Aktau to Nukus by train

[Milad]

As Aktau-Nukus is 1000km and international journeys are usually more expensive than national ones, 350k UZS sounds like a normal price to me.

[pippac]

Just a quick update for everyone interested in this train! It cost us 285,000 som each, but we were quoted various prices (everything from 220,000 to 370,000). We bought tickets at the station in Khiva, which is not yet functioning but the ticket office is. The office is calm and non-stressful, much easier to negotiate than Urganch, but Russian remains invaluable. It’s open until 18:00. The train leaves every day at 03:55 from Nukus, and it’s all platzkart (no VIP option...) There is a loooong stop at the border - in total about 4/5 hours of guards and passport checks etc. There is also a 4 hour wait just after Beyneu for no apparent reason. There is no dining car!! But there are a lot of people selling somsa, water etc, and chai, and they seem to accept Uzbek som the whole way. We arrived at 08:00, making the journey 28 hours. Also a heads up - our Kazakh seatmates were apprehended around midnight, we think because of drinking beer but we’re not sure - so watch out with that!

[steven]

E-mail update:

Border Crossing by train. We took the 10:10 (ticket says 11:10, but that's Almaty time!) train from Aktau (mangyshlak Station) to nukus. Easy online booking via tickets.kz. Be on time at train station and change your printed online ticket into the real train ticket. Around 10 hours to Bejneu, than long break including Kasachstan Border Control on train around midnight. Everything easy, no questions, no luggage check. After another 2-hour stop we arrived at Uzbekistan Border Checkpoint around 6 am. They collected passports and evisa, leave the train and returned it after 30 minutes. No stemp needed on the printed evisa, only in passport. None of our luggage was controlled, but all local passenger were checked. No guarantee that you wont get checked but it seems that with the new evisa they want to make everything easier for tourists.

[goneforawander]

Khiva -> Aktau:
Seems the ticket price varies, I bought the ticket from Khiva train station for 325,000 som. Note that the train ticket office on MAPS.ME is incorrect, this office closed down when the ticket office at the new train station opened. There's a tourist info office diagonally opposite the Kalta Minor minaret in the old town, they'll buy the ticket for you for 20,000 som if you don't fancy the 4km return hike to the ticket office. They told me there are two trains per day, one from Nukus at 4am and one from Kungrad further west at 8am. Not being a morning person, I plumbed for the Kungrad option which they reserved for free for me - when I picked up the ticket, departure was at 6:30am - it's the same train arriving from Nukus. Only advantage is that there's a cheap guesthouse next the train station in Kungrad.
Plenty of money changers on the train up until the last stop before the border, none once in Kazakhstan. Best to dump your som for tinget before you get there.
Be warned that the long stops at each border control and also at Bejneu means that the toilets are locked shut for the duration. Empty out before you get there!
Mangyshlak station is 13km from Aktau. If you need Tinget, there are ATM's inside the train station, go through the baggage scanner on the right to find them. There are regular buses to Aktau for 95 Tinget. If you're headed to the ELEM-T hostel, it passes within about 1km, you can hop off and walk a couple of blocks to reach it. The MAPS.ME location for this is wrong also - head a few hundred metres into town from the auto parts market, it's off the road a little to the left.
If you're headed to the Baku ferry, be warned it now leaves from the middle of nowhere 95km to the south. 8000T taxi or catch a bus/shared taxi to Kuryk (from somewhere) and try for a ride from there for the final 24km. There is nothing out there, no shops. I got stuck there for two days and managed to let them give me some food from the staff canteen. It took a total of 4 days to get from there to Baku (also 65km south of Baku, $25 taxi ride) - unless you're really adamant on overlanding it, the air fare is only $10 more than the ferry ticket and has cheaper transfer options at either end.

[Abohm1]

Hi, I keep reading contradictory info. Is there a direct train from Nukus to Aqtau? Also, I can find tickets for trains from Nukus to Beyneu, but not from Beyneu to Aqtau. Thanks

[Milad]

There should be one or a few through cars every second day directly from Aqtau/Mangyshlak to Nukus. The travel time is very long, as the cars run with one train Aqtau-Beineu and with a second one onwards to Nukus, spending 8 hours in Beineu.

[Kiwi]

We took the train 2 days ago from aqtau to nukus, here's a few things:
* We stayed in the same car for the whole trip, but friends traveling a month before have been kicked out of the car in beyneu and had to wait for the corrispondence outside, so make sure you have only one ticket (aqtau nukus) and not two (aqtau beyneu/ beyneu nukus) to avoid that
* Our stop in beyneu was cut in two, one in the station and the other half about 1km out of the station, in the absolute nothingness
* We bought tickets from tickets.kz (13 000 Kzt each) and they were ok with us extending the ticket in beyneu, not right in aqtau

[Kwongeroo]

Kungrad to Aktau

Prompt 6:44am departure from Kungrad. Bought ticket online for 100 000 sum several days before only as far as Beyneu, and printed it in the ticket office outside the station in Kungrad day before. Open and unreserved seating was fine. It was warm in the train but not unbearable on the day I went as windows were opened. It was only really uncomfortable during the border stops as we weren't moving. About two hours in, everyone was taking their passports somewhere but it wasn't passport control and I didn't offer my passport to the 'collectors' nor did they ask, and no one got stamped from it so I don't know what it was but don't worry about it. At the actual border at 1pm, both sides involved luggage searching (but not mine as a tourist?) and passport control in the train. Uzbek took about two hours, and Kazakh an hour and a bit. Uzbek asked for my hostel registrations but I was missing 4 of 14 days and they didn't seem to notice or care. Arriving at Beyneu around 5:30pm, I bought another ticket for Aktau. Platzkart was sold out so I got a Kupe ticket for 3000 tenge leaving around 9pm (ticket was in Almaty time showing 10pm so beware the correct time!).

[Blindcapitals]

Aktau > Nukus
Bought tickets for 3rd September train at a travel agent near Medet Hostel for 14,000 KZT, although remember the same train on 1st was 18,000. Lady told me to go there an hour early to exchange invoice for ticket, and pointed out time on ticket 11:12(or 11:10? Can't remember) was Astana time not Aktau time.

Bought tickets at travel agent next to Aktau hotel
Roughly -
43.635778, 51.169549
ge0://4zrgUrySjW/Unknown_Place
http://ge0.me/4zrgUrySjW/Unknown_Place

Train left on time and arrived in Beyneu around 1800 or 1900 ( sorry wasn't paying attention), only last two coaches stayed (this is where you'll be if you bought a nukus ticket). After a couple of hours train goes somewhere else, not sure where, was drifting in and out of sleep. This second location has ample shopping opportunities, and many locals buy cooking oil etc here... Then went back to bed and woke up to Kazakhistan border guards. Back to bed, think we left at 0300, Uzbekistan border guards come on board after 0400 sometime and think we got going again around 0600. Arrived in Nukus around 17:45, only a few minutes after time stated on ticket. On this second leg through Uzbekistan there are a bevvy of money changers, pilaf sellers, plastic toy hawkers etc wandering around the train.

All in all an easy if slightly long trip! And if like me you are breaking a trip to Bukhara in Nukus, I recommend Allan's Home, fifteen mins walk from the station, great homestay thing in really nice clean house, ten dollars a night, good for for extra - 2 dollar breakfast 4 dollar dinner. Just make sure you use Google maps, maps.me and booking.com are wrong

[elhabibi]

Hi guys, at the moment there are no trains running between Nukus and Beyneu or Mangistau. Did anybody cross the west border to Kazakhstan recently and cand advise on alternatives? Thank you!