Tashkent Favorite Tips by TheWanderingCamel Top 5 Page for this destination

Quiet places

Favorite thing: For all that it is a city of 3 million people, Tashkent has a lovely laid-back air. The bazaars are busy and bustling, and in the evenings Broadway is jumping (literally it can seem with the loud music the Uzbeks love) but there is shady street after street in the Russian part of the city, all but deserted of traffic much of the time and you can walk for miles through wooded parks hearing little more sound than the water playing in fountains. Chaikhanas make great places to stop and watch the world go by, for tourists and locals alike. Little boys splash around in the pool outside the Mustaqlilk Maydoni Metro and old men play chess under the trees near Temur's huge equestian statue in Amir Temur Square.

The park that runs from the Opera House Square, past TsUM and along towards Kosmonavtiar metro station is the place to come if browsing among books is one of your things - there's a book market set up there most days. If sitting back on cushioned couches and drinking tea is more your scene, check out the chaikhana in the middle of the park - with its individual airy pavilions and choice of comfy Western-style armchairs or traditional Uzbek takhtas, it's a great place to rest those sightseeing-sore feet.

Wild strawberries

Favorite thing: Wild strawberries growing along the side of footpaths in Tashkent's streets and parks sum up the charm and abundent goodwill of the people we met everywhere we went in Uzbekistan. Little red jewels with a tart sweetness nestling among the leaves, growing naturally wherever they can let their runners spread, untroubled by the modern city all around them, just getting on with what they have always done through the ages. Earthquakes, invasions, tyrants have come and gone, the strawberries, like the Uzbek people have prevailed.
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Faded frescos

Favorite thing: With so much to admire in Tashkent's museums - beautiful embroidery, magnificent carpets, ceramics, exquisite jewellery, models of the countries great buildings and more - it was this faded scrap of fresco from a much older time that I found quite the most lovely thing.
Look for it in the Museum of Fine Art.