Samarkand
Uzbekistan
The blue domes of the Silk Road, in a city Tamerlane rebuilt to be the centre of the world
Photo by Alexander Gluschenko on Unsplash
Photos by Alexander Gluschenko, Hendrik Morkel, Jonathan Greenaway and Hao Wu on Unsplash
Best time to visit all of Uzbekistan
April to May, and September to October (July is 36°C, January is freezing)
Climate month by month
The next sixteen daysOpen-Meteo
Average high and low · °C
Rainfall · mm per month
Best months to visit This month · wettest 60mm in Mar
Where it is
39.65°N, 66.96°E Open in Google Maps
Things to do
Weeks of it- Stand in the Registan at night, when it is lit and empty
- Climb the steps at Shah-i-Zinda, which locals count on the way up and down
- Eat plov at lunchtime, which is when it is made and when it runs out
- Take the fast train on to Bukhara
- Buy bread at Siyob Bazaar and eat it warm
Samarkand travel tipsthe general rules
Currency budget Uzbekistan
Good valueThe black market is gone and the banks now give the real rate, which was not true a few years ago — ignore older advice. Cards are increasingly taken in hotels and restaurants, and almost nowhere in a bazaar.
ATMs & cards
Kapitalbank and Ipoteka machines dispense dollars as well as som, and the dollar machines are the ones worth finding. Many machines are inside bank branches and follow bank hours.
Avoid these
- the black market, which no longer exists and is not worth looking for
Use these instead
- Kapitalbank
- Ipoteka Bank
- Hamkorbank
Some machines dispense dollars as well as som, and those are the ones to find. Many sit inside branches and follow bank hours. Bazaars are cash only.
Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.
Safety all of Uzbekistan
Very safeExtremely safe, with almost no street crime and a visible police presence. Registration used to be a bureaucratic trap; hotels handle it automatically now. The heat in July and August is the real hazard on a day of monuments with no shade.
Where to walk, and where to pay attention (7 areas)
Comfortable, including after dark
Worth more attention
- The heat in July and August, over 36°C with no shade at any of the monuments
- Unofficial taxis, which are simply any car that stops — agree the price first or use Yandex Go
- Photographing anything at the airport, the railway station or the metro, which is still discouraged
Our own assessment, not a sourced index.
Entry & visa Uzbekistan visa rules
No visa neededup to 30 days
Thirty days without a visa, and the old requirement to register with the police every three nights is now handled by the hotel automatically — ignore older advice about collecting slips of paper.
Other passports
e-Visa requiredup to 30 daysUSD 20
Applied for online at e-visa.gov.uz and issued in two or three days.
e-Visa requiredup to 30 daysUSD 20
How to get it: Apply at e-visa.gov.uz — the government site — at least a week ahead. There is an industry of lookalike sites charging several times the twenty dollars.
Entry rules change often and depend on your passport, not where you live — the official page above is the authority, and the airline checks before you board.
Health & emergencies all of Uzbekistan
LimitedRequired to enter
No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.
Jabs worth having, and what happens if you need a doctor
Worth having
- Hepatitis A
- Typhoid
- Tetanus up to date
- Rabies for a long or rural stay
Getting treated
Adequate in Tashkent, where there are private clinics used to foreigners; thin in Samarkand and thinner beyond it. Anything serious means a flight to Tashkent or out of the country, so evacuation cover matters.
Do not drink the tap water. Stomach upsets from bazaar food and dairy are the common complaint. The heat in July and August is over 36°C with no shade at the monuments, which is what actually sends visitors to a clinic.
Orientation, not medical advice — entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history. Check with a travel clinic four to six weeks before you go.
Food tip
GoodPlov is the national dish and Samarkand makes its own version, with the rice on top rather than mixed through. The bread — non — is stamped, baked on the wall of a clay oven, and is genuinely different from town to town. Samarkand bread is the one people carry home to Tashkent.
Nightlife
The monuments lit at night, tea houses, and almost no bars — the evening here is a walk and a plate of plov.
- Registan — floodlit after dark, and the best hour to see it
- Siyob Bazaar — the evening trade, and the bread
- Registan Street — the restaurants and chaikhanas
Closing: 23:00; this is an early city.
A beer in a bar: 15,000–30,000 UZS
The Registan light show runs most evenings in season and the square is free to walk past at any hour.
Getting around
Easy- Yandex GoWorks here
- MyTaxiWorks here
- inDriveWorks here
- UberNot here
- BoltNot here
- GrabNot here
- From the airport
- From the airport to the centre 30,000–70,000 sum, depending on the city
- Against a taxi
- Cheaper than flagging down a private car, which is also normal and negotiable here.
Time zone and your working day
Asia/Samarkand — 9 hours ahead of you
0 hours of overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are — — your time, — theirs.
No overlap with a 09:00–17:00 day where you are. Working from here means one of you keeps odd hours — their day starts at 00:00 on your clock.
office hours both at once night
Their 09:00–17:00 is 00:00–08:00 on yours.
The difference from the UK, Europe, the US and ten more
Worked out against America/New York, which is where this request looks like it came from.
Internet speedall of Uzbekistan
What these numbers mean
Home broadband — Fair. Video calls and streaming for one or two people — fine for a holiday, thin for a household working. Broadband here runs at 74% of the global median of 130 Mbps.
Mobile data — Good. Maps, calls and streaming, and enough to tether a laptop for an afternoon. Mobile runs at about the global median of 109 Mbps.
A median is the middle of every connection tested there, old copper and new fibre together — so in a country part-way through laying fibre it sits well below what a fibre line actually delivers, and a rental on one can run several times this number. Half of the connections are slower; a fibre flat is rarely one of them. It says what a place can do, not what your rental does, so every listing on Holistay carries its own measured speed and the date it was tested.
Getting online: Airalo or Holafly — a data eSIM for Uzbekistan, installed before you fly and working the moment you land.
Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured June 2026
Must-see
Nearby day trips
Say a few words
Uzbek
- HelloAssalomu alaykumas-sa-LOM-oo a-lay-KOOM
- PleaseIltimosil-ti-MOS
- Thank youRahmatrah-MAT
- Yes / NoHa / Yo'qha / yoke
5 more phrases
- Excuse meKechirasizke-chi-ra-SIZ
- How much is it?Qancha turadi?KAN-cha too-RA-di
- DeliciousMazalima-za-LI
- BreadNonnon
- GoodbyeXayrkhayr
Written in Latin script since the 1990s, so signs are readable. Russian is widely understood by anyone over thirty-five and is often the easier fallback; English is spreading fast among the young.
Religion
Sunni Muslim, in a strongly secular state
Around 90% Muslim and observance is quiet and cultural rather than strict — alcohol is sold openly and headscarves are the exception. The madrasas at the Registan are monuments; the working mosques beside them are not, and the difference is worth asking about before you walk in.
Do's and don'ts
Do
- Accept the bread first and break it with your hands, never a knife
- Greet older people first, and with a hand on the heart
- Take your shoes off before stepping onto a tapchan, the raised platform you eat on
- Cover shoulders and knees at the madrasas, which are working religious sites as well as monuments
Don't
- Do not place bread upside down, which is an insult to it
- Do not refuse tea; it is poured shallow on purpose so it is refilled often, which is the hospitality
- Do not photograph inside a mosque during prayer, or people at prayer anywhere
- Do not tip heavily — rounding up is generous here and more is embarrassing
Where to stay in Samarkand
No Holistay rentals in Samarkand yet — the platform is just opening up. Every listing here will have a video tour and the option to negotiate the nightly price directly with the host.
In the meantime, here is Samarkand on the sites that do have the inventory — each search is already filled in:
- Booking.com hotels, guesthouses and apartments — the widest coverage almost everywhere
- Airbnb whole homes and apartments, and the better option for a week or more
How to get there
Fly into Samarkand International SKD
20 minfrom the airport· 6 km as the crow flies
20 min to the centre; the fast train from Tashkent takes two hours.
Google Flights · Rome2Rio for the trains, buses and ferries as well as the flights
