Driving in Uzbekistan: Rules, Police and Reality
Driving in Uzbekistan in 2026: the 1968 IDP, renting a car, road conditions, 60 km/h city limits, new fines, checkpoints, cashless fuel, hiring a driver.
A kilometre out, the dual carriageway starts to pinch. Concrete barriers funnel two lanes into one, a speed sign drops the limit, and ahead sits a roofed post with a booth, a parked patrol car and an officer holding a striped baton. This is a regional checkpoint, the kind that marks the line where one viloyat (province) ends and the next begins, and driving in Uzbekistan means passing through several of them on any intercity day. Most cars roll through at walking pace. If the baton points at you, the whole exchange usually takes two or three minutes: licence, International Driving Permit, the car's registration, a glance at the passport, and a wave back onto the road.
That's the reality most of the time. The rules behind it are stricter than many visitors expect, fines rose again on 1 September 2026, and the fuel situation has shifted sharply in a year. This guide covers the whole business: the paperwork, renting the car, what the roads are like, the rules and the police, fuel, and whether you should be behind the wheel at all.
The paperwork that actually gets checked
Uzbekistan is a party to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic, not the older 1949 Geneva one. So the permit you want is the 1968-model IDP, issued in your home country before you leave. The UK Foreign Office says British drivers can drive for 30 days on a valid UK licence plus the 1968 IDP, and that it can't be bought once you're abroad (FCDO travel advice, last checked: September 2026).
Here's the catch. The US, Canada, Australia, Japan and India issue only the 1949-format permit. Whether an Uzbek officer or rental desk accepts a 1949 IDP isn't clearly settled in anything we could find in English, so if you hold one, email the rental company and get the answer in writing before you fly.
What to keep within reach, not buried in the boot:
- Your original national licence (photocopies won't do)
- The IDP
- Passport, with your registration slip
- The car's technical passport (registration document) and the insurance policy, which the rental company should hand you
- The rental agreement, with the company's phone number
A Russian or Uzbek translation of your licence isn't legally required, but the FCDO recommends one.
Renting a car: companies, requirements and costs
International chains operate in Tashkent, with airport desks, and less reliably in Samarkand and Bukhara, alongside a growing number of local companies. The desk will ask for your licence, the IDP, your passport and a credit card for the deposit. Minimum ages and minimum licence-held periods apply and vary by company, so check them at booking rather than at the counter.
Read the insurance terms properly. Basic third-party cover is included. Collision damage waivers, excess levels and whether cover extends to unpaved roads all vary, and the last one matters if you plan to leave the main highways.
- Book ahead in spring and autumn; fleets are small by European standards.
- Expect locally assembled Chevrolets, which dominate both the roads and the rental fleets.
- Automatics exist but are less common, so specify one if you need it.
- Check the tyres and the spare before accepting the car, and photograph every existing scratch, the fuel gauge included. Do it again at drop-off.
- One-way rentals between cities are sometimes possible and usually carry a fee.
- Cross-border trips into Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan are normally prohibited by the rental agreement. Ask explicitly if that's your plan.
We haven't published a daily rate because quotes vary too much by company, season and car to give a figure we'd stand behind. The comparison that matters is against a car with a driver, covered further down: once fuel, insurance and the deposit are counted, the two often come out close.
What the roads are like
Quality varies enormously, and that variation is the main thing to plan around.
| Route type | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Tashkent to Samarkand to Bukhara | Good dual carriageway for much of the way; the main artery |
| Bukhara to Khiva | Long desert road, variable surface, few services; takes most of a day |
| Mountain roads (Kamchik pass, Boysun) | Scenic and slow, occasional rockfall, closed in bad winter weather |
| Rural and village roads | Often unsurfaced and potholed, shared with livestock and farm machinery |
| City driving | Heavy traffic, assertive lane changes, frequent unmarked hazards |
Distances are long. Tashkent to Khiva is about 1,000 km, twelve hours or more by road, which is why most travellers take the train between the main cities and consider a car only where trains don't reach. Our Samarkand to Bukhara and Bukhara to Khiva guides cover the alternatives. Plan shorter days than you would at home: average speeds are lower than the map suggests, and checkpoints add time.
Route by route
The table above is the summary. These are the specifics for the roads visitors actually drive, with the source and date for each, because surfaces change fast here as sections are rebuilt.
- Tashkent to Samarkand and on to Bukhara. Caravanistan rates the whole Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and Fergana axis as "mostly good", averaging about 80 km/h (page updated December 2024). A six-lane, 300 km toll motorway from Tashkent to Samarkand was announced in February 2025 with a target of end-2028 (Biznes Uzbekistan, 5 February 2025). We found no confirmation of progress, so plan on the existing road.
- Samarkand to Shakhrisabz, Guzar and Termez (M39). Caravanistan describes the road south as mostly good but warns that the tarmac can stop abruptly and turn to deep gravel. In the Guzar and Dehkanabad districts, a 60 km section is being rebuilt as a four-lane concrete road over 2024 to 2029, according to the state roads committee (gov.uz, updated 24 March 2026), so expect diversions there.
- Bukhara to Khiva (A380). The most uneven of the main routes. Caravanistan's segment notes, which it dates to 2017, so treat them as a rough guide: the first 70 km or so out of Bukhara potholed, then new road toward Turtkul, potholes again toward Urgench, smooth into Khiva. In August 2025 the Asian Development Bank approved a $233.1 million loan for a new 75 km Turtkul to Ellikkala to Beruniy bypass plus 12 km of the existing A380 (Qalampir.uz, 29 August 2025). There's no petrol between Gazli and Miskin.
- Tashkent to the Fergana Valley (A373, Kamchik pass). Steep and slow over the pass, and closed in bad winter weather: traffic was stopped for avalanche risk on 12 February 2026 and reopened at 11:00 the next day (Zamin.uz; Yuz.uz). Caravanistan notes that registration documents are checked entering and leaving the valley. The full picture, including the train under the pass, is in our Tashkent to Fergana Valley guide.
- Navoi to Nukus via Uchkuduk. For overlanders only. A traveller on the Caravanistan forum in October 2024 took six and a half hours from Uchkuduk to the A380 in a rental crossover, with no mobile signal from any operator and long stretches of potholes and drifting sand. Our Kyzylkum desert guide covers what is out there.
Speed limits in Uzbekistan, and the one that catches people
The city limit is the trap. It's lower than many older guides say.
On 5 April 2023 the Cabinet of Ministers amended clause 78 of the traffic rules and cut the maximum speed in all cities from 70 to 60 km/h, covering Tashkent, Nukus, regional centres and district centres too (Kun.uz, 6 April 2023). Outside built-up areas the rules text gives 100 km/h for cars (clause 79). Several English guides quote 110 km/h for signed motorway sections, others 90 for "rural roads"; we couldn't confirm either figure in the current rules, so read the signs rather than any table, including ours.
| Where | Limit for a car | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cities (Tashkent, regional and district centres) | 60 km/h | Since 5 April 2023; individual streets can be signed lower |
| Smaller settlements | up to 70 km/h | Older clause 78 figure; many villages are signed 60 |
| Within 300 m of schools and kindergartens | 30 km/h | Rules approved for 1 May 2022 |
| Residential courtyards | 20 km/h | Same rules |
| Outside settlements | 100 km/h | Clause 79; 80 km/h if towing a trailer |
Village limits start at the white name sign and often last only a few hundred metres, and each one drops you from 100 to 60 or 70. Caravanistan's driving page specifically flags the Fergana Valley for speed traps.
Fines, cameras and how they're paid
Uzbek fines are set as multiples of the base calculation amount (BCA). Kun.uz reported the BCA rising from 412,000 to 440,000 som, with traffic fines adjusting from 1 September 2026 (Kun.uz, 24 June 2026, last checked: September 2026). At roughly 11,800 to 12,100 som to the dollar, here's what that means:
| Offence | Fine from 1 Sept 2026 | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| No seatbelt | 220,000 som | $18 |
| Speeding by up to 20 km/h | 440,000 som | $37 |
| Red light, or phone in hand | 1,320,000 som | $110 |
| Speeding by 20–40 km/h | 2,200,000 som | $183 |
| Speeding by more than 40 km/h | 3,960,000 som | $330 |
| Refusing a sobriety test | 6,600,000 som | $550, plus suspension |
| Drunk driving | 11,000,000 som | $915, plus up to 3 years' suspension |
Two things soften this. Since 1 May 2023, paying 50% of a fine within 15 days of receiving the decision clears it entirely, and paying 70% within 30 days does the same (Gazeta.uz, April 2023). The discount doesn't apply to drink-driving, refusing a test, appealed fines or a repeat of the same offence within a year. And Uzbekistan's penalty-points system, launched 1 June 2025 with a 12-points-a-year suspension threshold, explicitly excludes foreigners who are only temporarily in the country (Gazeta.uz, May 2025).
Cameras are the bigger exposure. Since 1 April 2026, camera-recorded violations also feed the points register, and a camera ticket goes to the registered owner, which for you means the rental company. They'll typically pay it and take it from your deposit, sometimes weeks after you've flown home. Locals pay through the Click and Payme apps or my.gov.uz, where fines can also be contested. Ask the company to pay any camera ticket inside the 15-day window, because then you're charged half.
Alcohol: treat the limit as zero
You'll read "zero tolerance" in most English guides and 0.03% BAC in a few. Neither is quite the official picture. A December 2025 enforcement report from the Tashkent region gave the permissible norm as 0.135 mg of alcohol per litre of exhaled breath (Zamin.uz, 5 December 2025), which is small enough that a single beer could put some drivers over it.
Our take: the precise figure doesn't matter to a visitor. Don't drink anything before driving, including the glass offered at a village lunch; refusing politely beats an 11-million-som fine. In January 2025 the Senate also approved criminal liability for repeat drink-drivers, with up to three years' imprisonment, after nearly 8,000 previously penalised drivers were caught again in 2024 (Kun.uz, 25 January 2025).
What a police stop actually involves
Being stopped isn't an accusation. At fixed posts, officers wave down cars more or less at random.
The sequence is predictable. Pull onto the apron, switch off, keep your hands visible and wait for the officer to come to you. Hand over the documents together. Questions about where you're going come in Russian or Uzbek; a city name answers most of them. If the officer points to a violation, ask to see the camera or radar reading and ask for the written decision (a protocol). A legitimate fine comes with paperwork and gets paid electronically, not in cash at the roadside.
Never offer money. Caravanistan's contributors report officers as friendly and stops as short when you've done nothing wrong. If a stop drags on, phone the rental company and put the manager on speaker. That usually ends it.
Fuel in a country that runs on gas
At roadside stations, the long queues are for gas, not petrol. The statistics agency counted methane as the most common fuel for privately owned vehicles, at 65% of the fleet on 1 January 2022, because a methane fill costs a fraction of a petrol one.
Your rental will almost certainly be petrol, and petrol has had a rough year. Uzbekneftegaz stopped producing AI-80, the grade that made up most domestic consumption, from September 2025, and its retail sale ended on 1 December 2025, leaving AI-92 and AI-95. Imports then climbed to 642 million litres in January to May 2026, up 84% on a year earlier, and imports now cover nearly half of demand (Times of Central Asia, July 2026). In practice that means stations out of AI-95 in smaller towns, so fill up whenever you drop to half a tank, especially before a desert leg.
Finding AI-95, and what it costs
Before anything else, check the label inside the fuel flap or ask the rental desk which grade the car takes. If it runs on AI-92, the shortage mostly passes you by, because 92 is the most widely available grade. If it needs 95, plan your fills around the chains. On the Tashkent price survey that Golden Pages publishes, AI-95 was listed at Carvon (Uzbekneftegaz's retail brand), Lukoil, Mustang and Tatneft stations (goldenpages.uz, 29 September 2026). Branded stations also run out: in September 2026 Zamin.uz, citing Avtostrada, reported that Russian-made AI-95 had not been sold at Lukoil stations for over a month and that Tatneft deliveries were arriving late. Outside the big cities, buy 95 when you see it.
| Fuel (Tashkent, per litre) | Price range, som | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| AI-92, Uzbek-made | 10,300–14,000 | $0.87–1.19 |
| AI-92, imported | 12,000–18,000 | $1.02–1.53 |
| AI-95 | 14,500–21,500 | $1.23–1.82 |
| Diesel | 15,000–19,000 | $1.27–1.61 |
Source: Golden Pages station survey, 29 September 2026, converted at roughly 11,800 som to the dollar (last checked: October 2026). Prices move week to week. As noted above, the long queues are mostly at the gas pumps rather than the petrol ones. Don't buy fuel sold in bottles at the roadside, which Caravanistan warns can be dirty or low-octane.
Winter has its own quirk. In cold snaps the Ministry of Energy restricts methane stations to protect household gas supply; it did so in December 2024, January 2026 and overnight on 4 to 5 March 2026 (Zamon.uz). Petrol cars aren't affected; taxis and shared taxis are.
A small tangent for shared-taxi days: at methane pumps, passengers are expected to get out and wait while the tank is filled, because the cylinders sit in the boot. Nobody's being rude when they wave you out.
The payment rule changed this year. From 1 April 2026, a presidential decree made all fuel purchases at filling stations cashless: petrol, diesel, methane and propane, card or electronic payment only (Kun.uz, April 2026; last checked: September 2026). Uzbek drivers use local Uzcard and Humo cards; whether a given station's terminal takes a foreign Visa or Mastercard varies, so ask the rental company which stations on your route work with foreign cards, or look at our notes on getting a local card or cash in Uzbekistan.
Night driving in Uzbekistan: stop at dusk
This is the mildly unpopular opinion: outside Tashkent, don't drive intercity after dark at all, even on the good dual carriageway toward Samarkand.
The FCDO describes the roads as having "poor surfaces and bad lighting", and the specific hazards stack up once the sun goes. Donkey carts and bicycles without lights, cattle walked home along the hard shoulder, unmarked roadworks, and pedestrians crossing four-lane roads between villages. Uzbekistan recorded 2,199 road deaths in 2024 and 2,188 in 2025 (Gazeta.uz, 15 January 2026), in a country of about 39 million.
Does that mean you can't do a long leg in one day? Not quite. It means starting early. Leave Samarkand by 8am for Bukhara and you arrive with daylight to spare; leave after lunch in November, when the sun sets around 5pm, and the last two hours are the worst ones. If a day really can't fit, the train usually does it better, and our Shakhrisabz day trip guide shows how a mountain pass changes the timings on a shorter hop.
For the wider safety picture beyond roads, see how safe Uzbekistan is for visitors.
Routes worth driving yourself
A few stretches genuinely improve with your own wheels.
- Samarkand to Shakhrisabz and on to Karshi. The road crosses a pass with real views and roadside stalls selling honey and fruit, and stopping when you like is worth more here than on the flat.
- The Nurata mountains and Aydarkul. The petroglyph sites, villages and yurt camps sit up side roads that shared taxis don't serve; see our Nurata guide.
- The Fergana Valley circuit. Margilan, Rishtan, Chust and Kokand are close together but awkward to link by public transport in one day. A car turns two days of waiting into one good one.
- Tashkent to Chimgan and Charvak. An easy, well-surfaced mountain run and the classic day out from the capital.
The one to skip is the desert haul from Bukhara to Khiva. It's hot, monotonous, hard on a car and nearly empty of services. Take the train or a shared taxi and let someone else drive it.
The alternative: a car with a driver
For most visitors this is the better answer. A driver with a car for the day often costs about the same as renting that car yourself once the extras are in, so get a quote for each. You gain someone who knows the roads, handles the checkpoints, parks, speaks the language and can find lunch, and the IDP question disappears.
Shared taxis between cities are cheaper still and are how most Uzbeks travel: fixed routes, leave when full, a seat price rather than a car price. Stands, fares and waiting times are broken down in how shared taxis actually work. Self-driving makes most sense if you want flexibility in the mountains, plan to stop constantly for photographs, or are a family with luggage and small children.
If you do drive, a few habits help. Carry more water than you think, in the boot as well as the cabin, since a summer breakdown in the desert is serious and there is no shade. Keep small notes for parking attendants and roadside food. Download offline maps for the whole route and save the rental company's emergency number offline, because signal disappears between towns. Parking is generally easy and often free outside central Tashkent, but Khiva’s Ichan Qala is largely car-free and much of Bukhara’s old centre is pedestrianised or restricted.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I drive in Uzbekistan with a US licence?
Possibly, but check first. The US issues the 1949-format IDP, while Uzbekistan is a 1968 Vienna Convention country, and we couldn't find a clear official statement that a 1949 permit is accepted. Ask your rental company in writing before booking. If they won't confirm it, a car with a driver or the Yandex Go intercity option avoids the question entirely.
What is the speed limit in Tashkent?
60 km/h, unless a sign says lower. The limit in all Uzbek cities, Tashkent included, dropped from 70 to 60 km/h on 5 April 2023, and individual streets can be signed lower still. School zones are 30 km/h within 300 m, and residential courtyards 20 km/h. Assume every major junction has a camera.
How do I pay a traffic fine in Uzbekistan as a tourist?
In a rental, the company normally pays camera fines and deducts them from your deposit. For a roadside fine, get the written decision and pay electronically; locals use Click, Payme or my.gov.uz. Paying 50% within 15 days settles most fines in full, so ask the rental company to pay promptly rather than waiting until you've returned the car.
Is there petrol at every filling station?
No. Many stations sell only methane or propane, and petrol supply tightened through 2026 as imports grew to cover nearly half of demand. AI-92 is the most widely available grade; AI-95 is patchier outside big cities. Fill up at half a tank, pay by card (cash has been banned at stations since 1 April 2026), and don't count on a station in Karakalpakstan.
How much does a rental car cost compared with a driver?
Rates vary with the company, the season and the car. Once fuel, insurance and the deposit are added, a car with a driver often works out similar or cheaper, so get quotes for both before deciding.
Can I take a rental car into Kyrgyzstan or Kazakhstan?
Usually not; most rental agreements prohibit crossing a border. If a regional trip is the plan, ask the company first and expect to need a specific arrangement, or cross by shared taxi and rent separately on each side.