Bukhara Transportation

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Car rents and gas are cheap in Uzbekistan. Better not to look around for other types of transportation and get one with driver. Here you are not allowed to drive yourself so you should rent a car with driver. There are not so many choices and Daewoo is the most popular. 4x4 are available.

You can also bargain with a taxi driver with better prices

Bukhara has an airport, which I did not see. There is a train station about 10km outside of Bukhara. Trains from Tashkent and other cities in Uzbekistan arrive there. For the train from Tashkent to Bukhara please see my Tashkent page.

Bukhara has quite a central location within Uzbekistan, and with airport, train and bus station close by it should not be a problem to get there and away.

By plane: Bukhara's airport is located 6 km east of town, and has daily flights to and from Tashkent.

By bus: the main bus station (for overland travel) is 3 km east of town, called Sharq Bus Station. Here you can grab busses to Samarkand, Tashkent and all other eastern and southern locations. Busses to Samarkand are about 6-7 hours; it might be advisable to take a night bus (but take care of your belongings, as everywhere in night busses). Price should be not more than 4000 som (as of summer 2006).
Busses to Khiva leave from the bus station 2 km north of the centre, but only to Urgench, where you have to take another car or bus to Khiva. This takes approx. 10 hours and should be around 6000 som (as of summer 2006).

By shared taxi: this is the most trickiest, as the taxi drivers would love to cheat you. But, if you are a party of more than 3 people, you have good chances for bargaining the close-to-real price. You can always say no to a suggested price and walk away - this means that he will loose transport for 3 or more people, and he might give in.
However, ask reliable people for the real price to the locations.
Samarkand sould be 30 USD (3 hours drive), Khiva 50 USD (6 hours drive); as of summer 2006. Prices are per car of course.

Make sure, you have enough to drink with you, as there are chances of car breakdowns during your travel (mostly in summer – the heat also gets on the car...). Oh, this is of course for all - cars, busses and trains.

By car or taxi it takes 3 hours as its around 200 something Kms. Negotiate a price if u want to go there by hiring a taxi. It is the fastest way and not very expensive either. Taxi driver might agree on 15,000 CYM/Uzbek Soums. If you allow him to get more passengers in the taxi other than yourself than he might charge you 12,000 CYM. When i was there on 19.11.2006 the exchange rate between US Dollar and CYM was 1USD=1260 CYM.

I flew from Tashkent with Uzbekistan Airways on an An-24. Now how that thing staed in the air I do not know?! If you are the slightest bit nervous about flying then I don't recomend this way of travel in Uzbekistan, unless you can guarentee a new plane. Having said that it was quick and the service on board was fine............ I also flew back wihtout problem ;-)

Well when I say without problem, we landed after 2 attempts. Not entirely sure we had much in the way of tyre left and I am pretty sure we were leaking fuel! Still it was a better thrill ride than anything at Alton Towers or the like ;-)

From Tashkent flight is a good option, domestic flights in Uzbekistan are not expensive.
The Odyssey guide recommends the night train Tashkent - Bukhara as one of the best Uzbek trains (I did not try it).
From Samarkand the bus is recommendable because it is far less boring than the bus trip Samarkand - Tashkent.

If you ever get an unstoppable bout of the runs in the middle of the night and feel you need to see a doctor then maybe this is could be your ride

This is the current ambulance for the Bukhara Hospital for Infectious Diseases. We had a kind man drive us to the hospital so unfortunately didn't get to go retro in the wagon.

There is one train daily at 7:10 from Tashkent to Bukhara. It arrives at 8:00 in the morning. It is relatively comfortable and the Kupei class (4 person sleeping compartments) only cost about $7. Do bring some food with you though, the dining car is ALWAYS packed. Also, you may want to bring a reading light as the lights aren't so bright in all the cars.