Getting from the airport to the city in Uzbekistan

The airport is barely 5 km from the centre of Tashkent, so nothing about this journey should be expensive or complicated. It nevertheless produces more complaints from visitors than anything else in the country.

• Walk past the men offering taxis inside the terminal. They will quote 100,000 to 200,000 som for a ride that costs 25,000 to 50,000 som, and they will be very confident about it.
• Use Yandex Go, which is what everyone here uses. It quotes a fixed price before you book and the fare to the centre is usually well under 50,000 som.
• You will need cash to pay the driver. Most Uzbek drivers do not take cards, and the app's card payment is unreliable with a foreign card.
• So: exchange or withdraw first, then book. There are exchange counters and ATMs in the arrivals hall. Take out at least 500,000 som to be comfortable for the first day.
• The official taxi rank outside is the fallback, and cheaper than the touts inside, but still above the app price.

• All three airports are small and close to their cities, 10 to 15 minutes by road.
• Yandex Go works in Samarkand and Bukhara. In Urgench, for Khiva, it is thinner and a negotiated taxi is normal.
• Agree the price before you get in whenever there is no app, and agree it in som with the number said out loud.

• Many visitors arrive by land from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan. Border posts are slow and thorough rather than difficult.
• Change money before a land crossing. Uzbek som is not sold outside the country and the border touts' rate is bad.
• The Tashkent to Almaty and Tashkent to Samarkand trains are a comfortable alternative to a flight.

• Tashkent airport to the centre: roughly 25,000 to 50,000 som by app.
• Anywhere within central Tashkent: 15,000 to 30,000 som.
• A day with a driver between towns is negotiated, and a hotel arranging one for you is normal practice rather than a markup.