8 Best Day Trips from Tashkent

Drive 45 minutes northeast of Tashkent and the ground starts to tilt. By the time you've gone 80 kilometres, you're among 3,000-metre peaks, a turquoise reservoir and ski lifts. That's the surprise of Uzbekistan's capital: the city is flat and hot, but the western end of the Tian Shan sits almost on its doorstep.

Most day trips from Tashkent head into those mountains. A couple go the other way, including one that uses the high-speed train to reach Samarkand and back before dinner. Below are eight that genuinely work as a day out. For each one we give the distance, how to get there, what it costs and who it suits. Prices were last checked in September 2026.

The eight trips at a glance

Trip	Distance from Tashkent	One way by road	Best months	Good for
Parkent solar furnace	about 45 km	1–1.5 hrs	all year (weekdays)	science fans, short trips
Charvak Reservoir	60–70 km	about 1.5 hrs	June–September	swimming, families
Amirsoy resort	about 65 km	1–1.5 hrs	December–March, June–September	skiing, gondola views
Chimgan and Beldersay	about 85 km	1.5–2 hrs	May–October	walks, chairlifts
Khodjikent petroglyphs	about 70 km	about 1.5 hrs	April–October	history, easy walking
Paltau waterfall	about 100 km	2 hrs + 13 km hike	May–October	fit hikers
Samarkand by train	308 km	2 hrs 10 min by Afrosiyob	all year	short trips, one big city
Zaamin National Park	about 250 km	4 hrs or more	May–October	a very long day, or stay over

Getting out of the city: drivers, taxis and tours

Public transport to the mountains exists but is slow and poorly signed for visitors. Shared minibuses run to Gazalkent and Brichmulla from stands on the city's northeastern edge, but they leave when full and don't come back on a timetable you can plan around.

Three options make more sense:

• Yandex Go to a single destination such as Amirsoy or Charvak. It's cheap going out. The problem is the return: few drivers wait in the mountains, and a taxi summoned from Chimgan can take a long time to arrive. Agree a return time with the same driver instead.
• A driver for the day. Hotels and guesthouses can arrange one. Expect roughly $50–80 for a car and driver to the Chimgan–Charvak area and back, depending on how many stops you want. This is the best-value option for two to four people.
• A group tour. Several Tashkent agencies run combined Chimgan–Charvak–Amirsoy days. You lose flexibility but gain a guide, which matters for Paltau and the petroglyphs.

One thing about timing: traffic out of Tashkent on summer weekends is heavy, and the return on Sunday evening can double the journey. If you can, go on a weekday.

1. The Parkent solar furnace

This is the strangest sight near Tashkent, and the closest. On a hillside above the village of Changikhisarak, near Parkent, a field of 62 flat mirrors tracks the sun and bounces its light onto a giant curved concave mirror. That mirror focuses it on a single target in a central tower, where temperatures can reach around 3,000°C. It was built in the 1980s to test materials under extreme heat, and it's still used for research today.

Visits are possible on weekdays, roughly 8am to 5pm. There's a small entrance fee and staff can show you round, often including the control building and a small museum. Go on a sunny day around midday if you want to see the mirrors working. On an overcast afternoon it's still impressive, but it's just a very large piece of stationary metal.

It takes an hour to an hour and a half by road. Because the visit itself takes about an hour, it pairs well with Charvak or Chimgan. The view from the hill across to the snowy Tian Shan is worth the trip on its own, as the photo at the top of this page shows.

2. Charvak Reservoir

Charvak is a reservoir created by a dam on the Chirchik River in the 1970s. It's the closest thing Tashkent has to a beach. In July and August the water is warm enough to swim in, the shore is lined with resort hotels and pay-per-day beaches, and on weekends half the city seems to be there.

Is it worth it for a visitor? In summer, yes, especially with children or after a hot week in the cities. The water is a vivid blue-green against bare brown hills. Outside summer, it's more of a viewpoint than a destination, and most people stop for 30 minutes on the way to Chimgan.

Beaches usually charge an entry fee that includes a sunbed, and prices climb on Saturdays and Sundays. Bring cash. For the full picture of the reservoir and the mountain resorts above it, see our detailed Chimgan and Charvak guide.

3. Amirsoy mountain resort

Amirsoy opened in 2019 and is the most modern resort in the region. It's about 65 kilometres from Tashkent. In winter it has 15 kilometres of pistes with 660 metres of vertical; the rest of the year, the main 8-person gondola runs up to 2,290 metres for walkers and anyone who wants the view.

The lifts run from 9am to 4pm. Tickets are sold on the resort's own booking site and at the base, with prices that change by season and between weekdays and weekends. At the top there's a café and walking trails. In summer, it's the easiest way to get above 2,000 metres without hiking.

Amirsoy feels a bit like a resort anywhere: clean, well-organised and somewhat expensive by Uzbek standards. If you want the older, scruffier mountain experience, Chimgan is next door.

4. Chimgan and Beldersay

Big Chimgan, at about 3,309 metres, is the peak everyone in Tashkent knows. The village below it has been a holiday area since Soviet times, and the old chairlifts still run in summer. They're rickety, slow and a lot of fun, and they lift you high enough to see down to Charvak. Tickets are cheap, paid in cash at the bottom, and the price is worth confirming on the day.

Beldersay, a few kilometres further on, has its own lift and quieter slopes. The real reason to come is walking. Easy trails lead across the meadows in May and June when the wildflowers are out, while longer routes head up towards the ridges. Our guide to hiking in Uzbekistan covers the routes and when you need a guide.

A word on altitude. Chimgan village sits at around 1,600 metres, and the sun there is much stronger than in Tashkent. Take water, a hat and a layer for the chairlift, which can be surprisingly cold even in July.

5. The Khodjikent petroglyphs

Near the village of Khodjikent, on the approach to Charvak, rock faces above the Chirchik River are covered in carvings of mountain goats, hunters and symbols, made over thousands of years. They're not signposted like a museum. You scramble up a short, steep path from the road, and the carvings appear on dark, sun-polished rocks.

The site is easy to miss without someone who knows where the best panels are, which is why most visitors come with a driver or guide who's been before. Allow an hour. Wear shoes with grip; the rock is smooth and the path is loose in places. It fits well into a Charvak day, because it's on the same road.

6. Paltau waterfall and the Ugam-Chatkal park

This is the hardest trip on the list and, for walkers, the best. The Paltau river valley lies about 100 kilometres from Tashkent, near the village of Brichmulla, inside Ugam-Chatkal National Park. The goal is a waterfall that drops about 30 metres from a rock wall, plus a grotto nearby.

You register at a forestry and border checkpoint and pay an environmental fee of about 21,000 som. From there it's a 13-kilometre round trip on foot, with river crossings and some steep sections. Allow five to six hours for the walk, plus two hours' drive each way. That makes it a long day, but a very good one.

Because the area is close to the Kyrgyz border, go with a local guide or an agency that runs the trip regularly; they'll handle the checkpoint paperwork. Don't try it before May, when snowmelt makes the river crossings dangerous. The wider Western Tian Shan is on UNESCO's World Heritage list, and this valley shows why.

7. Samarkand by high-speed train

Is Samarkand a day trip? It shouldn't be; it deserves at least two nights. But if your time really is short, the Afrosiyob makes it possible. The fastest trains take about 2 hours 10 minutes, and an Economy seat costs 311,000 som each way (last checked: September 2026).

Take the first train out and the last one back, and you'll have about eight hours on the ground. That's enough for the Registan, Gur-e-Amir and Shah-i-Zinda if you use taxis between them. You'll miss the Registan at night and any sense of the city's pace. Our Tashkent to Samarkand transport guide has the departure pattern and booking tips. Book as early as possible: day-trippers compete with everyone else for the same seats.

8. Zaamin National Park, if you really must

Zaamin appears on lots of "day trips from Tashkent" lists. It's about 250 kilometres away in the Turkestan range, and it takes at least four hours by road, or two hours by Afrosiyob to Jizzakh plus a taxi for the last 110 kilometres. That's eight hours of travel for a few hours in the park.

Our advice is to stay at least one night. The juniper forests and high meadows are among the best landscapes in Uzbekistan, and they're wasted on a rushed afternoon. Everything you need to plan an overnight stay is in our Zaamin National Park guide.

Putting two trips together

Several of these share a road, and a driver for the day can link them. The combinations that work best:

• Solar furnace and Charvak: furnace in the late morning while the sun is high, then lunch and a swim at the reservoir.
• Charvak, Khodjikent and Chimgan: the classic mountain loop. Petroglyphs on the way up, lunch by the water, chairlift in the afternoon.
• Amirsoy and Chimgan: they're next to each other. Gondola in the morning, old chairlift and a meadow walk after lunch.

Try to fit more than three stops into one day and most of it will be spent in the car.

When to go, and when not to

The mountains near Tashkent are at their best from late May to early October. In June the meadows are green and full of flowers; by late August they're golden and dry, but the reservoir is at its warmest. September and early October bring clear air and the fewest crowds.

Winter changes the list. From December to March, Amirsoy and Chimgan become ski resorts, Charvak is grey and cold, and the Paltau hike is out of the question. The solar furnace and the train to Samarkand still work all year.

The worst days are summer weekends and public holidays, when the road to Charvak turns into a slow queue. If you only have one day for the mountains and it happens to be a Saturday in July, leave Tashkent by 7am. By 10 the traffic has already built. For everything else to do in the city itself, our Tashkent travel guide covers the neighbourhoods, markets and museums.

Featured image: Panpanchik (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons.