flights, and we will check them against the current rules. The details are in do you need a visa for Uzbekistan. Staying the night in a hotel? It registers your passport at check-in; see registration and customs.
How many hours you need
We would not leave the airport with less than about 6 hours between flights. The arithmetic is simple: passport control and customs on arrival, 15–20 minutes to the centre each way, and on the way back check-in, security and passport control. Uzbekistan Airways closes check-in for international flights one hour before departure, and we plan to be back at the terminal two and a half to three hours before the flight. A 6–8 hour layover therefore leaves two to four hours in the city.
Two details decide the plan. First, your bags: if they are checked through to your final destination, you go into town with hand luggage only, so ask about it when you check in for your first flight. Second, the terminal: international flights use Terminal 2. If you continue on a domestic flight from Terminal 3, about 4 km away, you collect your bags and check in again there anyway; a free shuttle runs between the terminals once an hour from 05:00 to 23:30.
Tashkent is on UTC+5 all year, with no summer time, so set your watch when you land.
Where to leave your luggage
Carrying bags? The international terminal has automatic luggage lockers on the ground floor of the departures building, near exit 4. The lockers come in several sizes, you pay by the hour, and they take a bank card or so’m in cash.
Would you rather not leave the airport at all? In 2024 a small hotel with 24 mini-rooms opened in the waiting area of the departure terminal, for passengers with a long connection who want to rest without leaving the airport.
6–8 hours: the old city, the bazaar and the metro
With two to four hours in the city, choose one area and see it properly. This is our short layover route:
- .The religious heart of old Tashkent: madrasahs, a Friday mosque and mausoleums. Right next to it stands the new Center of Islamic Civilization, opened in 2026. Read more → Take a taxi straight to the old city. Around a wide square stand the 16th-century Did you know? A mausoleum built for a khan who was buried in another city Barak-Khan Madrasah was built in 1531–32. One of its two mausoleums was meant for Barak Khan himself, but he was buried in Samarkand, so the tomb is still called the Nameless Mausoleum. Its cell doors were inlaid with ivory. Read more → ,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. the Tillya Sheikh mosque and the Hazrati Imam mosque. It is a working religious site: shoulders and knees covered, and women bring a scarf.
- .Did you know? Tashkent’s Chorsu dome is younger than the city’s metro Trade at the old crossroads is centuries old, but the domed building opened only in 1990, thirteen years after the metro. Architects Vladimir Azimov and Sabir Adylov gave it a main dome of 86 m ringed by seven smaller ones. Read more → A short ride away, the bazaar trades under a blue dome built in 1990: spices, dried apricots, nuts, bread and kurt, small balls of salted dried yoghurt. Keep some so’m in cash; the airport ATMs are in the baggage hall, right after passport control.
- The metro. From Tashkent's old bazaar under a big blue-green dome, not far from Hazrati Imam. Bring cash in so'm. Read more → station ride the blue Did you know? Central Asia’s first metro: free to photograph since 2018 Tashkent’s metro opened on 6 November 1977 with nine stations, the first in Central Asia. Since 1 June 2018 it can be photographed freely, richly decorated station halls included. Read more → to Alisher Navoi, with its ceramic reliefs from Navoi’s poems, and two stops further to ,Did you know? A metro station where Ulugh Beg meets Gagarin Kosmonavtlar station, opened in 1984, has ceramic medallions of Ulugh Beg, Galileo, Icarus, Gagarin and Tereshkova, and glass stars in the ceiling that hint at the Milky Way. Read more → the only metro station on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
- Amir Timur Square is a short walk from Kosmonavtlar. From here the airport is 15–20 minutes away by taxi without traffic.
The stations and how to pay are in the Tashkent metro, the full plan for a day in Tashkent in 1 or 2 days. Short on time? Skip the metro and take a taxi from Chorsu straight to Amir Timur Square.
12–24 hours: a museum, plov and the evening city
A long connection or a night’s stopover lets you see Tashkent at its best, in the evening. Do the short route in the morning, then add:
- The Center of Islamic Civilization next to Hazrati Imam: halls from Sogdiana to the Timurids and a 7th-century Qur’an, the ,Did you know? Legend: Caliph Uthman's own Quran is kept in Tashkent Tradition holds that this huge parchment Quran is the personal copy of Caliph Uthman, and one story says Timur brought it to Samarkand. Radiocarbon dating gives 775–995, so it is more likely an early copy, yet still one of the oldest. Read more → under a 65-metre dome. Allow two to three hours and book a timed slot in advance; it is open until 22:00.
- Rice cooked in a kazan with carrots, onions and meat: the dish of every Uzbek celebration. Each region cooks it its own way. at lunch. In Tashkent plov is a midday dish, and by the evening many kazans are empty.
- The fountains. In Tashkent City Park the musical fountain shows begin at 18:30, 19:30, 20:30 and 21:30, and Magic City lights up after sunset.
Where to go after dark is in Tashkent in the evening, or join our three-hour evening walk with a guide. Sleeping in the city? Choose a hotel in the centre: in the morning the airport is still 15–20 minutes away.
Getting to the city and back
Taxi by app. Yandex Go shows the fare before you confirm, and drivers with your order pick you up in the first lane at the arrivals exit. Install it before you land; MyTaxi, Uklon and WB Taxi also work in Tashkent.
Bus. Number 67 stops at the international terminal and runs past Kosmonavtlar metro station and Amir Timur Square. Drivers do not take cash: you pay with a transport card, a payment app or a QR ticket. On a tight layover a taxi is more predictable. The metro does not reach the airport.
Our transfer. A driver meets you at arrivals with a name sign and brings you back to the terminal: a sedan for up to 2 passengers or a minivan for up to 6. Everything else about the terminal is in arriving at Tashkent airport.
A layover with a guide
The easiest way to use a long connection is to send us your flight numbers and times, and we fit the day around them. Our private full-day Tashkent tour covers Hast Imam, Chorsu Bazaar, the Center of Islamic Civilization and the main landmarks with a guide and a car. Short on time before the flight home? The CIP lounge «Departure» has its own check-in, passport control and customs counters.
In short
- Close to 90 nationalities enter visa-free; some others get up to five days of visa-free transit with an Uzbekistan Airways ticket to a third country.
- Leave the airport only with about 6 hours or more between flights, and be back two and a half to three hours before departure.
- Bags checked through? Go light. If not, the lockers are on the ground floor of the departures building.
- 6–8 hours: Hazrati Imam, Chorsu and the metro. 12–24 hours: add the Center of Islamic Civilization and the evening fountains.
- The centre is 15–20 minutes away by taxi: order it in an app or book our transfer.
