Squeezing in Uzbekistan or giving it its own itinerary

[adamweiss71]

Hi all,

I am travelling to Tajikistan/Kyrgystan in May, and I ended up squeezing a few extra days in my trip. My return flight is on a refundable ticket, so I have a lot of flexibility to use these extra days and potentially travel to Uzbekistan. I think it would be possible to obtain a Uzbek visa while in Bishkek, especially if I come prepared with a LOR for same day processing (US citizen), so I have been thinking about extending my trip to see some highlights of UZ. I guess my question is, with 4 days, is it worth it to try to go to UZ? Or should I just leave it as a future travel idea? The itinerary I have in mind is as follows:

Day 1: AM flight to Tashkent, spend PM in Tashkent
Day 2: AM train to Samarkand and spend day there
Day 3: AM train to Bukhara and spend 2 days there
Day 4: PM train returning to Tashkent and flight out

I know it is really a matter of what is most important to me, but I guess I want to know if this is even feasible (the timetables work out on flights and trains, but can I trust those? Is it stupid?). Any perspectives would be much appreciated!

[bwv812]

I think it's completely feasible. If you really need to stretch your time, you can take the overnight trains. You'll only get a few hours sleep between Tashkent-Samarkand and Samarkand-Bukhara, but it will save all daylight hours for sightseeing. For Bukhara-Tashkent you should absolutely take the overnight train, and if your flight is in the evening of day 4 you should reverse your itinerary and visit Bukhara first.