Places in this article: Samarkand · Bukhara · Khiva · Tashkent
Uzbekistan in spring: what to expect from March to May
On 1 March the sun is up over Tashkent for 11 hours and 18 minutes. By 31 May it is almost 15 hours, and in Khiva the sun does not set until 20:26. In those three months Uzbekistan goes from bare orchards to green mountain meadows, celebrates its spring new year and fills its old cities with travellers.
We live in Tashkent and travel the country all year. This is our guide to Uzbekistan in spring as a whole: what the weather does, what Navruz is, what flowers when, where to go beyond the cities, how busy it gets and which route to take. The details of each month are in Uzbekistan in March, in April and in May.
Why spring is the best season for the cities
Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva are cities you see on foot: courtyards, covered bazaars, the walk 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. to the next. In spring the afternoon sits between about 15 and 30 °C, the right range for six or seven hours of walking a day. In summer the same walk has to stop at noon, and in winter it starts later and ends with the early sunset.
The season has three different months. March is cool and calm and, together with November, is our favourite month to travel. April is green and mild, the start of the high season. May is warm, with long evenings that you spend outside, and by the end of the month Bukhara and Khiva already feel like summer at midday.
Weather in Uzbekistan in spring
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 | March | April | May |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tashkent | 16 °C / 5 °C | 22 °C / 10 °C | 28 °C / 14 °C |
| Samarkand | 15 °C / 5 °C | 21 °C / 10 °C | 27 °C / 14 °C |
| Bukhara | 17 °C / 5 °C | 24 °C / 11 °C | 31 °C / 16 °C |
| Khiva | 14 °C / 2 °C | 22 °C / 9 °C | 29 °C / 15 °C |
Spring warms fast: about 12 degrees between the average March and May afternoon. It is also the wettest part of the year in Samarkand and Tashkent, with about 73 mm and 66 mm of rain in March and some 40 mm in May. Bukhara and Khiva stay dry, about 25 mm in March and barely any in May. A shower in Samarkand 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. The whole year, month by month, is in our weather guide.
Navruz: the spring new year on 21 March
Navruz, the new year of spring, falls on 21 March and is a public holiday. It is on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage, which Uzbekistan shares with twelve other countries. The dish of the holiday is sumalak: sprouted wheat cooked in a big kazan from evening until morning, stirred in turns by whoever is awake, each with a wish, and shared with the neighbours in the morning.
In 2027, 21 March is a Sunday, so the day off is expected to move to Monday 22 March. The same spring has more holidays: 8 March, Women's Day, is a Monday; Ramazon Hayit is expected around 9–10 March; 9 May, the Day of Remembrance and Honour, is a Sunday; and Kurban Hayit is expected on 16 or 17 May. What to eat, where to join in and what to book first is in our guide to Navruz in Uzbekistan, and the longer story of the holiday is in Navruz: Uzbekistan’s New Year Is Older Than Islam and Bigger Than a Holiday.
Our Navruz in Bukhara tour runs on fixed dates, 18 to 25 March, and puts you in Bukhara on the day itself, with Khiva, Samarkand and Tashkent on the same route.
Blossom and tulips: what we can and cannot promise
March is when the almond and apricot trees flower in the valleys; after a warm winter the apricots in the south can open as early as February. A March frost can still catch the blossom, as it did in 2022, so the exact week changes from year to year and nobody can book it in advance.
Higher up, April and May are the months of .Did you know? The tulip's family tree is said to begin in the Tien Shan Long before Ottoman gardens and Dutch bulb fields, wild tulips grew in Central Asia's mountains, and the Tien 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 ,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 ,Mountains of the Western Tien Shan about 80 km from Tashkent: hiking in summer, skiing in winter, the Charvak reservoir nearby. Read more → and flowers in April and May. Red tulips also come out on the slopes of the Did you know? Zaamin guards Uzbekistan’s oldest nature reserve The mountains of Zaamin, the “Uzbek Switzerland”, were first protected in 1926 as the Guralash reserve, the oldest in the country, to save their juniper forests. The national park around it followed in 1976. Read more → mountains in spring, and the Did you know? The Nuratau ridge protects a rare wild sheep The Nurata Nature Reserve was set up on the Nuratau ridge in 1975 to protect wild walnut groves and Severtsov's argali, an endemic wild sheep on the Red List. Golden eagles and bearded vultures are protected here too. Read more → hills between Samarkand and Bukhara are covered in wildflowers in April and May. Where and when they open depends on the snow and the warmth of the year, so we plan a mountain day close to the date and treat the flowers as a gift, not a promise.
The mountains, Nuratau and Aydarkul
Spring in the mountains near Tashkent runs late. The ski season at Amirsoy lasts until late March and at Beldersay until early April. April is a month in between, and the wettest of the year at Chimgan, with about 143 mm. The hiking season opens in May, when the slopes are at their greenest, though May is still rainy up there. We keep a free day in the plan and pick the walking day by the forecast; for a single day we organise a mountain hike with a guide and a picnic. More in our guide to hiking in Uzbekistan.
Between Samarkand and Bukhara, spring is the season for the desert and the hills. The yurt camps on Did you know? Aydarkul is a wetland of international importance In 2008 the Aydar-Arnasay lake system, about 527,000 ha, became a Ramsar site. It lies where two great bird flyways cross and shelters Dalmatian pelicans and the rare white-headed duck. Read more → lake, closed in winter, receive guests again, and a night there gives you a camel ride, dinner by the fire and a desert sky. In April the afternoon in Navoi, the regional centre, averages 23.5 °C, and the migrating birds pass over the lake. South of it, our Nuratau Mountains extension adds a night with a family in a village and a morning walk. Everything about the lake is in our Aydarkul guide.
Crowds, prices and booking: an honest note
Spring is not a secret. In our experience the first half of March is calm, but from April the high season begins, and April and May, together with September and October, are the months when the morning 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 → trains and the hotels close to the old towns of Samarkand and Bukhara sell out first. Uzbek families travel too, especially around Navruz and the long weekends of 2027.
It is not the season for last-minute deals. Train tickets go on sale 60 days before departure, so for a trip in mid-April the seats open in mid-February, and we buy on the first days. The earlier your dates are firm, the more choice of rooms and train times you have. If you prefer quiet courtyards, come in the first half of March or look at autumn, especially November. How the trains work is in our guide to trains in Uzbekistan.
What to wear in spring
- Layers: a T-shirt for a sunny afternoon and a sweater and a jacket for March nights of 2–5 °C. In May a thin sweater for the evening is enough.
- A light waterproof or a small umbrella for Samarkand and Tashkent in March and April.
- Comfortable walking shoes that do not mind a wet pavement.
- A sun hat, sunglasses and sunscreen from late April, above all for the open squares of Bukhara and Khiva.
- A warm layer for the desert evening at Aydarkul and for the mountains, where it is ten degrees cooler than in the city.
- A light scarf for mosques and mausoleums; the rules are in our guide to what to wear and etiquette.
The full list for every season is in what to pack for Uzbekistan.
How many days to plan, and which route
For a first trip a week covers the classic cities. The 8-day classic tour goes through Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva; the 11-day classic tour gives each city more time. If you like to travel with a group, the 8-day group tour of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva starts every Friday through 2026 and 2027.
For a spring with a theme there is Navruz in Bukhara in March, our Uzbekistan photo tour, which departs on 20 April 2027, and the Fergana Valley crafts tour with Did you know? Legend says a Rishtan apricot made a great scholar praise God Legend says 12th-century Rishtan folk brought a new apricot to their countryman Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani in Samarkand; he tasted it and said 'Subhanallah' three times, so it is called subhoni. The scholar is real: he wrote al-Hidaya. Read more → ceramics and Did you know? Legend says Margilan is named after chicken and bread Legend says locals greeted Alexander the Great with chicken and bread, 'murg' and 'non', and the dish gave the town its name. In fact Alexander never reached here; the name Margilan is recorded from the 10th century. Read more → silk. Add two days for Aydarkul and Nuratau between Samarkand and Bukhara. On our tours the guide speaks your language and is included in the price, and our office is on call 24/7 while you travel. How we lay out a week is in Uzbekistan in 7 days.
In short
- March to May: about 14–17 °C in the afternoon in March, 21–24 °C in April and 27–31 °C in May.
- Navruz on 21 March is a public holiday; in 2027 the day off is expected on Monday 22 March.
- Almonds and apricots blossom in March, wild tulips open in the mountains in April and May, but the dates change every year.
- The Aydarkul yurt camps and the Nuratau villages are at their best in spring; mountain hiking starts in May.
- April and May are high season: train tickets go on sale 60 days ahead, so book early.
