Heading to do some of the former Soviet Stans

[casanovawa]

I'm heading to do some of the former Soviet Stans plus maybe Azerbaijan-Georgia-Armenia in June/July

I see Mattg did a trip report through some of these places but that was back in 2017.

Has anyone done any more recent trips to these countries and can provide a bit more advice about getting between cities and visiting some of the sites outside of the main cities?

 

[RooFlyer]

My one done 2019

Thread 'The 5 Stans of the Silk Road'

Aug 13, 2019

Finally!

I've done a bit of travelling over the past 10 years, including to some pretty good destinations, including Iran, the Galapagos, Russia etc. But I don't think I've ever looked forward to trip like the one I leave on today - The 5 Stans of the silk road, a tour by Exodus Travels . To make it better, I'm travelling with my mate @JohnM , who introduced me to the tour.

I've been wanting to do the 'Stans for about 7 years. When I first started looking, you did the east (or west) and then flew domestically to the other side, as there was b-all infrastructure in...

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Also elsewhere ones on Georgia and Azerbaijan. Just about to take off; I’ll post some more later.

 

[oz_mark]

I was there on a group tour in April. Not normally a group tour person, but the Turkmenistan part made the group tour the path of least resistance.
Some of the roads are less than fantastic, some travel takes longer than you'd expect! If you are going from Samarkand to Bukhara try to take the train....

 

[rigram]

I visited 5 stans (Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkenistan - along with Azerbaijan & Georgia) in AUG 2023 - it was so rewarding. I made a decision not to fly - and do everything overland. I reached out to RooFlyer in my planning stages, and his help was invaluable.

As an independent traveler, I wanted to do all the planning myself and whilst on the road, choose my next destination as I went along (I've done this all my life). This however was not possible, and was NOT the recommended way to go.

Eventually I went with a tour operator (Stantours) after some research, and couldn't be happier. The most difficult to get to is Turkmenistan - and you'll need assistance to go there anyway.

If you are after further details on my contacts, I'm happy to share them.

 

[Scarlett]

I’m in the later booking stage for a trip that’ll include Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in September. Not doing a ‘Stans tour as such, more FIFO-style.

I will have to have a tour organised for some of the days in Turkmenistan, to assist with getting the Letter of Invitation for that country, but I’m planning for that to just be a day trip to Darvaza and another for a city day.

I’ve found getting to Ashgabat to be a little problematic as there aren’t many flight options. My main issue was wanting to visit both Ashgabat and Tashkent but there is no direct flight between them, hence I’m going TAS-IST-ASB, in whY. Yes a 10 hour journey instead of a direct one hour flight. Flights into and out of ASB are expensive. I at least have a TK J award when departing ASB.
If you’re planning a multi country / multi city organised land tour, that may not be an issue.

I also found the trip report from @RooFlyer linked above, to be useful and interesting.

 

[Fruitloop50]

We visited the Stans last month (April)and travelled independently, other than our time in Turkmenistan where we used a local tour company to organise and book everything. Most of our time was spent in Uzbekistan where it is very easy to travel around independently.

We flew from Dubai to Ashgabat and after spending time in Ashgabat we flew to Dashoguz so we could cross the land border into Uzbekistan. Once in Uzbekistan we went to Khiva and then flew from the nearby Urgench airport to Bukhara. From Bukhara we used fast trains to travel to Samarkand and then to Tashkent.

To get around the cities, except in Khiva where it doesn't operate, we used the YandexGo App (works like Uber) to book cars to take us anywhere we needed to go and it was terrific. You don't have to register a credit card but can just pay with cash. We had many trips and never had to wait more than ten minutes, and most often no more than five minutes. It was incredibly cheap and most of thetrips we took cost less than $2.50 AUD.

 

[rigram]

I’m in the later booking stage for a trip that’ll include Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in September. Not doing a ‘Stans tour as such, more FIFO-style.

I will have to have a tour organised for some of the days in Turkmenistan, to assist with getting the Letter of Invitation for that country, but I’m planning for that to just be a day trip to Darvaza and another for a city day.

I’ve found getting to Ashgabat to be a little problematic as there aren’t many flight options. My main issue was wanting to visit both Ashgabat and Tashkent but there is no direct flight between them, hence I’m going TAS-IST-ASB, in whY. Yes a 10 hour journey instead of a direct one hour flight. Flights into and out of ASB are expensive. I at least have a TK J award when departing ASB.
If you’re planning a multi country / multi city organised land tour, that may not be an issue.

I also found the trip report from @RooFlyer linked above, to be useful and interesting.

We travelled from Ashgabat to the Darvaza crater - and the road was very very very very BAD! We had a Lexus SUV - and the car broke down as we neared the crater - our guide arranged a replacement vehicle. I would honestly say that road is the worst road I've ever been on....

 

[stm1sydney]

Within Uzbekistan, the inter-city trains are excellent. We did Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Ferghana Valley (Kokand and Margilan - don't miss the Kumtepa sunday market). Amazing sights. Sleeper train from Bukhara to Tashkent was fun.

 

[oz_mark]

We travelled from Ashgabat to the Darvaza crater - and the road was very very very very BAD! We had a Lexus SUV - and the car broke down as we neared the crater - our guide arranged a replacement vehicle. I would honestly say that road is the worst road I've ever been on....

I wouldn't even call the last 10 km or so a road. Just a set of tracks through the desert.
As for the rest of the journey, it was interesting the smoothest parts were when they decided to go off road onto a track.....

 

[burmans]

As many have noted, Uzbekistan easy to travel independently as is Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan don’t have much public transportation, while you can do independent I suspect you’d pay as much as not more as a tour and I’d go the tour route (and I’m generally an independent traveller). Turkmenistan double that, I’ve heard rumours you can get a ‘tour’ that isn’t really a tour but given the difficulties I’d just bite the bullet with a tour.