First time in Uzbekistan: practical travel tips
Uzbekistan is an easy country to travel in, and a rewarding one when you know a few local habits. This is the briefing we give our own guests before they land.
Money and payments
The currency is the som. Bring cash in euros or dollars in clean, unmarked notes and change it at a bank or licensed exchange office. Visa and Mastercard work in hotels, larger restaurants and modern shops in the cities, but stop working quickly outside them.
Keep small notes for taxis, bazaar purchases, museum tickets and the courtesy tips that are normal but never demanded.
Getting around town
Yandex Go works in the big cities and removes any haggling. Tashkent has a clean, cheap metro whose older stations are worth riding for the architecture alone. Between cities, take the fast train.
Traffic is busy but calm by regional standards. Cross with the crowd, use underpasses and expect drivers to stop for you once you have committed.
Connectivity, language and dress
Buy a local SIM at the airport with your passport, or use an eSIM. Coverage is good in cities and along the main road corridors, thinner in the mountains and the desert. Uzbek and Russian are everywhere, English in hotels and among guides.
Dress is relaxed. Cover shoulders and knees at working mosques and mausoleums, carry a scarf, and take shoes off where you see others do it.
Etiquette, safety and health
Uzbekistan is one of the safer countries in the region, with low street crime and a strong culture of looking after guests. Petty theft is rare but crowded bazaars deserve normal attention.
Accept tea when it is offered, use your right hand, ask before photographing people, and drink bottled water. Summer heat, not crime, is the real risk: shade, salt and slower afternoons.