Places in this article: Khiva · Tashkent
Wellness and rest in Uzbekistan: mountain resorts, sanatoriums and quiet places
On a July afternoon Tashkent averages 35.9 °C. An hour and a half east, at ,Mountains of the Western Tien Shan about 80 km from Tashkent: hiking in summer, skiing in winter, the Charvak reservoir nearby. Read more → it is 26.2 °C, and at night you reach for a blanket instead of the air conditioning. That gap has shaped how people here rest: for generations, city families have gone up to the mountains near Tashkent, to the juniper slopes of 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 → and to the mineral springs of the Fergana Valley.
This guide is for travellers who want a slower trip: where the sanatoriums of Uzbekistan are, which mountain resorts have pools and spas, and where it is simply quiet. We describe places and what you will find there, not treatments: what a sanatorium can offer your health is a question for its doctors and your own.
Sanatoriums in Uzbekistan: what the word means here
A sanatorium here is neither a hospital nor quite a hotel. It is a resort complex with rooms, a dining hall, a park and its own medical staff, who set the programme of procedures for each guest. Most stand where the air or the water drew people in the first place: in the mountains, by a river or next to a spring.
Programmes, rules and what to bring differ from one sanatorium to the next and change from year to year, so we check them for your dates. We do not sell sanatorium stays as a product. If you want a few days at one, we can include it in an individual programme on request: the transfer, the route around it and the sights before or after.
Chartak: mineral springs in the Fergana Valley
Chartak is a small town on the Chartaksay river, about 19 km northeast of Namangan, on the north side of the .Did you know? Legend says Fergana's 'heavenly horses' sweated blood Legend says the horses of Dayuan, as Chinese chronicles called Fergana, sweated blood, and around 102 BC Emperor Wu of Han sent an army to bring some home. The 'blood' was most likely a skin parasite that causes tiny bleeding spots. Read more → Across Uzbekistan the name means two things: Chortoq mineral water, bottled here since Soviet times, and a spa resort about 7 km from the town.
The resort is built around its springs. Thermal water rich in iodine comes up at about 47 °C and is used for baths; a different mineral water is used for drinking. The Chortoq sanatorium stands here with a park, orchards and walking paths, and there is a separate children’s sanatorium. What each guest is offered is decided by the sanatorium’s doctors.
Chartak fits naturally into a trip to the east of the valley. What to see on the way is in our guide to Andijan and Namangan.
Zaamin: a sanatorium among the junipers
On the northern slope of the Turkestan Range in Jizzakh region, Zaamin National Park protects juniper forests that climb in belts from about 1,700 m to 3,300 m. People from Tashkent and Samarkand come here in summer for the cool air: high in the reserve the average July temperature is only about 15 °C.
The Zaamin sanatorium stands inside the park, at about 2,000 m, in a large building from the 1970s that also holds the visitor centre. It has a pool and a sauna, and other health resorts run by different organisations share the park with hotels and village guesthouses. Outside, the day is yours: forest paths of 5–13 km, a cable car from 1,961 m to 2,491 m and long lunches by a stream.
The walks, the wildlife and the road there are in our guide to Zaamin National Park.
Rest in the mountains of Uzbekistan: Chimgan, Beldersay, Amirsoy
Chimgan, Beldersay and Did you know? Amirsoy drew about 150,000 visitors in its first three months Amirsoy opened in December 2019 on the northern slope of Mount Maygashkan in the Chatkal range, about 65 km from Tashkent. Some 150,000 visitors, mostly locals, came in its first three months, and its chalets get about 90% of their energy from the sun. Read more → lie 65–85 km east of the capital, in the spurs 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 → at the western edge of the .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 → The Chimgan resort area sits at about 1,600 m under ,Did you know? Greater Chimgan was the first big summit for generations of climbers Greater Chimgan (3,309 m) in the Chatkal Range rises 1,689 m above the land around it, which makes it an ultra-prominent peak. Fifteen graded routes lead to the top, and for generations of beginners it was the first serious climb. Read more → 3,309 m. In winter this is where Tashkent skis; from May to October it is where Tashkent comes to breathe.
The resorts are built for rest as much as for sport. Amirsoy has a heated outdoor pool, a hammam and spa and a Russian banya, and its gondolas run in summer too, up to 2,290 m. At Beldersay a new resort with a thalasso spa and indoor and outdoor pools opened in July 2026.
With one free day, the easy version is our day at Amirsoy and Chinorkent with lunch and a cable-car ride; for walkers there is a one-day mountain hike with a guide and a picnic. More in our guides to the mountains near Tashkent, the Amirsoy resort and hiking in Uzbekistan.
Bostanliq and the foothills: quiet by the rivers
Beyond the ski slopes, the valleys of Bostanliq district are the quiet side of the same mountains. Much of this country lies within the ,Did you know? A marmot found almost nowhere else on Earth Menzbier's marmot, the smallest marmot of the Palearctic, has the smallest range of its kind, in the Western Tien Shan at 2,000–3,600 m. It sleeps through winter from August or September until spring. Read more → created in 1992 and covering 668,350 hectares, home to brown bears, wolves, mountain goats and more than 1,000 plant species.
Several sanatoriums of the Tashkent region stand in these foothills: along the Ugam river in Bostanliq district, in Gazalkent on the left bank of the Chirchiq, and in Parkent district near the Chatkal Range. Most have parks or conifers around them, and several have pools. On the shore of Lake ,Did you know? The lake below Chimgan is held back by a 168-metre dam Charvak is a reservoir: a 168 m stone dam on the Chirchiq, built in 1964–1970, holds about 2 km³ of water from the Pskem, Koksu and Chatkal rivers. Its name is traced to the Persian chorbog, "four gardens". Read more → villages such as Yusufkhona, Did you know? A village on Lake Charvak gave its name to a much-loved song Until the mid-1970s Burchmulla on Lake Charvak was called Brich-Mulla. In 1980 the bard Sergei Nikitin set Dmitry Sukharev’s verses to music, and the song “Brich-Mulla” became a favourite of everyone who loves the mountains. Read more → and Nanay are where Tashkent spends its summer, with guesthouses and tapchans by the water.
Slow travel: yoga in Khiva, a gentle pace, the desert
Rest does not have to mean mountains. Our yoga retreat in Khiva is a weekend from Tashkent: a night train each way, sunrise practice in the old town and a day at .Did you know? Legend says a shepherd named Ayaz built Ayaz-Kala for a bride Legend says a Khorezm king promised his daughter to whoever built an unassailable fortress; the shepherd Ayaz began, the king broke his word, and the walls stayed unfinished. In fact the oldest fort here dates to the 4th–3rd century BC. Read more → Departures are listed on the tour page.
If you want the classic cities without the rush, Classic Uzbekistan at a Gentle Pace keeps to one or two main sights a day, in the morning, leaves the afternoons free and travels Business class on the .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 → For silence of another kind there is the yurt camp at Aydarkul, a desert lake below 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 → ridge. And in winter the Winter Silk Road tour plans each day around the short daylight, with warm museums and Rice cooked in a kazan with carrots, onions and meat: the dish of every Uzbek celebration. Each region cooks it its own way. at lunch.
When to go
For the mountains near Tashkent and for Zaamin, choose late spring to early autumn. At Chimgan the average high is 18.3 °C in May, 26.2 °C in July and 14.4 °C in October. The weather up there changes faster than in the city, so pack a warm layer even in July.
From December to March the same slopes are under snow and the ski season runs; in January the Chimgan station averages a daytime high of 1.2 °C. The Fergana Valley is warm: in Chartak July averages about 27 °C and January about −3 °C, so spring and autumn are the gentlest months for a stay there.
Getting there and how long to stay
- Chimgan, Beldersay, Amirsoy: about an hour and a half by car from central Tashkent, longer on summer weekends. A day trip works; one or two nights give you the mountains in the morning and evening.
- Zaamin: by train from Tashkent to Jizzakh or Dashtabad, then 110 km or 70 km by car. Give it at least one night.
- Chartak: Uzbekistan Airways flies from Tashkent to Namangan in under an hour, though not every day; or take the morning train to Pop, where we meet you for the drive on.
- A sanatorium stay: its length and programme are set by the sanatorium; we build the rest of the trip around it.
Wherever you are on the trip, our office is on call 24/7. Tell us your dates and how you like to travel in the tour finder.
In short
- A sanatorium here is a resort complex with its own doctors; we can include a stay in an individual programme on request.
- Chartak in Namangan region: mineral springs, thermal water at about 47 °C and the Chortoq sanatorium.
- Zaamin: a sanatorium at about 2,000 m among juniper forests, cool even in July.
- Chimgan, Beldersay and Amirsoy: 65–85 km from Tashkent, pools and spas at the resorts, walks from May to October, skiing from December to March.
- Slower trips: yoga in Khiva, the classic route at a gentle pace, 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 → and the winter tour.
