How safe is Uzbekistan for travelers?

The general picture

Uzbekistan is a very safe place to travel, including for solo women, and violent crime against foreigners is rare.

• Petty theft is the realistic risk: pickpocketing in Chorsu bazaar, on crowded metro trains, at the Registan when a tour group arrives.
• Police are visible everywhere - metro stations, junctions, monuments. This is normal and they are not looking for you.
• Carry your passport or a good copy. Identity checks happen and being unable to identify yourself makes an easy conversation into a long one.
• Hospitality can be overwhelming. Being invited to a stranger's house for plov is genuine far more often than it is a setup.

The scams that do exist

• The airport taxi quote, covered in the transport section, is the main one.
• Carpet and silk sellers claiming great age for something made last year. Buy because you like it, not because of the story, and get an export certificate for anything genuinely old.
• "Change money?" in a bazaar is illegal for both of you and is sometimes a setup involving a police officer.
• Padded restaurant bills in a few tourist places. Ask for the menu price and check the total.

Photography and the state

• Do not photograph military sites, border posts, checkpoints, airports, bridges or police. The FCDO is explicit about this and the penalty is a serious afternoon.
• Government buildings are a grey area best avoided.
• Political conversation is not dangerous for you and can be for the Uzbek you are talking to. Let them lead.

Roads, which are the actual danger

• Traffic is the most likely thing to hurt you here. Surfaces are poor, overtaking is optimistic, and pedestrian crossings are decorative.
• Do not drive at night between cities. Unlit vehicles and livestock on the road are the standard combination.
• Wear the seatbelt in the back as well, and expect it to be missing in older cars.
• Cross roads with a local if you can, and use the underpasses in Tashkent.

Regions

• The Afghan border in the south, around Termez and parts of Surkhandarya, carries FCDO advice worth reading before you go.
• Border zones with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan contain areas needing a permit, and enclaves where the frontier is not where a map suggests.
• The Aral Sea region is remote. Moynaq is a long way from medical care and mobile coverage.