Uzbekistan vs Kyrgyzstan: which Central Asian country should you explore?

21.03.2024 - 07:19 / lonelyplanet.com

Central Asia encapsulates the romance of the Silk Road.

Uzbekistan is home to ancient cities and mindboggling architecture, while Kyrgyzstan has unspoiled natural beauty at every turn. It also offers visa-free travel for most nationalities, making it a popular gateway for many travelers coming to Central Asia.

Hopefully you're able to make room for both of these incredible countries on your agenda, but if time is tight and you can only pick one, bad luck, you have a tough decision to make. To help you narrow down your options, we asked two travel writers to go head-to-head, giving the case for the destination closest to their hearts.

Anna Kamiski is a travel writer and guidebook writer.

Have you ever strolled through Khiva’s exquisitely preserved walled city of Ichon-Qala at dawn on a cold spring morning, with ice crystals glinting off the turquoise-tiled Kalta Minor minaret, and the rays of the rising sun illuminating the roofs of the many mosques and mausolea? Have you ever peeked inside the sublime courtyard of the Pahlavon Mahmud Mausoleum, where the legendary poet, philosopher and wrestler is seeing out eternity, or marvelled, slack-jawed, at the intricate tilework of the Tosh-Hovli Palace, or the tiled portico of Kuhna Ark? Have you scaled the watchtower of Kuhna Ark at sunset, or wandered Ichon-Qala’s labyrinthine lanes on a breathless summer night? If so, then you know what it’s like to be utterly spellbound by this medieval time capsule, what it feels like to be the only person there, and to be privileged to be drinking in all this grandeur for the first time.

Yes, Uzbekistan is perhaps the most well-trodden of all the ‘Stans, but rightly so. No other country in Central Asia can match its history as the epicenter of the Silk Road that stretches back millennia, or its embarrassment of riches when it comes to show-stopping architecture.  

My love affair with Uzbekistan began a decade ago, when on a whim I took a train from Kazakhstan to Tashkent, and immediately ran afoul of the law. I had a stack of Uzbek som (local currency) in my possession, and would have been in trouble if the border guards found it, since it’s not supposed to be taken out of Uzbekistan. Luckily, the three cheerful Uzbek women with whom I was sharing my train carriage came to my rescue. “Just stuff it down your bra”, I was told. While I was patting my now-rectangular bosom, cheerful, matronly Gulnora invited me to her daughter’s wedding in the Fergana Valley. Not one to pass up a chance for adventure, I took her up on what turned out to be typical Uzbek hospitality: I was put up on her cousin’s son’s floor and stuffed with plov, shashlik and manti (steamed dumplings) during the course of the festivities until I could barely