Tashkent Tourist Traps

Taxi drivers in general:
No capital without tourist traps. In Tashkent, these are mainly the taxi drivers (as almost everywhere), but they are easy to scare off, ha ! Be aware that you should fix the price before entering the car and do not hestitate to go away if the price does not meet your expectations ! As a rule, 1 km is around 1000 som (as of mid 2006) and most taxi drivers will finally accept. There is, however, a difference if you have luggage with you or not; with luggage you are almost in desperate need of a taxi and bargaining will be a bit more tough. Make sure, you get the luggage out of the car before you pay (or read what I wrote about taxi drivers in Uzbekistan
in General).

Unique Suggestions: Taxi drivers at the airport:
A serious tourist trap will wait for you upon arrival at the airport. No matter where you want to go (i.e. how far away your destination in the city is), they would surround you in masses and would tell you a price of 10 USD. Now this is ridiculous, as it is only 4 km from airport to Amur Timur park, thus no more than 4-5 USD / 4000-5000 som. If you get this offer (and you will), smile gruesome, decline and walk way to the bus station. One of the drivers will surely come running after you and offer you – after bargaining of course – a more realistic price.

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Fun Alternatives: Excess luggage upon check-in:
Upon check-in at the airport, most likely on your way back home, you might have excess luggage. I can only judge for my flight back home to Frankfurt with Uzbekistan Airlines, where I had 23 kg of luggage. The guy at the check-in wanted to show-off a bit (or worse, it would have vanished into his own pocket) and told me, I must pay 50 USD each excess kg. I smiled my most arrogant smile and told him that this would be against the new international transport law, according to which a courtesy of 5 kg excess luggage is allowed. Haha, he looked confused and no more word about any fee. Of course this law is not existing at all, but who wants to play bad games with me is better be prepared of very bad echo !

I just came back from one week stay in Tashkent , Uzbekistan.
Of course I had to go to Tashkent on business, otherwise even if you pay me 1 mln USD I will visit this nasty city.
The temperature is extremely high during the summer and the air-conditioning facilities is scarce. Hygiene is almost zero, and especially during summer there is much possibility that you get infections gastrointestinal disease such as diarrhea.
Uzbekistan and its capital is one of the least safest countries in the world I have visited.
One night after spending many hours in a night club, and without any result, I came out to take a taxi to my hotel. The taxi driver took me to a quite place and stole all my money and left in the street. The other day when I was walking with a girl -which I get acquainted with him in a shop- I was stopped by the police, and questioned, and threatened to be taken to police station unless I pay 500 USD, which clearly I had no choice other than to pay this money.
Night life is dead and dangerous in Tashkent and is in the hand of mafia, and police.
The girls you may find in the clubs are mainly prostitutes which are already completely spoiled in Dubai or other international capitals.

I just came back from one week stay in Tashkent , Uzbekistan.
Of course I had to go to Tashkent on business, otherwise even if you pay me 1 mln USD I will visit this nasty city.
The temperature is extremely high during the summer and the air-conditioning facilities is scarce. Hygiene is almost zero, and especially during summer there is much possibility that you get infections gastrointestinal disease such as diarrhea.
Uzbekistan and its capital is one of the least safest countries in the world I have visited.
One night after spending many hours in a night club, and without any result, I came out to take a taxi to my hotel. The taxi driver took me to a quite place and stole all my money and left in the street. The other day when I was walking with a girl -which I get acquainted with him in a shop- I was stopped by the police, and questioned, and threatened to be taken to police station unless I pay 500 USD, which clearly I had no choice other than to pay this money.
Night life is dead and dangerous in Tashkent and is in the hand of mafia, and police.
The girls you may find in the clubs are mainly prostitutes which are already completely spoiled in Dubai or other international capitals.

if you're going to buy souveniers and you are going to somewhere else besides tashkent do not buy anything in tashkent. all of the places selling uzbek stuff in tashkent are way, way overpriced - you'll pay half as much in samarkand or bukhara and get much better quality.