Take the high-speed train along the Silk Road in Uzbekistan

What the experience is

The monuments of Uzbekistan are spread along a line of roughly a thousand kilometres. Until 2011 the journey between them meant long days on the road or slow overnight trains. Since then a high-speed service, the Afrosiyob, named after the ancient city that preceded Samarkand, has linked the capital with Samarkand and, from 2016, Bukhara. The trains are Talgo sets built in Spain and run at up to 250 kilometres an hour. According to the earlier validation, new trains built by Hyundai Rotem entered service in May 2026 and high-speed services were extended to Urgench and Khiva.

The classic journey takes a week. A day in Tashkent, a city of wide avenues, Soviet modernist buildings and a metro with decorated stations. A morning train to Samarkand, Timur’s capital, for the Registan, a square enclosed by three tiled madrasas, the avenue of mausoleums called Shah-i-Zinda and the observatory of Ulugh Beg. Then on to Bukhara, lower and browner, whose mosques, madrasas, covered bazaars and merchants’ houses are all within walking distance. Travellers with more time continue to the walled town of Khiva.

When to go

April, May, September and October are the best months. Summer temperatures pass forty degrees. Winter is cold but clear and empty.

Good to know

The train is the one difficulty of the journey. There are only a few a day and they can sell out weeks ahead in spring and autumn. Tickets are sold in advance through the railway’s website and app and should be bought as soon as dates are fixed. If the fast train is full, the conventional Sharq service covers the same route in roughly twice the time. The Khiva service is new, and its timetable should be checked when booking.

Why OKYTO recommends it

It turns what was an expedition into one of the easiest rail journeys in Central Asia, between cities whose architecture has few equals.