Khiva Travel Guide: How to Get There, What to See and How Many Days You Need

Khiva is a small city in the Khorezm region of western Uzbekistan, famous for Itchan Kala, its walled old town of clay-brick walls, minarets, madrasahs and palaces. Itchan Kala has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990, and almost everything worth seeing stands within a short walk. Most travellers fly from Tashkent to Urgench or take the train to Khiva's own station, and spend one or two full days here. This guide covers how to get there, what to see, when to go and how long to stay.

Key facts

• Where: Khorezm region, western Uzbekistan, near the Amu Darya river and the Karakalpakstan border.
• Main sight: Itchan Kala, the walled inner town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990.
• By air: flights from Tashkent to Urgench; Urgench airport is roughly 30–35 km from Khiva.
• By train: Khiva has had its own railway station since 2018, with trains from Tashkent via Samarkand and Bukhara, including the high-speed Jaloliddin Manguberdi.
• By road: about 456 km from Bukhara across the Kyzylkum Desert, usually 6–7 hours by car.
• Best time: April–May and September–October; summer is very hot and winter is cold.
• How long: one full day for the old town, two to three days with a desert fortress trip.

What is Khiva? Itchan Kala, the walled old town

Khiva has two parts: Itchan Kala, the inner town inside the old walls, and Dishan Kala, the newer city outside them where most people live today. For visitors, Khiva means Itchan Kala. Inside its thick clay walls are more than fifty historic monuments and hundreds of old houses, most of them from the 18th and 19th centuries, when Khiva was the capital of a khanate.

What makes Khiva different from Samarkand and Bukhara is how complete it feels. The whole old town is a monument: you walk in through a gate, and for the rest of the day you are among madrasahs, minarets, palaces and narrow lanes, with no modern traffic in between. It is the easiest Silk Road town in Uzbekistan to explore on foot.

How to get to Khiva

The nearest airport is Urgench International Airport, roughly 30–35 km from Khiva, usually under an hour by car. There are several flights a day from Tashkent to Urgench, which makes flying the fastest way to reach Khiva from the capital. A common plan is to fly into Urgench, see Khiva, and then continue east by road or train to Bukhara and Samarkand. We arrange airport transfers from Urgench to your hotel in Khiva.

Urgench used to be the nearest railway station, but in 2018 the line was extended to a new station in Khiva itself, a short drive or about half an hour's walk from Itchan Kala. Through trains run from Tashkent via Samarkand, Bukhara and Urgench to Khiva.

• Jaloliddin Manguberdi high-speed train: started in May 2026 between Tashkent and Khiva, with stops in Samarkand, Bukhara and Urgench. The trip from Tashkent takes about 7.5 hours. At the launch it ran three times a week in each direction.
• Overnight sleeper trains: slower trains from Tashkent with sleeping cars, taking much of the night and the next morning. They also stop in Samarkand and Bukhara.
• Afrosiyob: the well-known high-speed train links Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara, but does not run to Khiva — see our Afrosiyob train guide.

Train tickets usually go on sale about 60 days ahead, and trains to Khiva can sell out, especially in spring and autumn. Timetables change, so always check the current schedule on the official Uzbekistan Railways website (railway.uz) before you plan — or ask us to book the tickets for you.

The road between Bukhara and Khiva is about 456 km and crosses the Kyzylkum Desert, coming close to the Amu Darya near Khorezm. By private car the drive usually takes 6–7 hours door to door, plus any stops. It is a long day, but you see the desert and the river, and you can leave when you like. Read our full guide to the Bukhara to Khiva road.

Things to do in Khiva: the main sights of Itchan Kala

These are the places most visitors want to see. All of them are inside the walls, a few minutes' walk from each other.

• The walls and gates: the clay-brick walls of Itchan Kala, around 10 m high, surround the old town, with four gates. Walk along them in the early morning or at sunset, and climb up near the North Gate for a view over the rooftops.
• Kalta Minor: the short, wide minaret covered from top to bottom in blue and green glazed tiles, the symbol of Khiva. It was planned to be far taller, but work stopped in the 19th century after the death of the khan who started it, and it was never finished.
• Kunya Ark: the old citadel of the khans, with a throne room, a summer mosque, a harem and a courtyard. Its watchtower beside the city wall is one of the best viewpoints in Khiva.
• Juma Mosque: the Friday Mosque, a single large, dim hall lit by shafts of light and filled with more than two hundred carved wooden columns. Some of the columns are many centuries old, reused from earlier buildings.
• Islam Khoja minaret and madrasah: built in the early 20th century, the Islam Khoja minaret is the tallest in Khiva, about 57 m. A steep, narrow staircase leads to a platform near the top with views over the whole old town.
• Tash Hauli palace: built in the 1830s for Allakuli Khan, with a harem courtyard of blue tiles, carved wooden columns and painted ceilings.
• Pahlavan Mahmud mausoleum: the resting place of Pahlavan Mahmud, a 14th-century poet, wrestler and Sufi teacher who became the patron saint of Khiva. Its turquoise dome is one of the largest in the town, and it is still a place of pilgrimage.
• Muhammad Amin Khan madrasah: the large madrasah beside Kalta Minor, from the mid-19th century, today used as a hotel.

Between the monuments, look into the craft workshops: Khiva is known for its carved wooden doors and columns, and you can watch woodcarvers, carpet weavers and other craftspeople at work. In the evening, when the day visitors leave, the old town is quiet and the walls and minarets are lit up — one of the best reasons to stay inside or near Itchan Kala.

You can explore Itchan Kala on your own, but a guide explains who built what and why, and helps you decide which monuments are worth going inside. On our private Khiva walking tour your guide meets you at your hotel and walks with you for about five hours, at your pace, covering Kalta Minor, Kunya Ark, the Juma Mosque, the Islam Khoja minaret, Tash Hauli and the Pahlavan Mahmud mausoleum, with craft workshops along the way. You only buy entrance tickets for the places you choose to enter. Read more in our Khiva walking tour guide.

When is the best time to visit Khiva?

Spring (April and May) and autumn (September and October) are the most comfortable months, with warm days that are good for walking. Khiva lies in the desert, so summer is very hot: from mid-May to mid-September midday temperatures often climb towards 40°C, and it is best to sightsee early in the morning and in the evening. Winter is cold, with frosty nights and occasional snow, but the old town is very quiet and the light is clear. For the whole country, month by month, see our guide on the best time to visit Uzbekistan.

How many days in Khiva?

• One full day is enough to see the main sights of Itchan Kala at an easy pace, with time for a viewpoint at sunset.
• Two days let you see the old town properly, go inside more museums and spend a quiet evening and early morning inside the walls, when it is at its most beautiful.
• Three days give you time for a day trip to the desert fortresses of ancient Khorezm, or a start towards the Aral Sea.

If you arrive by plane or train in the afternoon, plan at least one more full day. Many multi-day tours combine Khiva with Bukhara and Samarkand: our Silk Road Expedition: 8 Days Across Uzbekistan drives from Bukhara to Khiva and returns to Tashkent, while the Uzbekistan Discovery 9-day tour and the Grand Uzbekistan 14-day tour visit Khiva at the start of the trip, before Bukhara.

Day trip to the desert fortresses of ancient Khorezm

North of Khiva, across the Amu Darya in Karakalpakstan, the clay ruins of ancient Khorezm stand in the desert. Several of these sites are on UNESCO's Tentative List. On our private day trip to the fortresses of Khorezm your driver takes you from your hotel in Khiva or Urgench to seven sites — Dumon Kala, Guldursun Kala, Angka Kala, Janbas Kala, Ayaz Kala, Toprak Kala and Kizil Kala — with lunch at Akchakul Lake. The day takes about 9 to 10 hours, and the walk up to the upper fortress of Ayaz Kala gives the best desert view of the day. See our Khorezm fortresses guide.

Where to eat in Khiva

Khorezm has its own dishes, different from Samarkand and Tashkent: try shivit oshi, the green dill noodles, and tukhum barak, thin dumplings with an egg filling. There are cafés and restaurants inside Itchan Kala, some with rooftop terraces facing the minarets. Our Khiva restaurant guide lists the places we recommend.

Extend your trip to the Aral Sea

From Khiva you can continue north to Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan, and on to the former shore of the Aral Sea. From Nukus we run a one-day Ship Cemetery tour to Muynak, the former fishing port where old ships now lie in the sand, and a 2-day Aral Sea adventure across the Ustyurt Plateau by 4WD with a night in a yurt camp near the old shoreline; the 2-day trip runs from March to November.

Plan your Khiva trip with TravelBliss

We arrange private guides, trains, flights, transfers and multi-day tours that include Khiva, and we help you choose between flying, the train and the desert road for your dates. Write to us on WhatsApp and we will plan a Khiva trip that fits your route.