Tashkent (UZ) to Khujand (Tajik.) by bus
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 1:02 pm
I did that yesterday, August 20th 2018.
Yes, there is a bus which goes directly from Tashkent to Khujand. It leaves from the Sobir Rahimov bus station, but do not look for a metro station of the same name, there is none. The metro station is Olmazor, completely in the southwest of Tashkent. (ref. Lonely planet june 2018, page 215 has a plan of the Tashkent metro). The price is 50000 som so C$8.35. there is only one bus a day and it leaves at 18:00 (do not get there at the last minute. Yesterday it left the station at 17:52). It is a Tajik company called Asiangroup and it is a very new and comfortable bus. Do not pay attention to the taxi drivers in front of the station who will tell you that there is no bus and offer their services to the border, or even to the driver of a bus for Samarkand who will tell you that you have to go through Samarkand to enter Tajikistan. There is a closed metal gate for vehicles, but on the left side it is open for pedestrians. Go about 50 meters and turn right and you will be right in front of the ticket office. I think the wicket for Khujand is the second one, but it is written above it. Just give your money and your passport and tell the employee which day you want to go. To exit Uzbekistan, we were asked to get off the bus with our baggage, but to my knowledge no baggage was checked. It took 2 minutes at the passport control to stamp the passport then back in the bus to the Tajik side where it is the same procedure there, except we did not even have to take our baggage off the bus. The Tajik officer even said bonjour when he saw my French passport. Exiting Uzbekistan and entering Tajikistan for a whole busload took in all 50 minutes. Painless. No forms, no currency or prescription questions, no hotel slips to show and no camera or laptop pictures viewed. We arrived in Khujand at 22:00. The whole trip in 4 hours. The bus station is is the middle of nowhere in Khujand, but there are plenty of taxis. Something I had never seen before happened. There was a problem with my guesthouse which did not answer the phone as the taxi driver did not know where it was. We decided to go there, and the guesthouse finally called to say that there was a problem in the family and could not honor the reservation, but made arrangements for another place. I only had Uzbek soms (useless there) and dollars. When everything was sorted out, I wanted to give the taxi driver $10, but he would not take it and took only $3. Tajikistan is the 50th country I travelled to and I have never seen that before. I cannot guarantee it will happen to you, but that give you an idea of how nice the people of Central Asia are.
Yes, there is a bus which goes directly from Tashkent to Khujand. It leaves from the Sobir Rahimov bus station, but do not look for a metro station of the same name, there is none. The metro station is Olmazor, completely in the southwest of Tashkent. (ref. Lonely planet june 2018, page 215 has a plan of the Tashkent metro). The price is 50000 som so C$8.35. there is only one bus a day and it leaves at 18:00 (do not get there at the last minute. Yesterday it left the station at 17:52). It is a Tajik company called Asiangroup and it is a very new and comfortable bus. Do not pay attention to the taxi drivers in front of the station who will tell you that there is no bus and offer their services to the border, or even to the driver of a bus for Samarkand who will tell you that you have to go through Samarkand to enter Tajikistan. There is a closed metal gate for vehicles, but on the left side it is open for pedestrians. Go about 50 meters and turn right and you will be right in front of the ticket office. I think the wicket for Khujand is the second one, but it is written above it. Just give your money and your passport and tell the employee which day you want to go. To exit Uzbekistan, we were asked to get off the bus with our baggage, but to my knowledge no baggage was checked. It took 2 minutes at the passport control to stamp the passport then back in the bus to the Tajik side where it is the same procedure there, except we did not even have to take our baggage off the bus. The Tajik officer even said bonjour when he saw my French passport. Exiting Uzbekistan and entering Tajikistan for a whole busload took in all 50 minutes. Painless. No forms, no currency or prescription questions, no hotel slips to show and no camera or laptop pictures viewed. We arrived in Khujand at 22:00. The whole trip in 4 hours. The bus station is is the middle of nowhere in Khujand, but there are plenty of taxis. Something I had never seen before happened. There was a problem with my guesthouse which did not answer the phone as the taxi driver did not know where it was. We decided to go there, and the guesthouse finally called to say that there was a problem in the family and could not honor the reservation, but made arrangements for another place. I only had Uzbek soms (useless there) and dollars. When everything was sorted out, I wanted to give the taxi driver $10, but he would not take it and took only $3. Tajikistan is the 50th country I travelled to and I have never seen that before. I cannot guarantee it will happen to you, but that give you an idea of how nice the people of Central Asia are.