Tashkent to Samarkand: train, car or day tour
Places in this article: Samarkand · Tashkent
The 06:33 Uzbekistan's high-speed train: Tashkent to Samarkand in 2 hours 30 minutes, Tashkent to Bukhara in about 4 hours. Tickets are tied to your passport. Read more → leaves Tashkent while the city is still waking up. At 08:46 it pulls into Samarkand, and by the time a taxi has covered the six kilometres to 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 →, the square has been open for an hour. That is the whole case for the train. Below is how we in Tashkent get guests to Samarkand: by train, by car or on a day tour, and what fits into one day once you are there.
Tashkent to Samarkand by train: the Afrosiyob
The Afrosiyob is the Spanish-built Talgo high-speed train, and it is how most travellers make this trip. It runs several times a day, every day, and takes between 2 h 15 min and 2 h 30 min. The first trains leave Tashkent soon after six in the morning and reach Samarkand by about half past eight; the last fast trains back leave Samarkand in the evening, around 7 to 8 p.m.
There are three classes. Since 1 February 2026 a seat from Tashkent to Samarkand costs 311,000 som in Economy, 455,000 in Business and 709,000 in VIP.
Tickets go on sale 60 days before departure on eticket.railway.uz, 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. Afrosiyob seats sell out, so we buy them as soon as the dates are fixed. The full guide is in trains in Uzbekistan.
Sharq, Nasaf and the night trains
If the Afrosiyob is full, there are slower trains on the same line. The Sharq takes a little over three hours from Tashkent to Samarkand and the Nasaf about three and a half; both have morning departures. The Sharq is cheaper than the Afrosiyob.
The overnight trains to Bukhara and Khiva also stop in Samarkand, but they reach it late in the evening or in the middle of the night. They make sense if you are going further west, not for a visit to Samarkand.
Which Tashkent station
Tashkent has two stations. The Afrosiyob, Sharq and Nasaf leave from Tashkent Central, which locals call the North station. The overnight sleepers usually leave from the South station, about 7 km away. The station is printed on your ticket.
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. In Samarkand the station is more than 6 km from the Registan: plan a taxi or a transfer.
By car or shared taxi
The road from Tashkent to Samarkand is around 300 km, through Jizzakh. On a good day the drive takes 4 to 5 hours; with heavy traffic it can stretch to 6. The road is busy, and for most people the train is faster and calmer.
A car makes sense when there are several of you with luggage, when you want to set your own departure time, or when you continue from Samarkand to places the train does not reach, such as Shahrisabz. Shared taxis also run between the two cities: the driver sells seats and leaves when the car is full. There is no timetable and no ticket, which is why we do not recommend them for a first trip.
Is there a flight?
Yes: there are direct flights on several days a week, about an hour in the air. But with the drive to the airport and check-in, the flight saves no time over a train that runs from the city to the city in under two and a half hours. For this route we always choose the train. Flights are worth it on longer legs, such as Urgench to Tashkent; see our guide to flights to Uzbekistan.
A day trip or a night in Samarkand?
A day trip works. With the early train out and an evening train back, you have about ten hours in the city, enough for the main sights. If you would rather not deal with tickets and taxis, our Samarkand in a Day tour picks you up in Tashkent at 06:00 and drives you there and back, with a guide in your language, meals and entrance tickets.
A night is better. The Registan looks different in the morning and in the late afternoon, because the sun moves from one 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. facade to the other. Did you know? Why Shah-i-Zinda means 'the Living King' The necropolis grew around the shrine of Qutham ibn Abbas, a cousin of the Prophet Muhammad. Legend says he did not die in battle but went down a deep well to a garden of paradise, where he lives on. Read more → is best early, before the heat and the groups. With one night you can see both, and with two you can add the 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 → or a trip to Shahrisabz. How we split the days is in Samarkand in 1, 2 and 3 days, and hotels are covered in where to stay.
What to see in Samarkand in one day
The main sights lie close together, so one day is mostly a walk. This is the order we use:
- Registan first. It opens at 8 a.m.; a foreign adult ticket costs 100,000 som, children go in free, and you can buy online in advance.
- The great mosque Amir Timur ordered after his Indian campaign of 1398–1399, one of the largest of its time. Read more → Mosque, Amir Timur (Tamerlane, 1336–1405), founder of the Timurid empire, which had its capital in Samarkand. Born near Shahrisabz.'s Friday mosque, about 700 m along a pedestrian street.
- Samarkand's main bazaar, right next to Bibi-Khanym: Samarkand bread, dried fruit, nuts and halva. Read more →, right next to the mosque: the natural place for lunch, flatbread and dried fruit.
- Shah-i-Zinda, the necropolis about 800 m further on. It is still a place of pilgrimage, so cover shoulders and knees; see what to wear.
- Did you know? Timur's tombstone went to Persia and came back The dark-green jade slab on Timur's grave in Gur-e-Amir was carried off by Nader Shah in 1740. It broke, and on his advisers' urging he sent it back to Samarkand. Read more →, Timur's mausoleum, about a kilometre from the Registan, at the end of the day before the evening train.
Each monument has its own ticket desk, so carry some cash in som: our notes on cards and cash explain where cards work. If you come by train on your own and want a guide on the spot, there are our private Samarkand highlights and Samarkand discovery tours. More about the city is on the Samarkand page.
In short
- The Afrosiyob takes 2 h 15 min to 2 h 30 min from Tashkent Central; since 1 February 2026 it costs 311,000 / 455,000 / 709,000 som in Economy, Business and VIP.
- Book on eticket.railway.uz as soon as your dates are fixed; sales open 60 days ahead and Afrosiyob seats sell out.
- By car it is around 300 km and 4 to 5 hours, longer in traffic.
- A day trip gives you about ten hours in the city; one night lets you see the Registan in both lights.
- In one day: Registan, Bibi-Khanym, Siab Bazaar, Shah-i-Zinda and Gur-e-Amir, all on foot.
