Digital Nomad Guide for Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan which has seen tourist numbers explode in recent years since they reduced the visa restrictions for many tourists. Despite having so much history in the country, Tashkent still hasn’t taken off as a digital nomad destination.

Can you be a digital nomad in Tashkent?

The answer is definitely yes as I worked there for a week after exploring the country for a week or so before.

Although this won’t be as comprehensive as some of my other digital nomad guides, this will still give a brief overview of what it’s like to be a digital nomad in Tashkent.

Where is Tashkent

As the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent is a major hub located in the north east of the country, close to the border with Kazakhstan. To the east is the Fergana Valley and to the west is where most of the country and major sites lie including Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva.

How to get to Tashkent

Tashkent has a major International airport with flights to the city from Dubai, Istanbul, Doha and many more destinations in the region. It also has seasonal flights to Bangkok, Seoul, Tel Aviv and Phuket if you are working remotely in any of those cities as well.

Uzbekistan Airlines has a good network connecting Tashkent with cities all over Central Asia, the rest of Uzbekistan and beyond.

There are also bus routes from Almaty, Bishkek and Dushanbe and the train network in Uzbekistan connects Tashkent with with every major town and city in the country.

How to get around Tashkent

I mostly used Yandex as it is affordable in Tashkent. To get from one part of the city to another can cost as little as 11000som (£0.66/€0.76) with a trip to the airport costing about 25000som (£1.50/€1.80). However traffic can be bad at times.

Tashkent also has an excellent metro network that criss crosses all over the city and has stations that have incredible design. Tickets cost just 2000som for a journey on the metro.

Visas and getting in

Most nationalities now have a 30 day visa on arrival when visiting Uzbekistan for tourism, which is enough time to work in Tashkent and still get to explore many of the attractions in the rest of Uzbekistan.

Where to work in Tashkent as a digital nomad

There are a few coworking spaces available in Tashkent. I decided to work at Hub Coworking which was a small and simple coworking space close to the train station. Prices start at 130,000som for a day pass although I got a weekly pass.

A few other coworking spots I checked out but didn’t work from include:

However I found a lot of these to be more like cultural centres or art galleries where you could work instead of pure coworking spaces. I’m open to any feedback from people that have visited!

There is also a strong coffee culture in Tashkent and I saw many people working in coffee shops all over the city. My favourite that I visited every day I was there was Tim’s Coffee shop on the corner near the Hub Coworking (location here). But any of the larger coffee shops near the universities always had large tables and wifi to work from.

What’s the internet like in Tashkent for digital nomads

Whilst I struggled with internet and wifi in many parts of Uzbekistan, I finally managed to get a sim card that worked and it had some of the fastest internet I’ve ever experienced at over 800mbps!

I used Airalo as an eSIM and the speeds were ok but I still found myself waiting for pages to load and the signal strength wasn’t great when outside the major cities.

The internet in my guesthouse was excellent and good enough for video calls and the internet in the coworking was close to 150mbps.

As a word of warning, I couldn’t get my VPN to work in Uzbekistan. I use NordVPN for working and for watching general TV from home and as a security featured but it wouldn’t work at all, with my eSIM, regular local sim or on any wifi network. I don’t know if other VPN’s are banned but if you need to use one, you may want to get a few options.

Where to stay in Tashkent as a digital nomad

Tashkent doesn’t have a digital nomad neighbourhood like in other popular cities around the world. From my research, there doesn’t even seem to be an area that is popular with expats either! This really is an unexplored part of the world!

I ended up staying in the south of the city for a few reasons: It was close to a few of the coworking spaces I was researching, it was close to the train station and airport (which are both towards the south of the city) which was important to me as I wasn’t there too long, it was more affordable than the centre or north east of the city which is where many international branded hotels are.

I stayed at Shams Art Hotel and can recommend it for a short stay with clean simple rooms and friendly staff.

What to do in Tashkent

Tashkent doesn’t have an endless list of things to see and do. One of the highlights is to visit Chorsu Bazaar if you really want to feel like a local in this turquoise domed building. You’ll find all kinds of food here from fruits and veg to animals hanging up reading to be butchered!

A short list of other attractions include:

Or some things to see outside the city:

Cost of living for digital nomads in Tashkent

Tashkent is a very affordable destination and is probably slightly cheaper than working as a digital nomad in Almaty but similar to Bishkek.

Some example prices:

Pros and cons of Tashkent as a digital nomad

Pros of Tashkent

Cons of Tashkent

My experience as a digital nomad in Tashkent

I enjoyed my time in Tashkent working remotely. It is a nice city but the real reason people come to Uzbekistan is to see the Silk Road cities. Tashkent makes a great base to explore those cities but there is still plenty to do in the city itself.

With affordable food and drinks, good accommodation and a safe and clean transport network, Tashkent it a good place to work as a digital nomad.

Dan

Dan is an avid traveller from London. His first big adventure was in 2010 living in Malaysia for 3 months. He has been on the road almost constantly since 2015 travelling to destinations that aren’t on the mainstream tourist trail and working full time and travelling since 2021.