Uzbekistan in 7 days: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva

The high-speed train to Khiva leaves Tashkent at 07:00 every day except Sunday, and by about half past two you are under the walls of Khiva. If you want Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva in a single week, that one missing day is all you have to plan around. This is how we lay that week out.

How we usually build the week

The four cities sit almost on one line from east to west, with Khiva at the far end, beyond about 450 km of the Kyzylkum Desert between Bukhara and Urgench. So we go from east to west and come back from Khiva in one move.

Day	Where	How the day goes
1	Tashkent	Arrival; the capital in the afternoon and evening
2	Tashkent → Samarkand	Morning Afrosiyob, about 2 h 15 min; the afternoon in Samarkand
3	Samarkand	A full day
4	Samarkand → Bukhara	Afrosiyob, under 2 hours; the afternoon in the old town
5	Bukhara	A full day
6	Bukhara → Khiva	High-speed train, about 3.5 hours; in Khiva at about 14:30, the evening inside the walls
7	Khiva → Tashkent	Morning in Khiva and an afternoon flight from Urgench, or the early train at 07:15 or 07:20

Samarkand and Bukhara get two nights each: that is where most of the sights are. More in our articles on Samarkand and Bukhara, and on the pages for Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and Tashkent.

Day 6 must not fall on a Sunday, the one day the fast train does not leave Tashkent. Day 7 then cannot be a Monday, the one day no fast train leaves Khiva. Both rules come down to one: do not land in Tashkent on a Tuesday. Timetables do change, so we check the current one on eticket.railway.uz, fix the arrival day and only then book everything else.

Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara: the easy half

This part of the route is covered by the Afrosiyob, a Talgo high-speed train that reaches 250 km/h. It runs several times a day. An early one leaves Tashkent at 06:33 and is in Samarkand at 08:46, in time for breakfast. We usually take a slightly later train: you arrive by mid-morning, drop the bags and go straight out.

Samarkand to Bukhara takes under two hours. Morning trains reach Bukhara around noon, which leaves the whole afternoon and evening for the old town. The full run from Tashkent to Bukhara is just under four hours.

Tickets open on the Uzbekistan Railways site, eticket.railway.uz. We buy them as soon as the dates are fixed. How to choose a train and a class is in our guide to trains in Uzbekistan.

Bukhara to Khiva and back to Tashkent

Since May 2026 the Jaloliddin Manguberdi, a Korean-built Hyundai Rotem high-speed train, runs from Tashkent through Samarkand and Bukhara to Khiva. In July a second trainset joined the first, and between them they leave Tashkent at 07:00 every day except Sunday and reach Khiva at about half past two. From Bukhara the crossing of the Kyzylkum takes about three and a half hours. Seats sell out fast, so this is the first ticket we buy for the whole trip.

On Sundays there are slower trains, or the road across the desert, which takes most of the day by car. That is why we build the week around the fast train rather than the other way round.

For the way back there are two options. The first is a flight. Urgench airport is about 30 km from Khiva, and the flight to Tashkent with Uzbekistan Airways is about 1 h 20 min to 1 h 30 min in the air. With an afternoon flight you still get the morning in Khiva. The second is the same fast train in the other direction: it leaves Khiva every day except Monday, at 07:15 or 07:20 depending on the day, and is in Tashkent at about three in the afternoon. With the arrival day chosen this way it runs on day 7 and fits our plan exactly, but you give up the morning in Khiva.

The other way round: Khiva first

When Khiva matters to you, we often turn the route around. You fly from Tashkent to Urgench on the day you arrive and spend the evening and the next full day in Khiva. Itchan Kala, its walled inner town, was the first site in Uzbekistan on the UNESCO World Heritage List, in 1990, and a whole day there is not too much.

Day	Where	How the day goes
1	Tashkent → Urgench → Khiva	Flight, then 30 km by road; the evening in Khiva
2	Khiva	A full day
3	Khiva → Bukhara	High-speed train at 07:15 or 07:20, in Bukhara before 11:00
4	Bukhara	A full day
5	Bukhara → Samarkand	Afrosiyob, under 2 hours
6	Samarkand	A full day
7	Samarkand → Tashkent	Afrosiyob, about 2 h 15 min; the rest of the day in Tashkent before your flight home

Here day 3 must not be a Monday, when no fast train leaves Khiva, so do not land on a Saturday. The bonus: you finish the trip in Tashkent, close to your international flight, and there is no long journey on the last day.

If you have fewer days

• Five days: we drop Khiva. Tashkent, two nights in Samarkand, two in Bukhara, and the Afrosiyob back from Bukhara to Tashkent in under four hours.
• Six days: we cut the day in Tashkent rather than a night in Khiva. You land and take the Afrosiyob to Samarkand the same day; the rest of the plan moves up a day, so check the train days again.
• Do not split Khiva into a day trip. The road there and back takes longer than the visit itself. Either one night at least, or skip it this time.

For budget, season, accommodation and flights see our guides to the one-week budget, when to go, where to stay and flights. To see which routes fit your interests, try the tour finder or the tour catalogue.

In short

• Build the week around the fast train to Khiva: it leaves Tashkent at 07:00 every day except Sunday and is in Khiva at about 14:30.
• Tashkent–Samarkand is about 2 h 15 min by Afrosiyob, Samarkand–Bukhara under 2 hours, Bukhara–Khiva about 3.5 hours.
• Back from Khiva: a flight from Urgench, about 1.5 hours, or the 07:15 or 07:20 train, every day except Monday.
• Khiva first, then Bukhara and Samarkand, gives Khiva a full day and ends the trip in Tashkent.
• Short on time: drop Khiva rather than squeeze it into a day trip.