Some of the best experiences we had in Central Asia were on public transport. It brings you into direct contact with locals who are often as curious about you and your life as you are of them. From in-depth conversations with the Turkistan football team on the train between Turkistan and Shymkent at 4am, to sharing food with a group of older ladies on the train between Aral and Turkistan (including watching them stick their fingers in a jar of nutella in confusion after I offered pancakes and nutella), to learning more about the cultural differences with a mother and daughter on the train journey from Nukus to Urgench (Uzbekistan). When all is said and done, traveling is about the journey and not always the destination and we had some great experiences using public transport in Central Asia.

Train travel is a great way to explore Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

The best method of transport varies between countries. In Kyrgyzstan, we mostly took marshrutkas, shared taxis and Yandex taxis as there isn’t any reliable train travel. In Kazakhstan, we favoured Yandex taxis for city travel and flights and trains to cover the vast distances. There is no Yandex in Tajikistan so we didn’t take any public transport at all in Dushanbe. In Uzbekistan, we found that Yandex taxis for city travel, train travel and flights sufficed to get us to all our destinations. Large cities such as Almaty and Tashkent also have modern metro systems, which can be great for transport in and around the city. The metro in Tashkent is an attraction in itself due to the unique Soviet metro stations.

I’ve laid out the pros and cons of each mode of transport in Central Asia below based on my own experiences: 

Marshrutka

A shared mini-bus heading to a specific destination with the possibility of stops along a fixed route. There is a sign in the window of the minibus stating the end destination – make sure you check this before getting into one. These minibuses are the cheapest way to travel over a shorter distance. Sometimes they can be slightly uncomfortable as the seat sizes aren’t generous and everyone gets packed in together, sometimes with some passengers standing. The back seats are especially cramped so avoid these at all costs. Most of the time you can put your luggage into the back of the vehicle. Make sure you don’t leave your luggage on a seat or they may charge you for this seat. It’s possible to flag a marshrutka down from the roadside, however it’s much easier to get them at allocated marshrutka stations situated in cities, known as avtovokzal.

Marshrutkas are the primary form of inter-city travel in Kyrgyzstan. In other countries marshrutkas also exist, but are much less prevalent. The downside to marshrutka travel is that you have to wait for the minibus to fill up, which takes an unspecified amount of time. Make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to reach your destination as it will take longer than you expect. If you’re lucky you’ll grab the last seats, or unlucky if you grab the first as you’ll be in for a wait. Marshrutkas tend to run in the mornings, and from early to mid afternoon you may struggle to find a marshrutka on certain routes.

Shared Taxis

The avtovokzals tend to contain a mix of marshrutkas and shared taxis

These tend to be smaller vehicles than marshrutkas with less occupants in the vehicle. They tend to be slightly more expensive than marshrutkas but are usually a faster way to get to your destination. Be careful though because we had a few instances of the driver trying to get us to take a private taxi instead of a shared taxi which would have increased the price. Shared taxis usually congregate at the bus station/avtovokzal and function in a similar way to marshrutkas. Sometimes shared taxis are the only option if marshrutkas aren’t running or if you’ve arrived after the last one. We found that shared taxis weren’t always faster than marshrutkas as there was still a certain amount of waiting around for other passengers. 

Yandex Taxis

Yandex Go was our savior in Central Asia. Yandex Go is basically the Russian version of Uber. Make sure you download the app – creating an account can be difficult and requires some patience however we were able to do so once in Kyrgyzstan.

Not only are the Yandex taxis crazy cheap, they are reliable – you can pay by card so not messing around with cash, the driver knows exactly where you’re going without having to try to explain to a regular taxi where exactly you want to be dropped off. They’re not going to rip you off like so many of the airport/train station taxi drivers will try to do. It’s much safer as there is GPS data about your exact location in the taxi. Yandex tells you exactly where the driver is before pickup and during the journey so you can keep an eye on the route. The only downside is that Yandex is Russian-owned, which means Russia has your data! I also couldn’t get over the feeling that I was underpaying the drivers as it was just so cheap. I don’t know how the drivers were even making any money with the ridiculously low prices. As a rule of thumb, tip wherever you can. Yandex is excellent for getting around cities in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. However it doesn’t work in Tajikistan. Instead, Dushanbe has a fleet of green, electric powered taxis which we have been told are reliable and trustworthy, however as our visit was brief we walked everywhere instead of taking a taxi. 

Coaches

Inter-city coach travel is not as common in Central Asia as in other regions. However there are coaches running between certain major cities, particularly on international routes. We took a coach from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan to Almaty in Kazakhstan.

Trains 

Trains are the easiest and most convenient method of public transport in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (but not always the quickest). They are also the most fun! For my post on train travel, click here!

Flights

If, like us, you can’t stand the thought of 24 hours+ cooped up on your bunk-bed on the train, then air travel is the answer to your prayers. Central Asia is incredibly vast with large swathes of desolate desert landscapes. Air travel gets you to places much more efficiently than a train or road ever could. And more importantly, flights in Central Asia are relatively budget-friendly.

We usually avoid taking internal flights but unfortunately it was necessary between:

• Almaty > Astana in Kazakhstan
• Astana > Aktobe in Kazakhstan
• Almaty > Dushanbe, Tajikistan – we had to take this flight in order to get a visa on arrival at Dushanbe airport 
• Tashkent > Nukus in Uzbekistan 

We decided to opt for flights over extremely long train journeys due to the vast distances in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. We loved taking the train but wanted to avoid train journeys of more than 24 hours!  

Overall, we really liked Air Astana, FlyArystan and Uzbek Airlines and didn’t encounter any issues with any flights or cancellations. It was slightly annoying that even though Uzbek Airlines lets you check in for flights online, you still have to queue up at the check-in counter even if you’ve only got hand luggage for them to print off your ticket. This creates unnecessarily long queues and delays getting through security. I believe that this is the same for all airlines operating out of Tashkent airport as we had to do the same for LOT (Polish airline company) when flying out of Tashkent. Make sure you arrive with plenty of time, more so than the standard 2 hours for international flights. 

We did notice that internal flights in Kyrgyzstan between Osh and Bishkek were much less reliable and were often cancelled.

On the other hand, the emissions produced by air travel contributes to climate change so limiting your air miles and taking public transport on-land is much more environmentally friendly. 

For more Central Asia content, click here!