Tajikistan is a mountainous land flanked by China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, Kyrgyzstan in the north and Uzbekistan in the west. Almost half of the country’s territory is comprised of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province (GBAO), which covers the eastern part of the country. This autonomous region in the Pamir Mountains is desolate and sparsely populated, containing only a fraction of Tajikistan’s population, however it draws arguably the most attention from international tourists due to the famous Pamir Highway, one of the highest altitude roads in the world which winds its way through the stunning and barren mountain terrain. Sadly, due to visa issues our time in Tajikistan was much shorter than we would’ve liked; we were only able to visit the capital (Dushanbe) and the Pamir Highway. Check out our Tajikistan travel experiences below!
Dushanbe, Kalaikhum, Khorog, Langar, Alichur, Murghab
Unlike the languages of other Central Asian countries, the Tajik language is not Turkic in origin, it is more closely related to Persian and so the nation has more in common culturally with Iran and Afghanistan. The major difference with those countries is that fundamentalist Islam has not spread to Tajikistan. While Tajikistan is an almost exclusively Muslim country, the nation has a secular constitution protecting religious freedoms and does not adhere to Sharia Law.
Formerly a part of the Soviet Union, most of the ethnic Russian population fled from Tajikistan during the tumultuous post-independence period (1990-1992) as they faced persecution from ethnic Tajiks. The population of Tajikistan now comprises mostly Tajiks, Uzbeks and Pamiri people from the autonomous region to the east of the country. The visible Russian influence and legacy is now minimal in the country itself, although the nation still uses the Cyrillic alphabet and many Tajik men still travel to Russia to find seasonal work as labourers. Tajikistan experienced civil war between 1992-1997 with warring ethnic factions fighting for dominance – during this period it was ranked as one ‘the least liveable countries in the world’. Barely any mention of this conflict is made in Tajikistan today.
The Russians may be gone but we still found Putin-branded aftershave in the bazaar in Khorog
Whereas most other Central Asia countries have managed to shake off their post-Soviet authoritarian leader, Tajikistan is still stuck with theirs. The same leader, Emomali Rahmon, has been in power since 1992. Although there is an elected parliament, it seems clear that Rahmon is a de-facto dictator for life. There is without a doubt a cult of personality surrounding Rahmon, we saw this first-hand in Dushanbe and were immediately struck by how many photos of Rahmon were plastered on buildings and billboards all over the city. The same applies for all other parts of Tajikistan that we visited. Rahmon’s image is omnipresent in all areas of the country. Despite this very obvious elephant in the room, politics is a delicate subject that most Tajiks won’t converse about with foreigners. You are likely to be rebuffed if you try to speak to Tajik person about politics.
Get used to seeing photos of Emomali Rahmon, but don’t try to talk to any Tajiks about him!
The local currency is named after Ismoil Somoni, a powerful leader of the ancient Samanid Dynasty who the Tajiks view as a national hero. Interestingly, Somoni was born in Fergana in Uzbekistan and is buried in Bukhara in Uzbekistan. The higgledy-piggledy national boundaries in this part of Central Asia mean that many ethnic Tajik, Kyrgyz and Uzbek people live outside of the modern nations bearing their names.
Aside from the visa situation, Tajikistan was far less accommodating to travel in than its Central Asian neighbours. Mastercard is not widely accepted in supermarkets, restaurants or ATMs. We couldn’t even use our Mastercard to pay for a KFC! This made it quite difficult to do anything requiring money, we needed to withdraw large amounts of cash from the one ATM we found that accepted our card (ActivBank in Dushanbe). Visa seems to be accepted so make sure you bring a visa card, if you have one.
ActivBank in Dushanbe is the only place we could find in the whole country that accepted Mastercard
Tajikistan’s leader Rahmon is a strong proponent of renewable energy. One consequence of this is that Tajikistan is full of Chinese electric cars, driven all the way from China along the Pamir Highway. It’s a miracle they don’t arrive with a myriad of scrapes and damage from the road. Usual tools that served us well in the rest of Central Asia such as Yandex Go don’t work in Tajikistan – instead Dushanbe has its own taxi apps (which we did not use).
We found that the people in Tajikistan were generally more conservative and less westernised than their neighbours – women tended to dress in tunic and trouser combos rather than in western clothes, even younger people. We didn’t really encounter this in Kyrgyzstan or Kazakhstan or even Uzbekistan for the most part. However the people we met were generally helpful – when we struggled to get in contact with the owner of the flat we were staying at, a random man who turned out to be a youth football manager stepped in and called the owner for us.
We had a great time staying with this family in the remote village of Alichur
Sadly, due to the fact that we were forced to fly into Dushanbe airport in order to get a visa and subsequent time constraints regarding our Pamir Highway trip, we were not able to visit other parts of Tajikistan such as Khujand, Panjakent and the Fann Mountains. I don’t feel like we had a full experience in the country as a result – unfortunately a by-product of the restrictive and disorganized visa regime.
Getting a visa for Tajikistan
If you aren’t British, you can probably skip this part. Citizens of many nations are now able to visit Tajikistan visa-free. Unfortunately, British citizens unlike our American, European and Irish counterparts currently require a visa to visit Tajikistan.
There are three ways to obtain this:
- Visit a Tajik Embassy in another country and apply for one in person – this is a hassle if you’re not in the vicinity of a Tajik Embassy.
- Apply for an E-Visa online – however there are multiple reports of these being randomly rejected for unknown reasons. It’s a gamble whether you’ll be accepted for an E-Visa or not – you will lose your money if you’re rejected. When applying for an E-Visa you can also apply for the GBAO permit (you need this if the Pamir Highway is on your itinerary) as well which saves money and a trip to the OVIR Office in Dushanbe later on.
- Fly into Dushanbe Airport and get a visa on arrival. We had confirmation from the Tajikistan Embassy in the UK that this was still possible in October 2024. This costs $60 and in our experience is fraught with issues, however this is the approach we used and we were (eventually) able to get into the country this way.
Flying into Dushanbe prior to getting a visa on arrival – this was the only reliable method for us
Below is our iffy experience of entering Tajikistan in October 2024 as British citizens:
We arrived at Dushanbe airport from Almaty (Kazakhstan) armed with an email from the Tajikistan Embassy in the UK which stated that we could get a visa on arrival at Dushanbe airport and screenshots of our Pamir Highway group tour booking with Visit Alay. With these ready on our phones, we were told by the clerk at the immigration area that we needed a ‘letter of invitation’ – even though we tried to explain in basic English that we have both an email from the Tajik embassy and proof of booking for the Pamir Highway. He categorically told us this didn’t matter and that we needed a letter of invitation as well, although we knew this wasn’t correct. Ourselves and two other British tourists who were traveling as part of a group tour were dismissed and told to wait at the side, that they’d deal with us after everyone else had been processed. I’m still not sure if this was a power move by the immigration clerk or not. We waited around 2 hours for the rest of the line to go down before jumping to the front of the queue again. In a frankly desperate last attempt to get into the country, I ended up writing a message on Google translate along the lines of:
‘Hello, we are travelling around Central Asia and want to visit your beautiful country. We have an email from the Tajik embassy in the UK and booking with Visit Alay for the Pamir Highway – we have $60 for the fee – what’s the issue?’
After some initial hesitation, the immigration clerk went ahead and issued us with the Tajikistan visas after collecting $60 each.
Overall the whole experience was unnecessarily stressful and required a certain amount of flattery and pressure from us.
Other tourists have reported having the same issue with immigration clerks demanding a ‘letter of invitation.’ Interestingly, there was a line stating ‘invited by’ on the visa that we were issued, which may be the source of the confusion. Be firm and stand your ground is my best advice, or better yet be armed with a letter of invitation if you are able to get one (these can be obtained for a fee from various tour agencies).
Our walking tour guide in Dushanbe informed us that the reason there may be problems only for British citizens is that a Tajik minister recently applied for a UK visa to see an art exhibition in London and was rejected – I don’t know how true this is though!
Dushanbe
Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan – it takes its name from the Persian word for Monday as the settlement was originally known for its Monday market. With its fleet of green electric taxis, endless rose bushes in public parks and countless majestic fountains, Dushanbe is an excellent city to explore on foot especially after dark when colourful lights illuminate the fountains and large buildings.
We were surprised at how modern parts of Dushanbe were – Emomali Rahmon’s son was appointed mayor of Dushanbe in 2017 and oversaw a large construction spree, giving parts of the city centre a much more grandiose appearance than most of the rest of the country. Despite the modernisation efforts, the parts of Dushanbe that haven’t yet been refurbished are still a little worn and desolate, although this will surely change quite soon as long as Rahmon remains in office as mayor.
Roses are everywhere in Dushanbe
One quirk of the city is that we encountered loads of young men (sometimes even teenagers) striding about in full business suits at all times of the day, complete with leather satchels – there were hordes of them, they didn’t appear to be working or studying and we even spotted them on weekends. We never really got to the bottom of why this was.
We saw groups of young boys dressed like this all over the place
As with other Cental Asian capitals, Dushanbe has a young, fairly vibrant population and plenty going on. We stumbled onto a free music festival outside Ayni Opera house, which I think was being staged to promote a mobile phone network.
Dushanbe’s distinctive green electric taxis are everywhere in the city and greatly outnumber cars on the roads, sadly Yandex Go, Uber and other widely used ridesharing apps don’t work. We were provided instructions on how to get a taxi by our Airbnb host, which I share below. Please note, this is not tried and tested by us – this was the information passed on to us by the owner of the apartment where we stayed in Dushanbe:
You can call taxi by these ways:
1. Call
2. App
Companies:
– Rakhsh taxi. Tel.: 3333, App: https://apps.apple.com/tj/app/rakhsh-taxi/id1185845938
– Olu4a taxi. Tel.: 7000, telegram bot: t.me/OluchaTaxi_bot, App: https://apps.apple.com/tj/app/olu4a-taxi-/id1633209236
– ЯК taxi. Tel.: 1111, App: https://apps.apple.com/tj/app/id1595098719
Taxis outnumber cars on the roads in Dushanbe
Accommodation
Dushanbe City View Apartment on Booking.com – instead of staying at a hotel or hostel we chose to stay at an apartment on Ayni Street, it was close to supermarkets and restaurants and within walking distance of all main sites and attractions. The owner was very helpful and sent over a list of nearby restaurants and cafes and also how to get a taxi.
The view from the City View Apartment
Activities
Guruwalk walking tour with stops including: Ayni Opera, Independence Monument, Monument of Ismail Samani, National Library (actually shaped like an open book), Rudaki Park (named after the persian poet Rudaki – Iranians also revere Rudaki as a national poet), funky bridge over the Varzob river on Ismoil Somoni Avenue and National University.
Ayni Park is named after the national poet of Tajikistan
It’s possible to catch a glimpse of the official residence of the Leader of the Nation (Rahmon), although guards are posted at all of the entrances so I wouldn’t recommend lingering too long. It’s called Palace of the Nation on Google Maps.
National Flag Pole – the tallest flagpole in the world until 2014. Worth a visit just to take a photo.
The flagpole is pretty big
National Museum of Tajikistan – this museum contains mostly copies of original archaeological finds. It’s worth visiting just to browse the comprehensive collection of photos of Emomoli Rahmon interacting with local people and many books he’s apparently authored. There’s even one of him playing football in full football gear!
Navruz Palace – you’d never expect a cinema and bowling alley to be hidden inside this grand building but that’s exactly what you can find. We accidentally wandered into the cinema lobby and were immediately struck by the familiar smell of popcorn and cinema decor. There’s also a teahouse you can visit. It’s possible to walk around the upper balconies with the bowling alley/cinema for free, but the main attraction is a guided tour of the inside of the palace (entry without an official guide is not permitted). On rare occasions the palace is closed for conferences/diplomatic meetings and luncheons – this happened when we first visited, but we were reassured it’s not common and we were able to enter the palace for a tour the next day.
The grand interior of Navruz Palace
The decor on the inside is exquisite with various themed rooms: one is completely covered in intricately carved wood, another covered in mirrors. The palace was only built in the 21st century so it is still relatively new. The guided tour is relatively inexpensive and in English, but you might have to wait for more people to join the group before the tour kicks off. To take a tour, simply ask the guards at the front of the building and they will point you in the correct direction if tours are available on the day. We were given a tour by a very eccentric and exuberant older Tajik lady – she implied that she was the only one authorised to provide tours, I’m not sure if this is the case or not but we really enjoyed the short tour with her either way.
Navruz Palace is probably the most grandiose building I have ever been in, which is saying a lot
Foodie Places
Admittedly we didn’t go to any restaurants here – instead opting to cook meals in our apartment to save money.
Coffee Moose – recommended to us by the owner of our apartment. They have an English menu and free wifi. Prices are slightly on the higher side but this is the norm for central Dushanbe. Ideal for a quick pit stop – they serve very refreshing lemonade.
KFC – a chaotic experience to order and collect the food on a Saturday night as the self-service machines didn’t accept our Mastercard, but the products were mostly standard KFC stuff once we got them. Admittedly this could’ve been the source of our food poisoning on the Pamir Highway.
KFC is strangely popular in Dushanbe
Pamir Highway Road Trip
We took a 7-day shared tour of the GBAO region, hiring a car and driver via the company Visit Alay. Usually we always look to travel independently, however there is no public transportation on the Pamir Highway. The only ways to travel are either via a tour (essentially hiring a car and driver), hiring a car and self-driving, or if you’re completely crazy and have unlimited time then attempting to either hitchhike or cycle (we met people doing the latter but I really wouldn’t recommend unless you’re a super experienced long-distance mountain cyclist!).
Some people arrange their Pamir Highway journey via hostels in Osh or Dushanbe. This is probably the old–school way of doing things. However it’s possible to pre-book a place in a group with tour companies like Visit Alay so you know in advance that the tour is definitely happening on the dates you are looking for and for the agreed price. For those who like to plan ahead, this is definitely the better option. We had a positive experience with Visit Alay and they were usually responsive with emails. There are only a limited number of vehicles and drivers on the Pamir Highway, so if you book a car and/or driver you probably will end up dealing with a lot of the same people regardless of how you choose to arrange the trip.
The scenery on the Pamir Highway is magnificent
Initially we wanted to go on the 9-day tour with Visit Alay however as we were traveling in October they recommended the 7-day option instead, as the wintery weather conditions meant that some of the day treks were not possible.
We chose to do a group tour mainly to keep costs down. Visit Alay can pair up travelers in order to share costs, with a maximum of four people per car. We contacted them, they advertised online and two other travellers joined our group, completing our car and greatly reducing the costs for all involved. Traveling on the Pamir Highway independently is doable, but would likely be much more stressful, require much more planning and probably turn out to be more expensive too. Sometimes it’s better to just take the easy option. When it comes to a tour vs self-driving, I’ve tried to provide a list of the pros and cons as well as what to expect based on our own experiences in this article.
Snowy peaks on the Pamir Highway
Because we were on a fixed schedule, we only spent one night in each of the towns that we visited along the Pamir Highway, sometimes only arriving after dark to sleep. Therefore I can’t provide a huge amount of detail or insight about these places, only our fleeting experiences. In almost all of these towns, breakfast and dinner was provided by our guesthouse. Other than in Khorog, there aren’t a huge amount of restaurants or places to eat along the Highway.
Kalaikhum
A small, relatively-urbanised town near to the Panj river and Afghanistan. We had a quick look around but there wasn’t all that much to see in the town itself. The most interesting feature was the row of houses with balconies overhanging a tributary of the Panj (including our guesthouse).
Accommodation
Roma GuestHouse – a pleasant enough family–run guesthouse with private bathrooms and wifi. There is a nice balcony overlooking the river.
Activities
The restored façade of Hulbuk Fortress
It’s not really anywhere near Kalaikhum, but the drive in this direction from Dushanbe passes Hulbuk Fortress. Like Hisor Fortress near Dushanbe, the ancient fortress has been completely rebuilt and restored in modern times so is not really all that authentic, it looks more like something from a theme park. However the adjoining museum is surprisingly good and we were given a personal tour by the curator (who seemed startled to see us, he was watching football on TV when we walked in). This guy was a real character, he spoke a little English and tried his best to give us thorough explanations including physical demonstrations of some of the artifacts. At the end of the tour he showed us old photographs of himself working on the original excavation of the fortress, as well as foreign guidebooks making reference to him and even a picture of himself with Emomali Rahmon!
This guy was a real character
Near to Kalaikhum is also the famous ‘Ir Afghanistan’ sign which is an ubiquitous stop for people traveling the Pamir Highway (and is now sadly partially obscured as it has been covered with stickers from thoughtless overlanders).
You can barely read the sign now because of all the stickers from overlanders
Khorog
By far the largest and most built-up town on the Pamir Highway. We enjoyed wandering around, looking at the bridges and the small bazaar. There are banks and a range of restaurants and cafes here, it’s a good place to stock up on supplies if heading to the more remote parts of the Pamirs.
Downtown Khorog
Close to Khorog, an Afghan market takes place on Saturdays. Tajiks and Afghans from opposite sides of the Panj River are allowed to converge on an island to set up a small bazaar. We met other travelers who said that experiencing this market and interacting with the Afghans was a highlight of their time on the Pamir Highway. Sadly, we didn’t visit on a Saturday so couldn’t experience this – try to time your trip to be around Khorog on a Saturday morning if possible!
Foodie Places
World Cuisine Khorog – pretty cheap and decent food, as the name suggests this place offers a selection of dishes from around the world, from Western food such as burgers and chips right through to Indian. The servers brought us tap water and told us it was safe to drink – we had to tell them off.
Langar
A small village in the majestic Wakhan Valley, directly across the river from Afghanistan. Mostly people stay here due to its proximity to natural historical sites such as the Bibi Fatima hot springs, Yamchun fort, Buddhist stupa and Langar Petroglyphs. Langar is situated in an agricultural area which is known for stepped-terrace fields – we arrived after dark so didn’t really see much of this. There is not much to the village itself, but there are plenty of guest houses in this area along the road.
Activities
Bibi Fatima Hot Springs – it’s necessary to be completely naked to go in these small, natural hot springs. Males and females are separated for obvious reasons. There were some locals here along with our group.
Khakha Fortress – an ancient fortress dating back over 2,000 years to the Kushan era. There was no admission fee and no real infrastructure at the fortress, so we were free to wander around and explore the structure. This fortress is built into the mountainside, providing amazing views across the Panj river and into Afghanistan.
You can’t beat the views from Khakha Fortress – the farmland in the background is Afghanistan
Yamchun Fortress – located across a small ravine, it is possible to climb down one side and then up the other to get into the fortress. This is the most important fortress in the region. There are breathtaking views across into Afghanistan and even the Hindu Kush mountains in the distance. Workmen were carrying out some sort of excavation or renovation inside the fortress when we visited, but they didn’t really pay any attention to us and we were able to explore freely.
Yamchun Fortress is across a small ravine from the road
Buddhist stupa – there is an ancient Buddhist stupa in the area around Langar, involving a short uphill hike from the road. There isn’t too much left to see, but it’s interesting to find Buddhist ruins in this area. We visited at sunset, which again provided great views over the Wakhan Valley.
Langar petroglyphs – the petroglyphs involve a pretty arduous 45 minute uphill trek, and honestly are not really worth the effort. It was difficult to tell which petroglyphs were ancient and which were modern graffiti or vandalism.
Alichur
The most remote and probably the most interesting village we visited on the Pamir Highway, Alichur is one of the only settlements along the route between the Wakhan Corridor and Murghab. This is a truly desolate place. There were few people around, next to no facilities other than a small school and central mosque, and seemingly more cows than people. The few locals we did encounter here were extremely friendly, welcoming and curious.
Sultan, a friendly local man in Alichur
Near to the village are plains where it is possible to see yaks.
Accommodation
Shukrona Homestay – no showers, an outside squat (hole) toilet and only one room where all the guests were sleeping. Nonetheless, we loved visiting Shukrona due to the warmth and kindness of the host family. Here we met a Russian couple who were cycling the Pamirs and had been staying at the guesthouse for several days. I’m not sure what they had been doing to pass the time in the tiny village of Alichur.
Activities
Panorama Ridge, a famous viewpoint, is located along the route between Alichur and the Wakhan Corridor.
It was pretty chilly at Panorama Ridge
Murghab
Murghab is the second largest settlement in the Pamirs, and we were looking forward to some home comforts after a few nights in the wilderness. Unfortunately, Murghab was totally different to Khorog and not as we had expected at all. Despite its relative population size, it was another completely desolate place. We struggled to find any real amenities here and the few shops that did exist were poorly stocked (one contained little more than some plates and some old, dusty chocolate Santas!). At one point we tried to walk to what was described on maps as a supermarket, only to find a pile of rubble.
Ho ho ho
The situation in Murghab is best summed up by its bazaar or ‘container market’, which we heard being described as like something from a post-apocalyptic world – a description I can’t really argue with!
The ominous ‘container market’ in Murghab
Murghab also has a large statue of Lenin, one of the few notable landmarks in town other than the container market.
Accommodation
Guest House Erali – a decent guesthouse run by a very nice man and his family. We asked if they had a private room for us and they kindly put out bedding on the floor to let us sleep in the room next to them. This guesthouse had wifi and a comfortable communal area, although we struggled to find running water. We later learned that the water had been disconnected to stop the pipes from freezing, I believe there are showers and a western style toilet available in the summer months. The host allowed those who wanted it to have a wash in the Russian sauna fired with sheep dung, which was a great and authentic experience. Ironically, we encountered Erali’s brother in Sary Mogul in Kyrgyzstan – he also works in the tourism industry and was arranging a self-drive vehicle for some American tourists who were beginning their Pamir trip.
We enjoyed staying with Erali and family
Activities
Near to Murghab is a very low-key snow leopard sanctuary, one of the only ones of its kind. Here it is possible to find rescued snow leopards in pens. They didn’t particularly seem keen to attract too many visitors or too much attention, but thanks to our driver we were allowed in to see the leopards for a small donation. Seeing a snow leopard mother with cub was a fantastic experience
The town of Karakul was all but deserted when we visited
Further on from Murghab is the town of Karakul, sitting on the shores of Karakul Lake. This lake is one of the most beautiful sights in the Pamirs. Sadly, when we visited in October there were no guesthouses open and the town seemed to be virtually abandoned. This would probably be a nice place to stay in the summer months. You can find the emblematic Marco Polo sheep along the mountainside here.
Karakul Lake was a cold but beautiful and peaceful place
After completing our journey on the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan, we headed back into Kyrgyzstan!