Uzbekistan in April: spring weather, long days and tips
Places in this article: Samarkand · Bukhara · Khiva · Tashkent
On 1 April the sun is up over Tashkent for 12 hours 43 minutes. On 30 April it is almost 14 hours, and it sets at 19:20. April gives you long, warm evenings: time for a walk after dinner around a lit-up square in Samarkand or Bukhara, which in winter you would do in the dark.
We live in Tashkent and travel the country all year. April is when the high season begins: the weather settles into the low twenties, the trees are green, and the trains start to fill up. Here is what to expect, city by city.
Weather in Uzbekistan in April
Average daytime highs and night lows from the long-term climate normals (1991–2020), the same figures we use across this site. Khiva's numbers come from the weather station in Urgench, 35 km away.
| City | Day | Night | Rain in the month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tashkent | 22 °C | 10 °C | 63 mm |
| Samarkand | 21 °C | 10 °C | 63 mm |
| Bukhara | 24 °C | 11 °C | 22 mm |
| Khiva | 22 °C | 9 °C | 19 mm |
These are averages for the whole month. March averages about 16 °C in the afternoon and May about 29 °C, so April is the step between them: the start of the month is fresh, the end already warm. Bukhara is the warmest of the four cities, and from April to July it runs two to four degrees ahead of Samarkand.
Bukhara and Khiva are dry. Tashkent and Samarkand still get spring showers, about 63 mm in the month, a little less than in March. A shower usually means a slower hour in a museum or a A teahouse: green tea, plov and conversation on wide wooden beds called topchan., not a lost day.
Daylight in April
The whole of Uzbekistan runs on one time zone, UTC+5, with no daylight saving. So the farther west you go, the later the sun rises and sets.
- Tashkent, 1 April: sunrise 06:05, sunset 18:49, about 12 hours 45 minutes of daylight.
- Tashkent, 30 April: sunrise 05:21, sunset 19:20, about 14 hours.
- Khiva, the same dates: sunrise 06:41 and 05:56, sunset 19:24 and 19:56.
The high-speed train from Tashkent leaves at 07:00 every day except Sunday and reaches Khiva at about 14:30. In April that leaves you five hours of daylight inside the walls, enough for a first walk and the sunset from a city wall. Times and days are in our guide to trains in Uzbekistan.
Events and holidays in April
April has no public holidays in Uzbekistan. The spring ones come just before it: Navruz, the new year, on 21 March, and in 2027 the end of Ramadan around 9–10 March. The next holiday is the Day of Remembrance and Honour on 9 May.
If you want to see Navruz itself, come a little earlier: our Navruz in Bukhara tour runs on fixed dates, 18 to 25 March. More about that month in Uzbekistan in March.
For photographers, April is the month of our Uzbekistan photo tour: a 12-day group trip through Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, departing on 20 April 2027 and returning on 1 May, with free afternoons and a photo moment pointed out in every city.
The mountains in April: between two seasons
In the mountains near Tashkent April is a month in between. The ski season at Beldersay lasts until early April, while the hiking trails open in May. At Mountains of the Western Tian Shan about 80 km from Tashkent: hiking in summer, skiing in winter, the Charvak reservoir nearby. Read more → the average afternoon is 14 °C and the night 5 °C, and April is the wettest month of the year there, with about 143 mm.
What April does bring is Did you know? The tulip's family tree is said to begin in the Tian Shan Long before Ottoman gardens and Dutch bulb fields, wild tulips grew in Central Asia's mountains, and the Tian Shan is often named as their homeland. In April they flower on the slopes around Chimgan. Read more →. One of them, Did you know? A wild tulip that grows nowhere but these mountains Tulipa butkovii is endemic to the western Chatkal Range. It was described from bulbs collected in 1959 on the slopes of Little Chimgan and flowers in April and May. Read more →, grows only in the western part of the Did you know? Snow leopards live in a reserve near Tashkent The Chatkal Biosphere Reserve, founded in 1947, spans 1,500–3,900 m on the Chatkal Range. It protects 770 plant species and rare animals including the snow leopard and Menzbier's marmot. Read more →, which includes Chimgan, and flowers in April and May; botanists first described it from bulbs collected on the slopes of Little Chimgan. Where and when the tulips open depends on the snow, so we plan a mountain day close to the date. For a guided trip with a vehicle there is the Jeep Expedition: High Tashkent; more in our guide to the mountains around Tashkent.
Crowds and booking
High season starts in April. Together with May, September and October it is when we book fast trains and well-located hotels in Samarkand and Bukhara early. Train tickets go on sale 60 days before departure, so for a trip in mid-April the seats open in mid-February, and the morning 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 → trains go first.
Routes that work well in April:
- The 8-day classic tour or the slower 11-day classic tour through Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and Tashkent.
- The 8-day group tour of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, with departures every Friday through 2026 and 2027.
- The 10-day off-the-beaten-path tour, for a second trip or a slower pace.
- The Fergana Valley crafts tour: Rishtan ceramics and Margilan silk, with afternoons around 22 °C in Fergana.
Our day-by-day plan for Uzbekistan in 7 days shows how we lay out a week.
What to pack for April
- Layers: a T-shirt for the afternoon and a sweater or light jacket for nights of 9–11 °C.
- A light waterproof or a small umbrella for Tashkent and Samarkand.
- Comfortable walking shoes that do not mind a wet pavement.
- Sunglasses and a hat for Bukhara and Khiva, where the afternoon is warmest.
- A light scarf for mosques and mausoleums (see what to wear and etiquette), and a card plus some cash for bazaars: see cards, cash and tipping.
In short
- April is warm and green: 21–24 °C in the afternoon, 9–11 °C at night.
- Bukhara and Khiva are dry; Tashkent and Samarkand still get spring showers.
- Days are long, with sunset moving from about 18:50 to 19:20 in Tashkent.
- No public holidays; Navruz is on 21 March, and our photo tour starts on 20 April 2027.
- High season begins: train tickets go on sale 60 days ahead, so book early. For the rest of the year, see when to visit Uzbekistan.
