Uzbekistan in 9 days: Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva

Day 2 — Tashkent: bazaar, metro art and the plov pilgrimage

• 9:00 — Chorsu Bazaar — the turquoise-domed market: mountains of spices, dried fruit, warm non bread from the tandoor. Breakfast is whatever you point at.
• 11:30 — Metro-art hop back across town (Alisher Navoi, Kosmonavtlar stations).
• 12:15 — Central Asian Plov Centre (Besh Qozon) — the pilgrimage lunch: plov cooked in cauldrons the size of hot tubs, serving thousands daily. Arrive by 12:30 — when the plov runs out, lunch is over (~40,000–60,000 som with all the sides).
• 14:30 — Pick one: the Museum of Applied Arts (ceramics and suzani embroidery in a decorated mansion, ~50,000 som), or with kids, Magic City park’s fairy-tale kitsch.
• 17:00 — Free evening — Broadway Street’s artists, Tashkent City park’s fountains.
• 21:00 — Pack light for the trains; tomorrow the Silk Road starts. Confirm your Afrosiyob seats.

Day 3 — Afrosiyob to Samarkand, Registan at dusk

• 8:00 — Afrosiyob to Samarkand (~2h10; economy ~USD 20, business ~USD 33). Steppe out the window, tea trolley inside.
• 10:30 — Arrive, drop bags. Lunch near the Registan — try Samarkand’s own plov (it’s a rivalry; you’re the judge).
• 13:00 — Gur-Emir Mausoleum (~9:00–19:00, 75,000 som) — Tamerlane’s tomb under a ribbed turquoise dome, the blueprint for the Taj Mahal’s ancestry.
• 15:30 — The Registan (7:00–24:00 — yes, midnight; 100,000 som) — three madrasahs of tilework facing a single square, the reason Uzbekistan is on your list. Go now for afternoon light, stay through dusk: the buildings ignite at golden hour, and evenings often add a light-and-sound show visible free from the square.
• 20:00 — Dinner near the square — mid-range Samarkand runs ~120,000–200,000 som for two with wine (Uzbek wine is a cheerful surprise).

Where to stay in Samarkand (two nights)

• Upscale: Hilton Samarkand Regency — the modern Silk Road complex: views, pools, shuttle to the sights.
• Mid-range: Kosh Havuz Boutique Hotel — courtyard charm and a rooftop restaurant, walkable to the Registan.
• Budget: ANTICA Family Guest House — a 150-year-old family house with garden breakfasts, minutes from Gur-Emir.

Day 4 — Samarkand: the avenue of the dead and the bread bazaar

• 8:00 — Shah-i-Zinda (~9:00–19:00 official, gates often earlier; 80,000 som) — a rising lane of mausoleums in the bluest tile on earth. First hour = pilgrims and photographers only; by 10:30 it’s tour groups shoulder to shoulder.
• 10:30 — Bibi-Khanym Mosque (75,000 som) — Tamerlane’s giant, half-ruin and all swagger — then next door into Siyob Bazaar: buy the famous Samarkand non bread (locals carry stacks home on flights) and halva by the slab.
• 13:00 — Lunch at a bazaar-side chaikhana.
• 15:00 — Ulugbek Observatory (75,000 som) — the astronomer-king’s giant sextant trench, from when Samarkand measured the stars better than anywhere in Europe.
• 17:30 — Optional: paper-making at Konigil village (mulberry-bark paper, the old way), or rest.
• 19:30 — Second Registan evening — it’s a different building by night, and your ticket day is done, so the square itself is free to linger in.

Day 5 — Down the line to Bukhara

• 9:30 — Afrosiyob Samarkand → Bukhara (~1.5 h; arrives Bukhara’s Kagan station, 15 min by taxi from the old town).
• 12:00 — Check in inside the old town; lunch at Lyab-i-Hauz — the 17th-century pool plaza shaded by mulberry trees, the city’s living room.
• 14:00 — The trading domes — centuries-old covered bazaars still selling carpets, ikat silk, scissors from the blacksmith dynasty — and Magoki-Attori, the mosque built on a Zoroastrian temple.
• 16:30 — Poi Kalyan complex (mosque 20,000 som) — the Kalyan Minaret, 47 m of brick patterning so beautiful that Genghis Khan, who flattened everything else, ordered it spared.
• 18:30 — Rooftop teahouse facing the minaret for sunset — the classic Bukhara hour.
• 20:00 — Dinner off Lyab-i-Hauz — Bukhara’s plov, kebabs, and the local specialty of apricot-stuffed everything.

Where to stay in Bukhara (two nights)

• Boutique: Alexia Suite — superbly rated suites in the heritage quarter.
• Mid-range: Kavsar Boutique Hotel — characterful rooms on a quiet courtyard by Lyab-i-Hauz.
• Budget: Lyabi-House Hotel — a restored 19th-century merchant house in the middle of everything.

Day 6 — Bukhara: the Ark, the hammam and the last emir

• 9:00 — The Ark Fortress (~9:00–18:00, 60,000 som) — Bukhara’s royal citadel, 1,500 years of emirs, with the photogenic Bolo Hauz Mosque and its twenty carved pillars across the road.
• 11:30 — Wander north to Chor Minor — the four-towered gatehouse that looks airlifted from a fairytale — through neighbourhoods where old Bukhara still just lives.
• 13:00 — Long chaikhana lunch; it’s siesta-hot even in shoulder season.
• 15:00 — Choose: Sitorai Mokhi-Khosa, the last emir’s summer palace of chandeliers and peacocks (~50,000 som), or a scrub-and-steam in the 16th-century Bozori Kord hammam (book a slot; ~USD 15–25).
• 18:00 — Golden hour on the old town’s rooftops, then a slow farewell dinner — book a courtyard restaurant with live music tonight.

Day 7 — Across the desert to Khiva

Match this day to the Khiva train’s ~3-weekly timetable when you book; otherwise it’s the desert road.

• Option A — Train: the Jaloliddin Manguberdi high-speed service, Bukhara → Khiva in ~3.5–4 h — the Kyzylkum desert at 250 km/h.
• Option B — Car: private or shared car, ~6–7 h across the desert past camels and cotton, with a chaikhana stop on the Amu Darya. More time, more story.
• 16:00 — Arrive Khiva, check in beside (or inside) the walls. First walk into Itchan Kala as the day cools — the squat turquoise Kalta Minor minaret glowing in low sun is the arrival image.
• 18:30 — Watch sunset from the Kuhna Ark watchtower (small separate fee) — mud-brick city, turquoise domes, desert beyond. NatGeo put Khiva on its 2026 list for exactly this.
• 20:00 — Rooftop dinner in the old town — order shivit oshi, Khiva’s startling green dill noodles; you can’t get them anywhere else.

Where to stay in Khiva (two nights)

• The experience: Orient Star Khiva — rooms in the cells of an 1855 madrasah inside the walls; character first, luxury second, and worth it for one stay.
• Comfort: Hotel Bankir Khiva — superbly rated, rooftop views, beside the walls.
• Budget: Islam Khodja guesthouse — family-run inside the old city, breakfast under the vines.

Day 8 — Khiva: a whole day inside the walls

• 8:30 — Buy the Itchan Kala combined ticket (9:00–21:00 officially, gates open earlier; 250,000 som — covers most monuments for two days) and start before the day-trippers: the Juma Mosque’s forest of 200+ carved wooden pillars, some a thousand years old.
• 10:30 — Climb the Islam Khodja minaret — Khiva’s tallest; steep, dark, and the view over the mud-walled city is the best in Central Asia.
• 12:30 — Lunch, then the shade hours: Tosh Hovli palace’s harem courtyards and the Pakhlavan Makhmud mausoleum (30,000 som) — Khiva’s most sacred, most beautiful interior.
• 16:00 — The craft lanes: Khiva’s wood-carvers and fur-hat-makers work in open shops; prices are the best on the whole route.
• 18:00 — Walk the city walls at sunset — the full circuit of ramparts is the trip’s closing scene.
• 20:00 — Final dinner on a roof; count domes.

Day 9 — Fly home via Tashkent

• Morning — Taxi to Urgench airport (~35 min), fly to Tashkent (~1h40, ~USD 40–70, several daily) and connect home the same day. Buy your bread and halva at Siyob-stocked airport shops if you failed earlier — but you won’t have.