Taxi

This is the most affordable and well-known option to get to Tashkent. Tajik taxi drivers will take you from Khujand to the customs clearance office Aibek. After that, Uzbek drivers meet you at the border and take you to Kuyluk bazar. Private taxi drivers gather groups of 6 people and earn from it. This is a common job, but it has a big rivalry.

First of all :

You need to get to ”Taksistkho Maschokh” (Link in google map). Taxi drivers will welcome you here with open arms. They will find you with loud shouts of ”Aibek” and ”Tashkent”. Then you have to wait for the car to fill up with passengers and go on.

Attention! If you don’t have a Tajik or Uzbek passport, you need the Aibek International Terminal. There are other checkpoints, but some of them aren’t international so you won’t get through.

The usual cost of trip from Khujand to Aibek terminal is 50 somoni.

You can easily exchange currency at the Sanduk exchange office (Link in google map). It would be better to arrive at this place by car and walk to the taxi rank on foot.

There are people who go around offering currency exchange, but on average their rate is 2% higher. Regardless, Uzbek and Tajik taxis take both somoni and sums and dollars.

The currency exchanger is located right in front of the Tajik checkpoint.

At the exit of the checkpoint, after passing Tajik and Uzbek control, taxi drivers will be waiting for you. You will easily recognize them as they will loudly say ”Tashkent” and invite you into the car.

You”ll be able to leave in a shared taxi for 100 000 sum (there will be other people with you), and you”ll be offered a private taxi for 300 000 sum. Uzbeks are quite enterprising and they can inflate prices. A taxi will take you to Kuyluk bazar, and you’re in Tashkent now!

By bus

Sometimes buses don’t run and it’s quite complicated to find out the schedule online. For instance, buses of Tajik company Asian Express stopped running on this route. Seemingly, a company based in Uzbekistan has recently started offering this service. If you’re interested in using it, it’s advisable to go to the bus station in advance to find out when the next bus is leaving.

By train

Samarkand will take a whole day and you need to buy tickets in advance at a train station in a neighboring town. Not the best choice.

By plane

There are no direct flights, land transport is faster and easier.

Have a good trip to Tashkent!

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Shared cab

This is the most basic option of transportation in Tajikistan! You arrive at the bus station in Khujand (preferably in the first half of the day) and there are private drivers waiting for you in their cars. Drivers will find you by themselves😊. As soon as there are 4-6 people willing to go to Dushanbe, you will hit the road. Travel time usually takes a little more than 5 hours. Usually the longest time is waiting for other passengers to arrive. Once the driver was waiting for 2 hours for 4 people to gather, in general it depends on the flow of people.

It’s worth haggling! They call the initial price 200-250 somoni (for people who do not speak Russian or Tajik the price can be even higher), but a reasonable price will be 120-150 somoni. It all depends on your diplomatic skills. Pay attention to the driver, a racer is a very bad option. The road is hard, 307 km(190 ml) on serpentine without jackhammers, a mistake of 1 meter costs a life.

The cab driver will take you to the Chobor Passenger Terminal by default, but can actually take you to the city center if he is further away.

By plane

There are direct flights with a flight time of 45 minutes, but departing not every day. From the nuances that you will need to get to the airport in the city of Chkalovsk, by cab from Khujand will be somewhere in 40-50 somoni or on a minibus much cheaper. The airport in Dushanbe is not far from the city center.

Getting there by train or bus is very inconvenient. The train is very long and difficult, buses don’t run often.

Have a wonderful trip!

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By bus

Buses to the reservoir leave from the Panshanbe Bazar stop. Bus #40 goes directly. There are others, but they talk about it in Tajik or Russian.

The price of a one-way trip is 5 somoni.

By cab

Call a cab via Maxim app (you need a Tajik SIM card to register in the app). The best place for the end point will be the entrance to the sanatorium Bakhoriston. But if you want to swim, you should probably choose another place, the beach is stony and very bad. In summer the guards of the neighboring sanatorium, where there is a better beach but without changing rooms, took 10 somoni per person for the entrance, in winter we passed for free. Just be prepared that for the entrance to the sanatorium you may be charged money.

A good price for a one way trip is 50-60 somoni. The price may be a little higher.

How to get back to the city?

In summer, cab drivers will be waiting for you at the entrance of Bakhoriston Sanatorium. From the same place there are shuttle buses to the city. In the off season there may be no cab drivers, either use the app or take a shuttle bus. The last shuttle bus to the city can go closer to 8-9 p.m., it is better to clarify this point in advance with the driver on the way there.

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People usually come to Khujand either from Tashkent or Dushanbe. The route below is made if you come from Tashkent, if you go from Dushanbe it is better to go in reverse order. I divided it into two days for a comfortable journey.

1-st day

Let’s start from Stella Khujand

In summer you can get to the top for a small fee to the guard. Going down we will reach Park Ismoila Somoni.

Park Ismoila Somoni

A pleasant multi-level park with a statue of Ismoil Somoni in the center. Ismoil Somoni founded the Samanid state in 892.

From Ismoila Somoni Park we move on to Khujand Fortress by cable car.

Сable car

Excellent transportation to see the city from a height. On the way you can also see the river and get directly to the fortress of Khujand. The fare in a regular booth is 15 somoni, in a vip 20 somoni.

After the cable car ride, walk back to the park on foot, make a detour and go first to the Sughd Region Museum(1), then inside the fortress(2) and end it all with the statue of the Capitol wolf(3). This way the emotions will build up.

Kamoli Khujandi Park

A very well organized park with the Khujand fortress on its border. At the entrance to the park there are different kiosks with sweets and rent of bicycles, scooters, etc.

Sughd Region Museum

The entrance fee for tourists is 30 somoni. Important: The museum is organized by time, starting from the most ancient times and ending with the immediate past of Tajikistan. You should start looking at the museum from the underground floor! The entrance there is on the right at the entrance. It is by starting the viewing from the lower floors that the sequence of time is preserved. Some people think that there is only the upper floor and do not go down to the lower installations, which are the most interesting!

Khujand Fortress

The entrance is on the left side of the museum entrance. The ticket you can buy in a small booth near the entrance. The cost of ticket for a tourist is 100 somoni. There is a lot of interesting things inside.

After exploring the Khujand fortress, go back to the park entrance and go a little bit up, there will be a statue of a she-wolf.

Capitol wolf

Located near the entrance to the park. Here you can make a detour to the theater and have a snack at CoffeeMoose on the way. This is European-style coffee.

If you follow the road where the she-wolf is standing, you will come out through the underpass to the central alley.

Kamal Khujandi Statue

Walking further along the alley we go to the heart of the city – the bazaar of Khujand.

Panjshanbe Bozor

A place where you can find just about anything. Except a sleep mask and rexon deodorant.

There are various interesting buildings around the market. There’s an indoor market and stalls outside. On the left side, first everything related to food, in the back there are clothes. On the other side of the road there are various knitwear, household products and some clothes.

It is a 15-20 minute walk from the market to a large tree that is over 500 years old.

Tuti Kalon

You can feel the power from it. There is a mosque near this place.

All the sights above can be traveled on foot in 1 day. So you will see the main places in Khujand! Next is the advanced level for those who are longer in the city.

2-nd day

We will have lunch at the Oshi Palov pilaf center and walk near the Nuri Islom Mosque

Two locations next to each other.

Here you can try Samarkand and Khujand pilaf. They are made amazingly delicious! The best time to arrive would be 11.00-11.30. Earlier pilov may not be ready, later there will be no vacancies.

There is a nice viewing room on the side of the mosque.

Trip to the Kairakum reservoir

The locals call it “The Sea”. It is a large reservoir, near which sanatoriums are located. A trip to the reservoir with return to Khujand will take a day, there is a place to walk and spend leisure time in peace.

Either after the reservoir or before the pilaf you can walk around the parks. The ideal route would be: Park Abumakhmudi Khudzhandi – Botanic Garden – Navruzgon Park.

Let’s start with the Park Abumakhmudi Khudzhandi

It is a pleasant park with various installations dedicated mainly to space. There is a planetarium here. You can get there in a group (by sharing the price) or you can pay a lot for 1 show.

Not far from the park is the Okay Pizza Cafe, Probably the best place in the neighborhood to grab a bite to eat.

Botanic Garden

There’s not much to do in the Botanical Garden, it’s just rows of trees. Maybe if you are a woman over 40 or obsessed with vegetable gardens, you will find a lot of interesting things to do there, otherwise it is just a quiet park.

Navruzgon Park

In the evening it comes alive with rides and becomes a place of leisure for many people in the neighborhood. It is an amazing place, where you can meet camels and horses (there are farms at the back of the park), see a running forest and much more.

From the bird monument you can see in the distance and the airplane standing on the shore. If you don’t mind walking 50 meters through the thicket and then climbing through a hole in the fence, you can walk to the plane from here. This is a popular local route.

That’s actually all the sights of Khujand, have a great trip!

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