How much we spent: 2 weeks in Uzbekistan 🇺🇿
- Calvin Chan
- Aug 21, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 22, 2024
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan | 📅 14 days in Jun 2024 | ☀️ Summer
This is how much we (2 people) spent during 14 days in Uzbekistan, from June to July 2024 (Summer). In that time we hit up Tashkent, Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand.
For reference, we're nature-loving, value-seeking 20-something year olds from Australia who think with their stomachs. Hopefully this helps you plan and budget your trip to Uzbekistan! Three money saving tips for Uzbekistan below!
💲How much we spent
Total spend*: 2,031 AUD | 1,361 USD | 1,219 EUR
Daily spend: 93 AUD | 62 USD | 56 EUR
* The above prices are without international travel and shopping costs (i.e. arriving in country and souvenirs)
🛏️ Accomodation: 46 AUD /day 646 AUD | 433 USD | 388 EUR
Though Uzbekistan is no longer the value-haven it used to be of 1 USD meals and 10 USD accomodations, the country is still affordable. Upgrading from the hostel bunk beds and small private rooms of Europe, we were able to spend less and get more. For 46 AUD per night (between two people), we got whole apartments, massive private rooms and got to stay in the centre of historic sites. Our favourite stay was with a local family in Bukhara at Kamir Guesthouse.
🍽️ Food: 26 AUD /day 369 AUD | 248 USD | 222 EUR
Uzbekistan is often called the kitchen and food capital of Central Asia, and it did not disappoint. From saucy Laghman to Char grilled Shashlik to coma-inducing plov, Uzbeks know how to eat! Our personal favourite spots in Uzbekistan were Besh Qozon in Tashkent and Sitora Kafe in Bukhara.
🚶🏻♂️ Activities: 4 AUD /day 52 AUD | 35 USD | 31 EUR
For activities, we stuck to the typical touristy museums, mosques and sights. Uzbekistan is full of rich history and the English translations for their museums and landmarks were surprisingly great - take note Europe! The tickets to all sights we saw were also affordable. For those visiting Khiva, if you book accomodation in the ancient town, you won't need to pay for entrance into the town. There is however an entrance fee to all the museums there, ~40 AUD per person to access to all museums (there are no individual tickets for each museum/sight). If you're not willing to splurge on this, I'd say visit Bukhara instead. Similar sights and FREE.
🚌 Local transport: 14 AUD /day 199 AUD | 133 USD | 119 EUR
Local transport in Uzbekistan is CHEAP! Inside cities, Yandex (local version of Uber) is very affordable, often costing <2 AUD for a 10 minute drive - it's amazing. For inter-city transport, trains are your best bet for value:time ratio. It averages out to around 3 AUD per person per train ride. Very very reasonable. There are three kinds of trains in Uzbekistan, for a detailed breakdown, check out this video we made on it. Booking the trains are as easy as using the official website.
🧺 Misc: 3 AUD /day 42 AUD | 28 USD | 25 EUR
This category encompasses anything and everything outside of the other categories, and shopping below. Typically this includes laundry, pharmaceuticals, buying replacement for things, and in this case, Bank withdrawal fees.
🛍️ Shopping: 0 AUD /day 0 AUD | 0 USD | 0 EUR
We did no shopping during our 14-day trip in Uzbekistan.
🧠 Tips on saving money in Uzbekistan 🇺🇿
GET THE YANDEX APP!! It’s like Uber for Central Asia. The quickest way to get around Uzbekistan, and sometimes the cheapest is by taxi. BUT only if you use Yandex. We met a New Zealand couple who got charged 5x what we paid for using Yandex for the same trip.
Pay with the local currency - Uzbek Som! In Uzbekistan most place give you the option to pay in either Som or USD. Always choose to pay in Som. When you pay in USD, they usually round up to benefit them.
Get a local SIM card at the airport! Mobile data in Central Asia is super affordable, ranging from 4-50 AUD, depending on how much data you get.
✨ For Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 itinerary inspo, check out our blog posts:
Tashkent 3 day itinerary
Khiva 3 day itinerary
Bukhara 2 day itinerary
Samarkand 2 day itinerary
5 things we wished we knew: Uzbekistan
📔 For budgeting and planning your trip to Uzbekistan, check out our FREE resources:
🧮 Travel Budget Tracker ⬅️ The screenshots from this article used this!
📕 Travel Adventure Planner ⬅️ This is how we planned our year+ adventure!
🪨 More travel resources:
📱 Our favourite global travel eSim ⬅️ Use "KIMNCAL30" for 30% off!!
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