Osh / Bukhara / Samarkand - 3 days - possible?

[cdepanisse]

Hello everyone,

My apologies if this question was covered somewhere else, but I could not find the trend.

I am planning a trip to Kyrgyzstan this summer ( 04/08 - 18 /08) and want to take the opportunity to visit Bukhara and Samarkand in Uzbekistan while I am in the region.

So far, my itinerary gives me 3 full days to do Osh --> Bukhara & Samarkand --> Osh. Basically I am thinking of Day 1: Osh --> Bukhara; Day 2: visit Bukhara, go to Samarkand and visit Samarkand; day 3: Samarkand --> Osh. I want to be in Osh on the 3rd day evening, to leave the next day to Arslanlob.

My questions would be:

• Is the above even possible and does it allow enough time to visit all places? Is it definitely worth taking an extra day?

• Are the travel time I see accurate: 14h Osh --> Bukhara?

• I will be in Song Kul before Osh. Is it worth going through Bishek and wasting so much time in travel, or is it better to do Song Kul --> Osh directly?

Thanks a lot for the help!! This one is puzzling me.

Best,
Côme

[bwv812]

14 hours is probably accurate, or even conservative if you are arranging transport as you travel. I don't see there being any way to do that in three days while actually seeing anything (especially since it takes time to cross the borders, too). Taking the train to Tashkent and then the night train to Bukhara would save the most time (not sure what the train schedule through the Ferghana Valley is like, though), but even that won't give you much/any time.

Going direct from Song-Kul to Osh will save time, but it will also require you to hire a private car & driver, as not many people go over the road between the two.

[cdepanisse]

Hello,

Thanks a lot for your comment. We will see how we can do Song-Kul to Osh directly. Thank you for suggesting the trains. I have looked into it and it seems a 4 days deadline can be met if we use Night Trains:

• - Day1: Train Andijan --> Tashkent + Tashkent --> Bukhara (night train arrival Day 2 at 7.25)

• - Day 2: Visit Bukhara + Train Bukhara --> Samarkand (night train - arrival Day 3 at 05.35)

• - Day 3: Visit Samarkand + Train Samarkand --> Tashkent (night train - arrival Day 4 at 05.35)

• - Day 4: Train Tashkent + Andijan --> 8.05 arrival at 14.05 then back to the border before 7pm

My questions would be:

• Are the Uzbek night trains cumfortable and reliable enough for this schedule? It seems yes

• Does the above sound reasonable? We can spend time at hotels or restaurant to relax in evenings before the trains

Thanks a lot,
Best
Come

[bwv812]

The trains are fine and you can definitely get a decent sleep on them. Obviously the Bukhara-Samarkand and Samarkand-Tashkent trains are fairly short and you won't be able to get a lot of sleep on them. 1 day in each city isn't that much time, but it's better than never seeing them.

Given that you basically have zero flexibility I would make sure to buy your tickets in advance.