Places in this article: Khiva · Tashkent
Uzbekistan travel tips: what to know before you go
Three things decide how smoothly your first days in Uzbekistan go, and the 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 → is rarely one of them. A hotel that registers your passport within three days, a few so'm notes for the bazaar, and a train ticket bought as soon as your dates are fixed: get those right and the rest falls into place.
These are our Uzbekistan travel tips, the short version we give friends before their first trip. We are a tour operator in Tashkent, so every section below is the essence, with a link to our detailed guide when you want more.
Visa and entry
Citizens of close to 90 countries, including the EU, the UK, Australia, Japan and South Korea, enter without a visa for up to 30 days, and since 1 January 2026 so do citizens of the United States. Most other nationalities apply for an e-visa online at e-visa.gov.uz. If your passport is on neither list, you need a regular visa, issued on a letter of invitation from a licensed tour operator.
Check how long your passport stays valid after arrival before you buy tickets. Details: do you need a visa for Uzbekistan and the letter of invitation.
Registration and your passport
Every foreign visitor is registered at the place of stay within 3 days of arrival, and weekends count. In a hotel or guesthouse the reception does it at check-in in the E-mehmon system, and the tourist tax is already in your bill. Staying with friends or in a flat? Ask the host how they will register you before you arrive.
Keep every registration confirmation until passport control on departure, and carry your passport at all times: police do check. More in registration and customs and where to stay.
Money: cards and cash
Almost every card terminal here reads Visa and Mastercard: hotels, restaurants, shops, museums, railway stations. Cash, in Uzbek so'm, is for places without a terminal: the bazaar, street vendors and some taxis. Withdraw so'm from an ATM on your first day, change money only at banks and official exchange offices, and keep your customs declaration if you brought in a large sum of cash.
Read cards, cash and tipping, where to exchange currency and how much a week in Uzbekistan costs.
SIM card, internet and IMEI
Your phone is your map, your taxi and your translator here, so sort it out on day one. Roaming and travel eSIMs need no paperwork. A local SIM is issued at an operator office on your passport, and foreign visitors then have 60 days before the phone's IMEI must be registered, so a two-week trip needs nothing more.
Staying longer? Declare the phone at customs on arrival. Operators, data and the registration steps: internet and mobile network and IMEI registration.
Getting around: trains, taxis, metro
Fast trains link the main cities. 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 → takes 2 hours 30 minutes from Tashkent to Samarkand and about 4 hours to Bukhara, and a high-speed train to Khiva covers the distance from Tashkent in about 7.5 hours. Tickets are sold on eticket.railway.uz and are issued to your passport, so enter its details exactly. Afrosiyob and the Khiva train sell out: book as soon as your dates are fixed.
In cities, order taxis in Yandex Go or MyTaxi; in Tashkent the 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 → runs until midnight. Guides: trains in Uzbekistan, Tashkent to Samarkand and the Tashkent metro.
What to wear and local etiquette
In Tashkent you can dress as you would at home. Mosques and mausoleums ask more: shoulders and knees covered for everyone, a scarf over the hair for women before entering a mosque, and shoes off on the prayer carpets. A light scarf in your bag solves most situations.
Ask before you photograph a person, never put bread face down, and accept a gift when you are given one. The full guide: what to wear and how to behave.
Safety
Ordinary precautions are enough here, and in Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara you can walk the old quarters in the evening. In busy places like bazaars and the metro, keep your phone and wallet close, as you would in any big city.
Drink bottled water, stay out of the midday sun in summer, take insurance that covers medical evacuation, and save one number: 112 reaches police, ambulance and fire crews anywhere in the country. More in safety and health.
What not to do in Uzbekistan
- Do not photograph strategic sites: military buildings, border posts, bridges, airports, police stations and government buildings. The Tashkent metro is different: photography there has been allowed since 1 June 2018.
- Do not fly a drone without prior permission from the Civil Aviation Agency.
- Do not drink alcohol in public places such as the street or a park; keep it for a restaurant. Alcohol and cigarettes are sold only to people aged 21 and over.
- Do not take out more foreign currency than you brought in, or antiques made 50 or more years ago.
- Do not carry drugs or undeclared prescription medicines: some medicines sold freely in Europe, such as those with codeine, are controlled here.
The rules for carpets and cash at the border are in registration and customs.
Best time to visit
For the cities, the best seasons are March to June and September to November, with April, May, September and October at the top. July is hot: the average high in Tashkent is about 36 °C, so in summer we plan sightseeing for the morning and evening. Winter is quiet in the cities and the season for skiing in the mountains near Tashkent.
More in when to visit Uzbekistan, and month by month, for example Uzbekistan in October.
What to bring home
Suzani embroidery, silk ikat from ,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 → ceramics from 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 → and Gijduvan, Chust knives, dried fruit and spices from the bazaar. Turn a suzani over before you pay: the back shows whether it was stitched by hand. Take a receipt for every carpet or suzani, and pack knives in your checked luggage.
Where to buy and how to tell handmade work: what to buy in Uzbekistan.
Travelling from Russia
Russian citizens need no visa but must travel on an international passport, children included; the first 15 days are exempt from registration. Cards issued by Russian banks, including Mir, are not serviced in Uzbekistan, so bring cash for the whole trip, preferably US dollars. Flights, money and routes: tours to Uzbekistan from Russia.
Planning on your own or with us? Read on your own or with a local operator, choose a route in the tour catalogue or answer six questions in the tour finder.
In short
- Close to 90 nationalities enter visa-free for 30 days; most others get an e-visa online.
- Registration is due within 3 days; hotels do it, and you keep the confirmations and your passport.
- Visa and Mastercard work almost everywhere there is a terminal; carry so'm for bazaars and street taxis.
- Book Afrosiyob and the Khiva train as soon as your dates are fixed.
- Cover shoulders and knees in mosques, do not photograph strategic sites, and save 112.
